By Kristina Goetz
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Iraqi officials expelled 12 peace activists from the country on Saturday, including an Athens, Ohio, woman.

Peggy Gish was one of seven members of Christian Peacemaker Teams, a Chicago-based group that has been placing violence-reduction teams in conflict areas around the world since 1993.

Peggy Gish talks to reporters Sunday after she arrived in Amman, Jordan. (AP/Lefteris Pitarakis photo) | ZOOM |

"A group of us were expelled from the country when we walked over to see a bombed communications center about five blocks from our hotel without a `minder,' " the 60-year-old woman wrote in an e-mail to family.

"We did not take pictures of the building or get closer than a half a block away, but took pictures of a hotel near us, which was damaged," she wrote. "Authorities are extremely uptight about our actions and that morning, without our knowledge, told the team that any travel outside the hotel needed to be accompanied."

Two others who were expelled were members of the Iraq Peace Team, organized by the Chicago-based group called Voices in the Wilderness. Voices has sent delegations to Baghdad since 1996 as part of its international effort to end the economic sanctions against Iraq.

The three others were internationals.

Though the road from Baghdad to the Jordanian border was clear, one of the taxis carrying the group out of the country blew a tire on the highway and rolled into a ditch, injuring some of the passengers.

Gish was not hurt.

The nine members of Peacemakers who remain in Baghdad are continuing their work, which includes visiting hospitals, clinics, orphanages and mosques.

Since the outbreak of the war, the team has visited families in about 10 neighborhoods, organizers said, whose homes were damaged, including a man whose wife was decapitated by a missile strike on their wedding night.

Gish plans to fly home.

"This was sudden and unexpected," Gish wrote in the e-mail. "And I was sad to leave the people and country I love, but I have accepted it and see that God has had a hand in it."

E-mail kgoetz@enquirer.com