“My generation was born into a troubled political time.  Under the Ba'athist party,” he told CPTers.  “Many Kurds were murdered, hurt, arrested and disappeared…Because I am the oldest, I was responsible for my brothers and sisters especially since my father became ill while I was still young.  I tried to educate them and I left school to make money for my family by selling cigarettes.  I loved to read even though there were few books written in Kurdish but there were books written in Arabic and many Arabic newspapers and I read as much as I could."

Documenting Deaths and Damages from Cross Border Attacks

On 21 June, members of the CPT Iraq team, along with a representative of Human Rights Watch, began a two-day trip to the Choman District.  Two weeks earlier, Iran shelled the area around the tents of two Bedouin families they visited there.  Team members saw artillery shells on the ground around the encampment.  The team members visited Weza village and talked with relatives of Basoz, the fourteen-year-old girl whom Iranian artillery killed three weeks earlier while she was making tea.  In Haji Omeran, team members interviewed a family who said Iran shelled the area around their tents and gardens for seven to eight days.  The team members talked with the mayor and heard of the subdistrict's efforts to respond to the needs of the 223 displaced families.  Near the border crossing, a first officer of a Kurdish base showed the team members from a distance a newly constructed Iranian military base in Iraqi territory. 

16-23 August 2010, The Women's Social Movement Against War and for Peace, a coalition of forty organizations including, CPT Colombia, invites you to participate in the Women and People's Summit of the Americas Against Militarization.  CPT Colombia has been accompanying the Women's Social Movement Against War and for Peace for one year now.  These women continue to struggle nonviolently for their rights, lands, and dignity.  The following information is about the Summit in August.