CPTnet
May 24, 2003
IRAQ UPDATE: May 23, 2003
A visiting delegation from Mennonite Central Committee has been making
inquiries about unexploded ordnance. At three different meetings they heard
the same U.S. military officer give radically different figures for the
numbers of sites cleaned up and still remaining. When questioned about the
disparity in his figures, he said, "I need to check my sources."
On May 22, Stewart Vriesinga sought out the Iraqi Assistance Mission which
is supposed to be the central reference point in Baghdad for all Iraqis
needing help. U.S. soldiers at the Republican Palace and in the streets had
no idea where it was. Vriesinga finally found it, 100 meters from a U.S.
army checkpoint. At the Mission, he spoke to U.S. Army Lt. Stewart Gordon
about the unexploded ordnance in the park at Al-Wathag Square (see report
from May 21.) Gordon refused to accept the report because Vriesinga could
not give him Global Positioning coordinates for the location. Nevertheless,
the next day the team found that the site was completely cleaned up.
The team asks that people keep sending coloured tape to U.S. and British
legislators and ambassadors for marking off such sites (see earlier Action
Request on CPTnet.) It is getting their attention.
Lt. Gordon told Vriesinga that U.S. soldiers now have orders to intervene
to protect Iraqi civilians and that there should also be translators at
every checkpoint. He said tribunals will be set up within three weeks so
that anyone arrested will get a hearing. At a checkpoint outside, Vriesinga
found an Iraqi man with a bloody head being held by U.S. soldiers who said
that the man had pulled a knife on them.
The team met with a representative from Amnesty International who said that
they are now working in Basrah monitoring conditions for prisoners of war
and the incidence of revenge killings in the city.
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