CPTnet
June 21, 2004
IRAQ UPDATE: June 7-11, 2004
Monday, June 7, 2004 Maxine Nash and Greg Rollins visited the Society for
Human Rights (SHR) to follow up on cases of detained Iraqis.
On their way home from SHR, Nash and Rollins talked with two U.S. Military
Police (MP.) The MPs asked if the CPTers could give them any information
about the Sisters of Charity Orphanage two blocks away. They said they were
trying to gather up clothes and toys to give to the children.
The Abu Ghraib village director of the Al 'Atta Humanitarian Organization
visited the CPT apartment. Because travel out of Baghdad has been dangerous,
the team had not seen him in over two months.
Tuesday, June 8, 2004
The owner of a local Internet café asked if CPT could go to his
neighborhood to see the conditions under which four families live.
Militants have tried to carry out attacks there because of the presence of
foreigners in the local hotels. Anita David, Anne Montgomery and a
translator went to the neighborhood and found both ends of the street
blocked off with concrete barriers and armed Iraqi guards. The CPTers spoke
to one of the residents of the street who said the situation began a year
before. Militants recently attacked the two hotels on the street. Her
biggest concern was for the psychological effect on the children in her home
and the others. When asked what she thought the best outcome would be, she
said she wanted the closure of the hotels for two years.
Wednesday, June 9, 2004
Nash and Rollins met with an Iraqi with whose family CPT worked while the
man was in prison. He gave them his entire story from the time of his arrest
to his release. He said the U.S. prison guards did not abuse him, nor did he
witness any others abused. Despite respectful treatment of him by the
guards, he was disturbed that soldiers arrested him for a crime he did not
commit and for which they had no evidence to sustain the detention. He was
also disturbed by the length of time it took the U.S. army to release him
even after they had proven his innocence.
Thursday, June 10, 2004
Sheila Provencher and David went to the Green Zone--the area used as
headquarters by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA.) While
there, they met with Lieutenant Colonel Weaver who is in charge of the Iraqi
Assistance Center (IAC.) They also asked people at the IAC office if the CPA
had prisons outside of Iraq. The office staff said no. They did confirm that
three Iraqi detainees were in Kuwait, but
said they were there for medical treatment.
Friday, June 11, 2004
Nash and David took a trip on the Tigris River. On their way home, Iraqi
police detained them for taking pictures near an important bank. The police
took the camera to their boss, who turned out to be from the U.S. Department
of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI.) The man was polite and
seemed concerned for the CPTers' safety. After
discussion, he believed the women's assertions that they did not take any
pictures of the perimeter of the bank and returned the camera. He then
pointed out to them a 14th century building located next to the bank which
he had been visiting the same day. He invited the CPTers to see it.
Provencher accompanied a French journalist to interview an Iraqi
family whose imprisoned son is part of the CPT Adopt-a-Detainee campaign.
The man disappeared April 5, 2003. His mother and sisters believe the U.S.
is holding him outside Iraq. Because there was no way to corroborate this
belief, the journalist said he thought the family was trying to keep their
hopes alive rather than believing the more probable explanation that the man
was killed in action.
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