CPTnet
14 February, 2005
IRAQ: Ahmed Abdullah Story
By Cliff Kindy
Ahmed knocked at the door of the CPT apartment,
accompanied by his translator. His family had been
searching for his brother Mohammad for three months
without success. His translator had met CPT at a
conference last summer and suggested the family ask CPT for help.
On November 7, 2005, U.S. soldiers knocked at the door
of Ahmed's home. They did not damage any property or
take anything from the house. They did detain Ahmed
and his three brothers and transport them to Scania
U.S. Military Base south of Baghdad. Three of the
brothers, Ahmed included, were not charged and were
scheduled for release. Soldiers levied a tentative
charge against the fourth brother, Najim.
On 15 November mortars struck the Scania base, where
the four brothers were still detained, and injured
Mohammad. Burns covered the left side of his body on
his face, shoulder and leg. Soldiers transferred
Mohammad to the hospital in Abu Ghraib Prison and also
moved Najim to Abu Ghraib. Security personnel
released Ahmed and his fourth brother from prison.
The family made contact with Abu Ghraib prison and was
able to visit Najim, but Mohammad had disappeared.
The family tried to find him through the Iraq
Assistance Center (IAC) several times to no avail.
In December Najim was beaten by U.S. soldiers while in
transit to Bucca Camp in southern Iraq. Ahmed
speculates, from what his brother told him at a later
visit, that they wanted to emphasize to the detainees
that they should not speak about their treatment.
CPT offered to check about Mohammad again with the IAC
and encouraged Ahmed to check with the Red Crescent
Society since they sometimes have information, through
the Red Cross, from hospitals. Usually detainees in
hospitals are invisible to their families because
there is no public record of their detention, but
military personnel are more likely to give information
in cases like Mohammad's. Mohammad was scheduled for
release before he was transferred to the hospital at Abu Ghraib.
As Ahmed prepared to leave, he mentioned the arrests
that happened in his neighborhood the days before the
election. He said U.S. soldiers beat up young men his
age and younger, and arrested many. On election day,
he said, U.S. tanks crushed cars parked along the
street by running over them.
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