CPTnet
28 June, 2001
IRAQ REFLECTION: Exit interviews from Falcon Camp
by Tom Fox
CPT Iraq has visited U.S. base Falcon Camp three times during the last five
weeks to interview relatives of detainees held there. Falcon Camp is the
holding center for the Dora district in Baghdad. Anyone detained by
Multinational Forces (MNF)
in Dora goes there first before getting released or sent to a prison.
Civilians who have suffered property damage or injury or had a family member
killed as a result of MNF actions in Dora come there as well.
ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE STREET
A man was driving home before the beginning of curfew (11pm) in April.
Suddenly an MNF convoy appeared--on his side of the street. The front hummer
opened fire and killed him. MNF soldiers told the family "We are very sorry
we opened fire and killed him. We thought he was a suicide bomber going to
attack us." Without any paperwork or indication of what unit and what
person fired on the man, they have been told at Falcon Camp that they
cannot receive compensation for the loss of the head of the household.
LOOKING FOR A RENTER
A young man said that his father was detained three days earlier. The
family had just moved back into a house that they had been renting. The MNF
raided the house looking for the previous tenant. They detained the father,
who has a serious medical condition that requires daily medication. As the
MNF was taking him away, the son approached them with his father's medicine
asking them to take it for him. "Go back inside or we will shoot you!" the
MNF told them. They told the family that he would be released when either
he or the family gives the MNF information about the tenant, whom they do
not know.
AFTER THE FACT HOUSE RAID
Relatives are at the base were looking for information about a father and
son detained for almost one month. The remaining son is caring for the
mother who suffers from a mental disorder. The relatives said that four
days earlier the MNF had raided the family house looking for the son and
father even though they were still at Falcon camp. The relatives said this
trip was their fourth visit to the base and at their previous visit they
learned that the father had been released and that the son had been
transferred to a prison facility. On this visit they were told that they
both were still at Falcon camp. "We have been treated very poorly," they
said.
A NEW MEANING FOR THE WORD "RELEASED"
A father has been coming to Falcon camp regularly seeking news of his two
sons detained three and a half weeks ago. The last time the father came to
the camp he was told that one son had been released and the other son was
still being held at Falcon. "If he has been released where is he?" the
father asked us on the way into the camp. When he went into check on his
detained son he found out that the detained son and the "released" son are
both imprisoned at Abu Ghraib.
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