CPTnet
29 June 2005
IRAQ: Focus on Fallujah. CPT Iraq's assessment of current conditions, 20
June 2005
CHECKPOINT
The team's car arrived at the checkpoint at 10:03 a.m.. Fifty-five minutes
later they had cleared the checkpoint. There were two lines with one U.S.
soldier for each line. At the point when the CPT car arrived, neither had
a translator working with him. At the second checkpoint location the U.S.
troops had one Iraqi assisting them.
ONE SHOPKEEPERS STORY
The team interviewed the managers of a grocery store. They said that their
main concern is the difficulty in getting products to sell. Since non
Fallujans cannot enter the city, their brother must travel to Baghdad to
purchase products. If he arrives at the checkpoint after 7:00 p.m., he
turns around and spends the night elsewhere, since it usually takes him
three hours to clear the checkpoint and curfew begins at 10:00 p.m. in
Fallujah.
CUSTOMERS' STORIES
As the team was interviewing the grocery managers, several people came in to
relate the traumatic living conditions that they are facing. They said
Iraqi National Guard (ING) troops are verbally abusive and at times
physically abusive towards them. They said economic conditions for many
shopowners are dire. Since non-Fallujans cannot enter the city, many
previous customers are going elsewhere. For example, they said an entire
district of auto repair shops has closed down as a result.
They noted that in the days following an attack against ING forces, ING
patrols and convoys will not only shoot into the air to clear away vehicles
they will also, at times, shoot at the vehicles to get them to move out of
the way.
INFRASTRUCTURE
An employee with the Public Works Department noted that they currently only
have ten working garbage trucks for a city of 300,000 residents. The main
garbage dump is north of the city. At times either U.S. or ING forces block
the only road to it. The city has developed three alternate sites but local
residents are just dumping refuse and rubble on the road if they cannot
reach the dumpsite. The team was told that the southern half of the city,
which bore the brunt of the U.S. attack in November, is still without
electricity and water. The remainder of the city has electric power for
about six to eight hours a day.
HOSPITAL REPORT
A Fallujah hospital employee noted two major insurgent bomb attacks on ING
forces had occurred over the previous five days. In the first attack, two
civilians were killed and sixty were injured. In the second, six civilians
were killed and ten were injured. The employee said the hospital has seen
some cases of typhoid, salmonella and malaria over the past month as a
result of the poor sanitation and water treatment conditions in the city. A
major problem is emergency care during curfew (10pm 6am). If people need an
ambulance they call an emergency care facility (there are two in the city
along with the hospital). The emergency facility then calls for a military
escort and must wait until it arrives before going to the patient. This
wait has cost lives that might have been saved with a quicker response time.
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