CPTnet
12 September 2005
IRAQ UPDATE: 1-4 September 2005
Thursday, 1 September
CPTers Matthew Chandler, Maxine Nash and William Van Wagenen met with a UN
human rights worker at his office in the International Zone (commonly
referred to as the "Green Zone.")
Chandler, Nash, and Van Wagenen then sought out the Iraqi Assistance Center
(IAC), an office much frequented by the team in the past, but which was in
the middle of changing its location. An Iraqi American employee of the
Medical Section of the IAC told the team that he currently had about 3,000
cases of Iraqis needing medical treatment abroad for conditions that cannot
be treated adequately in Iraq. He said that the IAC has been able to
provide access to such treatment for only a very small percentage of those
cases.
When asked about the rest of the IAC (offices for compensation, detainee
information, and employment), he told the team that the staff was in the
middle of moving but that the CPTers could come back another day to talk
with Colonel Eichenberg, who is now in charge.
The team's driver told them that while he waited for them, a gunfight broke
out between Iraqi Army and what he assumed were resistance fighters. He
noted that the Iraqi Army detained some of men involved.
Friday, 2 September
The team was awakened by a large explosion at 7:15 a.m.. They heard two
more explosions around 10:00 a.m..
A team translator returned from a vacation to Kurdistan, in the north of
Iraq. He said that the mountains there were so beautiful he felt like he
was in heaven.
Saturday, 3 September
Chandler and Van Wagenen visited residents of a Palestinian refugee camp.
Nash and Sheila Provencher went to an Iraqi human rights organization to
hear the testimony of a man whose son U.S. military forces killed on 4 June
2005. According to the father, his son was riding in a minibus with other
passengers, on his way home from his college final examinations, when a U.S.
convoy opened fire. Gunfire killed his son and wounded the driver. When
the father applied for compensation, the U.S. military investigator rejected
his claim, stating that the "loss resulted from a combat operation." The
father believes that the only way he can win an appeal is if he gets a
signed statement of guilt by the soldiers responsible for the killing. But
he has no way of knowing which unit of soldiers was responsible, nor where
they were based.
Sunday, 4 September
Chandler visited a Christian family in CPT's neighborhood. The father of
the family had previously acquiesced to the U.S.-led invasion and
occupation of Iraq. But now he said, "In my opinion, I prefer Saddam to
what we have now. One cannot even go out of his house without worrying
about mortars, explosions, rockets and criminals. Saddam was a criminal and
did many terrible things, but we had more freedom under Saddam than now."
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Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) seeks to enlist the whole church in
organized, nonviolent alternatives to war and places teams of trained,
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