CPTnet
December 13, 2003
IRAQ UPDATE: November 28-December 5, 2003

Friday, Nov. 28
Matt Chandler and Anne Montgomery went to Firdos Square to investigate a
demonstration which was dispersing peacefully upon their arrival. The group
represented tribal leaders, many from southern Iraq, who were not
represented in the current government. One of their signs read, "Violence
in the name of Islam is a crime against Islam." Another read, "End
Occupation without Violence."

Saturday, Nov. 29
Kathleen Namphy, Cliff Kindy, and Bob Holmes went with the delegation to
Kerbala, a Shi'a city two hours south of Baghdad. There, the CPT group
joined members of the Kerbala Human Rights Watch in a prayer vigil at a
nearby mass grave for those killed
by Saddam's army after the 1991 post-war Shi'a uprising. A number of Shi'a
clerics were to attend the event, but were unable to come due to the death
of a colleague.

One of the human rights workers said, "CPT is the only [international]
organization here which is doing anything about human rights."

Chandler gave interviews to groups of French and Spanish journalists about
Coalition human rights abuses of Iraqi detainees.

The van transporting the team and delegation from Kerbala was delayed for
two hours on the road due to an ambush of Spanish intelligence officials by
armed Iraqi insurgents. Seven intelligence agents died and one escaped to
another vehicle in their convoy.

Sunday, Nov. 30
The team and delegation traveled to the ruins of ancient Babylon. On the
road, they saw one of the burnt-out vehicles from the Spanish convoy
ambushed the previous night sitting in a ditch. A burnt patch on the road
marked where the
other vehicle was destroyed.

At Babylon, which is encased by a Polish/U.S. military base, the CPT group
passed out leaflets to soldiers from both countries after a tour of the
archaeological site. Kindy spoke with several U.S. soldiers on site who
were eager to read the
leaflets.

In the evening, the team and delegation celebrated Anne Montgomery's 77th
birthday.

Monday, December 1
First day of domestic fuel crisis in Iraq

Holmes, Kindy, Namphy, Montgomery, the delegation, and a translator traveled
to Ramadi. They met with a human rights lawyer who told them about the raid
on his neighborhood on October 31st. U.S. soldiers in approximately fifty
tanks and Humvees came into the neighborhood at night. When they came to
his house, they handcuffed him and put a sack on his head, and took him to
an open field where thirty other neighborhood men were also detained.

 On his street, the soldiers attacked a house in which they believed six
Fedayeen were living, destroying the building and killing all six men. The
lawyer and most of his neighbors were held for five hours and released.
Three neighbors were kept in U.S. custody.

The team and delegation then went to the village of Al Jazeera near Ramadi,
where they documented a house raid in which several unarmed Iraqi men and
four U.S. soldiers were killed by U.S. "friendly fire." Other Iraqis were
wounded and the house was destroyed by U.S. Gunfire. One man present said,
"The Americans want to stop terrorism, but incidents like this create
terrorists. This is wrong in every religion." [See December 12 release,
"U.S. soldiers kill four of their own and three handcuffed Iraqis in Al
Jazeera village."

Afterwards, the CPT group traveled to the U.S. military base in Fallujah,
where they passed out human rights leaflets and engaged in dialogue with
several soldiers stationed there. Holmes took several digital photographs
of the action, but an
officer approached him as the group was leaving and forced him to erase the
pictures.

Tuesday, December 2
2nd day of domestic fuel crisis in Iraq

Holmes and Le Anne Clausen went to the Organization for Human Rights to
check in
with a family whose son U.S. Forces have held secretly since early April.
The family would like CPT to meet with another family who has learned that
U.S. Forces are holding their son in Kuwait.
The U.S. military is shipping Iraqi detainees to Guantanamo, the
Phillipines, and other locations where the U.S. military has bases.

Several members of the team and a number of Iraqi journalists watched from
the roof throughout the day as U.S.-contracted workers tried to remove the
four 20-foot busts of Saddam Hussein from the roof of the Republican Palace
across the river. The Republican Palace is the current home of the
Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). Some onlookers said the busts were
structural and the building would collapse if the workers removed the
statues. The workers did not make quick progress.

December 3
3rd day of domestic fuel crisis in Iraq

Montgomery, Kindy, Allan Slater, and a translator traveled to Tikrit to
document civilian injury and damages during the recent U.S. bombing of the
city [See December 12 release, "CPT goes to Tikrit."]. The team also
briefly visited a hospital in Samara, where reports on the number of Iraqis
killed during a recent U.S. raid vary from eight (Iraqi sources) to
fifty-six (Pentagon sources.)

Namphy and Holmes spoke about CPT's work and U.S. human rights violations of
Iraqi detainees to a delegation of former U.S. soldiers and families of
current U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq.

In the evening, a caretaker for the apartment in which CPT lives told the
team he waited three hours in a line for gas to run the building generator,
without success. Without the generator, city power runs less than twelve
hours per day in two-three hour intervals.

December 4
4th day of domestic fuel crisis in Iraq

The team went on retreat for the day at a local Chaldean Christian
monastery. En route early in the morning, they observed lines of cars
waiting for gas stretching for over a kilometer along the expressway. On
their return trip in the evening, the
line extended at least two kilometers.

December 5
5th day of domestic fuel crisis in Iraq

The team read a news report that U.S. officials are reporting their exports
of Iraqi oil via the Persian Gulf have reached record highs.

Slater and Matt Chandler distributed fliers advertising a peaceful
demonstration organized by detainees' families at a local U.S. prison camp.
The several hundred fliers they had ran out after ten minutes.