CPTnet
January 10, 2004
IRAQ: CPTer Alan Slater begins hunger strike at IAC in Baghdad

Alan Slater, 68, a Canadian CPTer began a liquids-only fast on January 8th
at the Iraqi Assistance Center (IAC) in Baghdad. Slater is fasting to
publicize the struggle many Iraqis face to regain their property confiscated
during Coalition house raids.

After U.S. military personnel closed the IAC an hour early on Thursday,
January 8, while twenty-four Iraqis in the office were still awaiting help,
Slater announced he would refuse to leave the building until the soldiers
helped the people. At 1:00 pm the next day he told the officer in charge
that he would stay until he had a chance to talk to Paul Bremer or Colonel
Sanchez about the problem of Coalition Forces taking money, jewelry and
other property from Iraqi homes. Soldiers then forcibly escorted him out of
the office.

CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority) officials have failed to follow
through on promises to return money, documents, and other property taken on
September 30th from an Iraqi farmer and his two workers at his farm 40 km
north of Baghdad. Coalition forces imprisoned the three men at Ba'quba for
three days, but released them when US personnel admitted that the house raid
had been a mistake. Slater has worked with the three men, trying to regain
their property, since he arrived in Iraq in mid-October. "I have lost all
trust in this process" the farmer has told CPTers . Slater will fast until
the CPA addresses the problem.