CPTnet
March 27, 2004

IRAQ UPDATE: February 24-March 4, 2004

Tuesday, February 24th
Le Anne Clausen and Peggy Gish went to the Iraqi Assistance Center
(IAC) and met Lt. Colonel Weaver, who is replacing Staff Sgt. Berlo
as head of the detainee information department. The CPTers introduced
themselves and had brought cases to discuss at the meeting, but Weaver said
he did not know enough about his role yet to be of assistance. Berlo had
already been transferred to another department and also could not be of
assistance. "It's a new team here [with the rotation of military
personnel], and they're making new rules," he said. Weaver thought that the
new GIC's (General Information Centers, a condensed version of the previous
CMOC's-Civil Military Operations Centers) would be able to handle most
Iraqis' needs for information about detained relatives and related matters.
Gish said that CPT would be interested to see how the GIC's operate and
would report back to Weaver on what they found.

Gish also told Weaver that over the past several months, Iraqi families that
CPT had accompanied could get no regular, reliable information at the CMOC's
or the Iraqi Assistance Center (IAC.)

On the way out of the IAC, Gish and Clausen were delayed for two hours
while an explosives team quarantined and detonated a car bomb inside the
`Green Zone,' or area in which the Coalition headquarters and IAC are
located.

Cliff Kindy, Sheila Provencher, and Jane MacKay Wright distributed media
alerts about the upcoming Lenten fast and vigil to Reuters, BBC, and the New
York Times (NYT.) An NYT reporter was especially interested in meeting
families of detainees.

Wednesday, February 25th
Ash Wednesday
1st day of fasting

Kindy, Provencher, Gish, Clausen and Matt Chandler went to Tahrir
Square to kick off the Lenten Vigil for Justice and Healing.

Holding posters with photos of detainees with whom CPT and passing out
fliers, they attracted an estimated 2,000 Iraqis. Iraqi police stationed
nearby were excited by the vigil and helped to explain what the team was
doing to onlookers after the fliers ran out. The team also received an
invitation to Sadr City, the mosque at Baghdad University, and Diala to meet
with more detainees' families and possibly hold a vigil in these locations.

Wright and Maxine Nash took an NYT reporter to meet with a pregnant
woman whose husband had been detained. Wright also spoke with a CNN
reporter.

The delegation traveled to Kerbala to visit Iraqi Human Rights Watch, with
whom CPT works. The human rights group invited CPT to hold a vigil in
Kerbala in late March. They also expressed interest in helping to build
better communication with the US military there. The delegation ended the
day with a visit to the shrine of the martyr Hussein, one of the founders of
Shi'a Islam.

Thurday, February 26th
2nd day of fast/vigil

At the vigil, which families of detainees attended, the media turnout was
very good. At one point, Kindy was giving an interview in front of nine
microphones. The current delegation also attended and several Iraqi and
international partners also came to support the vigil. One fifteen-year-old
boy from Sadr City told Jim Loney that his father had been detained and he
was now responsible for caring for his family. The team arranged to
interview him later in the week.

Friday, February 27th
3rd day of fast/vigils

The vigil drew a considerable crowd again. Some passersby wondered if the
team was being paid by U.S. forces or sectors within the society to hold the
vigil; others wondered if the team was also talking to the press and the
military.

Clausen and Provencher went to the military base in Kadhamiya at the
request of Sayyid Ali al Waahd, head cleric at the Kadhum shrine in
that neighborhood. Two large U.S. tanks were positioned in the path of a
major upcoming pilgrimage, with their cannons raised in the direction of the
pilgrims. They did not appear to be checking the foot traffic on the way in
or to have any other practical security purpose. The CPTers raised the
concerns that obtrusive military patrols, such as low flying helicopters
and humvees driving through crowds of pilgrims, could offend and incite the
crowd.

 At the base, Lt. Chewning told them that the base was planning for a
respectful but effective security presence on the perimeter of the
neighborhood in which the pilgrimage was taking place.

Nash and Wright traveled to Abu Hishma and Abu Sifa with a NYT
reporter to interview families whose children had been imprisoned by U.S.
forces.

Saturday, February 28th
4th day of fast/vigils

Several Iraqis attending the vigil served as impromptu translators for
other passersby.

Vriesinga and Clausen attended the committee meeting for Human Rights
Solidarity Week, and Iraqi organizers decided to ask young Iraqi artists to
help decorate U.S. military concrete barriers now blocking the front of a
human rights organization's office with messages and murals promoting human
rights.

Two journalist friends of the team visited and talked about their experience
being embedded with U.S. forces in an area where the team frequently works.
One of the journalists was struggling to comprehend the two perspectives to
which she was exposed in her time here. She was also concerned for the
team's safety working in Iraq.

Wright and a translator went to visit the Iraqi Red Crescent Society (a
sister organization of North American Red Cross Societies), and found that
the organization is not permitted to enter prisons and monitor conditions.
They currently deliver "safe and well" messages between detainees and their
families for the International Committee of the Red Cross, which had made no
prison visits for two months.

The delegation visited Sayyid al Waahd. A Shi'ite leader in Kadhamiya. On
their way, they noted the two tanks were in the same position as before.
The Sayyid asked team members to go to the base the next day and speak again
to the officers about less aggressive security tactics at this sensitive
time.

Sunday, February 29th
5th day of fast/vigil

Loney, Nash, Vriesinga, and Wright traveled with the delegation to the
village of Abu Ghraib, next to the Abu Ghraib prison camp now run by U.S.
forces. The village is in dire need of public services, such as sewage and
water treatment. They visited the municipality office, a school in a poor
rural section of the village, and then went to the prison camp. There the <