CPTnet
March 27, 2004

IRAQ UPDATE: March 5-13, 2004

Friday, March 5

At the team's Lenten vigil in Tahrir Square, an Iraqi man told Cliff Kindy,
"After the mourning is over, there will be revenge," referring to the March
2nd bombings of the Shi'a shrines in Kerbala and the Kadhamiya section of
Baghdad.

Saturday, March 6

At the vigil, a 15-year-old boy who had earlier attended the vigil and told
Jim Loney about the detention of his father came to say that his father had
been released. AP reporters also came to cover the vigil.

While returning from a meeting after the vigil, Loney was caught inside the
Palestine Hotel compound walls for two hours due to a bomb threat outside.

Monday, March 7

The team traveled to Abu Hishma. Inside the village, they observed a pickup
truck riddled with bullet holes being towed away. One man told the team
that a U.S. helicopter had come and shot up the vehicle while he and his two
children were working in their garden nearby. He was angry that his family
was put in such danger.

Later, a woman in the village told the team about a U.S. missile fired at
her property. The crater from the blast was so deep that it struck water
underground.

Sheila Provencher, Stewart Vriesinga, and a translator went to Balad to be
present at a meeting between local human rights lawyers and U.S. military
officials from the nearby base. The CPTers emphasized the need for a
separate liaison officer between the lawyers and the base, someone who was
not himself carrying out house raids. The current U.S. officer holding that
role was demonstrating a clear conflict of interest by his direction of both
tasks.

Several new officers were also present at the meeting, due to the rotation
of personnel at the base. The new officers seemed enthusiastic and
concerned about building better relations in the area.

In Baghdad, a rocket from an unknown source landed in the garden of a house
three doors away from a friend of the team's. Loney went to the site of the
explosion to see how they were. No one was hurt, but the house and garden
sustained heavy damage. Some witnesses claimed that the rocket had been
U.S. made, while others suggested it might have been intended for a nearby
police station.

Tuesday, March 9

Vriesinga and Le Anne Clausen interviewed an older man who was hit
by a U.S. shell while driving his car during the invasion of Baghdad. He
suffered multiple injuries as well as damage to his car. After being
hospitalized for nine days (part of the time in a coma), he tried to find
his car without success. He still has medical complications and needs to
provide for his family of fourteen.

Kindy met Edward Schmultz, the former assistant Attorney General of the
United States. Schmultz said, "There are thousands of Iraqis being held who
should be at home. We're working on a list to get all of the names
straight."

Vriesinga and Clausen attended the committee meeting of Iraqi and
international human rights workers to plan a human rights solidarity week,
and helped make posters for the event. On the way, Clausen found posters
all over Baghdad advertising International Women's Day activities that had a
photo of Peggy Gish at a women's demonstration last summer.

The rest of the team traveled to Abu Sifa and held a vigil inside the
remains of a house heavily damaged by U.S. gunfire and tank shelling. They
also interviewed a fifteen-year-old boy who had been detained since early
December and recently released. The boy said that he had been held in a
juvenile specific detention center for part of his incarceration, and that
except for his initial arrest process, he had been treated humanely by the
soldiers. His brother is still in prison

In the afternoon, the team hosted the newly-released science professor who
had been detained for several weeks. His wife and an Iraqi human rights
activist also came. The professor spoke about his time in detention, the
ways he resisted being dehumanized by his captors, and the ways he resisted
dehumanizing others. He and his wife expressed appreciation for CPT's
involvement in advocating for his release, and said that although they were
not sure how much they wanted to speak publicly, they felt strongly called
to speak the truth about the experience.

Wednesday, March 10

The team spent the day in retreat at a Chaldean monastery and seminary in
the Daura section of Baghdad.

Thursday, March 11

Peggy Gish met with a hematology professor to discuss a new book on
depleted uranium (DU). The professor felt that the book was not as helpful
as it could be because it was not scientific enough. He also said that the
much more testing is needed, especially for genetic alterations, and for
presently unknown additional toxic residues from the U.S. bombing.

The vigil was a more difficult experience for several team members. Many
Iraqis needed to express their anger at the international community for not
helping the Iraqi people under the Saddam regime.

A number of good exchanges also took place, and various people also thanked
the team for the vigil. Gish was interviewed by a Japanese journalist, who
also wanted to meet a detainee family.

Cliff met with two international visitors who came to the vigil and talked
about the work of the team. Later, he met with an Iraqi human rights
activist who discussed cases of women detained by U.S. forces. One case
involved five brothers and sisters from Baghdad, of whom four were still in
custody. Other cases involved women working in banks who exposed the
practice of counterfeiting currency. The women were then detained and
charged with the crime themselves.

Clausen and Vriesinga went with a group of international and Iraqi human
rights workers to the Iraqi Assistance Center (IAC) to obtain
a permit for the Human Rights Solidarity Week activities. On the way into
the center, they realized an Iranian-born U.S. colleague of theirs was being
being singled out for much harsher searches than members of the group of
European descent. When a male U.S. soldier inside the building wanted to
physically search the colleague in a sexually inappropriate manner, Clausen
objected strongly. Clausen was then removed from the building at gunpoint
[See March 16 release, "CPTer forcibly removed from IAC for objecting to
inappropriate search of female colleague." ]

Friday, March 12
Wright and a translator traveled to Al Bayah village to interview the
brother of a detainee. The brother is