CPTnet
May 24, 2004

IRAQ/AMMAN UPDATE: May 3-6, 2004

[The team in Iraq writes, "Due to the exceptionally high interest in team
activity right now, we are submitting longer updates than usual. We hope
this will be helpful for our readers and apologize for any difficulties the
frequency and length these updates might cause.]

Monday, May 3
Vriesinga and Le Anne Clausen returned to Baghdad by plane. At the
checkpoint leading out of the airport, U.S. soldiers would not allow the
person driving the CPT workers home to come through the
checkpoint to meet them. The soldiers also would not allow the CPT workers
to call the driver on the phone to tell him what was happening. When
Clausen and Vriesinga tried to walk to where the driver was, about a
quarter-kilometer away, the soldiers would not allow them to leave. The CPT
workers said, "We will wait a few minutes if you call down and allow our
driver through, otherwise we will have to walk." The soldier did not appear
to call to the other checkpoint. After ten minutes, they began to walk
towards the car.

When they reached the second checkpoint, soldiers stopped them again and
told them to go back. The CPT workers explained their problem and agreed to
wait if the soldiers would allow the car through. This time, the soldiers
went to find the car and let him through.

The friend who came to pick them up said he had just taken two U.S.
journalists to Najaf the previous day and said locals, including
representatives of Shi'a opposition cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, welcomed them
warmly. The representatives told them that they will give anyone permission
to be in the city for one week to speak with people. The representatives
also offered armed guards to any foreigners who wanted to visit. The team
members told their
friend, "No thanks."

The friend also said that his own brother, a prominent Shi'a cleric, was
detained during a raid on a human rights organization in Hilla (Babylon) a
few days earlier. The organization was holding a community meeting attended
by all the local religious and political party leaders. During the raid, he
said that U.S. soldiers stood two Shi'a clerics up against a wall and shot
them. [Team members heard this incident reported on television news while
in Amman.] Another man was detained along with his brother. Vriesinga and
Clausen offered to help with the case.

After Clausen and Vriesinga arrived at the CPT apartment, two friends of the
team who are peace workers from the U.S. and Britain came to visit. The
U.S. worker, who also teaches English at Baghdad University said, "Every
time I go to class, I feel I need to apologize because the Americans have
done something stupid again." She recently moved into a women's dormitory
on campus and said that the students there have been shy but curious and
have made her feel welcome.

NBC news called to ask for contacts with released detainees CPT has
interviewed.

Vriesinga was interviewed by CTV (Canadian TV) about CPT's perspective on
the detainee abuse photos. The journalist commented, "We should have asked
you about your detainee work four months ago."

While on the roof in the evening, CPT workers could hear several mortars
being fired into Coalition headquarters across the river. Later, they heard
several muted explosions in the distance.

Clausen and Vriesinga noticed that the team apartment had been substantially
cleaned and rearranged since they left. The team's landlord told Clausen,
"We seriously thought you were not coming
back."

A female friend of the team came to visit and picked up U.S. visa papers
another friend had left for her. She said, "I am hopeless here. They [the
U.S. soldiers] are treating us like slaves under this occupation." She
hopes to leave for two or three years until the situation gets better. She
also told them that the distant explosions were U.S. warplanes bombing the
Daura neighborhood of Baghdad.

The team's landlady brought sweets to welcome them back. She told them,
"The situation is getting worse every day, they are kidnapping Christians
again." She said most of the other renters in the building would return by
the following week. Clausen and Vriesinga told her that several
international organizations were returning to Iraq over the next few weeks.
She said she felt better after hearing of the organizations' prospective
return.

The son of the landlord told Clausen and Vriesinga not to go walking alone
or linger outside the building. "Be careful even when walking on this
street," he said. "There may be kidnappers. They may want to kidnap not
just foreigners, but my father also."

Tuesday, May 4
In Amman, Sheila Provencher visited a church near the team's apartment and
discovered Caritas International, which has community centers in Amman,
Baghdad, and several other cities. In Amman, the group runs a free clinic
and other assistance programs that focus on refugees from Iraq. Provencher
spoke with a Jordanian woman physician, and a German woman who runs the
center. The German woman was grave about the situation in Iraq, and advised
CPT to be extremely cautious.

The team received a copy via e-mail of an article in a Christian magazine
noting that CPT had been raising detainee rights issues for several months
prior to the release of the photographs. Mark Frey in the CPT Chicago
office commented, "Is there a polite way of saying, 'We told you so?'"

In Baghdad, there was no electricity for most of the morning and the
previous night. Later, a visiting friend told Clausen and Vriesinga that
the electricity was reduced substantially since the first of the month and
was now on a cycle of "three hours on, three hours off."

A team translator came to report on his recent visit to Kerbala to explore
work for the team there. He said that the team had enthusiastic invitations
from Shi'a clerics in the city and a local human rights organization, both
of whom CPT has worked with before. The Clausen and Vriesinga decided to
travel there Thursday.

While buying groceries, Clausen met a woman on the street who said, "We live
very, very miserable lives. Life is expensive, we have no money and no work
. . .Every day you walk in the street now, you may be killed by guns or
bombs. If you are driving and a Humvee comes, they run right over you." She
pointed up the street but did not elaborate. She then brought a severely
handicapped young girl to Clause