CPTnet
June 17, 2004

IRAQ: A ray of hope--letter from Greg Rollins

    This past week has been a ray of hope for
the CPT team here in Iraq. For the past year, CPT has worked on the issue of
Iraqi detainees. They have interviewed families who have loved ones in jail
(many of these detainees were arrested for no reason) and they have gone
through the various channels in the Coalition Forces and Iraqi council, to
try to improve the prison system.

Last winter, CPT wrote a detailed report about the abuse and harassment
prisoners went through in places like Abu Ghraib. They gave the report to
media and the U.S. government--both took little interest in it. During Lent,
the team held vigils and fasted for detainees, and they started an
international letter writing campaign to advocate for prisoners. After all
the work, finally, some of it has paid off.

With the stories and photos of abuse in the news, much of the media began to
call CPT asking for more information about the prison system. CPT has been
able to . . . put them in touch with released detainees who did suffer
abuse, as well as those who did not.

The UN has also taken an interest. . . . When the team was in Amman, Jordan,
we met with the UN. They wanted to know what the prison system was like
because they had no one on the ground in Iraq [Due to the bombing of their
headquarters last summer, the UN had evacuated its staff.] They took the CPT
report and have remained in contact with the team since.

The brightest ray of hope for me so far was talking to an Iraqi released
from prison. CPT took a statement from this man's wife after U.S. soldiers
arrested him last September. They did so on a tip that he was harbouring
some of Saddam's high-level men. The tip was false. It took them several
months to figure it out, process him and release him.

Recently, CPTer Maxine Nash and I interviewed this man. No one abused him in
prison. He never even saw a person abused. He did have a plastic bag put
over his head at one point while they transferred him from one prison to
another, but he could hold the bag above his mouth so he could breathe easy.
The man said the U.S. soldiers and guards were polite. They did not believe
he was guilty, and treated him and others with respect. The worst thing he
said he saw in prison was when people had to clear out the outhouses. It was
a gross job.

It wasn't only hopeful that this man was treated well in prison, it was
hopeful that he was released. Many of the Iraqis CPT has inquired about in
the prisons are still in jail. Some of them have even "disappeared." For us
on the team, it was a ray of hope that there is one less person we have to
worry about.

Stay safe. Greg