CPTnet
June 26, 2004

IRAQ UPDATE: June 16, 2004

Wednesday, June 16, 2004
Stewart Vriesinga, Sheila Provencher, Anita David and Anne Montgomery
went to Abu Ghraib prison. Two weeks earlier, workers for the Iraqi Ministry
of Human Rights (IMHR) told CPT they had set up an office at the prison to
help Iraqis find detained family members.

When the CPTers arrived, they did not find such an office. Iraqis waited in
three lines to get into the prison: two lines for men, the third for woman
separated by razor wire. The people waiting had no shade.

Vriesinga spoke with a U.S. soldier who had no Arabic translator with him.
He said he did his best to be fair towards the Iraqis who had traveled a
long way. He had not heard of the (IMHR), and said he did not work inside
the prison, but was only responsible for security.

Vriesinga and David then found another entrance to the prison and asked a
U.S. soldier there about the (IMHR) office and if CPT could enter the
prison. The soldier asked them to return with a vehicle in half an hour,
while he radioed his officer.

Provencher and Montgomery talked with Iraqis waiting outside the prison who
told them the following:

    *one man said the visitation policy had improved; he could visit every
ten days

    *an old woman said visitors had to follow the procedure of coming and
receiving a visitation number and then returning on another day

        *many people waiting to get in had been there all night

        *two days before, 400 prisoners had been released, (authorities had
announced 600. ) Four buses came out of the prison, one full, another half
full, the last two almost empty

        *visits last fifteen minutes and take place with double glass
windows between the detainee and his family, who talk through a hole in the
glass

        *families are not allowed to bring clothes for detainees

    *Muslim prisoners still receive pork in their meals

    *families can deliver and receive messages through the IMHR

One Iraqi man told Provencher and Montgomery that there was an office
for the IMHR inside the prison.

In a van, the four CPTers then went to the second gate found by Vriesinga
and David. The soldier there informed them they could not enter. His officer
had told him that CPT must receive permission from the Foreign Affairs
Department at the Coalition Provincial Authority (CPA.) The soldier also
said he did not know anything about an office at the prison for the IMHR.