CPTnet
July 1, 2004

IRAQ: Detainee campaign update

Dear friends,

Our Adopt-A-Detainee Letter-Writing Campaign is only four months old,
but the outpouring of support has been tremendous. Thank you for your
letters and actions on behalf of the detained and disappeared in Iraq. At
our Lenten Fast and Vigil in Baghdad, many people asked, "Why don't you do
this in North America?" So we created a poster-sized list of all of you who
were participating in fasting, letter-writing, and vigiling in Canada, the
U.S.A., Great Britain, and Africa. Our Iraqi friends send their thanks.

Your work has made a real difference, especially during the weeks of
publicity surrounding the detainee abuse. U.S. legislators, international
human rights associations, and other officials viewed CPT's research into
the abuses of detainees and their families as more credible because all of
you had sounded the alarm long before the scandal broke.

This time of transition in Iraq is a crucial for the future of detained
persons and their families. Who will be in charge of detainees? Are there
special categories of "high security detainees"? What will happen to claims
of abuse, confiscated property, or killings that occurred before the
transfer of power? Who will manage the detainee lists, assist families with
information and visitation rights, establish a legal process, and coordinate
releases? As the transfer of power takes place, many of these questions
remain unanswered. As a group, we need to keep focusing our energies on
these questions, in order to prevent human lives from slipping through the
cracks.

We are especially troubled about the group of people who have simply
disappeared--about whom there is no record, no sequence number, no
prison location. Some disappeared as early as April 2003, some as
late as January 2004. Their families continue to hope for news, but many
are close to despair.

This summer, we in CPT hope to connect with all of the families, send
you updates on the detainees for whom you are advocating, and push for more
information here in Iraq about the changing detention system as well as
about individual detainees.

For more information on CPT's Adopt-a-Detainee letter writing campaign, see
http://www.cpt.org/adopt/adopt_a_detainee.php. For updates on specific
detainees, see http://www.cpt.org/AdoptADetaineeLetterJune292004.htm