CPTnet
July 8, 2003

IRAQ: Outside the gates of Abu Ghraib

by Sheila Provencher

The following reflection was written after CPTers visited Abu Ghraib
Prison on June 16, 2004.

Many of them have no idea if their loved one is even inside. They stand in
the baking sun, three straggling lines separated by curling razor wire.
Women in black abayas, men in long robes wait to see their sons. Young
women and men wait for their brothers or husbands or cousins. Small boys
stand next to coolers of soda pop to sell to the crowd.

People have been waiting for hours, sometimes all night. One man came
from Basra, eight hours away, the previous day. Another has a visit for
tomorrow but he is here now, just to be sure. "It is better now, at least,"
he says. "Before, you had a visit every few months. Now, you can visit
every ten days. The scandal helped with that."

The young soldier standing guard from a watchtower wipes sweat out of
his eyes. Another soldier tries to keep order, but he has no translator. "He
didn't turn up today," he says. "I do my best; I try to be fair. If someone
has come from a long way, I let them go first."

One bearded young Iraqi who speaks English says, "If they would tell us all
the numbers of the prisoners here, you would have no long lines." When
informed that there is a list of prisoners online, he laughs and says, "I
have no Internet, no email. Hardly any of these people have those things."

CPT has heard there is an office for the Ministry of Human Rights, either
outside the prison as an aide to families, or within it. A man waiting for a
visit says that the office is inside the prison, but the soldiers at the
gate know nothing about it.

"How are visits?" we ask the families. Fifteen minutes, with double glass
between prisoners and families. One person says that since the scandal,
sometimes the guards bring the whole family together for a group picture
with the detainee, then separate them immediately. Families cannot deliver
clothes or other belongings to their loved ones. One man tells us that the
Ministry of Human Rights will deliver messages; you can receive a reply in
just a week.

"What about releases?" we ask. In the last two months, the Coalition
Provisional Authority has released approximately 2,000 prisoners. "A few
days ago," says one man, "they were supposed to release 600 people. They
released 400, in four buses. But we saw only one full bus. The second bus
was half-full, and the last two buses were almost empty. So you see, it was
all just for show." An elderly mother worries that the authorities release
detainees in the middle of nowhere, with no money. An Iraqi employee at the
Iraqi Assistance Center in Baghdad once told us that such releases took
place to avoid assassinations, which had occurred even at the gates of the
prison. But when we tell this to the people, they say they do not believe
it.