CPTnet
25 March 2005

OTTAWA: CPT-Ontario highlights abuse of Iraqi detainees in antiwar
demonstrations

by David Milne

Twenty-five members and supporters of Christian Peacemaker Teams joined over
six hundred demonstrators in downtown Ottawa on 19 March 2005--the second
anniversary of the United States led war on Iraq--to protest the continuing
occupation of Iraq, as well as foreign military occupations of Palestine,
Afghanistan and Haiti. Across the country and around the world, hundreds of
thousands of people took to the streets and joined in similar expressions of
opposition.

A group of five CPTers representing Iraqi detainees wore dark hoods and were
roped together, with their hands tied behind their backs. Students--some
dressed in the orange suits worn by detainees at Guantanamo Bay, the choir
"Just Voices," and others, stopped at the Department of National Defense,
the British High Commission, and the embassy of the United States of
America. Speakers implored government leaders Paul Martin, Tony Blair and
George W. Bush to withdraw all troops and associated support of the military
occupations.

The procession also stopped at the Ottawa office of Canadian Corporation
SNC-Lavalin. The corporation manufactures bullets in Quebec for use by the
American army in Iraq.

Prior to the march, CPTers who have spent time in Iraq spoke of what they
saw and learned at a well attended information session. Allan Slater, who
returned two weeks ago, told the gathering that the presence of the
occupying forces divides Iraqis. He related that the head of the Muslim
Scholars' Board, comprising Shi'a and Sunni religious leaders had pressed
the Coalition to announce a clear exit strategy for foreign troops as a
condition of supporting the election. The Coalition's refusal to do so led
to the boycott of the election by many Sunni Muslims.

Slater also spoke about his visit to the destroyed city of Fallujah. Jim
Loney recalled the tears of rage of a young Iraqi man whose father was
suffocated next to him by a hood placed over his head during a house raid by
Coalition forces. Jane McKay Wright related stories of Iraqi women who have
sole responsibility for their families after the arrest and detention of
their husbands and sons by U.S. troops. Their efforts to find and bring
comfort to their loved ones have in many cases been unsuccessful.

Local and national media covered the information session and the march.