CPTnet
26 July 2006

IRAQ UPDATE: 11-17 July 2006

Tuesday, 11 July

Peggy Gish arrived in Amman from Chicago.

Wednesday, 12 July

Anita David and Maxine Nash arrived in Amman from Chicago.

Thursday, 13 July

Anita David, Maxine Nash, and Peggy Gish met with Jens Martin Mehler,
assistant detention coordinator of the Iraq International Committee on the
Red Cross (ICRC.) He briefed them on what ICRC has been doing in Iraq and
the current status of U.S. prisons there. The ICRC conducted a prison
monitoring training with Iraqi Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs.) He can
collaborate with them and get information about specific cases or conditions
from them, but he cannot give the team information because of the ICRC
mandate. The team spoke of their recent work relating to detainees and
prisons in Iraq.

The team met with three representatives attending a human rights training of
Iraqi NGOs, sponsored by the UN, and the Italian NGO, Un Ponte.

The team visited their landlady from Baghdad in her Amman home. She had
arrived from Baghdad the night before. She told them their Baghdad
neighborhood, Karrada, was fairly safe.

Friday, 14 July

David, Gish and Nash flew from Amman to Sulaimaniya in the Kurdish region of
Iraq. A friend arranged for their visas and hotel, information on local
transportation and location of the closest internet café. During a long
discussion, she described the situation in Kurdistan and its relationship to
the rest of Iraq. She said the Iraqi government needs to respect Kurdish
rights and autonomy.

Many people blame the presence of Multinational Forces (MNF) for much of the
chaos and violence in Iraq and believe the forces should leave. But they
are only one factor in the strife. Saddam Hussein set different tribal,
religious and ethnic groups against each other so they would be preoccupied
with their differences and remain split. Now Iraqis have difficulty
unifying and trusting each other. Many Iraqis believe that the U.S.
government does not regard the lives of Iraqis as equal to the lives of
western peoples or even of animals. They have said that U.S. did not care
when Hussein killed thousands of Iraqis with chemical gas in the 1980s.
However, the U.S. used the massacre as an excuse to invade Iraq in 2003; its
actual goal to have power in the region and intimidate the Iranians.

Saturday, 15 July

The team met to set team roles and to outline goals while in Sulaimaniyah.

Gish briefed Nash on the security training received during a recent course
attended by Gish and Doug Pritchard.

Sunday, 16 July

The team, with a translator, filled out forms at the Passport and Residency
office. Later they learned the forms were requests for three month
extensions of visas, not residency renewals. After some discussion with an
official, he asked the team if they had files in Baghdad. Team members
affirmed the existence of files, and the official said he needed them before
they go further. The translator went to an office where an official drafted
a letter (in Kurdish) requesting team member files from Baghdad. Once
officials in Kurdistan received those files, they said they would proceed
with the visa request. They asked the CPTers not to come back again but
send a representative instead.

Since the situation at the Residency office had been very confusing, team
members contacted a friend to ask for information on visa matters. He
agreed to investigate.

Monday, 17 July

The team's friend called to confirm that the CPTers needed a three-month
visa extension before they could apply for residencies, and they needed the
files from Baghdad to get the visa extensions. He said trying to get
residency would require basing the team in Kurdistan and CPT members would
have to enter through Sulaimaniyah. However, afterwards the team could
apply to move its base to another location in Iraq.

Nash talked with the team's landlord in Baghdad. He said he was leaving
that day for Amman. Nash asked, "Is everything OK?" He replied, "More or
less." He said that the atmosphere in Baghdad is different and that people
are not moving around as they used to do.