CPTnet
26 January 2008
IRAQ UPDATE: 8 December 2007-20 January 2008

Saturday, 8 December 2007
The team met with Khalid Jammal, Director of Awkaf and Religious Affairs regarding his trip to South Africa and his intention to bring this reconciliation model to Kurdistan.

Michele Naar-Obed and Anita David went bowling with the co-directors of an organization that serves children who work in Suleimaniya's downtown market. They provide a safe place for the children to relax, and with the Ministry of Education, provide after hours classes for children whose families depend on their income.


Sunday, 9 December 2007

David visited the Asaish (Kurdish Secret Police) office to retrieve CPT’s NGO registration papers. She spoke with an Asaish officer who promised to call the team translator once the papers are signed.


Monday, 10 December 2007

The team drove to Erbil for a series of meetings.

1) Marko Jaminki of International Committee of the Red Cross, whose mandate includes visiting all prisons and detention centers. The ICRC received permission from the central Iraqi government to visit Ft Suse Prison, a major detention center for prisoners from central and southern Iraq. ICRC is trying to gain comprehensive authority to visit any prison under any authority. Jaminki raised concerns about the blurring of humanitarian roles with military roles and the danger in which that places aid workers. The military is taking a wider role in delivering humanitarian aid.

2) Daniel McNicholas, USAID staff with the Suleimaniya Regional Reconstruction Team. He detailed projects in which they are assisting through Army Corps of Engineers and private US contractors located at Farmandi Base near Suleimaniya. Contractors include Research Triangle Institute, National Democratic Institute, IRI, Dyn Corps.

3) Martin Bohnstedt and Noral Mohammad Rasheed at United Nations Aid Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), the human rights office. Bohnstedt reported that Multinational Force in Iraq has no detention facilities in Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) area. Mohammad Rasheed reported that a dozen US advisors are at Fort Suse Prison to train and advise prison administers and guards. She told CPTers that discussions regarding reconciliation between all the communities had taken place between the central Iraq government and U.N. staff and the matter is now in the hands of the Iraq government.

Tuesday, 11 December 2007
The team visited the textile museum at the Citadel, a site inhabited since 7000 B.C. Next door, in the antique shop, South Korean soldiers, in battle gear and with weapons slung over their shoulders, were snapping pictures of each other. Their guns were pointed outward instead of pointing down towards the ground. The shopkeeper frantically followed them from room to room. As they left, a small group of U.S. soldiers appeared. They were much more respectful of the shop and bumping into breakable items. Only a few had pistols holstered at their waists.

Naar Obed and Peggy Gish joined over 200 journalists and their supporters for a demonstration against the passage of the censorship law. The editor of Hawlati, one of Suleimaniya's two independent newspapers, spoke, as well as a Parliamentarian opposed to the law. A reporter, known to the team, asked Naar Obed to speak. After consultation with the team, Naar-Obed spoke in support of human rights and the value of free speech. Following the demonstration, many people approached the two CPTers to ask about their work.

Naar Obed met with a journalist who told of another member of the press who was sentenced to six months in prison in Halubja for accusing a tribal leader of corruption. He said the independent newspaper, Hawlati, received threats it would be shut down. He invited CPT to attend a meeting of independent journalists and other concerned citizens to plan a response to this and to the passage of the censorship law.

Monday, 17 December 2007

Anita David visited the museum in Azadi Park, a memorial to the Kurds, civilian and Peshmerga, who were tortured and killed there. The walls of one room are embedded with 182,000 mirror shards representing the numbers of Kurds murdered during Al Anfal. Five hundred mini lights illuminate the space, representing the number of destroyed villages. The building is a former Saddam Hussein prison in which the torture and death of some of Al Anfal victims took place.


Tuesday, 18 December 2007

Kindy and David visited Fermandy, the U.S. military base west of Suleimaniya. They met with Walt Goodwater, US Nat’l Guard from Sacramento. The Guard unit trains Iraqi army; other US contractors train Iraqi prison guards, and others Iraqi police. He noted that Iraqi detainees are held temporarily at this base. He warned of continuing de-mining work in the KRG area.

Naar Obed and Peggy Gish met with representatives of the Civil Society Initiative (CSI). CSI monitors human rights abuses and educates on the responsibilities and accountability of government. The discussion explored reconciliation and nonviolence. The CSI representatives offered help in contacting Kirkuk citizens from various ethnic and religious backgrounds to participate in a training inside the KRG area.


Friday, 21 December 2007

A team friend and his father delivered a small live pine for Christmas. The father is the director of Kurdish Green, an environmental organization that plants trees in the PUK area. He initiated a recycling program in Darbandikhan where the team saw brightly painted containers. He said the world not only needed peace for all people, but also peace for animals, plants, and the whole environment.


Saturday, 22 December 2007

David and Kindy visited Fort Susa prison. At the prison gate, they spoke with Col. Hussein, Deputy Director of the prison. They wanted to meet with U.S. trainers working there but learned none were present because it was Saturday. Col. Hussein suggested CPTers visit the trainers at Fermandi, the Peshmerga base near Suleimaniya that serves as their home. He called and arranged for a meeting on Tuesday, 25 December in the morning.


Gish, David and Naar met with Hameed Kareem, Chief of Party, Humanitarian Assistance for Iraq (HAI) and International Relief and Development (IRD). Mr. Hameed updated the Team on conditions of Kurds living along the Turkish border. He gave CPT advice and affirmation for the CPT reconciliation project and offered support once it began.


Sunday, 23 December 2007

CPTers heard sobering reports in Halabja from two families who experienced the 1988 chemical attack there by Iraqi forces during the Iran/Iraq War. The bulk of the 5000 casualties were civilians, part of a population swelled by displacement from surrounding villages. The mother of one family and father of another shared the stories. The combination of napalm and gas was brutal. Those who survived, fled to Iran. The father said, "I cried for a year." He was angry about the U.S. support of the Turkish bombing of the KRG because he sees Kurdistan is again being abandoned by the world.


Monday, 24 December 2007

Gish and Kindy met Aram Jamal, with the nonviolence movement in Kurdistan. He shows the Gandhi film and the Force More Powerful series at universities and institutes.


Tuesday, 25 December 2007

David and Kindy visited Fort Susa Prison and the director, Col. Mumen Abu-Baker. The Ministry of Justice, central Iraqi government, operates the prison with twelve U.S. advisors. Saddam Hussein built it to hold Iranian prisoners, and used it as an operation center during the Anfal. It then became U.N. headquarters, a de-mining operation base, and later was managed by the U.S. Navy and Kurdish security.


Friday, 28 December 2007

By phone, ICRC and U.N. reported on the 600-800 families displaced by bombings on 3 and 16 December 2007. Four hundred Internally Displaced (IDP) families moved into Rawundus, Erbil Governate.


Saturday, 29 December 2007

David and Gish met with a seventy-five-year old man from Kirkuk to hear stories about the Anfal. As a Kurd, he faced displacement, death of his wife, and loss of his home.

Naar-Obed and Kindy met with an advisor to explore a potential CPT presence in the border villages. CPT feels that a presence could restrain US-aided Turkish attacks, open a space for the approximately 3000 displaced individuals to return and for dialogue to replace military action to resolve Turkey and PKK disputes.

He urged CPT to go through Asaish security and clear the proposal with Ministry of the Interior (MOI).

CPT's driver invited them to Zhany Gul, a movie about the Peshmerga resistance under the British occupation during the 1950's. It has been nominated for an Oscar.


Sunday, 30 December 2007

The team met with the Minister of the Interior of the PUK region, Ozman Hajji Mahmoud, to talk about the border proposal. He told CPT, "We need you and ten more groups like you." He suggested CPT speak with the mayor of Qaladza that is northeast of Suleimaniya along the Iranian border. This region was hit heavily by the 16 December bombing and border villagers are now IDP's in Qaladza.

Gish and Naar-Obed met an independent journalist charged with slander after publishing a critical story about the Peshmerga. Before his trial, men claiming to be Asaish security officers abducted him. He was hooded, tied up, beaten, threatened, and had to promise never to write about the Peshmerga again. He faces trial for slander sometime this year, so CPT will try to attend.


Wednesday, 2 January 2008

Gish and Kindy met an ICRC representative in Erbil who detailed the Turkish bombings, names of villages bombed, and noted that one civilian has been killed and three injured.

Naar-Obed and David visited U.N. officers who made encouraging remarks about the CPT proposal. One said he would arrange connections for CPT. He also said this presence was something they had been asked to provide, but could not do within the U.N. mandate.

The entire team met with Hameed Kareem, International Relief and Development. He said CPT will need its NGO papers and Asaish permission to travel. He encouraged work in Sangazar, Rania and Qaladza, Suleimanyah Governate and urged CPT to contact the vice-mayor of Sangazar. He said, "There is a direct line between the Turkish bombing and Article 140 [a vote on whether Kurds, Turkomans or Iraqis control the Kirkuk oil region]; it was a very successful political maneuver on the part of Turkey."


Thursday, 3 January 2008

The entire team traveled to Qaladza, Sangasar and Rania. Hassan, the mayor of Qaladza, said that the people in his area are in desperate need of some recognition of the suffering they have endured and "Even one report would be helpful." He noted the dangers faced if CPT traveled into the villages and cautioned that presently there are no villagers living in the 34 villages of his jurisdiction.

From Qaladza, CPT traveled to Sangasar to meet with Mr. Abdullah, vice mayor in that city. He gave detailed reports on casualties, property destruction, and damage and displayed pieces of the bombs they found at the site, still photos and a video of some of the bombed areas. The bombs killed 700 sheep and cows in two sites and bombing destroyed a newly built school and damaged a new mosque. He affirmed, "It is good for people like you to be there."

In Rania, they met with Mayor Mamosta Ali. CPT asked his opinion on the politics of these Turkish attacks and then asked him how many kilometers it is from the bombed areas to Kirkuk. He told CPT, "It is 235 km from the bombed areas to Kirkuk and there is a direct line to article 140." He suggested CPT talk with IDP families that are living in Rania and tell their stories to the outside world.

With his help, CPT met a family who left their village when the bombing occurred 16 December 2007. The family grows vegetables for a living, had to leave their cows, and is worried that they will starve. They want to go back to the village soon but, because there are daily flights by Turkish surveillance planes, they do not feel they can safely return.


Tuesday, 8 January 2008

The pipes at the team’s motel burst, so the team was without water for two days. The people of Suleimaniya say “this is the coldest winter in ten years.” Temperatures have dropped to as low as -18 Centigrade. Many of the city’s residents are without water since water tanks are stored on the roof and the pipes freeze. Michele Naar-Obed observed how the neighbors thaw out the pipes each morning.

Wednesday, 9 January 2008

Cliff Kindy and Peggy Gish met with the leader of “Genj/Lau,” the youth movement that has been holding a strike by camping out for over three months in a public garden with a list of demands for the government. The group requested that CPT give a one-hour lecture about campaigns for social change. “The flesh of Kurdistan that holds the bones together is corruption,” a Genj/Lau spokesperson told CPT.


Saturday, 12 January 2008

The team hosted representatives from independent media and local NGO’s. The topic of discussion: “Would an international presence in the border villages targeted by Turkish bombing offer safety for villagers and pressure the U.S. to move the Turkish government towards the diplomatic table to deal with the issues of the PKK?” CPT agreed to publish an open letter denouncing the bombing of Kurdish civilians inside Iraqi Kurdistan. The local NGOs committed to staging a protest at the US Consulate in Erbil with the displaced villagers and CPT agreed to support the effort. CPT would continue to collect the stories of the displaced villagers, disseminate them widely, and continue to seek permission to accompany village families back to their homes.


Sunday, 13 January 2008

The Kurdish Regional Government’s representative to the U.N. told Naar-Obed, “We are very supportive of your proposal to accompany villagers back to their homes and our office is happy to be of assistance to help get the necessary permission from government officials in order for you to do this work.”


Tuesday, 15 January 2008

Gish, Kindy and Naar-Obed met with the assistant to the Minister of the Interior in Suleimaniya to present the proposal for the border village accompaniment project. “The MOI has no objection to your proposal but you must be registered as an NGO before permission to travel to the borders will be granted” was his response. He made a few phone calls and reported that there should be no reason to deny CPT’s NGO registration.

The team finished the fifty-two-hour Kurdish language class. The team’s instructor celebrated the “graduation” by bringing homemade Kurdish pastries to class.


Wednesday, 16 January 2008

Anita David met with the head of the security department to obtain permission to enter the border villages and was told, “As head of the Suleimaniya security, there is no way that our department will give permission to go past our checkpoints.”

After further discussion he said, “The only way CPT would get permission from the security office would be if Prime Minister Barzani gave his approval.” Naar-Obed called the KRG’s representative to the U.N. who asked for a copy of the border village accompaniment proposal and offered to send it to PM Barzani along with his strong recommendation to grant permission.

Gish, Naar-Obed, Kindy and five independent journalists attended the trial of an Halabja journalist who was charged with “slander” for his critical story about the Peshmerga (Kurdish army).


Thursday, 17 January 2008

Naar-Obed and Gish documented the story of a human rights organizer whose life was threatened for organizing nonviolent demonstrations and campaigns. “Because the government would not take our concerns seriously, our organization lost the trust of many of the people in Suleimaniya, but I will not give up trying to work for human rights,” he told them.


Friday, 18 January 2008

The team presented a lecture on nonviolent resistance campaigns to the Genj/Lau group. CPT’s accompaniment projects, Women in Black, the Vieques Campaign, and Plowshares/disarmament actions were among the stories shared with about twenty Kurdish youth. The presentation was followed by a lively question and answer period. “We are like babies in this movement," one person said. "We need your example. Would you promise to meet with us every Friday to continue this lecture series?” CPT offered to team up with local independent NGOs to continue the series. CPT also stressed the importance of making these meetings more accessible to women. The male dominated group resisted the suggestion, but did not completely reject it.


Sunday, 20 January 2008

David submitted a detailed article recounting the history and events that led to the Turkish bombing of Kurdish civilian villages along the border inside Iraqi Kurdistan. A KRG representative to the U.N. told her, “I find this article very informative, accurate, and a brief historical reminder, thus I decided to use it as an attachment to the request for permission to go to the IDP villages with the villagers. I also saw CPT’s letter to the US Authorities in the papers today. I will use that as well as another attachment to the request.”

The team learned that a number of the local independent journalists went without official permission into the border villages last week to get a first hand report of the Turkish attacks.