CPters serving on team during this period were Anita David, Angela Davis, Peggy Gish, Beth Pyles and Chihchun Yuan.

19 May

CPTers went to Erbil for a series of meetings regarding allegations of Turkey using chemical weapons when it bombed the Qandil Mountain villages during 16-17 December 2007. The Minister of Environment told the team that because his office lacked the equipment to do proper testing, it had no evidence that chemical weapons had been used. However, he mentioned that an expert team is doing an examination of bombing areas. The most recent test results showed that the ground and water are polluted. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) expert team sent requests to United Nation and U.S.A. offices for help with further examination. CPT has conveyed the request to U.N. and U.S.A. office in Erbil, but has not received responses.

22 May

David and Naar-Obed met with Dr. Fuad Baban (an expert on the chemical bombing of Kurdish Iraqis during Saddam Hussein's Anfal campaign in the 1980s). He said that no equipment capable of testing the effects of chemical bombing on the environment is available in the region.

24 May

Yuan and Pyles met with "Green Kurdistan" and "Together To Protect Human and the Environment Association." They discussed ways in which CPT could work with them on issues of human and environmental rights.

26 May

The team drafted a letter to send to the World Health Organization (WHO) outlining the various governmental and other groups with whom the team has had contact. Most of these groups indicate that further testing is necessary in order to assess the allegation of chemical bombing.

3 June

Amnesty International representatives visited the office. David and Pyles shared the issues of IDP camp. The government wants to move the IDP camp in Qalawa out of Suleimaniya city. Some NGOs also want the people to move for different reasons, including lack of security, prostitution, teenage pregnancy, etc. The camp lacks of sanitary facilities. The directors of STEP, an organization working with street children, joined the meeting regarding the issue of working children. They mentioned a new policy of the police to arrest children working on the street.

In the afternoon, David and Pyles visited Qalawa IDP camp. Later they discussed the health issues of the camp with representatives from Kurdish Human Rights Watch and CHRA.

5 June

Team members made final negotiations concerning renting a house in another neighborhood of Suleimaniya.

7-9 June

The team conducted a nonviolence and reconciliation training for a coalition of several Kurdish human rights organizations that espouse nonviolence.

11 June

David and Gish met with Dr. Muhammad Delshad, Director of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Directorate of Health. They inquired about the department's ability to reinstate medical services (providing for doctor visits and children's vaccinations) to and the source of water for the Qalawa Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) "camp." Dr. Muhammad told CPTers his directorate did not provide the water or the doctor visits, but he would provide vaccinations once he received a letter from Mr. Dana Ahmed Majeed, Governor of Suleimaniya governorate. Dr. Muhammad called and arranged for CPTers to visit the governor the following day.

12 June

Governor Dana said that the people at the camp should receive free medical care at a clinic near the camp, but referred the team to Dr Sherko of the Health Department, if they wanted to advocate for medical care in the Qalawa IDP camp. The governor described the problems of the IDPs as being economic, not relational. He raised a concern also about the increasing numbers of IDPs from the border areas bombed by Turkey and sometimes shelled by Iran. The government plans to build a new camp for them around Qaladza, closer to the border areas. He said, "It's a big problem, but what can we do?" Referring to Northern Iraq's neighboring countries he said, "You can't choose your brothers; you can only choose your friends."

15 June

In Erbil, Yuan and Davis met with Mr. Zirian, the Minister of Health. He told them that a specialized team from his office had visited the border villages following the December 2007 bombings, did clinical tests and took blood samples. They did not make a report of their findings, but he believes Turkey did not use chemical weapons. However, he acknowledged his office did not have the capacity for this kind of testing. "Perhaps the health problems the people are experiencing are psychological. The villagers live in constant fear, never knowing when a bomb may be dropped," he said. "The bombing is continuous and Turkey is intentionally dropping bombs on the villages."

David and Gish met with Hameed Kareem of International Relief Development (IRD) and the IRD's Protection Coordinator. They related the following: The people of the Qalawa IDP camp do not like the man who oversees their camp. After the people of Qalawa sent a delegation to the Governor and demanded the right to select their own leader, he said he would send a team there to investigate their concerns.

The IRD Protection Coordinator found it almost impossible to meet with the women in the camp without the men surrounding them and dominating the interactions. She sees issues relating to women and children (protection, sanitation, medical requirements, and ending the prostitution ring) as needing the most attention in the camp right now.

The conversation shifted to the allegations of chemical bombing along the border areas. Villagers fear that Turkey used "unconventional weapons" and that the KRG did not answer a request by a U.N. agency to obtain soil samples to determine whether or not it is true. They discussed the fact that the KRG has not allowed testing and that the U.S., KRG, and Turkey have allowed the bombing to continue.

Back home, the team discovered the city had turned on the neighborhood's water for two hours earlier in the day. Since the team had not been there to pump it into the tanks, no water was in the faucets. They went to neighbors and got water in buckets, which they used the next three days until that area received city water again.