CPTnet
26 March 2009
IRAQ UPDATE: 21 February-15 March 2009


CPTers on the team during this period were Peggy Gish, Bob Holmes, Craig Kite, Michele Naar, and Chihchun Yuan.

Saturday, 21 February
In order to enter at the airport, Yuan had to have a lawyer meet her there and leave her passport there with immigration until her entry visa was approved.

Thursday, 26 February
The team went to U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) with two Kurdish village leaders.  They gave background information about their villages to the U.N. staff, telling about the 100 villages abandoned by their inhabitants because of Turkish bombing and the risks that villagers take when they return to their homes to care for their orchards and animals.  They said they would like CPT to accompany them to their villages if the international community is willing to support them.  They would start with returning to the village that is farthest from the Turkish border.  

Tuesday, 3 March
The team learned how to use the GPS(Global Positioning System) device in order to inform authorities of the location coordinates for places they may go with villagers.  

Wednesday, 4 March
Kite, Naar, and Gish traveled to Sheladze and met with the village leaders who had been at the last UNHCR meeting.  The leaders said they want CPTers to contact as many government and international agencies as would be helpful to gain support for the accompaniment project, even if doing so would delay the action.  They also said they would need assistance from relief agencies for rebuilding their homes and villages.  They acknowledged that they have no guarantees of safety, but said they still want to proceed with the project if they can get the support of these other groups.  

Thursday, 5 March
At a meeting with the head of the Asaish (Security police), Kite, Naar, and Gish were told they could not go to the village without permission from the local mayor.  One village representative agreed to set up an appointment for CPTers.

Then CPTers met with a larger group of village leaders to report on the progress of the accompaniment plans and discuss how to proceed.  Team members saw a new hope and excitement in the men as they talked about the possibility of returning to their villages.  
Back at the CPT house in Suleimaniya, Yuan and Holmes welcomed a member of Muslin Peacemaker Teams (MPT) visiting from Najef.  He told of MPT’s peacemaking work between Shias and Sunnis and between Arabs and Kurds.

Friday, 6 March
The team met to discuss the possibility of the Iraq team’s termination in June because of CPT’s financial difficulties.  The team sent a proposal to the support team asking for at least six months to pursue the goals of accompaniment and test its feasibility, while also recommending ways the team budget could be cut.  They decided that if the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) made accompaniment impossible, they could leave, but having just made promises to new partners, leaving at this time would be irresponsible.

Sunday, 15 March
The team visited the town of Bamarne where a villager told the team of their worries about two Turkish bases inside the town.  These bases are inside Iraq, forty km from the border of Turkey.  Twice a year, summer and autumn, the soldiers burn the fields around the base using tank-fire.  The KRG government has promised compensation to the land owners but none has been forthcoming.  

They said they would welcome CPT coming and document the burning when it happens next (probably in August).  They also spoke of how Turkish soldiers shoot at farmers retrieving animals who have ventured too close to the base and how Turkish dogs from the base threaten the villagers’ animals at night.  Local officials have petitioned the KRG to expel the bases, but the bases remain at the desire of the Iraqi government.  Turkey says that PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) are located in the nearby mountains and that it uses the bases to launch operations against them.