CPTnet
June 23, 2004

IRAQ UPDATE: June 12-15, 2004

Saturday, June 12, 2004
A friend whose brother coalition forces had detained, called to say a
soldier informed him his brother had been moved from Abu Ghraib to Um Qasr
prison in the south. The soldier said "off the record" that they would
probably move his brother out of country.

Anita David visited the Baghdad University Collage of Art and Film. She
videotaped the damage done to the buildings and equipment in the coalition
invasion on 2003.

While visiting an Iraqi human rights organization, Maxine Nash, Anne
Montgomery and Stewart Vriesinga listened to the story of a man whose
brother died when soldiers raided his house in May.

An Iraqi whose nephew is in Abu Ghraib prison visited the CPT office. He
thanked team members for their work. When one team member said, "But we are
so unsuccessful," the Iraqi said, "but you are here with us in our
suffering."

Sunday, June 13, 2004
At 8:00 am, the team heard a loud explosion. Mortars passed over the
apartment and into the Green Zone, the area used as headquarters by
the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA.) From the Green Zone, a
loudspeaker called for all personnel to go indoors until further notice.

Sheila Provencher and Montgomery visited Dominican sisters who explained how
difficult it is for their students to concentrate. The sisters also reported
a car full of explosives had been found near a restaurant close to their
hospital.

In the evening, on the way home from a restaurant, David, Vriesinga,
Provencher and Greg Rollins talked to a U.S. soldier in the
Sheraton/Palestine hotel complex. The soldier said he and his friends
had lost three people in their battalion the week before to an Improvised
Explosive Device (IED.) He said IEDs were not something they could prevent;
militants plant them at the side of the road or under a median, and use a
remote control device to detonate them from 200 yards away. The soldier said
he personally was in Iraq to help the children and women, those who could
not help themselves.

On their way home from the ice cream shop, Vriesinga, Provencher and Rollins
had a water fight with Iraqi children who live on the same street as CPT.

Monday, June 14, 2004
At 8:15 am, the team heard an explosion. From the roof, they saw smoke rise
about a mile away. Later they learned that a car bomb had gone off in Tahrir
Square, where CPT held its Lenten vigil.

While passing through the Sheraton/Palestine hotel complex, Nash and Rollins
stopped to talk to U.S. Military Police (MP.) The MPs talked about how
afraid of IEDs they are. When Rollins asked them if there was anything the
convoys could do when an IED explodes, one MP said, "just hope it isn't your
time."

Tuesday, June 15, 2004
Some time before dawn a string of five mortars woke several CPTers.

Montgomery, Provencher and Rollins met with U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel
Weaver, the Deputy Director and Chief of Staff for the Iraqi Assistance
Center (IAC.) He said that after June 30 when the coalition gives power to
the Iraqi interim government, he was not sure where his office would be or
what he would be doing.

A Korean friend of CPT's came over to discuss a peace education center he is
starting in Baghdad.

David, Provencher and Rollins interviewed an Iraqi recently released from
Abu Ghraib prison. According to the man, U.S. soldiers arrested him and his
brother for having fishing gear that looked like a bomb. In the first 24
hours of their detention, a U.S. army explosive expert confirmed the
equipment was for fishing. Soldiers told the brothers they would release
them the next day but the brothers stayed in prison over three months.

When asked if the U.S. guards physically abused him, he said the guards
often beat him and others. With a smile, he also referred to Iraqi prisoners
they called "Tarzans"--men who were arrested at night when they wore nothing
but underwear. U.S. soldiers had never allowed these men to dress and the
prison did not offer them clothes. Soldiers had arrested another man on his
wedding night. That man wore his tuxedo for entire time he was in prison.