CPTnet
April 14, 2004
IRAQ: CPT delegation and team leave Baghdad as advised by Iraqi colleagues
CPT's Chicago office received a phone call early this morning from CPT's
Iraq team, saying they and the CPT delegation had left the country on the
advice of their Iraqi co-workers. Both team and delegation are currently in
Amman, Jordan.
The extremely aggressive actions of the U.S. and Coalition Forces throughout
Iraq and especially in Fallujah have created widespread suspicion and fear
of the intentions of these foreign armies. This suspicion puts all
internationals at risk. Reports from Fallujah indicate that 60% of the
fatalities in that city are women and children. The U.S. has bombed one
hospital there and confiscated another for use as an emergency command
center for its troops. Coalition Forces are detaining massive numbers of
people throughout Iraq and Iraqis are afraid that residents of Najaf will
soon experience the same treatment as the residents of Fallujah have.
CPT's most trusted Iraqi partners have urged the team to leave, saying that
the current situation will make it impossible for the team to engage in
normal, honest engagements with Iraqis or fulfill their mission to deter
violence. They have also suggested that CPT's presence might actually
endanger their local Iraqi partners in the emerging violent chaos.
The team will be watching the situation in Iraq from Amman, where, according
to CPT director Gene Stoltzfus, they "will be taking a well-earned rest."
CPT's work to highlight the problem of Iraqi detainees "needs to continue
unabated," Stoltzfus says. After the current Coalition Forces' offensive is
over, thousands of additional detainees, many of them swept up in the U.S.
dragnet simply because they happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong
time, will be filling U.S. military prisons.
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