CPTnet
May 7, 2004
IRAQ UPDATE: April 18-24, 2004
Sunday, April 18
The team tried to contact numerous friends and Iraqi colleagues in Baghdad.
They were able to get through by telephone to only one neighbor, who said he
thought things were calmer and he thought the team would be able to return
in a few days. They also spoke with the team's translator who said that
Baghdad was not yet fully quiet, and that he would consult Sunni and Shi'a
clerics in the city whom the team meets with often on CPT's role during the
current crisis.
Le Anne Clausen and Stewart Vriesinga went to a meeting of humanitarian
organizations that have recently evacuated from Iraq. The group was
discussing how to advocate for humanitarian needs in the country as a body
of organizations.
"Since April last year, we tried to work on humanitarian space. There is no
humanitarian space," said one aid worker. "We tried to work in Iraq. We
are all sitting here in Amman."
Another aid worker said of the group's efforts to speak out on human rights
abuses by Coalition officials in Fallujah, "We have to offer constructive
alternatives for violence, or we will be tuned out and we will still have
violence." Another aid worker present discussed a previous situation of
several cases of rapes of Iraqi women by U.S. forces after the April 2003
invasion. She was glad that several international organizations at that
time acted together to press Coalition officials
to investigate and prosecute the incidents.
Other organizations present voiced their fear of speaking out against human
rights abuses because they could lose donors or be labeled as troublemakers
or biased.
The team heard from international peace worker colleagues who had returned
to Fallujah to assist Iraqi medical workers on the day the team evacuated
from Iraq. The workers were safe, although U.S. forces had again shot them
at while accompanying ambulances [See previous update for more details.]
Iraqi militia members also kidnapped and detained them overnight. But when
the militia became aware of the workers' humanitarian purpose in Fallujah,
they treated the workers well and gave them a ride back to their hotel in
Baghdad.
Monday, April 19
A friend of Sheila Provencher's who is visiting relatives in Amman invited
the team visit the Dead Sea. The friend also took them to the Jordan River,
to the traditional site of Jesus' baptism. Although the friend is Muslim,
he was enthusiastic about showing the place to team members. He washed his
face and hands in the water and helped the team members to do the same. On
the other side of the river was an Israeli tourist plaza, with a flag
prominently displayed. The friend, who became a refugee from Palestine
during the 1967 invasion, was deeply distressed at the sight of the flag.
"I'm sorry," he said, "but I can't stay here very long."
Provencher collected a bottle of river water to bring back to Baghdad for an
Iraqi friend from the Sabaean church, which venerates John the Baptist.
Clausen tried again to reach Iraqi contacts that the team had not heard from
since evacuating the country.
Tuesday, April 20
The team learned that a bomb went off at St. Raphael's hospital in Baghdad,
not far from the team apartment. The hospital is across the street from the
church which CPT members usually attend. People in the area were not clear
yet on the motivation for the bomb, or who carried out the attack.
Late at night, members of a U.S. peace group that planned to go to Najaf
departed the hotel for Iraq. They returned to the hotel a few hours later
due to a disagreement with the driver, who did not want to enter Iraq.
Wednesday, April 21
The team discussed criteria for sending two team members back to Iraq to
explore whether the rest of the team could return and resume the project.
Some important considerations included whether team members' presence would
create additional danger for Iraqis with whom the team works, and whether
the team could move freely enough to carry out its work.
A hotel employee told team members about his worries for the peace group
that was trying to reach Najaf. "They offered me more money to find a car
for them, but it's not the money. It's on my conscience. I cannot send
them on the roads now."
Thursday, April 22
The team continued to discuss possibilities for a return of team members to
Baghdad.
A freelance journalist interviewed Vriesinga about the team's work in Iraq.
The journalist said that he had been taken hostage numerous times and it was
always just a matter of waiting before the groups would let him go. He
expressed enthusiasm for taking a car into Iraq, and was hoping to join the
U.S. peace group trying to reach Najaf.
An Iraqi woman who was staying in the same hotel as CPT told Chandler that
when she and her brother were travelling by bus from Baghdad to Amman a few
days earlier, Iraqi militia stopped the bus and searched it thoroughly.
They then removed an American traveler from the bus and allowed the rest of
the passengers to continue their trip.
The U.S. peace group departed for Iraq by road.
Friday, April 23
The team received a message from an American peace worker colleague in Iraq.
She and six other foreign peace workers still left in Iraq were swamped with
work interviewing refugee families from Fallujah. The worker wrote, "I
encourage my translator to quit anytime she wants [for the translator's
safety], but she will not hear anything of it."
Vriesinga and Provencher talked to two men who were selling snacks at the
bus station near the hotel where the team is staying. Both men were
Palestinian. Provencher gave them a flier explaining CPT's work in Iraq.
When the two men read the flier, they said they wanted to help CPT.
The team learned that the journalist who interviewed Vriesinga the day
before had been kidnapped by Iraqi militia and later released when the
journalist produced a letter in Arabic stating his peaceful intentions. The
journalist was then taken to a nearby U.S. military base. However, the
journalist's luggage and equipment were still in the vehicle. The driver
took the belongings to the Iraqi Police, whereupon they arrested the driver.
A friend of the team tried to call the journalist so that he would explain
the situation to the police, but the journalist ignored the phone call. The
driver spent the night in jail and was released the next day when the
journalist vouched for him.
Saturday, April 24
An Iraqi driver and friend of the team, who regularly drives CPT delegations
between Amman and Baghdad, came to the hotel. He told Provencher that he
had not been driving for the past two weeks. Instead, he had gone to
Fallujah because some of his friends were hurt in the fighting. He brought
medical supplies into the city. He also helped people in Najaf to set up
medical clinics in homes in case the U.S. invaded the city. He told the
story of his friend who smuggled a journalist out of the country during the
hostage crisis, saying, "We can help, so we must. They are telling the
truth, so we must help them because they are telling the truth to the
world."
The driver also expressed his frustration with the U.S.-led occupation of
Iraq, saying, "I don't understand why they are doing it this way. There are
many ways to bring these changes to Iraq. Why are they doing it like this?
Maybe they are businesspeople, and the businesses make the weapons, so they
have to use the weapons. I don't know." He also said, "I think that God
always sent a prophet to the people during times when they were lost, when
they needed to be brought back to the path. But people's minds are more
open now, they do not need another prophet. They need to listen to the
prophets God has already sent. All religions lead to the same thing. If we
could see this, we could see that we are all human beings, members of the
same family."
The driver, who has a degree in civil engineering, also said that he had
been thinking a lot about the destruction of buildings in Fallujah. He said
he might stop driving soon and work with friends on rebuilding projects in
both Baghdad and Fallujah.
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