CPTnet
17 March 2006
IRAQ UPDATE: 9-21 February 2006
[Note: These updates cover the period before CPTer Tom Fox's body was
discovered in Baghdad. The discovery has increased the workload of the
team enormously, which hindered the ability of the team to get these updates
out more promptly.]
Thursday, 9 February
Team members received word that _Shi'a News_ had printed, in English and
Arabic, the team's statement regarding the inflammatory cartoon depictions
of the Prophet Mohammed.The team received a note of gratitude from an editor
of the paper.
The team hired an Iraqi friend to review three weekly Iraqi newspapers for
news related to the abduction of their four colleagues: Tom Fox, Jim Loney,
Harmeet Sooden and Norman Kember.
Friday, 10 February
An Iraqi human rights worker and friend visited the team to discuss the
current deteriorating situation in Iraq. She told them of towns and villages
under siege by US and Iraqi forces. Troops have sealed off the villages
using walls and check points.
Anita David received contact information regarding a woman and two children
taken by American troops. The team agreed to try to locate them.
Saturday, 11 February
A representative of a human rights organization, "The Independent
Activates--A society to defend Human Rights" visited the team. He told the
team that his group had been holding demonstrations appealing for the
release of the four missing CPTers
Sunday, 12 February
Beth Pyles, Maxine Nash, and Peggy Gish went to St. Mary Chaldean Church to
attend Mass. The church had been hit by a bomb at the end of January. During
the service, the pastor talked about Christian Peacemaker Team's (CPT's)
four missing colleagues and jokingly said "I guess it takes a bomb to bring
our friends here to see us." In the benediction he prayed for the men and
for CPT. Many people remembered the delegation's visit there just two days
before the kidnapping.
Monday, 13 February
Michele Naar and David searched for three detained Palestinian men believed
to be held in Iraqi prisons in Baghdad. They found none of the men in the
two prisons they visited.
Two members from the "Independent Activates" visited the team and told them
about their plan to have another demonstration on Friday, 17 February on
behalf of the four CPT captives. They agreed to hand out copies of CPT
Iraq's most recent statement about their four colleagues and the statement
regarding the Danish cartoons. They also reported that they had heard CPT's
statement about the cartoons on Dar a-Salaam radio station.
Tuesday, 14 February
Allan Slater, Nash, Gish and Naar met with representatives at the National
Iraqi Assistance Center (NIAC.) The representatives spent a great deal of
time talking about the difficulties in their work to get medical treatment
for Iraqis outside the country. They noted that they are reliant on
charitable organizations for this assistance, because the U.S. gives them no
funding. The team asked many questions about detainee issues that received
no answers. The NIAC personnel agreed to forward the questions to the Judge
Advocate General's office. They did confirm there are four U.S. prisons
located in Abu Ghraib, Um Qasr, Sulimaniya and in Baghdad at the airport. A
central database for the U.S. prisons in Iraq still does not exist. The
U.S. detention facility at Baghdad International Airport provides not
information at all. They also said that many families are coming to the
NIAC to looking for family members they say have been kidnapped.
Wednesday, 15 February
At 8:45 a.m. the team heard a loud explosion, followed by a gun battle that
lasted about a half hour. At 11:30 a.m., a car bomb exploded not far from
the team apartment. Later team members found out that the attack killed ten
and injured eighteen people and that several bombs exploded in other parts
of Baghdad. An Iraqi friend visited the team to make sure CPTers were all
okay and to tell them that his friend of thirty years, who owned a photo
shop, died in the blast. The shop owner was also a friend of the team.
Beth Pyles and Allan Slater accompanied administrators of a private
university in Baquba to the Civilian Military Operations Center where the
administrators requested an investigation of possible fraud in compensation
for the damage of the university by American military forces in June of
2004. The meeting ended with an agreement by both the university officials
and the U.S. military to choose an engineer to investigate the
reconstruction work that had been completed.
Thursday, 16 February
Maxine Nash and Anita David visited the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) and
talked to the new General Inspector. He outlined procedures for finding
detainees in the Iraqi system, and CPTers requested information concerning
two Iraqi men.
Michele Naar-Obed and Peggy Gish went to the site of the previous day's
explosion to offer condolences to shop owners who had suffered damages to
their shops.
The team received only three hours of grid electricity throughout the day.
Friday, 17 February
Slater, Gish and a human rights worker from the Muslim Peacemaker Teams
(MPT) in Kerbala accompanied a man from Kerbala to the Shaiba Temporary
Logistical Facility, a British prison in Basra, where his brother has been
incarcerated for eighteen months. They stayed at the home of the brother's
friend and Friday night met with men involved in the case to discuss their
concerns.
Saturday, 18 February
In Basra, CPTers and the MPTer talked with a British Command Legal who is
on the Divisional Internment Review Committee for the Shaiba Prison. This
committee makes recommendations to the Joint Detention Committee (JDC) about
the release of prisoners incarcerated over eighteen months. The three
outlined several concerns about the prisoner's detention. The Command Legal
said he would share these with the JDC that is currently reviewing the case.
In Baghdad, three members of Muslim Peace Taskforce in Najaf (MPTF), a group
created by members of the Muslim Peacemaker Teams in Kerbala (MPT), came to
visit CPT to talk about their work in prisons in Najaf and Hilla. They
observe conditions, talk with prisoners, inform families about visitation
procedures, and give workshops for prisoners and for police. Their goal now
is to do this work in Camp Bucca. CPT gave them contact information for
sending their reports to the United Nations, International Committee of the
Red Cross, and the Iraqi Red Crescent Society.
The team's landlord told the team that diesel for the generator was scarce
and the price had gone up dramatically. It took three days to have it
delivered.
Sunday, 19 February
Two members of the Independent Activates organization came to say that the
BBC had covered their demonstration on behalf of Loney, Sooden, Kember and
Fox.
Team members attended local church services.
Monday, 20 February
The team wrote a new letter to their kidnapped colleagues to post on the
Web.
Gish and Naar-Obed went to Sadr City to meet with leaders of the Sadr
movement and of the local governor's office about water problems there and
in nearby neighborhoods. Leaders told them about areas where there was no
water available and that the water being trucked in daily was inadequate.
Where water is available, it is polluted. There continues to be an epidemic
of water borne diseases there. Last summer there was an agreement with the
U.S. to build about twenty mini-water treatment plants. According to the
leaders, only one has been built which provides less than 2000 liters per
day. They discussed meeting with the Iraqi government and the Red Crescent
for additional help.
David and Nash visited the Ministry of Human Rights (MoHR) and met with a
ministry employee who identified MOI and Ministry of Justice (MOJ) prisons.
Tuesday, 21 February
Gish and Pyles accompanied two members of MPT Najaf (MPTF) to meet with the
head of the detainee section and the director of the National Iraqi
Assistance Center, formerly the Iraqi Assistance Center (IAC.) Then they met
with a representative of the U.N. office of Human Rights. The U.N.
representative said that the lack of due process accorded detainees is a
larger problem right now than prison conditions. He put MPT-Najaf in
contact with a group of Iraqi organizations that have formed a prison
monitoring network.
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