CPTnet
August 31, 2004

IRAQ UPDATE: August 21-26, 2004

Saturday, August 21

At 9:30 am, the team heard a mortar explode.

Greg Rollins and David Milne talked with a senior official of the Ministry
of Human Rights (MOHR), still pursuing permission for CPT to visit the
lower-security sections of Abu Ghraib. The MOHR officer described the work
of the new nine member Combined Review and Release Board which hopes to
review the file of every security detainee interned by the Multi-National
Force Iraq (MNF-I), every three months.

CPTers went to the Ministry of Planning and the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs (MOFA) inquiring about visas for delegations and starting the
process for getting a visa for team members coming in September.

Sunday, August 22

Milne and Maxine Nash went to the MOP to continue the process of getting
visas.

Monday, August 23

 Milne and Peggy Gish went to the Scania U.S. military base for a
scheduled meeting with Col. Lanza, commander of the base. They discussed
the case of an Iraqi man held for four months without charges in the Al
Dora police station. The Colonel told CPTers that they believe the man
plays a key role in the resistance and that they intend to keep him there
until the Iraqi police can charge him.

Nash and Mabel Brunk visited two former detainees, father and son, as part
of the work of updating the December 2003 CPT detainee report. One had
been released in December. The other, who had not been released until
June, said, "I was forgotten." Neither man wanted to talk in detail about
their experience. They said they wanted to try to forget what had
happened. Each had received $300-500 as compensation for items taken from
their home at the time of the raid.

 Tuesday, August 24 CPTers made another visit to the MOFA pursuing visas for
team members.

Brunk and Nash went to the University of Baghdad for a follow-up visit
with a former detainee.

A National Public Radio talk show host for the Tavis Smiley show
interviewed Rollins. A Pacifica Radio reporter interviewed Gish for the
Flashpoints program.

Wednesday, August 25

Rollins and Gish made a follow-up visit with the cousin of a man who was
mentioned in the CPT Detainee Report. For over a year, the family has gone
to various offices and prisons looking for their family member who had
"disappeared," but they have still not found any information on his
whereabouts.

Thursday, Aug 26

The team heard intermittent explosions from 11:30 12:00 pm.

Brunk and Nash made another visa-related visit to a branch office of the
MOFA and to visit an Iraqi neighbor to locate a released detainee.

Milne, Gish, and Rollins and members of the IHRW traveled to the edge of
Najaf for a massive peace vigil calling for a peaceful resolution to the
conflicts in Najaf. While waiting for Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani to
arrive in Najaf for the vigil, they talked with Sheik Abdulla Mehdi,
Al-Sistani's assistant in Kerbala. Then they joined the procession of
vehicles following Al Sistani as he drove into Najaf. (See August 27, 2004
release, "CPTers participate in massive nonviolent procession to Najaf.")

To stop receiving messages from CPTNET on MennoLink, send a message with
only the word, "suspend," in the body to server [at] MennoLink [dot] org.