Iraq Update, July 24—28, 2004

Saturday, July 24, 2004
Maxine Nash, Doug Pritchard and Greg Rollins visited an Iraqi organization called the Society for Human Rights. A member of the society made plans for a meeting between CPT and an Iraqi family.
The family had 6 members detained by Multinational Forces-Iraq (MNF- I), formerly known as Coalition Forces. A few of the family members have been released, but three of them are still in prison. The family is concerned about one of them in Camp Bucca because the man has health problems. The family also wants one of their cars returned. They said MNF-I confiscated it when they detained one of the family members. The CPTers decided to meet further with the family on Tuesday, July 27.

An Iraqi man came to ask CPT to escort him to a MNF-I base called Scania. The man wanted to know why MNF-I held his brother in an Iraqi police station. MNF-I arrested the brother in November 2003 because they believed he was involved in making two roadside bombs that killed a U.S. soldier. In April 2004, officials at the airport prison decided that evidence against the man was insufficient, so they said he was to be released. Instead of being released, a U.S. Colonel from Scania had the man transferred to a jail in an Iraqi police station. CPT decided they would accompany the man's nephew on July 29.

Sunday, July 25, 2004
At 9:45 am, the team heard a loud explosion.

Sheila Provencher and Pritchard sat in traffic on the Al Jumburiya Bridge for almost an hour. MNF-I blocked off most of the bridge, and only let one lane of traffic through at a time. When the CPTers asked a soldier who was directing traffic, and what the MNF-I was doing, the soldier replied, "Traffic control." When the CPTers pursued the question, he said, "We got to do this."

Monday, July 26, 2004
At 8:00 am, the team heard a loud explosion.

At 8:25 am, the team heard three more explosions.

Rollins and Pritchard met with the Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights (IMHR) to enquire about CPT's request to visit Abu Ghraib prison. Members of the IMHR said the answer had not come yet and asked the CPTers to return on Wednesday, July 28.

Tuesday, July 27, 2004
Provencher and Nash met with one of the 6 Iraqis family members CPT had heard about on Saturday July 24. The CPTers arranged a day to accompany the father of the family to the Iraqi Assistance Center (IAC) in the Green Zone, the area used as headquarters by the Iraqi government and MNF-I. There they would pursue compensation for the car taken from the family in one of the arrests. The Iraqi then gave a testimony about time in detention. Because the story was so long, the CPTers made plans to take the second half another day.

Wednesday, July 28, 2004
Rollins and Pritchard returned to the IMHR to find out if CPT would be able to have access to Abu Ghraib prison. The manager of the legal department told them the decision was a joint one between the IMHR and MNF-I, and that MNF-I had not replied to the request yet.

Nash went to the airport to pick up CPTer Peggy Gish. While she waited for Gish at the airport checkpoint, she heard mortars explode in the airport grounds.



Christian Peacemaker Teams is an ecumenical violence-reduction program with roots in the historic peace churches.  Teams of trained peace workers live in areas of lethal conflict around the world.  CPT has been present in Iraq since October, 2002.  
To learn more about CPT, please visit www.cpt.org. 
Photos of our projects may be viewed at www.cpt.org/gallery