by Jo Wilding

Basra starts suddenly, as you approach from Samawa. On one side of the railway tracks there is nothing but desert, immense trails of oil tankers oozing along the highway, similar sized hordes of camels traipsing the other way, the Japanese troop carriers on the way out of Samawa giving way to British ones further south.

On the other side are houses, densely packed, expanding to fill all available space, washing and children and bricks erupting out of them and the cars slicing through, its central reservation, pavements and part of the road covered with stuff for sale, old kitchen ware, old clothes, old electrical goods, like a giant drive-through car boot sale without the car boots. After a while, stalls selling new goods start to intersperse and in a while you reach the centre of the city.

Security is getting worse in Basra, people say, as unemployment rises, electricity remains erratic, on for eight or nine hours a day but cutting out at unpredictable intervals, and power struggles drag on. There have been a few attacks on British troops in recent days as frustration and the heat intensify. The soldiers used to walk the streets, much less under fire than the ruder Americans, but have stopped since the sniper incidents started.

Explosions, people say, are daily now and the BBC doesn’t report the killings of individual soldiers. Kidnappings of contractors are on the increase. Security firms are making things worse by calling themselves NGOs because they think it’s safer for them. They travel armed and create uncertainty about what it means to be an NGO, exposing organisations to increased risk.

Feb. 25 - March 7
by Sheila Provencher
Christian Peacemaker Teams
Baghdad, Iraq

Dear Family and Friends,

Thank you for all of the personal emails and prayers you have sent. I am sorry I don’t respond — I have been traveling out side of the city a lot lately and have found it almost impossible to keep up. So I sit on the roof for a bit every night and envision all of you all around the world, and pray for all our needs.

Many of you have been involved in the Fast for Justice and Healing in Iraq, and have taken part in the letter-writing campaign asking for justice and human rights for security detainees in Iraq. Thank you! CPT asked me to keep a journal of our experience at the demonstrations in Baghdad and surrounding areas. Every day we meet such interesting people. I thought you might be interested in this. It’s a bit of limited window into CPT’s work, as it ONLY describes the demonstrations. But I will try to follow up with some more in-depth reflections on daily life in Iraq.

For now, here is the Fast for Justice and Healing journal. It will likely be sent to you in pieces, as it is too long to read all at once!

Thank you for your prayers . . . I will write again soon.

Much peace, Sheila

March 8 - March 16
by Sheila Provencher
Christian Peacemaker Teams
Baghdad, Iraq

Monday, March 8:

ABU HISHMA

The first “vigil on the road.” While Sheila and Stewart attended a meeting between local lawyers and military officials in nearby Balad, Peggy, Cliff, Le Anne, and Matthew went to the village of Abu Hishma, a razor-wire-surrounded village where some of the campaign’s detainees and families are from. It is a small village, and the team had no translator, so they went on somewhat of a wild goose chase at first, trying to get to the vigil site, a bomb crater in a farmer’s field. It was not to be! They did go to Fayel’s house — Fayel is the father of Qusay, who has been in prison for more than 4 months. Fayel welcomed everyone, gave them tea, and was delighted to receive the poster-sized picture of his son, which the team has held for days in Tahrir Square. He also indicated that he had seen Qusay’s picture (as part of the vigil) on Iranian TV — perhaps from the media coverage the vigil received on Feb. 26. This gave him great encouragement, as did the stories of people in North America and other countries who are fasting, praying, and letter-writing on Qusay’s behalf.

The team ended up traveling to the center of town, where they were joined by crowds of children and adults, chanting “La ilaha illa’Allah” (there is no God but God). Thus the vigil became an impromptu march toward the checkpoint entrance of the town. Towards the end, ICDC (Iraq Civil Defense Corps) officers stopped the march, but posed for pictures and pretty much joined the revelry in the ways they could!

March 18 - March 20
by Sheila Provencher
Christian Peacemaker Teams
Baghdad, Iraq

Thursday, March 18

SOLIDARITY WEEK

After last night’s terrible bombing, the day dawned sunny and warm, with a cool breeze. The bombing killed possibly 8 people, so we were more aware than usual of the risks of doing public witness. But today was a special day �- the day that many people from various human rights groups joined the Tahrir Square demonstration, and at the end, marched across Jumhuriyah Bridge to the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). Perhaps the most beautiful aspect of the day was the simple fact that our Iraqi colleagues did attend in full force, despite the vulnerability, and expressed with great strength and determination their hopes for a more just Iraq. Their energy carried the day -� we were grateful to be along for the ride.

(Solidarity Week is a series of events coordinated by a number of human rights groups, including the Organization for Human Rights in Iraq, the Iraqi National Society for Human Rights, the National Association for the Defense of Human Rights, International Occupation Watch, Peace Volunteers, and CPT. The detainee issue was the focus for today.)

THE ASSASSINATION OF SHEIK YASSIN AND ISRAEL’S PUSH FOR U.S. SUPPORT OF ANNEXATION OF SETTLEMENTS

by Phyllis Bennis
Institute for Policy Studies
29 March 2004

The assassination of Sheik Ahmed Yassin marks a serious escalation in Israeli occupation tactics. While Israel had (in earlier assassination attempts) already crossed the “red line” that once defined some limits in aggressive acts, its message in the Yassin murder was that there are no limits, that Israel’s military attacks face no restrictions. Counting accurately on Washington’s unwillingness to challenge its aggression, the assassination also ushers in a new Israeli campaign to win official U.S. support for wide-spread annexation of major West Bank settlements as part of Tel Aviv’s “unilateral withdrawal from Gaza” plan.

“Targeted assassination” is murder; it stands in clear violation of international law. The Israeli action and the U.S. refusal to condemn it make a mockery of international law. Killing is an absolute prohibition; international law does not allow exceptions for “ticking bombs,” or anything else. Article 3(I) of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 “prohibits at any time and in any place” (a) “violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds” and (d) “the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized people.” In the case of Sheik Yassin, the Israeli claim that he was responsible for earlier suicide attacks (which, when they target civilians, are indeed a violation of international law) does not provide legal justification. Those who claim that Sheik Yassin does not merit protection under the Fourth Geneva Convention because he supported suicide bombings should note that “protected persons” are identified as those “taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces … placed hors de combat [out of combat] by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause.” It is hard to imagine a clearer example of someone “out of combat by sickness” than a 67-year-old quadriplegic cleric, wheelchair-bound, largely deaf and mostly blind.

The assassination has been condemned by the United Nations, the European Union, and virtually every government in the world with the exception of the United States.