by Kathy Kelly

In the summer of 1994, I was part of a four-person Christian Peacemaker Team dedicated to filing reports on human rights conditions in Jeremie, located in the southern finger of Haiti. When I arrived, I spent one day in Port au Prince, waiting to travel by ferry to the tiny coastal town of St. Helene. That day, eager to be Helpful Hannah, I joined some young girls to haul Hinckley Schmidt size water containers, destined for a neighborhood center in Port au Prince’s appalling Cite Soleil, across a ravine. My arms were trembling almost immediately. When we reached the cement ledge where the plastic water containers were lined up for vehicle transport, I dropped mine down with an exhausted hurrah and then watched in horror as it split. The girls flew into action trying to save some of the precious water. “Si ou cache verite, ou enterre dlo” – the Haitian proverb says that to hide the truth is like trying to bury water. The truth was gushing out. Throughout that summer I watched women carry water, on their heads, walking miles uphill. One day my friend Madame Ti Pa nearly fainted from the ordeal.

By Dahr Jamail

Two weeks ago someone was allowed into Fallujah by the military to help bury bodies. They were allowed to take photographs of 75 bodies, in order to show pictures to relatives so that they might be identified before they were buried.

These pictures are from a book of photos. They are being circulated publicly around small villages near Fallujah where many refugees are staying.

The man who took them was only allowed to take photos and bury bodies in one small area of Fallujah. He was not allowed to visit anywhere else. Keep in mind there are at least 1,925 other bodies that were not allowed to be seen.

Warning: The following photos are extremely graphic

by CPT Iraq team, Dec 10, 2004

It was a beautiful day in Baghdad. Tom Fox was on the roof enjoying the weather when he looked down to see four humvees pulled over to the side of the main street. About ten neighborhood kids went to hang out with the soldiers. The soldiers looked up and saw Fox who waved. The soldiers waved back. Fox then took several pictures. A soldier in one humvee yelled out, “Hey, you can’t take pictures of our humvees!” A number of soldiers started moving towards the building. Fox headed down to the entrance to meet them.

Sheila Provencher and Cliff Kindy had just arrived home from a meeting. Just after they entered the building, five soldiers came to the door. As Kindy went to open it, one soldier shouted angrily, “Open the door! Open the door!” Kindy opened the door, and the soldier said, “Did you take a picture? Give me the camera!”

By Donna Mulhearn

“The enemy has got a face,” a US Marine lieutenant-colonel announced before the recent attack on Fallujah began. “He’s called Satan. He lives in Fallujah. And we’re going to destroy him.” With that, thousands of heavily armed members of ‘God’s army’ proceeded to reduce this formerly living city of 250,000, to a dump of ashes, rubble and de-composing bodies.

The US forces has not yet announced the capture of Satan, so I figure that he must still be at large.

by Sheila Provencher

Last week I read a news report that said up to seven Iraqis are kidnapped every day. Today I found out that CPT’s neighbor might be one of them. He was driving from Baghdad to Kirkuk when he disappeared. Sometimes kidnappers ask for ransom, sometimes thieves kill the victim and keep the money, phone, and car. It has been seven days since my neighbor disappeared.

He has three children: *Mohammed (8) and Esam (6), my two miniature bodyguards who always insist on walking me down the street, and their sister Fatima (2). When I visited, their mother Um Mohammed sat on the living room floor and wept. The boys smiled hesitantly at me and did not know how to comfort her.