By Joe Carr
Christian Peacemaker Teams

• View the full set of photos that go with this report: Fallujah, May 2005

Today, I did what few internationals have dared to do, I went to Fallujah.

Fallujah is completely surrounded by US Forces, the only way in or out is through one of four very restrictive checkpoints. People normally have to wait hours, but since we had our magic US passports, we made it through in about 45 minutes. We did not observe them searching any cars, soldiers just held-up traffic and slowly checked IDs. Like Palestine, these checkpoints seem to have little to do with security and more to do with harassment and intimidation.

by Tom Fox
Christian Peacemaker Teams

17 May 2005. In Baghdad today, four clerics (three Sunni and one Shi’a) were assassinated. The bodies of two other Sunni clerics who had been abducted last week were found. A suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle in the Abu Cher market killing nine Iraqi National Guard troops and injuring twenty-eight civilians. Two engineering students were killed when a bomb (or rocket) struck their classroom at a local school. The dean of a high school in the Shaab neighborhood was assassinated. One judge, two officials from the Ministry of Defense and one official investigating corruption in the previous Interim Government were assassinated. In all, thirty-one dead, forty-two injured and seventeen abducted. Rumors abound in Baghdad about who is responsible for all the attacks but no one has claimed responsibility. And yet compared to some days in recent weeks here in Baghdad the number of dead and injured was fewer in number. So comparatively speaking it was a fairly quite day here in Baghdad. Children walked to their schools and people went to work. Shops opened for business and the seemingly endless parade of military, police and private security vehicles went about their business.

Wednesday 11 May

Multiple car bombs killed 71 people throughout Iraq.

Doug Pritchard departed Iraq and arrived safely in Amman, Jordan despite a several hour wait at Baghdad International Airport.

Joe Carr and Sheila Provencher visited Women’s Will, an Iraqi Women’s organization that advocates for women’s issues in Iraq. The founder stated her passion to unite Iraqi and American mothers in a common nonviolent struggle against the occupation and war. “It will be better for Iraqis and better for the American soldiers if [the soldiers] go home,” she said.

By Dahr Jamail
May 19, 2005

Her name is Ahlam Abt Al-Hassan. Yesterday was the one year anniversary of when she was shot twice in the head by member of the Mehdi army while waiting for ataxi to go to her job with Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR) in Diwaniyah.

After nearly three months of work searching women as they entered one of the US bases in Diwaniyah, she was paid a total of $475 from KBR. In return she has lost her eyesight, had to move from Iraq and can’t return because of threatsfrom the Mehdi Army. Her ex-employers will not return any of her calls or requests for assistance.

Friday, 6 May 2005

Chandler stayed in Baghdad as backup person while Pritchard, Provencher, and Fox traveled to Fallujah with members of MPT.

Team traveled to Fallujah with MPTers to do a symbolic action. CPTers and the Shiite MPTers worked together with Suni Muslims from Fallujah to clean up some of the destruction from recent US attacks. It was very well received and considered a huge success. SEE MAY 6 RELEASE

Saturday 7 May 2005

An Iraqi friend called with the welcomed news that his brother-in-law had already been released.

Matthew Chandler left Iraq to return home to friends and family as well as begin a speaking tour on Iraq. Joe Carr arrived safely. He commented that his image of the situation in Baghdad was less like being in an active war zone than he’s expected. Having spent considerable time in Palestine, he commented that the military presence he saw today was less that he was accustomed to seeing there. Provencher took him on a walking tour of the neighborhood and the team made him feel right at home by assigning him the task of cleaning the dinner dishes.