Banner Reading: “Return Sons to Their Mothers, Fathers to Their Children. Release All Innocent Detainees.” (Photo: CPT)

Although the publicity surrounding the detainee abuse scandal is one year in the past, the suffering of detainees and their families continues. Close to 11,000 Iraqis are held in U.S.-run prisons and bases throughout Iraq. They are held without trial and often without knowledge of the charges against them. Often their families will not know where they are for months.

The following are five recent stories of detainees - two women and three men. Two are part of Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) Adopt-a-Detainee campaign and are in detention right now. Three have been released and have given their testimonies.
-CPT team in Iraq

Two New Detainee Profiles in Adopt-a-Detainee Campaign

Huda Hafuth Ahmed al Azawi is a 43-year-old businesswoman who owns a commerce company. She is divorced and lives only with her two daughters, ages 14 and 23. In 2003, an Iraqi informer accused Huda of financing the resistance, and U.S. and Iraqi forces detained her for seven months with several of her siblings. One of her brothers was murdered during those days. Huda was eventually transferred to Abu Ghraib Prison. She was released in July 2004. She and her family thought that their ordeal was over. But at 4:30am on 17 February 2005, U.S. and Iraqi forces raided her home again. She remains in detention.

Othman Jamil Mahmood Ahmed Al-Meshhadani At about 4 am on 18 October 2003, U.S. soldiers captured Othman from his home in a rural community in the north of the Baghdad Governate called Al-Tarmiya. The soldiers had come to the orchards near Othman’s and Mawlood’s houses to search, and found some weapons in a part of the orchard that didn’t belong to their family. Mawlood is not sure exactly what they found. Othman has been to more than 3 detention centers in 18 months, and is now at Camp Bucca, near Basra in the south of Iraq.

Three New Detainee Testimonies

Mohammed Kamel Yahya, age 39, filled out a human rights questionnaire that details his experience in detention. Some of the questions include the following:

• Stripped of your clothing (nude)? No
• Beaten by hand (punches)? Yes
• Beaten by stick or rod? Yes
• Beaten by cables, wires or belts? No
• Held at gunpoint? Yes
• Hooded? Yes
• Had cold water poured on you? Yes

“First-hand Accounts of Experiences in Iraqi Prisons,” by Thabaat Al- Soudany

The Iraqi Police arrested Thabaat Al-Soudany, a human rights worker and resident of Baghdad, on 12 February 2004 on suspicion of stealing Iraqi antiquities. The charges were dropped and he was released on 11 April 2004. The Iraqi Police rearrested him on 29 June 2004, and then dropped the charges again and released him on 25 September 2004. Shortly after his second release he wrote the following account, originally in Arabic, of his experiences inside prisons run by the Interim Iraqi Government.

Um Mohammed* is one of several women who have been detained at Abu Ghraib prison. She spent more than seven months there, after undergoing torture at the hands of both Iraqi and U.S. officers at a military base in her neighborhood.

*names, dates, and places changed or omitted to protect the detainee and her family from retaliation.

Children at vigil in Kerbala, March 16, 2004. (Photo: Jane MacKay Wright)

For more information see Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) Adopt-a-Detainee campaign. Visit Detainee Profiles and Detainee Testimonies sections on CPT’s website.

CPT initiated a long-term presence in Iraq in October 2002, six months before the beginning of the U.S. led invasion in March of 2003. The primary focus of the team for eighteen months following the invasion was documenting and focusing attention on the issue of detainee abuses and basic legal and human rights being denied them. Issues related to detainees remain but the current focus of the team has expanded to include efforts to end occupation and militarization of the country and to foster nonviolent and just alternatives for a free and independent Iraq.

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 CPT projects may be viewed at www.cpt.org/gallery