by Tom Fox
Christian Peacemaker Teams

CPT Iraq has visited U.S. base Falcon Camp three times during the last five weeks to conduct exit interviews of relatives of detainees being held there. Falcon Camp is the holding center for the Dora district in Baghdad. Anyone detained by Multinational Forces (MNF) in Dora is held there first before being either released or sent to a prison. Also civilians who have suffered property damage or been injured or had a family member killed as a result of MNF actions in Dora come there as well.

On the Wrong Side of the Street: A man was driving home before the beginning of curfew (11pm) in April. Suddenly a MNF convey appeared- on his side of the street. The man didn’t know what to do and kept driving towards the convoy. The front hummer opened fire on him and he was killed. The family was informed of his death by MNF soldiers and was told verbally “We are very sorry we opened fire and killed him. We thought he was a suicide bomber going to attack us.” Without any paperwork or any indication of what unit and what person fired on the man they have been told at Falcon Camp that nothing can be done to compensate them for the loss of the head of the household.

Muslim Peacemaker Teams in Fallujah (Photo: MPT)

By Joe Carr
Christian Peacemaker Teams

Meeting with the Muslim Peacemaker Teams (MPT) was one of the highlights of my trip to Iraq; MPT is one of the few glimmers of hope in the darkness of U.S. occupation. It was formed last January by Iraqi activists from Karballa. They asked CPT to lead a weeklong training. In May MPT did a symbolic clean-up action in Fallujah that CPT participated in. They now have a membership of around 20 and are looking to expand in other areas. Two of them are looking for funding to attend the CPT training in Chicago this winter.

Local Iraqi Boy at Mass Gravsite, Karbala (Photo: CPT)

by Will Van Wagenen
Christian Peacemaker Teams

Recently we visited Karbala, the holiest city in Iraq for Shiite Muslims and the site of the shrine of the Imam Hussein, the grandson of the prophet Muhammad, who was martyred in Karbala in 680 CE. While there we visited Human Rights Watch of Karbala (HRWK), an Iraqi human rights organization founded on April 5, 2003, immediately after the fall of Saddam’s regime. It was the first organization to discover mass graves in the region, and has been involved in opening them, documenting the identities of the victims, and notifying the families of the victims’ whereabouts. Forty-one of the forty-three mass graves near Karbala date back to 1991, when Saddam crushed a Shiite uprising seeking to depose him shortly after the first Gulf War. Estimates of the total number of victims in mass graves throughout the country range as high as 300,000.

In November, 2004, US Marine Colonel Gareth Brandl justified the U.S. attack on Fallujah saying:

“The marines that I have had wounded over the past five months have been attacked by a faceless enemy. But the enemy has got a face. He’s called Satan. He lives in Fallujah. And we’re going to destroy him.”

While “Satan” was not destroyed by the U.S. military, the city of Fallujah was. Independent journalists and NGOs have reported that over 65% of the homes in Fallujah are destroyed or so badly damaged as to be unlivable. Many children are at risk of malnutrition and water-borne diseases. Many of the inhabitants that left before the seige by the US military in November, 2004, now live in refugee camps.

Author Milan Rai wrote:

Estimates of civilians remaining in Fallujah on 7 Nov. varied from 100,000 (US military, FT, 9 Nov., p. 10) to 60,000 (Sunni group, Independent, 10 Nov., p. 5). Estimates for the number of fighters left in Falluja before the assault varied ‘from 600 to 6,000,’ meaning that the overwhelming majority of people in Fallujah were thought to be non-combatants. It was reported that ‘Anyone still in the city will be regarded as a potential insurgent.’ ( Observer, 7 Nov., p. 18 ) A threat to kill every human being in Fallujah.

Christian Peacemaker Teams took these photos in May, 2005. These are the Faces of Fallujah.

View the photo gallery Face of Fallujah

Cantina And Concrete (Photo: CPT)

by Greg Rollins
Christian Peacemaker Teams

Last summer my teammate Max and I took one of our many walks down Abu Nawas St. Abu Nawas runs along side a park adjacent to the Tigris River. When the U.S. ousted Saddam, they closed off part of Abu Nawas to protect the Palestine/Sheraton hotels and several business offices. The U.S. Army occupied about seven blocks of Abu Nawas. Cantina wire, waste-high concrete barriers and multiple checkpoints choked and divided the road. Almost all the shops and homes in the area were closed. Only authorized vehicles were allowed on this part of the street. People who wanted to walk in the area were forced to pass through checkpoints where guards would question them thoroughly about their business. Dust and weeds filled the park.