by Tom Fox
Christian Peacemaker Teams

“Iraqis always seem to have lots of guns in their houses.” A U.S. Army colonel was making reference to how prevalent gun ownership is in Iraq. We were meeting with him in his office in the Green Zone. Draped across his high back chair was an ornate leather holster with his service revolver.

By Greg Rollins
Christian Peacemaker Teams

Over the past several days I have spent time with a CPT delegation here in Iraq. We listened to a lot of different people speak. Because the people in Iraq, Iraqi or other wise, always ask us to tell people abroad what they have to say, here are some of their quotes:

“I am not special,” one of our translators told us as he talked about the violence here in Iraq. “Everyone has seen what I have seen.”

“It has been two years,” the psychiatrist said, “and not much has changed.”

“It is like trying to yell through concrete walls. The sound comes back and hurts your ears so you stop yelling; he has made the concrete that thick.” One of our translators said about Iraq under Saddam and why the rest of the world never paid attention to the cries of the Iraqi people.

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.