“The interrogators … punished me by shocking me with a powerful electric prod for three continuous minutes … Eight days later, the US soldiers began interrogating me again, this time threatening to harm my family if I did not give them information”

Testimony of an Iraqi detained by US forces as recorded by CPT in October 2003.

JUSTICE FOR IRAQ’S DETAINEES

Detention and Torture Continue
Despite the so-called “handover” of sovereignty on 28 June the US continues to detain roughly 5000 Iraqis. It is also creating a long-term detention facility at Camp Bucca, near the Kuwaiti border, and has stated that it intends to continue exercising powers of internment, contrary to international law. According to a February 2004 Red Cross report, military intelligence officers estimate that “between 70 percent and 90 percent of the persons deprived of their liberty in Iraq had been arrested by mistake” (New York Times, 30 May).

Meanwhile, according to Pulitzer-prize winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh – who broke the story of the Abu Ghraib torture photos in May – the ‘Special Access Programme’ which ‘encouraged [the] physical coercion and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners’ was 'reconstituted' mid-June with '[t]he same rules of engagement' (New Yorker, 24 May; Chain of Command, p.65).

Fore more background on Iraq's detainees see the CPT web-site and the 36th Voices newsletter.

PEGGY'S SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS AROUND THE COUNTRY

Saturday 13th November: Haverhill, 7.30pm at the Methodist Church Hall, Camps Road. Organised by Haverhill and District Peace Group. Contact avrildawson@hotmail.com

Sunday 14th November:
- Colchester, 2pm, Colchester Friends Meeting House, Church Street,
(near Colchester Arts Centre). Organised by Colchester Peace Campaign Contact: simon_p_watson@hotmail.com
- Southend, 7.30pm, Friends Meeting House, 18 Dundonald Drive, Lee-on-Sea. Contact 01702 345 860.

Monday 15th November: Bristol. 7.30pm, Broadmead Baptist Church, The Horsefair, Bristol. Organised by the Sedgemoor Peace Group and the Bristol Quakers.
Contact janealisonnorman@yahoo.co.uk.

Tuesday 16th November: Dorset, 8pm, Methodist United Reformed Church Hall, Cheap Street, Sherborne. Contact: 01300 345 109.

Wednesday 17th: Slough, 7.30pm, Slough Friends Meeting House (Quakers)
74 Ragstone Road. With Milan Rai. Contact 07910 332684
At 6pm there is a launch party for the exhibition "The Other Way" - it's a series of woodcuts made by Israeli children - Arab and Jewish, reflecting their responses to the conflict. The exhibition and launch are at St Mary's Church, Slough, just around
the corner from where the talk is taking place.

Thursday 18th November: London, 7.30pm, Friends House, 173-177 Euston Road. With Jo Wilding and Philip Pritchard (B52two). Org. by CPT-UK, Quaker Peace and Social Witness and Voices. See below.

Friday 19th November:
- Bradford, 1-3pm, Peace Studies Department Dept, University of Bradford. Contact 01274 235 171
- Leeds, 7pm, All Hallows Church, 24 Regent Terrace, Leeds LS6 1NP. Contact 0113 242 2205 (Ray Gaston).

Saturday 20th November: Manchester. Time and venue tba. Contact 0161 232 8685.

Sunday 21st November:
- Northampton, 12 – 2pm, Friends Meeting House, Wellington St
- Reading, 7pm, Friends Meeting House, 2 Church Street. Contact 0118 967 1362

EYEWITNESS IRAQ:
STORIES OF OCCUPATION & SOLIDARITY

7.30pm, Thursday 18th November
Friends House, 173 - 177 Euston Road,
London NW1 (nearest tube Euston).

A public meeting with:

* Peggy Gish (Iraq co-ordinator of the Christian Peacemaker Teams, recently returned from Iraq)
* Jo Wilding (activist, in Fallujah during the US assault on the city in April)
* Philip Pritchard (activist currently awaiting trial for pre-invasion disarmament action at USAF Fairford)

PEGGY GISH
Peggy Gish co-ordinates the Iraq project of the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) which has been working on the ground there since October 2002, focussing on the issue of detainees since July 2003 (see reverse side). Peggy has spent more than 11 of the last 18 months in Iraq.

JO WILDING
Activist Jo Wilding was one of the few internationals to remain in Iraq during the invasion. She returned to Iraq in November 2003, remaining until May 2004, and was in Fallujah this April during the US assault on the city, where she was an eyewitness to warcrimes (eg. the ambulance she was accompanying was fired on by US marines). Her blog www.wildfirejo.org.uk has been read around the world. More recently she took part in - and spoke at - the anti-war protests outside the Republican National Convention in New York. This is her first London speaking engagement since her return from Iraq.

PHILIP PRITCHARD
Philip Pritchard is one of the 'Fairford Five' - a group of activists currently awaiting trial for acts of disarmament (and attempted disarmament) at USAF Fairford in the run-up to last year's invasion. Together with Toby Olditch, Phil spent three months on remand in Gloucester Prison last year before receiving bail. For more info. see www.b52two.org.uk

This event organised by Christian Peacemaker Teams UK, Quaker Peace and Social Witness & voices in the wilderness uk. For more information contact voices on 0207 837 0561, or voices@voicesuk.org.

THE CHRISTIAN PEACEMAKER TEAMS (CPT) AND PEGGY GISH

"The purpose of [CPT's] work concerning the problems of detainees is not to try to make the occupation a little better. It is to witness and respond to the suffering it causes" - Peggy Gish.

CPT
The CPT - a project of the Brethren, Quaker and Mennonite Churches - have been working on the ground in Iraq since October 2002 and have been focussing on the issue of detainees there since July 2003. See here for more info.

Peggy Gish
Peggy Gish is a mother, grandmother, farmer, and long-time peace and social justice activist from southern Ohio. She has served as a social worker in rural Indiana and inner city Chicago, as co-director of the Appalachian Peace and Justice Network, as a conflict management trainer, and a community mediator. Gish is a member of New Covenant Fellowship, a communal church affiliated with the Church of the Brethren. Since 1995, Gish has been involved with Christian Peacemaker Teams in the West Bank and Iraq.

ADOPT A DETAINEE

The Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) is currently running an ‘Adopt a Detainee’ campaign, pairing up anti-war, human rights and other groups with detainees in Iraq. To take part in this campaign, contact voices at voices@voicesuk.org or see here for more information.

JUSTICE FOR IRAQ'S DETAINEES INFORMATION AND ACTION PACK

This document gives an overview of detention in Iraq, detailed information on various aspects and the CPT work in supporting detainees and their families, contacts and resources and testimonies of detainees. Download as a pdf file here (129kb).