Thrown out of Coalition HQ

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Well, I've been busy again...read on:


---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: [cpt_iraq] IRAQ: CPTer Forcefully Removed from Iraqi Assistance
Center From: "cptgettingintheway"
Date: Mon, March 15, 2004 5:09 am
To: cpt_iraq@yahoogroups.com
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CPTer Forcefully Removed from Iraqi Assistance Center

March 13, 2004

BAGHDAD—CPTer Le Anne Clausen was removed at gunpoint from the
Iraqi Assistance Center (IAC) by U.S. military personnel Thursday, after
objecting to a sexually inappropriate search of a female
colleague peace worker.

Clausen, 25, from Mason City, IA, was part of a delegation of
international and Iraqi peace workers seeking a permit from the IAC to
hold a `Human Rights Solidarity Week' public festival and
activities March 16-19. The colleague is a U.S. citizen who was
born in Iran, and whose family emigrated to the U.S. when she was still a
child during the Iranian revolution.

The group was divided by gender to pass through the numerous
security checkpoints to enter the IAC, and the women were processed more
quickly than the men, including teammate Stewart Vriesinga
(Lucknow, ON). After her colleague passed through several outdoor
checkpoints and personal/bag searches, Clausen could hear U.S.
soldiers joking about their colleague being born in Iran. Clausen and an
Italian female colleague noted that they were not subjected to the same
level of searching that their companion was facing.

Inside the final checkpoint, Clausen and the Italian colleague were
instructed to put their bags on an x-ray machine and pass through a metal
detector, and did so unobstructed. However, security
personnel immediately pulled their colleague out of line and brought her
to a special searching area.

After searching her bag and finding nothing, a male officer swabbed both
sides of the colleague's hands and put the swabs into a
device for detecting explosive material. The colleague cooperated calmly
with the procedure. He then swabbed the pockets of her loose outer
jacket, and ordered her to lift up her shirt so he could put his hands
inside her pants pockets and inspect them also. At this point, the
colleague looked uncomfortable and politely questioned his order. The
officer gestured for her to comply.

"Wait a minute, you can't search her there, you need to have
a female officer do that," said Clausen. The officer told her not to
interrupt. Clausen replied, "You are violating international
human rights law, you cannot touch her there. You need to get a
female officer." Although there were two U.S. trained Iraqi
security women present who conducted personal searches of Clausen and her
Italian colleague, the officer refused to allow them to
perform the search. At that point, the officer called his captain, who
told Clausen to step back from the area where her colleague was being
searched, and instructed the officer to continue with the
search. Clausen reiterated that they were violating human rights law and
they needed to bring a female officer before they continued this search.
The captain told her to either continue on into the building or leave the
grounds.

Clausen responded, "I refuse to leave while my friend is being
abused. I will not let a male officer search her like this. It is
sexually inappropriate and illegal."

The captain replied, "Then you're out of here!" and ordered soldiers to
escort Clausen from the building. While Clausen tried to tell
Vriesinga what was happening and ask him to keep an eye on the
colleague being searched, the captain yelled, "I said you were
leaving! Now!" and told the soldiers not to let her speak to
anyone else.

Still inside the building, Vriesinga and the Italian colleague
continued to observe and saw that the soldiers decided to release their
colleague being searched and allow her to continue on into the building.
The group continued with their permit application search and found that
there was no functioning process by which the
required permit could be obtained.

"If you had a serious concern that a person was carrying
explosive material, I doubt you would clear them through multiple
searches and allow their entry into a military command center,"
Vriesinga said later.

Clausen told the soldier removing her from the building that the
actions of the searching officers inside were violations of
international human rights law. "Frankly," he responded,
"our rules of engagement allow us to do whatever we want."
Clausen told him that human rights laws cannot be `trumped' by one
nation's military rules of engagement. "Well, that is what
we've been commanded to do." He also said her colleage was
receiving better treatment than others would in this situation
because of her U.S. citizenship. The soldier also said that their unit
didn't have a female officer. [Under international law, the unit is
obliged to make a female officer or qualified person
available for this procedure]. He then said, "We don't have the
training for this kind of work. We're infantry. The only training we
have for this is nine months in Afghanistan. This is a job for MP's and
specially trained personnel." Clausen observed that the degrading
treatment of women by male soldiers in Iraq offends women and angers
their male relatives, which in turn fuels support for the attacks against
U.S. soldiers. The soldier agreed.

Other soldiers Clausen spoke with on the way out of the building
expressed dismay at the searching officer's behavior. "Why didn't he use
the wand we have for that kind of search?" said one. Another observed,
"Anyone can put a swab in a pocket and then hand it to the machine. The
machine will pick up the residue if it's there either way." A third
advised Clausen to raise a complaint with the
soldiers' commanding officers for that unit.

--
Two hours later inside the IAC, security personnel arrived and
detained the colleague again. The Italian colleague went with her.
During that time, a female intelligence officer was among those who
questioned her. The officers were not going to allow the colleague to
use the restroom, so the colleague called to the rest of the
delegation that they were not allowing her to use the restroom. The
officers then allowed her to use the toilet, but did not allow her to
wash her hands afterwards. Later, after the second questioning, the
officers released her again, scheduling an appointment later in the month
for the colleague to return for further interrogation.

Vriesinga and the delegation pursued a complaint about the
officers' behavior towards their colleague within the Iraqi
Assistance Center. "I cannot even tell you how quickly you are
losing hearts and minds by acting in this manner," he told them
and urged them to change their security procedures quickly. Colonel
Scotto and Major Davel in the IAC promised to investigate the matter
further. CPT members and other international peace workers plan to
accompany their colleague to the next interrogation appointment at the
IAC to assure her safety.

Clausen is the second CPT worker to be forcefully removed from the IAC.
In January, team member Allan Slater (Lakeside, ON), was
removed after maintaining an overnight sit-in at the center in
response to numerous refusals of assistance for an Iraqi man who had
money and property confiscated during a house raid in October, and who
had documentation from the military requiring that the property be
returned to him [See release, "Hunger Strike in Baghdad,"
Jan.10].

"I'm still quite shocked by the soldiers' behavior," Clausen later
commented. "Their unit may even be new, but this is supposed to be part
of basic orientation for troops coming to Iraq. The search he was trying
to conduct was clearly going to be invasive of her person and privacy.
The military should know there is no such thing as a state-sanctioned
grope."