Forget Not Sudan

Forget Not Sudan
May 22, 2004

Forget Not Sudanby Le Anne ClausenSome readers of our team's reports may wonder about the update from ourtime in Jordan. We wrote about our encounters with Palestinian refugees,Filipino and Indian house servants at church, and other people who arenot Iraqi and were not discussing Iraq. A teammate asked me, "So whywrite about it on our list? What does it have to do with Iraq?"This is why:I spoke with a Sudanese man who was staying in the same hotel as our teamand was trying to find work in Jordan. He told me, "In every Arabcountry, you will find Sudanese people, because there is nowork for us."He also said he had been in the Sudanese military but desertedbecause he didn't like what they were doing. "The government sends youfrom problem to problem, and you are killing the people. It's not good."He added that military salaries were not enough to live on at fiftydollars per month. "If you have a family, the moneyis gone after ten days." He said that military service is mandatory forboth men and women, before they can go to university. "Evensmall children are fighting in the military now," he said, adding that hethought the government was particularly bad because of this policy.He also spoke of women's conditions in Sudan, saying "Women have nofreedom now. They can't do anything or go anywhere. Many women begothers to marry them long enough to get out of the country so they canfind work and have a life." He also spoke of many women being raped andimpregnated, especially women who are taken to the south of the countrywhere the conflict is worst. "It is very bad," he said.Although of African ethnicity, the man spoke fluent Arabic. Heexplained this was the language of commerce in the capital citywhere he lived. He also explained how a prominent political leader inhis country encouraged the people into repression of womenseveral years ago, and filled the government with his followers.However, the leader decided that he had been wrong and tried tochange the government back to what it once was. His followersbecame angry and would not let him.Several larger human rights groups and UN officials have recently namedArab militias backed by the Sudanese government as responsible forintentionally starving African-descent nationals and a resulting massiverefugee crisis. I would not have known about this had I not by chancetuned in to a documentary about the crisis on the radio one afternoon.Sudan is not far from Palestine or Iraq, where I have lived these pastfour years. However, only recently have I become aware of the ethniccleansing in the southern provinces of the country. Iconfess to having 'tunnel vision' as a field worker, limited to thecountries in which CPT works.Although I know CPT is too small to be everywhere just yet, Sudan hasbeen on my conscience ever since. Let us not forget them, for they areour neighbors also.

Coming Home

Coming Home
May 20, 2005

Hi everyone,Just a quick note to let you know I made it back home last night a littlebefore midnight. I flew into Chicago Monday afternoon, where we had apleasantly unintended vacation at the seminary a few days while waitingfor the car to be fixed--it broke down on the freeway when my welcomewagon was trying to pick me up at O'Hare!Spending the days there was really great too--though I didn't get to seeeveryone I was hoping to see! It did get my mind on track for the falland soothe some of the anxieties about fitting in. My Palestinian friendfrom Ramallah, Dina, took me to several international student gatheringsand I made fast friends. I have people to speak Arabic with, and peoplewho understand what's happening in Iraq because the same thing happened intheir own countries, often because of our country's corporate policies.They were from Sudan, Madagascar, Tanzania, Guyana. Wow. I was not aware.I recently wrote a reflection for CPT on how I was largely unaware of theethnic cleansing in Sudan until just this spring, then several chancehappenings have raised it to my consciousness. If I have not yet done so,I will send it on.Life is pretty much still--all--up in the air. Whether I continue to workwith CPT, whether I can afford to go to seminary next year, when I can goback to the middle east. I have so many beautiful things I could do, ifonly plans work out. I just don't know. I think I've done everything Ican to search for the answers, and now it is just wait and see.For now, I am getting settled in for the summer. I am thinking of gettingbig cans of wildflower seeds and doing some 'Guerrilla Gardening.' I amtrying to weigh much-needed downtime with the current national awarenessof the prisoner human rights abuses that has been our work on team allyear. I have been enjoying some fantastic hate mail in the local paperafter an article about my work on team with the detainees. It is good toknow that I am just as 'Anti-American' as Amnesty International, HumanRights Watch, and the International Red Cross. I really look up to thosegroups, so it was rather an honor. I am suprised he did not list Jesus,but that would have been extremely humbling. In the meantime, I wonderwhen sexual assault became a patriotic duty. Oh well, whatever.Anyway, I am still doing alright and it's good to be home. I am hoping toreceive many visitors here this summer while here! Beitna beitcou--ourhome is yours.peace,Le Anne

Tortured at Abu Ghraib

Photographed Prisoner Describes Torture at Abu Ghraib
May 11, 2004

[CPT workers Le Anne Clausen and Stewart Vriesinga recorded the following
testimony of a man who identified himself in one of the photographs of naked, hooded
prisoners. The testimony was recorded on May 9th, 2004 at the office of an
Iraqi human rights organization in Baghdad. The testimony was simultaneously recorded
in Arabic.]

“Before I was tortured, I was a physical laborer. I could carry over 100lbs.
Now my back is ruined, I can’t lift anything. I can’t travel far because I cannot
control my bladder. One day recently, I was walking and I had to run into a
hotel and beg them to let me use the bathroom.

“I was held for four months and six days.

“I spent eighteen days naked. For eighteen days I was talking without control.
I answered ‘yes’ to all their questions. They asked me if I was part of Ansar
Islam (a Kurdish militia). I said yes. They asked me if I was in Mohammed’s Army
(another militia). I said yes. Al Qaeda, and so forth. I admitted to every
charge. I said, “I know al Qaeda. Just kill me and get it over with.”

“After interrogation, they gave me a bottle of water. A guard came up to me,
took it from my hands, and dumped it on my head.

“They took me to a special room called the ‘presser,’ where they played sounds
at high volumes. They would only turn it off for one hour every night so I could
sleep. At the same time, my hands and feet were bound in this small room and I
had to sit with my arms and legs partially flexed for the twenty-three hours in the
day. I was in this room for twenty-eight days.

“They tied me into a pose called the ‘Scorpion,’ where they made me lie on my
stomach and tied my hands to my feet behind me so my back was curved. They kept
me like this for ten to fifteen hours at a time.

“One soldier kicked me in the jaw while I was lying down, and broke two of my
teeth. After two days, I couldn’t eat anything and they took me to an Iraqi doctor
inside the prison. He treated me with injections and tablets. After fourteen days, my
teeth were not improving so he removed them. My lips were badly swollen from
being crushed during the kicking.

“One day they gave me an injection. The next day they gave me five injections.
I couldn’t control my arms or my legs. “When they forced us to make the human
pyramids, they put bags on our heads. We were naked. They pushed us in the
back until we lined up, then they pushed us, we would trip on things on the floor.
Then they instructed us to climb on to one another into the pyramid.

“They would also [when hooded and naked] push us from behind until we walked
into the back of another prisoner. Then they would order us to have anal sex with
that person.

“This is the time that they would also put a rope around us, either by the neck
or under our arms, and drag us across the floor.

“They said many insulting things to us regularly, such as “Shut the f--- up,”
“You are shi--,” “Son of a b----,” and “Bastard.”

“Later I was sent to Camp 42, a smaller camp. There was no questioning about
possible charges against me here. I became nervous and said, “Look, I’m Osama
bin Laden. Just kill me now.”

“There were rules: for three months, there was no talking, no praying, and no
reading Qu’ran. The only things allowed were breathing, eating, using the
toilet. You could pray and recite Qu’ran in your heart, but not out loud. You could
sleep for one hour.

“If you were caught talking, one punishment was to chain one hand to the floor
and one hand from the ceiling and stretch your arms apart for an extended time.
Another punishment was to put water on you, to completely soak your clothes, and to put water in your bed.

“I never knew the charges against me during this time until three days before my
release. Then they said they thought I may have been in the former military.

“I asked a soldier there, “Why?” and he told me his orders came from high up.

“The International Committee of the Red Cross came different times, a woman
named Eva. During the visit, they would take a group of us who had been tortured, six
or seven of us, out of the visiting room and replace us with other prisoners who
hadn’t been with us. Afterwards, they would punish all the prisoners if anyone spoke
to the ICRC. They hung us by our wrists from the ceiling.

“We were fed pork for two days, then for a while we were given only one item out
of an Army meal once per day.

“Our method of eating was sh--. We had no utensils, they took these out of the
Army ration, we just had to eat it like babies. Our hands were bound. Later, we got
two Army rations per day, twelve hours apart.

“We heard from the other prisoners about the demonstration they organized on the
first day of Eid after Ramadan. The U.S. guards shot and killed four prisoners.

The prisoners who were there told us that afterwards, a black U.S. soldier
apologized for the killings and played a recording of Qu’ranic verses on the
loudspeaker system for all of us.
“Sergeant Joyner, Sgt. Bair, and Knockley, who has two ‘bars’—he is the level
below sergeant—were some of the soldiers who abused me. I witnessed Knockley rape a
woman in front of her father and brother. I know [Brigadier General Janis] Karpinski
saw what was happening to us.

“Among my interrogators there were Staff Sgt. Kris, a woman; Mr. Carlos, and Ms.
Liz. When Ms. Liz left, she was replaced by Ms. Sarah. Mr. Carlos hated me, he
was very bad. Kris was better than him, when Mr. Carlos left me she would come and
wash the blood off my face and give me cigarettes afterwards. Also Sarah was better
than Liz.

“I am willing to take CPT to another person who was tortured worse than me. They
broke his ribs. I also want to take you to the family of a man who was with me
who died during his torture. His young daughter saw the U.S. soldiers take her
father away. Now, every time she sees soldiers, she asks them, “Where is my father?
He went with you.”

“I was a political prisoner under the old regime, and I was a political prisoner
now. I was taken in 1999 and held at the Olympic stadium complex where Uday
[Hussein] was. There was also much mistreatment there but nothing like this.
There, they tried to kill me, but they didn’t try to humiliate me like this. I,
and every Iraqi now, equate the two regimes, old and new.

“My documents say that I was in Abu Ghraib from December 1st to March 28th.
However, that is just the time that I spent in that camp. I was arrested two
days earlier before I was transferred to the camp.

“My wife left me after I returned home because I had so many psychological and
physical problems. Really, this is the least of my problems, because everything
else was so severe.”

--------------------------
‘Salaam,’ who asked not to speak to reporters, was detained from November 29th
2003 to March 28th of this year in various detention centers, including two months in
Camp 7 of the Abu Ghraib prison camp. He also spent one month and ten days in a
military hospital for treatment of injuries he sustained under torture.

Release: Prisoners tell their stories of abuse

Released Detainees Tell Public of Torture, Mistreatment by U.S. Soldiers
By Le Anne Clausen
May 10, 2004

BAGHDAD—Dozens of former detainees and their families came forward Sunday to
tell
their experiences of physical, sexual, and psychological torture at the hands of
U.S. soldiers in Iraqi prison camps. The press conference was organized jointly
by
several Iraqi and international human rights organizations who have been
documenting
violations against detainees and their families since last summer.

One man lifted his shirt to show the long scars across his back from a whipping
he
said he received from U.S. forces. He said, “They beat me…urinated on me…broke
my
arm…and raped me. When they stopped my truck at the checkpoint and searched it,
all
they found was an Islamic magazine. Now I am psychologically unstable.” The
man
was released April 24th. While he spoke, a female relative in the audience wept
and
called out, “Allahu Akbar,” (God is greater).

A fifty-year-old man in traditional dress who was in Abu Ghraib prison camp last
winter testified that U.S. soldiers herded detainees into a room in groups of
ten to
twenty men and stripped them naked. The soldiers ordered one detainee to rape
the
others. The soldiers then ordered half of the detainees to sit on the ground
and
engage in oral sex with the standing detainees. The man identified the woman
shown
in many of the photographs as one who carried out the torture he experienced.
The
man also described how soldiers gave the detainees two full Army ration meals
and
ordered them to eat the entire quantity of food within two minutes. He said
they
were similarly forced to consume three liters of water. The man also described
how
soldiers would form a ball of fabric and shove it into the detainees’ anuses.
After
this, soldiers would remove the ball and put it into the detainees’ mouths,
“covered
with filth.” He explained that soldiers also gagged them with rags soaked in
hot
peppers, and held their nostrils under a running water faucet.

“During Ramadan [November 2003], the detainees held a demonstration and the
soldiers
killed four men. I knew these men…until now, none of the bodies of these men
have
been returned to their families.”

“Still there was a younger man with me, very handsome. The soldiers stripped
him
naked…when he refused [sexual advances from the soldiers], they tortured him for
three days. A woman soldier blindfolded him and led him naked into the women’s
prison. He was there for twenty days, naked. He witnessed the sexual abuse of
the
women detainees by the U.S. guards.”

A third released detainee, in his mid-thirties, described starting his time in
Abu
Ghraib in a group of detainees standing naked outside for three days, without
sleep,
food, or being able to sit down. He testified that soldiers poured cold water on
the
detainees’ bodies during this time.

Yet another man said, “I spent five months in Abu Ghraib, and I witnessed abuse
similar to that in the pictures. Officer Meagan was one of those responsible.
The
soldiers left me naked on the ground with the dogs. They didn’t give me food or
water for three days. Later, the food was so bad I couldn’t eat it. We got one
small blanket in the winter. It wasn’t enough. They did not differentiate
between
women or men, old or young—they tortured all.”

He added, “If you ask any detainee why he is there, he will tell you, ‘I don’t
know,
they didn’t say. I was sleeping when they arrested me and brought me here.’”

Many families spoke of the destructive house raids in which U.S. soldiers
arrested
their relatives in the first place, taking women’s jewelry, purses, cash, and
family
documents. In several cases, families described how soldiers completely
destroyed
their homes and belongings. “My wife was holding tightly to her purse. They
ripped
it from her. They pulled so hard, I thought they would rip off her arm,” said
one
man. Another testified that U.S. soldiers raided and destroyed their home and
killed their fifteen-year-old son on February 23rd, in Abu Ghraib village near
the
prison camp. Two days later, soldiers returned to apologize for raiding the
wrong
house.

“I have one question,” she asked. “Is this the free democracy of the West?”

Back to Baghdad

Back to Baghdad
May 6, 2004

Hi everyone,

I've been back in Baghdad since Monday afternoon and pretty busy. When the
pictures of prisoners being abused came out in the media last week, we
started getting flooded with phone calls. As most of you know, our team
has been investigating prisoner abuses last September and has been
advocating for prisoner system reforms directly with leaders
in the Coalition Provisional Authority since that time. The photos
were not surprising to us at all other than that they were released in the
first place. Unfortunatlely, human rights abuses are a fairly common
experience for the roughly 20,000 Iraqi citizens who have been through the
US prison camps this past year. I am so frustrated that the military is
trying to cover this up by repeatedly saying it's just a few individuals.
The Arab world isn't buying it either, and I think Bush's speech actually
made things worse.

That said, I am dying to talk to Iowa media. I've heard a rumor that the
Globe Gazette is under pressure not to write about my work in Iraq any
more. I don't know, but I haven't heard from them in a while. The
Register has written and also talked to a teammate of mine who's home
right now. However, if any of you have a local newspaper or radio station
who would like an "Iowan on the ground" perspective, feel free to give
them my number. They can also go to the website http://www.cpt.org/iraq
which has a lot of the prisoner testimonies we took. Look in the archives
for CPTnet and on the Iraq page.

Meanwhile, we had a car bomb at the CPA this morning at 7:30 while I was
on the phone with the office. Later a friend came over and we discussed
how when a big bomb goes off, you can feel the air suck out of the room
just a second before the 'boom.' It's eerie, but normal. Five more
explosions at the CPA just went off a minute ago here while I am typing
this letter.

Still, our friends and the people we work with are ecstatic that we've
come back. They want to put us to work all over the place. We spent all
morning in a human rights group's office going over cases. Our house was
full within fifteen minutes of our return.

I've got ten days left in Iraq and somehow have to manage focusing our
project to keep up with the times, saying goodbye to all my friends, and
maybe getting a few small souvenirs. I don't know when I'll return. I'm
applying for the position of Iraq project support coordinator, who would
arrange the schedules for team members and do media outreach and a lot
else. Then I could come back to the middle east in early summer and
perhaps Januarys. Since I don't have enough money to go to seminary
full-time next year, the position would be a way I could still do peace
work and attend classes half-time, allowing me enough time to study and
working around my class schedule. Otherwise, I will probably work a
couple years full-time elsewhere until I can afford to study full-time and
have adequate time to do a good job. So, we wait and see.

When I return, I hope to take June as a rest month and not do any
speaking. If all works out with the two Global Mission Events for the
ELCA, those are in July. Then I move to Chicago in August for seminary.

Four years in the middle east went awfully quick.

peace to you,

Le Anne

Editorial: true courage of a soldier

The soldier who turned in photographs of his colleagues torturing Iraqi
prisoners demonstrated true courage. He took no small risk in speaking
his conscience, as there are many who would not want these photos
released. Patriotism is speaking out and holding your country accountable
to the highest possible standards, not concealing and making excuses for
its flaws.

General Kimmit and President Bush have done our country no favors in
dismissing these acts as isolated and carried out by a few people. Since
the beginning of this war and occupation, human rights organizations have
documented a disturbing pattern of U.S. military human rights abuses
against Iraqi citizens—including physical and psychological torture and
sexual abuse. These acts occur in the prison camps, during nighttime
house raids, at checkpoints, and in the streets. Top Coalition officials
our organization has met with deny that international human rights
standards apply to them. With minimal human rights training for soldiers
and dysfunctional accountability mechanisms, the system guarantees these
abuses will continue.

These acts are also not isolated from the recent uprising that is killing
so many of our troops. Sexual abuse of prisoners was a large part of the
public discourse in the days prior to the uprising. Iraqi families are
terrified that the victims of these acts are their loved ones. This fuels
support for the resistance, which will continue to send home more soldiers
dead or wounded.

I encourage North Iowans to read reports by Amnesty International, Human
Rights Watch, and Christian Peacemaker Teams. Rather than liberating
Iraq, our administration has humiliated and oppressed its people. These
policies do not support our troops or create security for our nation. We
need to start evaluating our war on terrorism by the measure of human
rights. Our ignorance is costing us ever more American lives.

--
Le Anne Clausen

Iowa woman to return to Iraq

Hi everyone, here's our latest press release, please feel free to
distribute it to your local media outlets.


May 1, 2004

IRAQ: Christian Peacemaker Teams to Return to Iraq on May 3, 2004

On May 3rd, two members of Christian Peacemaker Teams will return to Iraq
to explore conditions for the team's full return. Stewart Vriesinga
(Lucknow,ON) and Le Anne Clausen (Mason City, IA) will consult with Iraqi
and international human rights workers, religious leaders, and other Iraqi
community representatives to determine current priorities for CPT's
violence-reduction work, and the ability of the team to operate under
current conditions. Additional team members in Amman are prepared to
enter Iraq if circumstances allow.

Given the special risks to foreigners in the past month as well as
concerns of the team's family, friends, and colleagues, members of CPT
Iraq have prepared the following statement in preparation for their
return. This release is being distributed to international and Iraqi
media sources.



CPT Iraq Statement of Conviction:

CPT Iraq evacuated to Amman on April 14th, at the urging of our Iraqi
partners and friends due to the deteriorating conditions within the
country. Now, with support from our Iraqi contacts, we are returning to
determine whether we can continue our work of witnessing to justice and
peace where there is violence.

We are aware of the risks both Iraqis and internationals face at this
time. However, we are convinced that these risks are not disproportionate
to our purposes in returning, nor greater than the risks faced by
soldiers, other armed actors, or fellow human rights workers.

Iraqi friends and human rights workers have welcomed us as a nonviolent,
independent presence. They ask us to tell their stories, since they
cannot easily be heard, nor can most flee to a safer country. They ask us
to be the eyes and ears recording the abuses of the occupation and the
devastating effects of violence. Especially when other international
monitoring bodies have pulled out, our presence provides a vital
link between people in North America and Iraq.

We believe that all life is sacred, regardless of one's country or
religion. As a peacemaking team we need to cross boundaries, trust that
both soldiers and militia are human beings capable of compassion, and
invite them to refuse unjust orders. We need to help preserve what is
human in all of us and so offer glimpses of hope in a dark time.

We reject the use of violent force to save our lives should we be
kidnapped or caught in the middle of a violent conflict situation. We
also reject violence to punish anyone who harms us, and we ask that there
be no retaliation against such a person's relatives or property. We
forgive those who consider us to be their enemies. Therefore, any response
should be in the form of rehabilitation rather than in the spirit of
revenge.

We hope that in loving both friends and enemies and by intervening
nonviolently to aid those who are systematically oppressed, we can
contribute in some small way to transforming this volatile situation.

(Signed)
Christian Peacemaker Team in Iraq:
Matthew Chandler (Portland, OR)
Le Anne Clausen (Mason City, IA)
Sheila Provencher (South Bend, IN)
Greg Rollins (Surrey, BC)
Stewart Vreisinga (Lucknow, ON)