CPT comments on 'patterns of abuse' in Iraq.

With horrific images of abused Iraqi prisoners in the media this week, Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) urged attention to the patterns of abuse in Iraq and the question, "How did this happen?" CPT is a ministry initiated by Mennonites, Brethren, and Friends, and has an "Adopt a Detainee Program" to support Iraqi detainees.

The organization has been documenting abuses within the detention system in Iraq for nearly a year, a CPT release said. "The problem is very broad," wrote Sheila Provencher in the release. "These photos, tragically, were not a surprise to me." Provencher has been a member of the CPT team in Iraq, where her work focused on detainees. The team left Iraq in April on the advice of Iraqi colleagues of risks to international workers. CPT has had a team in Iraq almost continuously since Oct. 2002.

"We have communicated grave concerns about the detention system in several meetings with US military and Coalition Provisional Authority officials in Iraq, and with representatives in Congress," said Provencher. "Many Iraqis who tell us stories of degrading abuse also comment on the 'noble soldiers' who protested such abuse and treated them with respect. However, the sheer number of allegations of mistreatment, many of which I have heard personally, suggests that the problem is not just a matter of a few 'bad people,'" she wrote. She acknowledged that there are Iraqis guilty of violent acts, but added that "the methods used to capture, imprison, and interrogate such Iraqis are so violent that the Coalition only creates more resisters."

Provencher suggested that factors contributing to the abuse include ideology that separates the world into "good guys" and "bad guys," military hierarchy, and the dehumanization of young US soldiers by their training, combat stress, and neglect. "To feel a constant threat to one's life, coupled with the psychological stress of being separated from home and family, is devastating," she said. She added that routine military orders might be considered abusive, such as the systematic arrests of all male members of a household or community in midnight raids that terrify families "and sometimes end in the injury or death of women and children."

"Once the men are in detention, families find it extremely difficult to secure information about them, and do not know if they are alive or dead," she said. "Many women and children who rely on the male breadwinner become homeless while he languishes in jail."

CPT's Adopt a Detainee Program is coordinated by Rick Polhamus, a member of Pleasant Hill (Ohio) Church of the Brethren. Several Church of the Brethren groups and congregations are taking part, he reported, along with people from other denominations and different interfaith and ecumenical groups. The response has spanned the globe, all the way from Nigeria to Alaska, he said. For more information contact CPT at 773-277-0253 or www.cpt.org, or call Polhamus at 937-313-4458 or e-mail jrp@cpt.org.

Source: Newsline 5/7/2004
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