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Iraq Diaries
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<br>
The Two Troublemakers <br>
<a href="http://electroniciraq.net/news/1278.shtml" eudora="autourl">http://electroniciraq.net/news/1278.shtml</a><br><br>
Kathy Kelly, Voices in the Wilderness<br><br>
22 December 2003<br><br>
Last evening, in Amman, we met with Fadi Elayyan and Jihad Tahboub,
two<br>
Palestinian young men who were imprisoned for two months, without
charge,<br>
by US Occupying forces who seized them, in Baghdad, on April 10,
2003.<br><br>
They are trying to help four of their companions who are still held by
the<br>
US military, presumably in a prison compound at Umm Qasr, in southern
Iraq.<br><br>
<br>
"On April 10, the US Marines kidnapped us," Jihad began
in a matter of<br>
fact tone. "We were students, and we stayed in Baghdad during
the war<br>
because we did not want to give up our studies or leave our
friends. The<br>
Marines wanted to occupy our building because it is high and gives a
good<br>
view of the area. " <br><br>
Some of the students had Palestinian passports. When they asked what
they<br>
were guilty of, the soldiers said, "You are guilty of being
Palestinian."<br>
The soldiers told them, "You are not studying education in Baghdad.
You are<br>
studying terrorism." <br><br>
"We said that we had citizen IDs and we are students," said
Fadi, but the<br>
soldiers insisted, with guns pointed at their heads, "You are in
Iraq and<br>
you are terrorists." <br><br>
Fadi, age 24, had been living in Baghdad for six years. At the
Mustansariya<br>
University, he was three months short of achieving a degree in<br>
environmental engineering. Jihad, age 23, studied hotel management.
<br><br>
Fadi and Jihad were released from a prison in Umm Qasr, in southern
Iraq,<br>
two months later, on June 10, after a US military Tribunal issued each
of<br>
them signed but undated documents stating that there was no evidence
to<br>
support a claim that he committed a belligerent act against the
Coalition<br>
forces. Before being released, they had to sign a document stating
that<br>
the US military bore no responsibility for what had happened to them
while<br>
they were in custody. <br><br>
"It was inhuman, the way they treated us," said Fadi. "For
the first seven<br>
days we were given no food or water." On the first day, they
were<br>
handcuffed and taken to the Hasan Al Bakr Palace where they stayed<br>
overnight on wet ground, outdoors. "We tried to bury ourselves in
the sand<br>
to keep warmer," Fadi recalled. "All the time they were
pointing their guns<br>
at us. They made us feel that we are going to die now, they gonna kill
us<br>
now." The next day they were taken to Baghdad Airport where they
were again<br>
held outside, in the cold, without food. "They were laughing while
they<br>
were searching us and throwing us on the ground. They took pictures of
us<br>
which they said they would send back to<br>
their families in the US." <br><br>
It was a full month before the International Commission of the Red
Cross<br>
enabled<br>
any contact between the students and their families. <br><br>
>From the Baghdad Airport, they were taken to the Imam Ali Air Base
at<br>
Nassiriyeh,<br>
traveling by truck. They stayed there two days, again outdoors. If
anyone<br>
screamed out, they were beaten, by hand or by rifle butts. <br><br>
>From the Imam Ali Air Base, they were moved to a huge prison compound
in<br>
Umm Qasr where approximately 10,000 prisoners were held. Civilian
prisoners<br>
were separated from combatants. At first they were held in an area
which<br>
consisted of 15 compounds, each compound holding around 500
prisoners.<br>
"They give you one blanket, but it's not enough. We did not cover
ourselves<br>
with the blanket, we used it as a mat," said Fadi. <br><br>
"There was no place for us to stay in the big tent," he
continued, "so we<br>
built our own tent by sticks. I asked for a stick from a guard who
was<br>
outside the fence. He didn't respond, so I asked, `Why don't you
answer<br>
me?' He said, `You are my enemy. I don't have to speak with you.' I
asked,<br>
`Who said I am your enemy?' He said, `If you say one more word, I will
kill<br>
you.'" <br><br>
After initial processing in the large compound they were moved to a
second<br>
part of the prison called "Bucco," named after a fireman who
was killed at<br>
The World Trade Center. <br><br>
"There was a picture of the twin towers in front of the
prison," said<br>
Jihad, "just to make the soldiers feel they are doing the right
thing, just<br>
to make them feel it is in the right way." <br><br>
Fadi and Jihad particularly detested the way their captors treated
the<br>
children who were imprisoned with them. "There were 13 year old kids
in<br>
with us," Fadi said. "Sometimes they would throw candies from
their<br>
humvees, shouting `Bark like a dog, and I'll throw you the
candy'....Some<br>
of the small children were crying in the night, asking to go home to
their<br>
families. We were trying to get them quiet." <br><br>
"Some of the prisoners were criminals, thieves. They put the
children with<br>
them. Some of them tried to abuse children. We told the guards,
they<br>
started laughing." <br><br>
"One prisoner tried to rape a kid and he refused, so they made a cut
on his<br>
face." <br><br>
Occasionally, Fadi and Jihad would refuse to take their food because of
the<br>
way soldiers in "The Feeding Team" taunted them. "Say that
you love Bush<br>
and I will give you food," a soldier would say, before handing them
a bowl.<br>
"I told them `I don't love Bush. I don't love Saddam, I love only
myself,'"<br>
said Fadi, but a person has to have some honor. Telling them to keep
the<br>
food, Fadi added, "Let me go and I will cook my own food.'"
<br><br>
Fadi and Jihad tried to speak up on behalf of other prisoners. "They
called<br>
us 'the two troublemakers' because we were the only two that spoke
English<br>
in the whole compound. <br><br>
"After seven days we tried to make our demands more organized. We
didn't<br>
ask anything about our legal situation because when we asked them they
said<br>
it is not our responsibility, so we started trying to make our
living<br>
conditions better." <br><br>
"We were asking for enough food, potable water, water for
washing<br>
ourselves,--skin diseases are contagious one from another. We were
asking<br>
for more medical support. Many people had to make a dressing change.
Many<br>
had to take injections."<br><br>
They refused all our demands." <br><br>
Sensing that some of the soldiers would be aware of Fadi's and
Jihad's<br>
strength of character, we asked if they ever encountered some
sensitivity<br>
on the part of the soldiers. "Seldom would you find someone with
feeling,"<br>
was Fadi's response. "Maybe the girls, they would have more feelings
than<br>
men, but even they kept on laughing when they'd see someone injured or
in<br>
pain." <br><br>
"The US soldiers are young, in their twenties, I don't believe that
any one<br>
of them will feel regret. Most of them were saying, `If you do any
wrong<br>
thing I will kill you.' Most of them don't have feelings, any kind
of<br>
feelings. They just do what they are told to do." <br><br>
"They don't care," Jihad added. "One soldier was in a
truck and she pointed<br>
at the American flag and she said, `This is your flag.'" <br><br>
When they were finally brought before a tribunal, interrogators asked
them<br>
if they had any information about weapons of mass destruction or if
they<br>
knew the whereabouts of Saddam Hussein. The judge at the tribunal,
a<br>
military officer, determined that they should be released from<br>
administrative detention. Soldiers drove them to Basra, the nearest
large<br>
city, gave them each five dollars, and set them free. <br><br>
Now "the troublemakers" are deeply troubled by the fate of
their four<br>
companions who are still imprisoned at Umm Qasr, "guilty" of
being<br>
Palestinians. <br><br>
<br>
(c) 2003 Electronic Iraq/electronicIraq.net<br>
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