With the recent court-martial trial of one of the soldiers complicit in the widespread torturing of Iraqis in Abu Ghraib prison having come and gone, Iraqis see the newest promise made by the U.S. – to clean up their act regarding the treatment of detained Iraqis – as being yet more empty words.
In the dark humor that has become so popular in Baghdad these days, one recently released detainee said, “The Americans brought electricity to my ass before they brought it to my house!”
The promises to bring justice to soldiers involved in these heinous acts, along with promises to make Abu Ghraib more transparent and accessible, have fallen on the distraught ears of family members who wait outside the gates of the prison to see their loved ones inside.
Yesterday I went to the dusty, dismal, razor-wire ensconced waiting area outside of Abu Ghraib. Amidst the distinct feeling of despair and hopelessness pervading the heavily guarded area, I found one horror story after another from melancholy family members, hoping against hope to be granted their chance to visit someone inside the awful compound.
Men, women and crying children congregated at this dire patch of barren earth, expressing bewilderment and outrage at their continuing inability to visit or gain information about loved ones held inside.
Sitting on the hard packed dirt in his white dishdasha, his head scarf languidly flapping in the dry, hot wind, Lilu Hammed stared at the high walls of the nearby prison. It was as if he was attempting to see his 32 year-old son Abbas through the tan concrete.
He sat alone, his tired eyes unwaveringly gazing upon the heavily guarded Abu Ghraib. When my interpreter Abu Talat asked him if he would speak with us, several seconds passed before Lilu slowly turned his head to look up at us.
“I am sitting here on the ground now, waiting for God’s help.”
His son had been in Abu Ghraib for 6 months following a raid on his home which produced no weapons. He had never been charged with anything. Lilu held a crumpled visitation permission slip in his hand that he had just obtained which allows for a reunion with his son … on the 18th of August.
Lilu, along with every other person I interviewed there, had found consolation neither in the recent court martial nor the recent release of a few hundred prisoners.
“This court-martial is nonsense. They said that Iraqis could come to the trial, but they could not. It was a false trial.”
As for the recent release of several hundred prisoners from Abu Ghraib, he added: “I know someone who was captured for counterfeiting money, and they were released. So the thieves are released, and my innocent son is still inside!”
Another man tells of his brother, Jabbar Atia, who was detained without a reason given by the U.S. military.
“I don’t know why he is here!” he says in despair. “Even my brother does not know why he is here. Please tell me why! I am always coming here waiting for him to be released, but it never happens.”
He, too, feels the court-martial trial was bogus, and said: “It was a false trial. The Americans are only interested in capturing Iraqis. They don’t care about the facts.”
Yet another horrible story is that of Tu’amaa Mola Hassan Sabeeh, a 67 year-old man with Alzheimer’s, who had wandered from his home in Baghdad on June 29, 2003, and has been missing ever since.
His son, Rassem, standing in front of the checkpoint of Abu Ghraib, said, “We searched all of Iraq for him and couldn’t find him. Then three weeks ago someone who was released told us he was here.”
Now the family members take turns coming out and waiting for his release. “We have not been allowed to see him, and if he is released, he can’t remember where to go, so we need to come here everyday to wait for him in case he is released.”
He said the entire family is affected, as the time away from their jobs is draining them financially. He added, “We’re all crying now. All our time is spent waiting. We don’t know his number, since they use numbers instead of names in there. So we know he’s there, but we cannot contact him. Where is the justice?”
Another man whose nephew is inside the prison said, “I was depressed to see that my nephew remains in jail while others are released.”
When asked about the trial, he laughed deeply, then collected himself and said, “It was a movie. It was not real.”
The mother of Sadiq Abrahim was despondent when discussing both the detention of her 20 year-old son, as well as the recent trial. “An Iraqi judge had already found my son innocent, but he is still in jail,” she said. “I was happy to see the other prisoners released, but it made me sadder for my son.”
Of the recent trial in Baghdad she commented: “None of us believe the trial. It is not a real punishment.”
According to the mother of another prisoner, Jilal Samir, her son Habib was walking down the street when he was looted by thieves. Habib found some U.S. soldiers to ask for help, and was detained immediately. “He has been in jail for 10 months now, and what did he do to be here? Where is the justice?”
With tears in her eyes she told of trying to reason with a soldier while attempting to gain access into the penitentiary. She asked him if he would feel sad if he had a mother and couldn’t see her, and the soldier, in a smug effort to dismiss her plea, replied, “No.”
Holding her hands in the air, with more tears she cried, “Do the Americans have no feelings? They may not feel, but we do!”
Another convoy of Humvees full of soldiers with their guns pointing out the small windows rumbled out of the front gate of the penal complex. The huge dust cloud they produced quickly engulfed everyone waiting at the checkpoint.
Mrs. Samir, waved away the clouds of dust which billowed around her face. “We hope the whole world can see the position we are in now!” she said.
Meanwhile, in a press released on May 21st: “The Coalition Provisional Authority has recently given out hundreds of soccer balls to Iraqi children in Ramadi, Karbala, and Hilla. Iraqi women from Hilla sewed the soccer balls, which are emblazoned with the phrase ‘All of Us Participate in a New Iraq.'”
