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