conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

a first for someone

One of the people who slides in on Reconciler servcies from time to time works with the Christian Peacemaker Teams. So, in a sense of loyalty, I subscribe to a variety of newsletters. Typically, I skim them and am not inspired to share them with my blog audience. This one is different. Read on.

My first car bomb

by Joe Carr

At about 9:45 a.m. on 10 May, we heard an explosion that shook our windows. We looked at the clock to see if it was on the hour, as that is when U.S. troops destroy unexploded ordinances. Since it wasn't, we knew the explosion must be a car bomb. Emergency vehicles rushed past our apartment as we headed to the roof to look for smoke.

Our landlord's wife told us that it looked like the smoke was coming from one of the major intersections at a bridge going across the Tigris into the Green Zone. We were planning to go through that intersection and over that bridge to the Green Zone to meet with a UN human rights worker, and we worried we wouldn't be able to.

We decided to try the visit anyway.

Turns out, the car bomb targeted a military convoy on Saddone Street. We heard that seven were confirmed dead (the number always rises with time), all civilian bystanders, no military personnel. More than forty were injured, and the bomb entirely missed the convoy. There are always more attacks when the Iraqi National Assembly is meeting.

Get this, every time the Iraqi National Assembly meets, the Iraqi National Guard shuts down the major bridge connecting north and south Baghdad. Can you imagine the U.S. military shutting down major highways every time Congress is in session? We began walking across the bridge as Iraqis are forced to, and quickly learned that it isn't closed to all traffic; military, contractors, and Iraqi National Guard (ING) vehicles whiz by--often at dangerously high speeds, considering all the pedestrians.

To get to the UN office, we had to go through six checkpoints and deal with five different security forces. We met with the one in charge of the entire UN human rights mission in Iraq. In fact, he's the ONLY representative from the UN Human Rights Commission, and one of only 100 UN workers in the country, which includes the Fijian security forces. These are all the workers the UN has to staff its projects for the entire country, including administration, construction, humanitarian aid, governance, constitution-writing, refugees, children, and lastly, human rights. None may leave the Green Zone.

The UN representative is frustrated that he's forbidden to leave, even with an armed convoy. He said he longed to live like us, or to go for a walk down Baghdad's streets. How is he supposed to monitor human rights in Iraq if he can't ever visit or interview Iraqis in their homes and workplaces?

We decided we might as well walk home from the Green Zone because it
wouldn't be too dangerous if we stayed along the riverside. However, we were delayed as we approached the Palestine Hotel compound. Private Iraqi security guards couldn't believe we were really internationals walking outside the Green Zone with no armor or guards.

Can you believe that CPT is the only international NGO working and living in Iraqi communities?

Posted by tripp at May 16, 2005 09:30 AM