From my friends, the Christian Peacemaker Team, in Baghdad

April 25, 2005

Today the team was visited by a young Iraqi man whose family raised
more than twenty thousand dollars from contributors worldwide to pay
for medicine for the hospitals and clinics at Fallujah. He has
asked that CPT accompany the delivery of the supplies into the
city. During his visit, he gave us the grim news that four people
he knew have died in the last several days. The day before his
visit the father of one of his friends became a target for
kidnappers. When his friend's father resisted, the kidnappers
opened fire with their weapons, riddling his body with bullets. Our
visitor had to help take the body to the morgue.

Later, another young man who is both a college student and a
journalist visited us. He told us that a car bomb detonated within
several hundred feet of his house. No one in his family was injured,
but two people driving near the booby-trapped car were killed. The
driver died instantly but the passenger died as the young man and
friends tried to get him to a hospital.

Yesterday we met with an Iraqi human rights worker who documents
issues of detainee abuse. He gave us information about a 13-year-
old boy who is being detained along with information on inhumane
living conditions at the Multi-National Force detention camps.