[Peace-discuss] from kathy kelly

[Dlind49 at aol.com]

The following account was written by Kathy Kelly, whose organisation
Voices in the Wilderness initiated the Iraq Peace Team. Kathy was put in
touch with the two Palestinian students, whose story you can read below,
by Montreal activist and journalist Stefan Christoff. Christoff is
currently in the Middle East where he has been supporting the efforts of
the "two troublemakers" to liberate their fellow students, still unjustly
and brutally imprisoned by occupation forces in Iraq. Et oui! on a besoin
des traductrices/-teurs benevoles! Please feel free to forward and post.]

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The Two Troublemakers
By Kathy Kelly
December 21, 2003

Last 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.