EVEN MORE "WINNING HEARTS AND MINDS"

American-run assistance center sometimes struggles to help Iraqis
By Alaa al Baldawy, Knight Ridder Newspapers
Thu Jun 2, 6:14 PM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/krwashbureau/20050602/ts_krwashbureau/_bc_usiraq_assistance_wa



BAGHDAD, Iraq - As soon as Morooj Abdul Lateef's husband returned from morning prayers at his Baghdad mosque, a group of soldiers knocked on the door of their house and politely asked to detain him. They would be back in 10 minutes, the soldiers promised.

That was on May 14. She hasn't seen him since, and with a mix of American, Iraqi and private militia forces securing the country, she didn't know who came for her husband or where to start looking for him.

Desperate, she went to the Iraqi Assistance Center, an American-run office based in Baghdad that's designed to help Iraqis find arrested relatives, get medical care, get compensation for those wronged by American soldiers and find jobs.

The center depends on donated plane tickets to get sick people to better medical care or for a hospital to make space for someone. As a U.S. military-funded organization, it can't accept cash donations, Wernicki said.

Funding aside, it's still hard to help people. The Iraqi government is fragmented, and information about arrests, accidents or medical procedures is scattered.

The most common request is to help find a detained person, like Lateef's husband. The center receives up to 100 requests a day, a worker at the center said, but can only help find people in American prisons.