BEIT IBA, Tuesday 8 March 2005 PMObservers: Tami G., Ella H. (reporting)colour=red>We lost our way trying to get Sarra and so never reached the village. But on the way, we saw a line of cars and people at the entrance to the village of Haris where soldiers were checking. Aside from that, we didn’t pass any unannounced roadblocks.We reached Beit Iba at around 15:00. At that hour, vehicular and pedestrian traffic alike were only slight. There was no lack of manpower at the checkpoint: women from the military police, soldiers from a reserve unit and A., from the District Coordinating Office (DCO) [the army section that handles civilian matters; it generally has representatives at the checkpoints ostensibly to alleviate the lot of the Palestinians] . All of them were efficient and polite. Further, when there was a sudden influx of pedestrians and vehicles from the direction of the exit from Nablus, after they had tried to get into the city, the lines were dealt with very quickly.One detainee waited at the side, with his wife, claiming that he had been held there for an hour. The soldiers told us that he’d tried to trick the military police-women: they had sent him to get a permit, and he ‘d brought back something quite different. After their documents had been checked, tboth man and wife were refused permission to go through and they had to return to Nablus. Aside from this couple, there were two more detainees during our watch – the check of their documents took only a few minutes and then they were released. On our way back, before 17:00, we spoke with the soldiers at the entrance to Haris. They explained that this was not a roadblock, but a check set up because they were looking for someone and “they had better not be here”.