Iraqis Displaced within Iraq and Seeking Refuge Abroad

Amman, Jordan
October 22, 2008

I learned that among the things he was forced to leave behind was a large feather pillow his mother had made about seventy years ago. She had gathered the feathers herself. Also left behind were some embroidery pieces she had made as well as a couple of books and other items. When his wife died of cancer over 28 years ago, this gentle man had raised his three children alone. I met his only daughter recently in Syria. She and her husband are among the refugee population there longing to join family in a safe place where they can work and raise their two small daughters. I thought of an embroidered pillow case cover my mother gave me some years back. It is something I cherish imagining how she had laid her head on it as a child. Maybe, I told him, I could retrieve some of the things left behind with a neighbor.

Amman, Jordan
October 6, 2008

I wasn’t prepared for the extent of impoverishment I would see in Syria. Arriving by bus just a few hours after a suicide car bomb took the lives of at least 17 civilians in Damascus, I learned about the attack from the taxi driver who took me from the bus stop to the neighborhood where I was to meet my translator. Although I understood the Arabic word for “explosion,” it was only later that I would get more details.

Amman, Jordan
August 24, 2008

Dear Friends,

Yesterday afternoon as I got into a public taxi, or “service” as they are called here, a friendly driver greeted me in English, something very rare. This type of taxi carries four passengers, and it seems that people are reluctant to be heard speaking English. I had ridden in this driver’s taxi before, and the other time he felt free as well to address me in English. His words yesterday however took me completely by surprise. “Did you hear about the boats arriving in Gaza!” he said excitedly. He was referring to the Free Gaza campaign which I too have been following with great interest. We have friends among the 45 or so human rights activists on the two boats which, despite multiple threats, set sail from Cyprus to break the siege and end the blockade of Gaza and its 1.5 million occupants.

Amman, Jordan
Aug 10, 2008

Dear Friends,

“How can the walls ever come down?” was the question I put to three Iraqi friends. Late yesterday afternoon I went next door to ask a neighbor if we could watch Iraqi TV news together. Would he mind translating for me? This young friend often helps me with Arabic, and I had brought my notebook along. We were joined by his brother and another Iraqi friend who will be returning to Baghdad soon. Moslem and Christians, we sat together. The walls I was referring to are the concrete barricades which have been constructed by the coalition forces throughout all of Baghdad. These walls seal off and separate entire communities.

Amman, Jordan
July 30, 2008

Dear Friends,

Yesterday I received the following message from friends in Baghdad.

“Our Prime Minister visited the pope a few days ago and invited him to visit Iraq and persuade Christian Iraqis to return back to Iraq…. though Iraq is still a hotbed of crime and conspiracy. Many Iraqis in Syria and Jordan have returned either because their savings were depleted or they were not lucky enough to be picked by the UNHCR. Until now I cannot understand the criteria they are using to select the refugees. The conditions here are still bad, with no services at all. We even boil the drinking water to make sure it is safe while we heard that in the Green zone they import distilled water from Kuwait to use for washing and showers.”

July 27,2008
Amman, Jordan

Dear Friends,

“Think about it for a second. What would you do if your child was kidnapped? If you were in a war-torn country where the police couldn’t help you? To many, if not most parents, the answer of course would be—anything, anything. Including paying ransom to those who were holding their child even if the kidnappers were terrorists. Over the past five years for many Iraqis, that choice has been a very grim reality.” (Dan Rather Reports on ‘The High Price of Ransom,” HDNet TV, July 1, 2008)

Last week in a meeting at the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Amman, I was asked if I had seen the above program. I had not, but was later able to get a printout of the text. I have it before me as I write you. Why is it that I am not surprised to read that one in every four Iraqis seeking help from the UNHCR has had a family member kidnapped? And yet seeing this number in print creates a knot in my stomach, and a feeling of nausea. One in four, imagine. One in four.

May 2, 2008
By Tonya Sneed
Peoria (IL) Peace Network

In protest of a recent air show, the Peoria Area Peace Network flew kites at a local park. We had a gorgeous, sunny day, and Jack, who organized it, says we’ll likely make it an annual event.

I told a reporter from Channel 25 that while “to us, to Americans, the warplanes represent entertainment, to the people of Afghanistan and Iraq, they represent terror.” They aired my comment.

Walid Waleed, interviewd by John Malkin
February 2008

Walid Waleed is 38 years old and was born in the Alkhaalij quarter of Baghdad. He now lives in the country side in a village in south-east Baghdad. He was married in 1997 and now has two boys and three girls; Ows 10, Mohammad 8, Nowras 6, Nibras 4 and less than one year old Ziena. Before the violence he lived as one big family, with about twenty-two people, but now they live in individual temporary houses. Walid studies journalism at Baghdad University and got practical experience as a guide for foreign journalists for many years. He has done interviews for magazines, newspapers and TV and helped Japanese producers make a documentary film about children during the US/UN economic sanctions. He recently produced an autobiographocal documentary about the US invasion and occupation of Iraq.

John Malkin interviewed Walid in January 2008. John is a writer, musician and author of “Sounds of Freedom”, a collection of interviews with musicians concerning spirituality and social change. He is a regular contributor to Good Times Weekly of Santa Cruz, California.

JM: What kind of newspapers/TV are available in Iraq now? How do people get news there?

November 5, 2007
Amman, Jordan

Yesterday I visited a family whose 10 year old son is working for 8JD a week, that is about $10. A sweet faced slip of a child, he smiled as I took a picture of him at his work place. His father meanwhile suffers the humiliation of idleness and the inability to support his wife and other children. Beset by death threats, they fled to Amman about ten months ago; their home in Baghdad is now occupied by militia. I felt embarrassed as I offered them a small gift of money, money from a family in the states who wants to help Iraqis stuck here. The family is in need of basic foodstuffs, furniture, blankets and a heater as winter approaches. They once had work, a car and their own home. I met the wife and mother with her smallest child in tow on a bus last week. We were both making our way to the UNHCR. She to beg assistance.

October 27, 2007
Amman, Jordan

Dear Friends,

It is Saturday morning, and I just hung up the telephone. “Please pray for him” the mother asked me, referring to her son. Here in Amman from Baghdad, he is in the operating room as I write you, in an attempt to save his right eye. I will call him Fadi, though that is not his real name. Fadi already lost his lower right leg to a suicide bomb while going in a taxi to his classes at the university. Stopped at a checkpoint—Fadi was sitting next to the driver—a car pulled up alongside them and exploded. Scars from glass and metal wounds are visible on the whole right side of Fadi’s body.

I visited with this mother and Fadi a couple of days ago. As incredible as it seems given the tragic circumstances, Fadi was able to complete his studies. Just weeks ago he graduated from the University in Baghdad with a degree in Engineering.