verbena-19

Iraq_Dispatches Digest, Vol.11, Issue 2, sent by Dahr Jamail, July 12, 2005

From No Man's Land to Displacement

by Dahr Jamail
from Left Turn Magazine

> The Iraqi/Jordanian border is a land of desolation. Coils of razor wire
> stretch into the desert whilst sun-grayed plastic bags caught in their
> sharpness flap in the hot, dry winds. In No Man's Land, Jamail exposes
> yet another face of the human consequences of the US occupation of Iraq
> - the suffering and resistance of displaced Kurdish-Iranian and
> Palestinian refugees.
>
> Long columns of trucks wait at the Jordanian border to carry their loads
> of supplies into war-torn Iraq. When Iraqi drivers wish to enter Jordan,
> they now wait up to 18 days to be allowed in. The al-Karama border is a
> land of waiting, but not just for the truck drivers. There have been
> others waiting to enter Jordan for far longer. The refugee camp situated
> in this bleak area is called No Man's Land camp because it literally is
> just that: an area of land caught between the borders of two countries
> with nowhere else to go.
>
> "If you leave me here I will die," said the elderly Merza Shahawaz as he
> was groaning from the pain in his kidneys, "Please help me." In his tent
> covered with plastic sheeting inside the camp, his wife was helping him
> sit up. He cannot sit without her holding him up.
>
> "I ask you to help me. I plead for humanitarian people to help us now,"
> mumbled the 66 year-old man in dire need of dialysis. His family sitting
> nearby shed tears as they brushed flies away from their faces.
>
> His 42 year-old son pleaded, "We are all dying slowly here. You see us
> with your eyes, I ask for help. He is dying in front of his family's
> eyes but nobody is doing anything for him. We don't want our children's
> fate to be this. Death is better than this life. If our children grow up
> like this it means they are dead."
>
> It is one example of the suffering of so many in the camp of over 700
> people.
>
> *Hunger strike*
>
> Kurdish-Iranian refugees have a long history of suffering. Initially
> having left Iran under persecution from the government over 20 years
> ago, some of them were members of the Kurdish peshmerga militia who
> fought against fundamentalist Islamic rule and were lucky enough to
> escape with their lives. Many of them fled to Iraq, where the regime of
> Saddam Hussein placed them in the al-Tash refugee camp, located 80 miles
> west of Baghdad, which held over 12,000 Iranian Kurds.
>
> Many of these refugees, after the US-led invasion of Iraq in spring of
> 2003, said they were threatened by armed groups and told they had to
> leave. Several refugees I interviewed in No Man's Land camp said they
> were instructed to leave Al-Tash by the US-backed Iraqi government.
> Palestinians, Iraqis, Jordanians and Syrian refugees were also in the mix.
>
> At the time of the invasion the Jordanian government agreed to provide
> temporary protection for Iraqis fleeing the fighting and chaos in their
> country. But when the Iranian-Kurds from Al-Tash camp reached the
> Jordanian border, they were denied access. Others were denied access
> because they lacked valid passports. Already burgeoning with refugees
> from Palestine and Iraq, the government of Jordan felt it had reached
> its limits and denied access to future refugees.
>
> While the local Jordanian Hashemite Charity Organization - with help
> from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), CARE
> International and other organizations - has been working to assist the
> refugees, it appears as though it is not enough.
>
> A tattered sheet tied to a chain-link fence which surrounds No Man's
> Land camp flittered in the wind. It read: "We Iranian Kurd refugees have
> gone on hunger strike because we have been paid no attention from UNHCR
> and they use demagogy policy towards our just issue and have not tended
> to our demand which is resettlement in third countries. Dying once is
> better than daily death."
>
> On the other side of the fence a tarp provides shade for 21 men who were
> on hunger strike, demanding more assistance from UNHCR.
>
> Omar Abdul Aziz, is 39 years old. He was living in Al-Anbar at Al-Tash
> camp near Ramadi before he came here. "We used to live 23 years at
> Al-Tash camp," he explained, "After the war the horrible security came.
> Due to the fact that the occupation forces didn't control the borders,
> Iranian intelligence came into Iraq and began raiding Al-Tash, so we had
> to leave."
>
> The soft spoken man, weak with hunger nine days into the strike, sat on
> a mat while he talked. "I am on hunger strike because UNHCR didn't do
> anything for us. This is not the right place for women and kids to live
> in, and we have an unknown future. We have no solution here, only moving
> from camp to camp, from desert to desert."
>
> Flies buzzed languidly about the faces of the downtrodden men in the
> tent as Aziz continued. "We don't want to go to Iraq because it is
> unstable and it is not our country. What has happened to us is due to
> the illegal American invasion of Iraq. We ask the American people,
> appealing to their humanity, to evacuate us from this horrible
> situation. We are the orphans of the international community. The
> international community has kept their mouths closed about us, and
> especially the Americans."
>
> Others spoke of spending over two years in the horrible conditions of
> the camp where snakes, sandstorms and scorpions are a daily reality as
> they languish in tents seeking shelter from the scorching desert sun.
>
> "We are depressed and we are dying here," Zaman Shakary told me. The
> frustration of the 45 year-old man was vented in anger towards UNHCR.
> "Condoleeza Rice goes and shakes hands with Barzani, but does nothing
> for us here. I have given an order that if I lose consciousness 10 times
> I will continue my hunger strike if UNHCR does not respond and help us.
> Humans cannot live this way."
>
> Most of the refugees were asking for resettlement, but not necessarily
> to another refugee camp. "We are asking for resettlement in another
> country. I have been on hunger strike for 9 days, and my demands are
> that if I die it is for life, I do not live for death," said Suwady
> Rashat. The 43 year-old added, "I want to tell the American people that
> the Iraqi government deprived us of what we need, and it is because of
> the invasion which has not truly benefited Iraqis."
>
> Nearby sat a 6 year-old boy with a lost, sad look on his face,
> antagonized by flies. "I am here because my father is on hunger strike
> for 9 days now," he told me, "Please, someone needs to help us here."
>
> Another man in the camp, Hassan Sadiq, lived in the US for a year before
> the recent invasion. He returned to Iraq just before the invasion, then
> fled to No Man's Land Camp as chaos engulfed Iraq. Prior to his time in
> America, Sadiq had fled Iran because of his Human Rights advocacy
> against the regime there. He had initially spent time in the nearby
> Ruwaished camp - another refugee camp an hours drive into Jordan - where
> he went on hunger strike for 36 days in protest of UNHCR, who according
> to him, were not doing enough to assist him from being extradited back
> to Iran.
>
> "Now UNHCR wants to close this camp and put us back in Ruwaished. When I
> was there I was under constant threat of being extradited back to Iraq.
> Now I'm concerned they will transfer us back to Ruwaished, which is
> nothing but a jail in the desert." His situation is reflective of many
> others in the camp. "I would like to say to the American government that
> I remember George Bush says he is fighting for freedom. But by God, here
> I need freedom and they have forgotten us. The US has been ignoring us
> since 1974. The American government is responsible for us being here,
> because we are displaced because of the war."
>
> The camp was fraught with health problems - without enough clean water
> or medical care, diarrhea, minor respiratory problems, sore eyes, and
> dehydration abound. Many people tell me they have trouble breathing when
> sandstorms hit, which is several times each week.
>
> In another tent a man told me his 13 year old son was killed on the road
> by a passing truck. His wife aborted her fetus when fighting broke out
> near the Iraqi border several months ago. There have been problems in
> the camp, aside from the aforementioned health and depression symptoms.
> The hunger strike was aimed at UNHCR for not doing enough to help them;
> however, UNHCR recently managed to move the entire camp into Jordan.
> *
> Dismal Place*
>
> On May 29, with the assistance of the Jordanian Hashemite Charity
> Organization and CARE International, UNHCR moved the 743 residents of No
> Man's Land camp to the Ruwaished refugee camp. The long struggle to
> obtain permission from the Jordanian government ended with the agreement
> that UNHCR would vigorously pursue further solutions for the refugees,
> who were moved in three convoys.
>
> Jaqueline Parleviet is the Senior Protections Officer for UNHCR in
> Amman, Jordan. "The hunger strike ended because of the move," Parleviet
> noted. "All of the refugees I spoke with were happy to be moved. The
> problems and resistance we encountered inside the camp went away when we
> moved them."
>
> UNHCR is now pursuing the solutions of either voluntary return or
> resettlement to another country for each refugee in the Ruwaished camp,
> which is now filled with about 880 refugees. Yet Ruwaished camp, while
> at least sitting inside a country, still remains a dismal place. There
> are no trees in sight of the wire fence enclosed spot in the middle of
> the desert.
>
> While there are some improvements - residents can leave for short
> shopping trips in nearby Ruwaished, CARE international is providing some
> vocational training and schooling, and the Jordanian Hashemite Charity
> Organization is providing food, stoves, water and other necessities -
> the mood remains quite bleak.
>
> Rahma Shaban left Palestine in 1948. Under the intense midday sun, she
> told me of having to leave Iraq because of the horrible security
> situation after the invasion. "Baghdad is a great place," she added,
> "But I must have security for my children." Other refugees blame the new
> Iraqi government for there difficulties. "I can't blame Iraqis for our
> problems," said Donia Baltergy, "I blame these Iraqis who came with the
> invaders."
>
> She began to cry as she continued to discuss her situation in the camp.
> "It's difficult for us to live in this harsh place," she said while
> holding her hands out while she pleads, "We've been sitting here for two
> years. They don't let us go out, they don't like for us to talk to the
> press, they don't give us rights to do anything."
>
> Like the former No Man's Land camp, the Ruwaished camp is plagued with
> sandstorms and scorpions, and the residents continue to endure health
> problems and cope with ongoing depression. There was little hope for
> change when I visited, and many refugees expressed discontent towards
> UNHCR and other organizations for not doing more to assist them.
>
> According to Parleviet, some of the Somali and Sundanese refugees were
> resettled in the US and Australia, along with 387 Iranian Kurds
> previously moved to Sweden. "We have cases pending now for the UK and
> Ireland," she added. Yet despite small instances of success, the
> refugees recently relocated from No Man's Land are now united with 133
> other displaced people in the middle of the desert, close to one of the
> worst conflict zones on the planet today.
>
> Discontent towards what has become of Iraq, the country most of these
> people love and had to leave, continues to be vented at the US. Standing
> in front of a small brown tent used to teach women health classes, Rahma
> Shaban exclaimed through tears, "The Americans said they were coming to
> help Iraqis. Now we see their lies, proven by the fact that they have
> done nothing but cause us pain, suffering, and erased our future and the
> futures of our children."
>
> And until their situation is changed, these feelings will most likely
> persist.


**More writing, photos and commentary at: http://dahrjamailiraq.com/

posted by Annamarie at 12:53 PM