Upcoming Reading

For the past two+ years my time has been devoted to helping with an organization called the Iraqi Student Project, acting as big sister to two young Iraqi women attending university in California and as coordinator to a solidarity group formed to provide financial, academic and cultural support.

They are each solidly on their individual paths, Farah leaning toward the intersection of political science and the unique issues women and children face, Meena leaning toward the humanities and psychology. Each are extraordinary women in their own right and it's a privilege to watch them evolve.

During this time I've been working in new directions with my writing, exploring essays in non-fiction journalism.

I'm currently in Fairbanks, Alaska where I'll be doing a reading of some of these works in collaboration with author and friend, Katey Schultz. The theme of these works is the human side of war in Afghanistan and Iraq. If you're in Fairbanks at the end of August, come join us!

Karen Button & Katey Schultz present their works of non-fiction journalism and short-story fiction:

Monday, August 30 at 7p

Forget-Me-Not Books

517 Gaffney Road, Fairbanks

(in connection with the Literacy Council of Alaska)

Update on Iraqi Refugees

Please visit: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/28238 for an hour long discussion with myself and Raising Sand Radio's host Susan Galleymore on the latest situation with Iraq's refugees from the US-led occupation in their country.

~Karen

Sabbitical

I am on sabbatical for research. Thanks, everyone who's contacted me and offered up your thoughts, feedback and encouragement. I should begin posting again in June 2008.
~Karen

Iraqi Refugees Live in Lebanon’s Shadows

by Karen Button

In the crowded Christian neighborhood of Sad el-Bouchrieh Amer chain-smokes cigarettes in the small one-bedroom apartment where his family of five now live. His wife, Nadwal, and their three sons listen silently while he recounts their harrowing escape from Iraq to Lebanon. “We were fortunate even to have arrived here,” he says, though the life is far from easy. Once a shop owner, Amer now feels lucky just to have a delivery job in a country where he is not legally allowed to work. He earns $10 USD a day.

As Christians living in Basra, life before the US-invasion was not easy, says Amer. After the invasion, it became a hell.

“Under Saddam, we lived downtrodden. But circumstances after the invasion became unbearable. Sadr’s forces took over the city and immediately the threats began.”

Amer owned a liquor store that quickly became a target of Moqtada Sadr’s Mehdi forces. One day, the militia drove by shooting into his store and a customer was killed. Amer quickly sold everything and closed the store. He then found a job with an Italian NGO that was providing aid to refugees who’d fled Saudi Arabia and Iran, where he worked for nearly three years.

But the intimidation continued. Threatening letters were dropped at the door of the Christian family, accusing them of being “dirty non-believers.” Nadwal took to wearing the hijab in public, removing it when she would enter the church. Then, Amer began to be warned about working with foreigners. After sending messages to his cell and calling him at home, the militia began following Amer until the day they caught up with him.

“I was giving a ride to some friends and my youngest son was with me in the car. We were followed and suddenly they began shooting at the car. I yelled for my son to get down on the floor. One of my friends was shot in the shoulder and I was shot here,” he says, pulling up his shirt to reveal a long, thick scar on his chest. “Then, they shot the gas tank and the car was in flames!”

Fortunately, a British patrol was nearby and heard the gunshots. When they showed up, the militia members fled.

“My son’s legs were completely burned. We were taken to the hospital, but we couldn’t even get complete medical care. There was a shortage of drugs and the hospital had been taken over, pictures of Saddam replaced by Sadr. I didn’t feel safe there because they can follow you even into the hospital and shoot you in your bed. No one can stop them!”

They were taken to a friend’s medical clinic where the bullet lodged in Amer’s chest was finally extracted and his son’s burns treated. Terrified, the family fled their house that night, accepting the protection of a Muslim friend. The friend helped find a new car and the family fled for Mosul, where they had relatives, two days later.

“I was nine months pregnant,” Nadwal adds quietly. “I gave birth in Mosul, but the baby was completely deformed and died immediately…” she trails off with tears in her eyes.

On top of this, Nadwal’s relatives urged them to leave, frightened themselves. Christians have been targeted and persecuted by militias in Iraq, driving most to flee. “They told us they couldn’t even protect themselves. But, we had no documents and didn’t know what to do. We were so scared and so stressed,” Amer continues.

After staying just 3 days, with Nadwal, Amer, and their son still recovering, the family of 5 decided to flee to Lebanon, where Amer had a cousin. With their life savings of $4,000 on them, they left early one December morning with a smuggler who promised to get them into Syria for $200 each.

After successfully entering Syria, the family nearly at the Lebanese border when they were stopped and arrested by the mukhabarat (intelligence). “They beat me and my [eldest] son very badly. I begged them to just hit me because this boy had never been touched in his life, but they didn’t listen,” Amer says sadly. “When I told them I had stitches in my chest, they hit me there, too. This was all in front of my family. I’ve never been so humiliated before.”

Amer and Nadwal had both hidden their remaining money on their bodies, which the police quickly found when searching Amer.

“I was so scared they would search me too,” Nadwal adds. “This was all our savings.”

“I was about to collapse from the beatings when they found the money,” Amer continues. “At that point, they stopped the beating and forced me to sign papers that we would return to Iraq. They told me to forget about the money, to leave and talk to no one. They said if they caught us at the border again, ‘I knew what would happen’. I was covered in blood with cotton in my nose when we arrived in Damascus.”

Still without documents, the family’s last hope was with another smuggler who promised to get them into Lebanon. After paying $150 per person, they were driven to the base of a mountain where, after an arduous 7-hour uphill trek in the mud, they had safely crossed.

The family arrived to the cousin’s house exhausted and still recovering from wounds and childbirth. But, they had arrived.

Now, a year and a half later, they have registered with UNHCR and are hoping for resettlement. Meanwhile, none of the children are attending school. The two eldest boys, a 16- and 14-year old, both work to help support the family. The youngest, still traumatized by the shooting incident in which he was burned, refuses to go, unwilling to be separated from his family.

“Thankfully, we are all still together and we’re still alive, because many Iraqis don’t even have that,” says Amer. “But, I had to quit school in order to support my family. Now,” he says sadly, “this is happening with my eldest son and he was the smartest kid in his school before.”

For the first time, Saymon, the eldest speaks up from across the room. “We’ve suffered everywhere, in Iraq, in Syria, in Lebanon. I feel that I’ve never seen a good day, and I wish for more.”

Shaking his head, Amer adds, “I can’t believe I used to help the refugees and now we are refugees ourselves.”

While the family hopes for resettlement elsewhere, they live in Beirut very cautiously. Like other Iraqis in Lebanon, they live mostly under cover for fear of being arrested and deported.

Lebanon, like Syria and Jordan, is not signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, which gives recognition and legal status to those seeking a safe haven. Christians especially have fled to Lebanon, where they are 15 percent of the Iraqi population compared to just three percent in Iraq.

Iraqis can still sometimes obtain a one-month tourist visa either at the border or from the Lebanese Embassy in Baghdad, but it cannot be extended. Most are smuggled across the border, which Lebanon recently reinforced with a 7,000-troop presence. As a result, the majority of Iraqi refugees are in Lebanon illegally, where they are referred to as “illegal migrants”. If they are caught, they are jailed, then sent back to Iraq.

Fearful of being stopped at military checkpoints, numerous since last year’s war, or randomly by police, who then send them to jail where they await deportation, most Iraqis are living in the shadows.

Amer says he and his family all stick close to home and rarely leave their neighborhood. “If I’m stopped at a checkpoint, they’ll arrest me. It happens all the time, and to people that I’ve known.” Even on their street they don’t always feel safe. “There are frequent fights here and one night the police filled the streets when I was on my way home. I was alone and just hid until they finally left. I arrived home hours late and my family had no idea where I was.”

“I was terrified he’d been arrested,” says Nadwal. “Sometimes when there’s fighting in the streets we just lock ourselves in the house to be safe because we’re here illegally. We arrived here safely, alhamdullallah, but we live in a prison.”

Cluster Bombs Southern Lebanon’s Only Harvest this Year

by Karen Button

Aita al-Shaab, Southern Lebanon—Beautiful rolling hills, verdant and fertile, are dotted with olive groves and family tobacco farms in this small village on the border between Lebanon and Israel.

It was here that Hizballah captured the two Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers that kicked off last year’s July-August war. And it was here that some of the fiercest street battles raged as remaining locals joined Hizballah to fight Israeli troops. Most of the buildings still standing are scarred with pockmarks; Aita al-Shaab’s old city is remains mostly flattened, bulldozed by Israeli troops.

As dawn breaks over a ridge separating the 2km distance between Lebanon and Israel, UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) outposts glint in the early morning sun. This morning the busy sounds of reconstruction, funded primarily by Qatar, but also by Hizballah (Iran is funding road construction in the region), begins early as migrant Syrian construction workers emerge from the partially destroyed buildings where they’ve encamped.

But in the valleys below the city, rich, red dirt lies fallow even though Aita al-Shaab is an agricultural village. Fields above the town go ungrazed. Since last summer, after Israel dropped about one million cluster bombs in southern Lebanon alone—up to 40 percent of which the United Nations Mine Action Clearing Center (MACC) estimates lie unexploded--most farmers and shepherds have been too afraid to go onto their lands.

Israel has been heavily criticized for dropping 90 percent of the 2-3 million cluster bombs used throughout Lebanon during the last 72 hours of the war, after a cease-fire was agreed upon.

MACC is heading up clearing, but has a long way to go.

Thus far, 60 teams from UNIFIL (UN Interim Force in Lebanon) and private companies have cleared about 10 percent (110,000) of the unexploded munitions. Focus has been on population centers, but fields, forests, and grasslands are much harder to clear. The Israeli government has refused to turn over maps where cluster bombs were dropped, making clearing more time-consuming…and dangerous. Teams are also clearing 400,000 land mines; some are leftovers from previous wars, MACC reports, and some were planted last summer by Israeli troops.


Cluster bomb attacks part of larger plan?

Many I spoke with, like eco-system management and food sovereignty expert Rami Zurayk, believe that the Israeli government’s bombardment is a deliberate attempt to separate people from their lands.

“What’s kept people in southern Lebanon for the past 60 years of neo-liberal policy,” he explains, referring to the time period since creation of the State of Israel, “is their profound attachment to the land. I believe it is Israel’s long-term strategy to create the conditions for displacement, just as they have done in Palestine.”

Nearby Beint Jbeil, also intensely bombed last summer, is a case in point says Amer Sadadin of Samidoun, a volunteer network that delivered aid to southern villages after the war. Prior to 1948, Beint Jbeil was the region’s largest city with 54,000 residents, he says, but from years of occupation the majority fled elsewhere.

“Beint Jbeil now has only 4,000 people. In the ‘70s many of these villages were destroyed and people moved to cities like Sour (Tyre). Israel is killing life in the villages,” asserts Sadadin.

“The fact that the [Israeli government’s] cleansing operation of South Lebanon is being carried out under the cover of the ‘war on terrorism’ allows the international community to turn a blind eye to it,” Zurayk maintains.

Comparatively, little reconstruction is taking place in Beint Jbeil; much of the city still lies in a ruin of twisted metal and piles of rubble. The Lebanese government is pushing residents in Beint Jbeil and elsewhere to rebuild with modernized buildings and wider roads, something many local residents refuse.

“The problem is people are being encouraged to bulldoze and build bigger,” says Sadadin. “It’s a problem when money comes in with these pre-conditions. Old cities are a maze of history, each stone represents a memory, a relationship to historical continuity. This is exactly what we’re trying to preserve.”

Samidoun is now in Aita al-Shaab with volunteer architects who are helping residents rebuild their original homes, while restoring the old city.


Farmers separated from their lands

Aita al-Shaab, as other agricultural villages in southern Lebanon, is suffering huge economic losses from their inability to farm.

Hadjia Habiba has 8,000 square meters of land that have been passed down through generations. Her lands are in parcels scattered on the outskirts of the village. Now in her seventies, Hadjia Habiba has farmed all her life and, like many here, she is economically dependent on her fields.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), agriculture makes up at least 70 percent of the economy in southern Lebanon.

Residents in Aita al-Shaab say their economy is 80-90 percent dependent on agriculture, primarily tobacco and olives.

Some of Hadjia Habiba’s lands are in Kallit Warda, where the Israeli soldiers were taken; the area still guarded by Israeli troops and she hasn’t been allowed there since last summer.

“I didn’t harvest this year at all,” she laments. With hundreds of thousands of bomblets littering the fields, no one dared enter and the crops all rotted. Normally, farmers would be planting at this time, instead the fields are quiet.

“We’re still waiting for people to check for cluster bombs, which means I also can’t plant, so there won’t be any harvest this year again either. I live from the tobacco harvest 100 percent. My husband died, so this is how I’ve raised my children.”

Shaking her head, Hadjia Habiba says she doesn't know what she is going to do for income.

Millions of dollars in loans have been given to Aita al-Shaab’s tobacco farmers, the only crop the government helps subsidize. About 80 percent of the farmlands here are used for tobacco since it is also the only crop that guarantees an income.

People here expressed anger and frustration with the government for its lack of support. “There’s no compensation from the government for our loss this year!” exclaims Hadjia Sara, another tobacco farmer who worries what will happen when she and others are unable to pay their loans. “Next year, we will have double the payments, plus interest. If we can’t pay, they could take our lands. What is the government doing?”

Farmers estimated only 25-30 percent of Aita al-Shaab’s farmlands are being planted this year, and out of those, only about 25 percent of what is normally planted.

About $280 million from agriculture and fisheries were lost as a result of last summer’s aggressions. Southern Lebanon and southern Beirut, the areas hardest hit by air strikes, are home to the some of the country’s poorest. Its majority are Shi’a.

The FAO plans to set up a farming assistance office in the south, but needs an additional $17 million in order to provide direct aid like replacement of livestock killed.

But, it’s not just economics that have hurt farming communities like this one, the social fabric has also been damaged. “Everyone helps to harvest each other’s lands, take the tobacco to the drying rooms, and then harvest the next field, ” says Hadjia Zahra. “It was a collective effort, part of our village life. Now, we sit in our homes and don’t go out. Only half the people have returned. We are still in a state of mourning.”

Of the 800-900 homes destroyed, about half have been rebuilt. The 7,000 or so people who’ve returned are crowded together, living with their families until their homes are completed.

The killing continues

Meanwhile, since the bombing stopped last August, some 200 people have been injured and another 30 killed from cluster bombs. Many referred to them as “anti-children” mines because their bright colors attract youngsters, who don’t understand their danger.

In September, three children from Aita al-Shaab were severely injured when a cluster bomb went off. Um Hassan's son was one of them.

“Two of the little village girls had gone back to their home and they found a dead fighter inside, still covered in blood,” says Um Hassan. “Cluster bombs had been planted around his body as a booby trap. Thinking they were toys, the girls picked one up and went into the street to play. My son saw them and recognized the bomb from the [educational] posters. When he told them to throw it away, they panicked and threw it at his feet where it exploded.”

All the children were badly injured, but Um Hassan’s son was the worst. Just 10 years old, his abdomen was completely ripped open, his intestines spilling out. He spent the next several months undergoing four operations. Hassan is finally back to attending school, says Um Hassan, but his condition is still fragile; remaining shrapnel in his stomach makes her son vulnerable to infection.

Another woman spoke of a nearby villager who was killed when harvesting his olives. “He pulled on the branches and a cluster bomb fell on his head,” she says sadly.

Fortunately, these have been the only accidents here, but they are reminders of the dangers that await farmers and their children on uncleared lands.

While the MACC forces are working hard to remove remaining cluster bombs, they say farmlands and forested areas are the most difficult to clear. Bomblets hide in tall grasses and in branches of trees and wash down hills after rains to re-contaminate areas already cleared.

“This has a big psychological effect,” says Sadadin. “Some friends and I went for walk when the spring flowers came, but there was a constant fear inside.”

“Children here are thinking about the war more than the classroom,” said another villager. “Israel wants peace, but they want us to pay for it.”


Resistance takes many forms

Yet, despite the constant fears of unexploded ordnance and another Israeli attack, residents are resolute about staying in Aita al-Shaab.

Aita –al-Shaab is infamous for holding off Israeli forces last summer during three separate attacks, and people are proud of this fact. They say their resolve is even firmer than before. But for the people here, resistance is far more than just fighting.

Having watched other villages evacuated over the decades, residents say they will not abandon Aita al-Shaab.

“They tried to destroy us,” exclaims Hadjia Zahra, of the Israeli forces, “but we’re not leaving! Some of us came back when the Israelis were still here. This war, people ran away, next time we’ll stay!”

When I asked one olive farmer if she is scared to harvest, she shakes her head determinedly and says no. “I’ve learned how to identify them, so I’m not afraid. And if I’m killed, then I will just join the martyrs already in heaven,” she says, referring to those who died defending the village. Defying her fears of the cluster bombs is this woman’s form of resistance.

“The memory of occupation is strong here,” says Sadadin. “Weapons are one tool, but resistance is also something social. Just staying on your land is a form of resistance and people here understand that.”

Iraq: A Blueprint for Peace

by Karen Button

Beirut - “The US talks about withdrawal after bringing Iraqi security forces up to speed, yet has paid militias, allowed mercenaries, and, with few exceptions, ignored the blatant abuses and torture committed by Iraqi forces. They have ignored rampant corruption within all ministries, the most egregious resulting in a medical crisis and a judicial joke. They have also committed their own atrocities, ensuring that the new Iraq is riddled with violence, fear, and contempt for the occupying forces.”

Thus starts a new peace plan entitled Planning Iraq’s Future: A detailed project to rebuild post-liberation Iraq. The 250-page book was written over the past two years by 108 Iraqis that consciously included Sunni and Shi’a Muslims, Assyrian Christians, Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen, and other minorities. Two-thirds of the Iraqis still reside inside the country, the other third, outside.

Unlike some other plans, like that put forward in January by Ali Allawi, former Iraqi Defense Minister and current advisor to Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, none of the Iraqis who worked on this plan have ties to the current government.

That’s important, maintain authors of the new initiative. Precisely because the new Iraqi government is backed by occupation forces means it will never hold legitimacy in the eyes of Iraqi citizens and always be a target by resistance forces, says Dr. Khair El-Din Haseeb, Director General of Beirut’s Center for Arab Unity Studies, the Arab world’s most prominent think-tank and sponsor of the project.

The imperative for Iraqis to re-gain control of their country is what fueled the broad-based plan, says Haseeb, who also edited the book. The project, “is a ‘Road Map’ for the liberation of Iraq; a blueprint to a new, liberated, independent, sovereign and democratic Iraq,” he writes in the introduction.

“This plan proposes a direction for the future of Iraq,” explained co-author Dr. AbdulKarim Hani, while in Damascus. “We’ve been asked many times what is the political program of the resistance. Well, this is it.”

Signatories on the plan represent thousands of Iraqis, the authors say, because many of them speak for larger groups. Hani, for example, is with the Iraqi National Foundation Congress (INFC), a broad coalition of Iraqi political, intellectual, religious, and ethnic forces formed in 2004 to defuse sectarian and ethnic divisions.

“This occupation came out of13 years of the worst sanctions the world has seen. Now, we have had four years of even worse suffering. These are the conditions under which this document was written,” explains Hani, who himself finally fled Iraq for Cairo a year and a half ago.

“I don’t like being called a refugee and Iraqis shouldn’t have to be. Yet there are millions who’ve had to leave their homes. To call it a ‘problem’ is too minor; I call it a catastrophe. Every person I’ve met hasn’t left Iraq for pleasure, it’s because they had to. This means, very obviously, the occupation in Iraq has failed! It is imperative for the Iraqi people to have our voice.”

Numerous plans for Iraqi’s future have also been written by other groups opposed to the occupation. Some, like that written by the Association of Muslim Scholars, a powerful Sunni clerics’ organisation, have been submitted to the United Nations. A high-level meeting, planned for next month, will bring together “non-aligned” (those opposed to occupation) representatives from all the different Iraqi projects and form a single agenda.

“In that plan we will also include draft laws to address sectarianism and education,” explains Haseeb. “Among the groups there are contacts with [armed] resistance groups, so we have their agreement as well.”

“We are forming a very broad unified resistance front that represents the will of the Iraqi people,” says Hana Ibrahim, co-author and director of the Baghdad-based NGO Women’s Will. “We are growing very large, so maybe we won’t agree on every detail, but we don’t need to. We can put these aside for now to agree on the most important points, ending the occupation of our country. What’s important a unified resistance front.”

“At that point,” Haseeb reveals, “we can include people both inside and outside of Iraq and we will work together, not just the elite, but at the grassroots. We will have a dedicated website where people and organisations from around the world can register their support.”

The distinction between Iraq’s resistance and other armed groups is critical, contends Haseeb, yet a serious lack of analysis exists in the majority of Western media. Mostly, he says, all armed groups are wrongly lumped together under the umbrella of “insurgent.”

“The [armed] resistance does not attack innocent people and condemns all violence directed at civilians. Their targets are the occupation forces. The Iraqi resistance, whether armed or political, is legally-sanctioned under international law.” This point, Haseeb argues, is frequently missing in most media and completey ignored by the Bush Adminstration.

“We understand there’s been a vacuum of political resistance,” he acknowledges, “and this [plan] will fill that vacuum.”

The main points in Planning Iraq’s Future includes:

• Unequivocal 6-month US and other foreign troop withdrawal, to include all military bases;
• Iraqi National Resistance will declare a ceasefire, while keeping their arms, until the final withdrawal, after which all militias and resistance will be dissolved;
• Annulment of the current political process;
• Installation of interim Prime Minister nominated by non-occupation-aligned political and resistance groups, under UN auspices, for two years;
• Temporary peace-keeping forces installed, with consultation of the United Nations, from Arab nations that did not cooperate with US/UK invasion;
• Laws convening parliamentary elections would be enacted and elections held within two years;
• Army and other security forces not allowed in the political process;
• Non-aligned persons nominated to supervise transparent elections, with oversight by selected internationals (former South African president Nelson Mandela and former US president Jimmy Carter are both named);
• Members of the interim government would not be allowed to participate in new elections;
• Reformation of Iraqi Army (not a return of the former).

Importantly, the initiative also proposes a draft constitution, written by 200 academics, which maintains national unity, addresses oil rights, and guarantees civil and social rights. The rights of women are explicitly included.

“The plan is not perfect when it comes to women’s rights, but it is much, much better than what we have now. It gives us back what we had before,” says Ibrahim from Women’s Will. “And, we must first end the occupation to end the violence. It really doesn’t matter how many rights women do or don’t have if we can’t even walk down the streets in safety or attend school.”

A plan for Iraq is important, Haseeb says, because, “the political process [in Iraq] is crumbling. We have coalitions of [local] governments rather than a central one and the ministers are all living in the Green Zone, meaning they have no access to the ministries they are supposed to run. We know the Ministry of Interior has been penetrated by militias—at least by 80 percent, the Army by at least 50 percent. That means the Americans cannot hand over security to the Iraqi forces as planned.

“They [the Americans] argue without the US Army the civil war will grow. This is nonsense! Even the Pentagon says that resistance attacks have increased by 68 percent and this is against the US military. If the US withdraws, violence would obviously decrease. It’s simple math.”

In March Haseeb sent the plan to members of the British Parliament and the US Congress, among others. “We received acknowledgement from 24 members of the House of Commons showing interest, but so far there’s been nothing from the US Congress.

“I personally prefer to work out a plan for withdrawal with the American forces in Iraq, but with the grave mistakes they’ve made in the past, we can’t count on their rationality.

“Any extension or increase in Iraq will be at the cost of American and Iraqi lives. We need to make Mr. Bush understand this. Despite his security plan, at the end of this month it will be the highest number of casualties yet.”

April has been the deadliest month this year with 100 Americans and 12 British killed. The US military does not record Iraqi civilian deaths and the Iraqi government refuses to release civilian death counts. Estimates put the number of Iraqis killed in April well over 1,000.

“I’m more hopeful than at any time before that the Americans will withdraw,” concludes Haseeb. “They have three choices, go big, go slow, or go home.”

Escaping Baghdad for Damascus: Last Hope for Iraqi Refugees

by Karen Button

Damascus--At the Al-Tanaf border crossing into Syria long lines of trucks, buses and American-made SUVs loaded with luggage sit idle while their passengers fill the customs offices waiting for permission to cross the frontier. Hundreds of Iraqis mill about the windy desert outpost waiting hours for their documents to be processed so they can enter one of the last countries to offer them safety from Iraq’s escalating violence.

The mood at the border is one of great weariness, mixed with sadness and plenty of resentment. “Why did you come to destroy my country?” demanded one man angrily. “I had to leave everything behind! Why don't the Americans just leave us!”

Many of the women here are wearing a black abaya, signaling they are in mourning. Um Abdullah pulls hers closer against the cold as she sits on the concrete steps in front of the building with her daughter and grandchildren waiting for her name to be called. “My two sons were killed in Baghdad,” she says shaking her head sorrowfully. “The other one who is in Syria begged us to leave. We didn’t want to go. It’s our home, but what can we do? Syria is our last hope.” Her daughter says she was a teacher in the capital city, but refuses to say anything else. “She is too afraid,” observes Um Abdullah.

Like most other Iraqis here, Um Abdullah paid her driver $400 for a seat in one of the six-passenger vehicles that brought her to Al-Tanaf. The 550km road between Baghdad and Damascus is fraught with danger; most drive only in daylight for fear of being looted, kidnapped or killed.

Hamid, one of the drivers, jokes about highway security checkpoints. “What has the Iraqi Army done to protect the road? They now use the head of the gangs . We really thank them because now the gangs are using uniforms so it’s easy to tell who they are,” he says sarcastically. “They have been given a police car and a uniform, so of course they will abuse it. One with this habit won’t quit. I witness this daily! The Americans do nothing. I’ll tell you what happened to me .”

While transporting passengers to Syria recently, Hamid says, “I was stopped by security police who were driving a GMC with luggage on top for cover. They were demanding our money when the Americans passed by and witnessed what was happening. When they questioned them, the police apologized and said they were trying to loot us just to make the local mujahadin think they were with them. Then they showed their badges to the Americans and everyone left.”

Fear the unifying factor
The incident highlights deeper issues driving the Iraqi exodus. With security forces part of the problem in a country fragmented by violence, fear is the unifying factor for the tens of thousands of Iraqis who run from their homes each month.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) up to 50,000 Iraqis flee monthly, about 10,000 of them seeking refuge outside the country.

At least 4 million Iraqis are now displaced in what Refugees International has termed the “fastest-growing refugee crisis in the world.” At least1.9 million Iraqis have escaped to neighboring communities inside Iraq, the rest have fled the country altogether. The Iraqi exodus is the largest movement of people in the region since the 1948 creation of Israel displaced millions of Palestinians, according to the UN.

Accurate figures on the number who’ve escaped Iraq is impossible to determine since only a fraction actually register with the UNHCR. In Syria for example, where the refugee agency says 1.2 million Iraqis have sought safe haven, only 72,000 have thus far registered. The Syrian government puts the number at 1.5 million, while aid organization estimates say there are closer to 2 million. The UN refugee agency expects 200,000 more Iraqis to arrive Syria by the end of the year.

As many as 4 million Iraqis are thought to have fled to countries throughout the region. Besides Syria and Jordan—where the UN puts the number at 750,000 and unofficial numbers estimate 1 million—Iraqis have also sought refuge in Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey, the Gulf States, and Iran. All but Syria have effectively shut their doors.

In response some 60 nations attended a UNHCR-sponsored conference in Geneva this week to address the humanitarian crisis engulfing the Middle East. The Iraqi government pledged $25 million to assist the refugee support offices, while those countries hosting Iraqis promised to continue providing asylum, reported the UNHCR, whose aim was to elevate international attention to the disaster.

But in Jordan and Syria, where resources are already beleaguered, the strain is growing. Escalating rental prices reflect housing shortages. In Jordan Iraqis now make up nearly one-fifth of the population and officials have randomly closed their borders since November, leaving Syria the only sure exit route.

“We do thank the Syrian government,” smiles 65-year old Um Abdullah wearily as her family finally receives their documents and she gets up to leave for an uncertain future in Damascus. As she walks away another wave of new arrivals trudge across the wind-blown lot toward the customs building, clutching their travel documents in the waning light. They fill out pink entry forms, hand them over to officals, then are told to wait outside until another official calls their name from a small side window where hundreds of others also wait. And so the process continues, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, wave after wave of Iraqis seeking asylum.

Several hundred Palestinians from Iraq are not so fortunate. Some 350 are stuck in the Al-Tanaf camp just across the border in the so-called No Man’s Land, Syria refusing their entry. Another 300 are stranded in the Al-Hol camp just this side of Syria’s northern border with Iraq. Syria has been heavily criticized for allowing Iraqi nationals refuge while denying Palestinians targeted by sectarian Shi’a militias in Baghdad. Over half of the 30,000 Palestinians once in Baghdad have fled.

Seeking help not easy
Outside the sprawling month-old UNHCR facility in Damascus’s Douma district, close to two thousand Iraqis are lined up to gain an appointment for registration with the agency. Most began arriving at 6am, some slept overnight on the dusty pavement, blackened ground marking where last night’s warming fires burned.

Iraqis coming to Syria have escalated in recent months. According to Laurens Jolle, UNHCR representative for Syria, about 30,000 Iraqis arrive Syria monthly. “There are up to 4,000 people a day at the border and these numbers are increasing. One day in February 8,000 came to our offices. But, the exact number is not important,” he insists. “The real issue is for the international community to acknowledge and address the problem. Six months ago we had a huge number and there was little concern. Now, at least, there is some attention to the situation.”

In response to the humanitarian crisis, the UN allocated an additional $60 million to address the problem. But UNHCR Syria, which serves the largest number of displaced Iraqis in the region, received only $14 million, a little over $1 per person.

Another aid worker who spoke on condition of anonymity put it this way, “I believe there was a reticence and delay by authorities, even by the UNHCR, to acknowledge the situation. Nobody really cares about the human rights in the Arab world. All we have to do is look at the Palestinians and the Lebanese.”

Arriving Iraqis are encouraged by UNHCR to register with them, entitling the family to free medical care, access to services through the few aid agencies such as Caritas, and identifies the particulars for their situation. “We identify those who are most vulnerable,” says Jolle. “Unaccompanied minors, victims of torture, female heads of households and the disabled are all prioritized for protection,” he says, which includes seeking a sponsor country for asylum. “The most important thing is that they stay here and not be forced to return.”

At the Douma facility a community service center was also opened for medical emergencies because so many Iraqis arrive either wounded or with serious conditions, such as heart problems or kidney failure. Besides medical staff, a psychologist is also on board.

“It is a draconian situation in Iraq. Most Iraqis arrive here very traumatized,” says UNHCR Media Officer Adham Mardini. “Sometimes the psychological issue is even more immediate than the medical one.

“The international community needs to be sensitized. There is a growing social problem here; there is poverty which can lead to prostitution, there are psychological problems, and some people are receiving threats from Iraq.

“There are 1.2 million Iraqis in need here. The UNHCR cannot deal with this alone. The problem is the occupation, not the Syrian government or the UNHCR,” Mardini asserts. “Syria needs $1 billion to contain the Iraqi crisis.”

Underscoring Mardini’s comments, blowback from the US occupation occurred this week when several thousand Kurds arrived unexpectedly at the Douma office seeking registration. The refugee agency was caught completely unprepared without a Kurdish interpreter. With Kurdistan relatively calm, the few Kurds who’ve sought refuge have been mostly from Baghdad and speak Arabic. But, with Turkish troops recently massed along Iraq’s northern border, civilians fear an attack. Turkey has accused Iraq of allowing Kurdish guerilla groups seeking independent to launch attacks from Kurdistan. Last week the Turkish daily Today’s Zaman reported Turkish troops had already crossed Iraq’s border to destroy “terrorist” camps.

Meanwhile, outside the UNHCR Douma facility thousands continue to line the dusty street every Sunday and Monday, the only days when appointments for registration interviews are given. On this particular morning appointments were being set for October, the earliest date possible. By the afternoon, interviews were being set for mid-November. Two hundred fifty appointments had been scheduled.