World Tribunal On Iraq Delivers Clear Cut Verdict

by Karen Button

Some 150 worldwide news outlets have been reporting from the World Tribunal on Iraq, though only two smaller outlets, independents Big Noise and Deep Dish, are from the States.

This was even more evident this morning as news outlets swarmed the WTI press conference at the Armada Hotel where we awaited their decision. But again, the Americans were absent.

After twenty hearings of the WTI worldwide over the past two years, this culminating session heard 54 testimonies from ten different countries, the majority from Iraqis who risked a great deal to arrive here.

Arundhati Roy read the recommendations on behalf of the Jury of Conscience.

"We are people of conscience demanding justice and a peaceful future," she read. "Our collective conscience is our legitimacy."

The Jury acknowledged the crimes of Saddam Hussein, but he was not the focus of this Tribunal because, "Iraqis must investigate these crimes" as part of their own sovereignty.

In summation, the Jury of Conscience found:

In recognition of the right of Iraqis to resist & develop their own independent institutions, the WTI declares solidarity with the resistance in Iraq and calls for

1. Immediate & unconditional withdrawal of occupation forces.

2. War reparations on behalf of the people.

3. All laws, contracts, institutions and treaties established under the occupation that Iraqis don't support declared null and void.

4. Guantanamo and all other offshore prisons must be closed.

5. Exhaustive investigation of those responsible, including Mr. Bush, Mr. Blair and all other governments from Coalition forces.

6. Accountability of those responsible such as journalists, CEOs, and media outlets who deliberately lied and promoted violence and racism.

7. Accountability and worldwide actions against the corporations that have profited, such as Bechtel, CACI, Titan, KBR, Halliburton, Boeing, Texaco, BP, Chevron, and all the others. Calls for direct action, pressure to shareholders, and boycotts of these companies.

8. Call for soldiers resist and become conscientious objectors and ask for their political asylum.

9. All US bases in Iraq to be removed.

10. Call upon the people of the world to resist any of their government's support to occupation.

The verdict will be delivered to those listed as responsible. All breaches of international law have been listed and will be forward on to the International Criminal Court. This includes Arab countries such as Jordan, Eygpt, Kuwaiti and Yeman

When asked if the goals of the WTI will be reached, Roy responded by saying while it's doubtful the UK and US will pull out of Iraq tomorrow, the attempt of the WTI is act both is resistance and in solidarity. She cited, for example, the findings of the WTI strengthening conscientious objector's arguments.

The documents list certain media outlets and journalists, such as The New York Times and its journalist Judith Miller, who was cited for her false stories.

Any plan by the WTI to count on the mainstream media to broadcast this historical verdict was quickly dispelled by Roy. "It is a myth that the CEOs of corporate media support the global project, they ARE the global project."

Roy responded to the question of the WTI supporting armed resistance in words reminiscent of John F. Kennedy's famous statement, "Those who make peaceful resolution impossible, shall make violent revolution inevitable."

Roy laid responsibility for creation of the resistance squarely on the occupation. "When a government illegally occupies another country and then does everything in its power to use deadly force on the nonviolent protest, what is it doing? The American occupation is creating the armed resistance.

After the WTI, what? This remains the big question, and depends on who is asked.

Denis Holliday, former UN Assistance General-Secretary told me in a recent interview he believes the obligation to try governments is domestic. "The correct path," he said about Mr. Bush, "must be impeachment."

Each country and individual will have to chose where they take the WTI rendering. And, as Roy, concluded, "This [verdict] doesn't belong to the WTI, it belongs to you."

For the full World Tribunal on Iraq Declaration, go to http://www.worldtribunal.org/main/?b=91

World Tribunal On Iraq Takes Final Testimony

by Karen Button

The old stone building that was once the mint of the Ottoman and Byzantine empires, and is now host to the World Tribunal in Iraq, was packed for a third long day of testimony. Also packed was the courtyard across the way where informal meetings and interviews took place, performance artists and musicians performed, and gallons of tea and coffee were consumed. It also served as a break from the intense back-to-back sessions that have lasted 8-10 hours a day.

Today's proceedings marked the final day of the Tribunal, and dealt with the loss of Iraq's cultural heritage, ecological impacts of the war, global security, and future alternatives.

The devastation to Iraq's people, its environment and economy are only part of the chronicle, as Dr. Gul Pulhan so clearly articulated in her testimony. "As we speak, the sites, i.e. ancient mounds that bear all the evidence for our past, are being looted and destroyed. The loss of knowledge and the destruction of the record for a very crucial period of human history is unmatched."

Most are aware of the Iraq National Museum's looting in Baghdad during the spring of 2003. US troops stood by and watched as the world's richest collection of ancient Mesopotamia and Islamic artifacts were carried out the doors. Sadly, the story doesn't end there.

"Some of the world famous sites such as Babylon and Kish were turned into military bases and destroyed by the occupier. Others such as Umma, Larsa and Ninova became prey for wanton looters.

"In Dr. Neil Brodie's terminology 'the archaeological record soon will become extinct.'"

While Iraq's historical record is being erased, it is being replaced by a legacy of cancers and birth defects that the enormous use of so-called 'depleted' uranium will leave on generations to come. These weapons are more honestly referred to as uranium munitions or low-grade nuclear weapons, since 'depleted' gives the incorrect impression that they are somehow benign.

Instead, these weapons have a half-life of 4.5 million years and are highly carcinogenic.

In 1991, the US used more than 300 tons of these weapons on southern Iraq where cancers have now risen sharply, especially in children. As Dr. Thomas Fasy's testimony showed, in 1990 only 2 children under the age of five were diagnosed with leukemia in Basrah, compared to 2002 in which 53 children were diagnosed.

During the first two months of the current war alone, the UN and Pentagon estimate up to 2,200 tons of uranium munitions were used. Current figures from the Department of Defense for the subsequent two years are unavailable, but if only a quarter of the amount of weapons have been used since, it means at least 8500 tons of low-grade nuclear weapons have been spread, this time across the whole of Iraq.

As Dr. Souad N. Al-Azzawi reminded us, Iraq is only one recipient of this weapon banned by the United Nations. The US used uranium munitions first in the Balkans and later in Afghanistan.

The cold calculation, testified to yesterday, of the Bush Administration's invasion and privatization of Iraq was not without consequences to other nations, as long-time Mexico resident and correspondent John Ross told us.

Over 100 Mexican nationals have lost their lives in Iraq thus far, Ross, testified, and the government's will has been bent by US might.

"With the world's 11th largest reserves and currently its eight largest producer, Mexico accounts for about 14%of the U.S. oil basket, a percentage that has become increasingly vital to U.S. supplies, given uncertain relations with Venezuela.

"In the first months of the Iraq conflict, and in an effort to improve relations with a Washington that had become estranged over Mexico's intended vote against the invasion in the United Nations Security Council, President Vicente Fox upped Mexico's daily export platform from 1.2 million barrels to 1.6.

"With between only 10 and 12 years of proven reserves left, Mexico is essentially betting its energy future on Bush's faltering war in Iraq.

"Mexico's refusal to back the U.S. invasion provoked swift retaliation from Washington. Any prospect of much-needed immigration reform was shelved indefinitely."

As Denis Halliday, former UN Assistance Secretary-General and Oil-for-Food program told me, "Mr. Bush is famous about consequences, as long as it is someone else who is paying them."

When, at the end of the day WTI organizers held a session to address concerns voiced by some about the legitimacy of the Tribunal, Arundhati Roy closed by declaring, "Our legitimacy comes from the people. To question why we are here is like asking someone why did they stop at the scene of a car accident."

To look at Iraq in such depth is to stop at the accident scene and ask if everyone is all right. And now that we have found out that the answer is definitively no, the question of legitimacy becomes irrelevant.

Tomorrow, we await the Jury's decision and with that who will pay the consequences.

Spending The Day In Iraq

by Karen Button

Hundreds sat through a day of testimony, photos and films primarily from Iraqis about the effects of the US-led war/occupation in Iraq. I thought I knew most of what has been happening in Iraq, but listening, I realized how tight the grip of news censorship really is.

With hours of testimony, it is impossible to report back on what the day entailed, but it was mostly one that told the story of daily occupation and of the forces in place, which have made it possible.

First of these was Eman Khammas's photographs of the current US military actions, 'Operation Spear,' in the west of Iraq, close to the Syrian border. Like Fallujah, the US military dropped bombs (this time, 2000-pounds each) on the civilian population for days, after which they conducted systematic house raids. According to doctors, the majority killed, as in Fallujah, were women, children and the elderly. This was done, by the military's own admission, in the communities of Khaim, also called al-Qaim, and nearby Karabila whose collective population is about 100,000, in order to find 100 resistance fighters.

Also like Fallujah, the crimes committed in contravention to international humanitarian law were numerous. Hospitals were targeted, a medical warehouse blown up, the injured from Karabila were denied access to medical facilities in Khaim, and ambulances were blocked entrance to the city. A desperate Dr. Al Allusy, Director of Khaim's hospital, pleaded on national television, "I am pleading to humanity, to NGOs, to everyone: Let the American forces allow ambulances to pass through to the hospitals so that we can look after the injured. Dr Al Allusy also pleaded to American and British forces to stop the operations in Khaim."

Witness Eman Khammas, scheduled to talk about on The Ruin of Daily Life, said, "I feel compelled to talk about something more important than the power cuts, the lack of water and the contamination of the environment. I will be talking about certain cities under embargo and cities being bombed, such as Khaim and Fallujah. Even now Fallujah is under the same embargo and it is probably going through a worse process than it did
before.

Since November 2004 it has been under constant bombardment. These cities are characterized as cities of resistance."

Indeed, we were interrupted by an update from Iraq. Bombing had just occurred in Fallujah.

"In these so-called 'cities of resistance' there are in fact no camps filled with resistors; there are no fortifications. These cities are constantly bombed. Houses are blown up with people inside. Unfortunately, crowded families living in these houses bear the brunt of all this. When a hospital or a government office is bombed, people are left under the rubble for days until they die because no one will or can save them.

"The American forces occupy the buildings, mostly private houses, where they imprison the whole family. They put them in one of the rooms, using the rest of the house as their quarters, as a temporary military station.

When the U.S. imposes an embargo on a city, or when it encircles a city, the routes are blocked and any vehicle which approaches the city is shot at, without discrimination as to who is in the car - women, children, all will be killed. I personally witnessed the result of this in the hospital of Hadissa [also called Haditha, where the same type of military operations are in effect]."

Those arrested are taken and often the families have no idea where they are being kept. "We don't know what happened to tens of thousands of people whose families are looking for them in prisons. There are children looking for their parents; fathers looking for their sons. I am pleading to you all, pleading to all organizations working on human rights, to the UN: something must be done. We need to know what happened to these people: are they dead or are they alive?"

Longtime Ahram Weekly correspondent Nermin Al Mufti began, "I cannot start before saying we are the 'people' of Iraq, not 'peoples.' We will not bend to the American agenda" of trying to divide Iraq. "Please call us by this name only."

Prior, she had told me during an interview, "The US is trying to separate Iraqis. In Najaf, for example, they referred to 'Sadr al-Muqtadr's Shi'a' instead of the 'resistance.' Why?" She and other Iraqis have pointed out many examples of this, and it is, in fact introduced as part of the body of evidence.

"You can see this most prominently with the Parliament being divided by Shi'a, Sunni, and Kurd. This is not our way," another testifies. The American-installed interim government prior for the January elections introduced this form of government. This is repeated often throughout the day.

Al Mufti calls Iraq a prison these days. "Abu Ghraib is terrible, yes. But for 26 million people this is also the situation. For example, on Haifa Street [in Baghdad, near the so-called Green Zone], there are checkpoints, barbed wire, the homes are like a prison," where people stay out of fear for their lives. "Potable water is a dream. Journalism is not exercised freely. English has become compulsory in the schools. University courses are saying the US brought freedom to Iraq. The psychological warfare is creating a prison of Iraq. Before, there were no abductions; no killings like there are now. "The Iraq of yesterday," she says, "has gone away."

Fallujah-born al-Jazeera photojournalist Fadhil Al Bedrani was present during the attacks on Fallujah in April and November. "We would need volumes to document this. No houses have survived. Only 30 per cent of Fallujah is still standing."

Al Bedrani continued, "I could never forget the killing of 25 members of two families gathered in one house in Goulan area; this crime happened on April 11."

Numerous reports of illegal weapons being used in Fallujah were further substantiated. Al Bedrani met with survivors who told him how they were suffocating from a cloud of gas the Americans released. He saw the bodies of those who didn't survive, where no gunshots were present.

Next, the multi-national audience and 15-member Jury of Conscience watched two powerful films. The first documented US bombardment of Fallujah, families running, terrified, in attempts to flee the aerial bombing and avoid being shot by snipers, and, finally, the devastation that was once a city about the size of Anchorage. People are shown standing in long lines as they await permission to enter their city through one of only four gates where they must consent to a retina scan and fingerprinting before being issued an ID in English. It is only with this identification that Fallujan's are allowed entrance and exit to their city. Non-Fallujans are denied access. Those identified as Fallujans outside of the city are often considered terrorists by Coalition forces.

This short 16-minute film is all that's left from 28 tapes of footage, stolen during a break-in from filmmaker Mark Manning's hotel days after his return to the US. His computer, digital camera and other equipment left behind, the only things stolen were the tapes and his video camera.

Following, 28-year veteran Iraqi photojournalist Abdul Wahib Al-Obeidi summed up his powerful presentation by submitting his call to the Jury for a human rights tribunal to be held in Iraq. Beside him, the images spoke for themselves. Consisting primarily of children, the clips show children, some very young, perhaps three or four, being searched by US forces. Others show them playing on a piles of rubble, once the buildings that made up their neighborhoods, or running scared with their parents through streets that are afire, plumes of smoke behind them, or in the hospital, their bodies covered with shrapnel wounds.

There is one that stands out in particular. An adult man sits, cross-legged, behind a barbed wire fence. His body is slumped, his head covered with a black hood. In his lap lies a small child. The man has his hand on the child's head, as if to try to comfort him though he cannot see the child's eyes, which are full of fear.

These eyewitness accounts are the result, argued many, of a US agenda of military dominance in order to secure control of the world's resources. The so-called War on Terror has given the Bush Administration and their neo-conservative political allies their sanction.

Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) counsel Barbara Olshansky gave a chilling timeline of changes to US law since 9.11, beginning with 12 September. "The day after the attack," she said, "fifteen hundred undocumented people of Middle Eastern descent and/or Muslims were immediately rounded up" in a massive sweep across the US. "We'll never know exactly how many," she testified, because in a lawsuit brought by CCR and eventually heard by the Supreme Court, "we were told it wasn't our right to know."

"What we do know is that when they were released they were immediately deported," she said, some without notification to their families.

"That was the first chapter." Next, came Mr. Bush's "revision of law that made Guantanamo possible." To do this, Mr. Bush, former Counsel Gonzales and Cabinet members wanted a prison, Olshansky said was made clear from memos now public, that was beyond the law, where detainees could "be held indefinitely and they could be questioned under torture." This is why Guantanamo, located in Cuba, was selected.

Under this revision, torture, as defined by international law, was redefined to mean only that which would "cause major organ failure or death."

Guantanamo was the blueprint for subsequent prisons in both Afghanistan and Iraq. It was the first place where the types of sexual humiliation, naked detainment, extremes of hot and cold, religious desecration and isolation tactics were used.

Next, came the advent of 'enemy combatants.' "You must understand," she said, "this is a new phrase. It doesn't exist in human rights law. It permits the US government to kidnap anyone from any country and any time, with no charges, no trial," without even "notification to the country of origin." And with what's called 'extraordinary rendition,' people can be "seized, hooded, shackled, and sent to third countries where they are tortured at the request of the United States. Charter companies do this under contract" in what are referred to as 'snatch and grab' operations.

Herbert Docena, from Focus on the Global South summed up the current US foreign policy agenda calling it the most ambitious, most radical, and most violent project to reconstruct an economy along neo-liberal lines in recent history. In his Twelve Steps of 'Shock and Awe' Therapy he documents the steps taken by the US in revamping Iraq's laws and economic structure in what Reuters called a "free market manifesto" and the Wall Street Journal referred to as "one of the most audacious hostile takeovers ever."

Contracts between USAID and Bering Point declare the "new government will seek to open up its trade and investment linkages."

"It's sovereignty, but some of that sovereignty will be exercised on our behalf," declared then Secretary of Defense Colin Powell in what the Wall Street Journal realized was "to remake Iraq's economy in the US image."

A friend turned to me after this, commenting that it felt like a day in Baghdad; there was so much and nowhere to turn to get away from it. It was a very emotional day and so necessary for all of us non-Iraqis to hear. For the hundreds listening, most were in tears throughout much of the day.

I can feel it now, the next morning, even as I write this. I cannot imagine what being Iraqi must feel like. I am reminded how important this Tribunal is, how important it is for the people and not governments to write history.

The leading governments waging this war and their media may ignore the Tribunal, but it is being well covered elsewhere, especially in Turkey. This is an aspect, of course, of how the American public continues to be convinced that supporting a war/occupation which is illegal, creating a world that is less secure, destroying the country it was supposed to "liberate," and draining the US economy is the best course to take.

World Tribunal on Iraq Convenes in Turkey

by Karen Button

After two years and some twenty sessions, the World Tribunal on Iraq convened yesterday for its final session in Istanbul, Turkey. The Tribunal is a worldwide initiative established to create an historical record of the wrongdoings in the lead up, invasion and occupation of Iraq by George Bush's so-called Coalition of the Willing.

The historical event is patterned after the Russell Tribunal, which documented the Viet Nam war in 1967.

Both Tony Blair and George Bush were delivered summons in May. Mr. Blair declined the invitation. White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan denied ever receiving one.

Jury of Conscience Chair author Arundhati Roy opened by responding to concerns that this will be a kangaroo court of prosecution without defense and the verdict certain.

"This view seems to suggest a touching concern that in this harsh world, the views of the U.S. government and the so-called Coalition of the Willing headed by President George Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair have somehow gone unrepresented.

"If in the era of the multinational corporate media and embedded journalism anybody can seriously hold this view, then we truly do live in the Age of Irony, in an age when satire has become meaningless because real life is more satirical than satire can ever be.

"Let me say categorically that this tribunal is the defense. It is an act of resistance in itself. It is a defense mounted against one of the most cowardly wars ever fought in history, a war in which international institutions were used to force a country to disarm and then stood by while it was attacked with a greater array of weapons than has ever been used in the history of war.

"Second, this tribunal is not in any way a defense of Saddam Hussein. His crimes against Iraqis, Kurds, Iranians, Kuwaitis, and others cannot be written off in the process of bringing to light Iraq's more recent and still unfolding tragedy.

"Saddam Hussein is being tried as a war criminal even as we speak. But what about those who helped to install him in power, who armed him, who supported him - and who are now setting up a tribunal to try him and absolve themselves completely?

"The evidence collated in this tribunal should, for instance, be used by the International Criminal Court (whose jurisdiction the United States does not recognize) to try as war criminals George Bush, Tony Blair, John Howard, Silvio Berlusconi, and all those government officials, army generals, and corporate CEOs who participated in this war and now profit from it.

"The assault on Iraq is an assault on all of us: on our dignity, our intelligence, and our future."

Thus, the tone was set.

The Tribunal being set in Turkey bears a few distinctions. First is the fact that while the Turkish government aided the US-led invasion, it did so in the face of enormous opposition by the people. Second, as noted by Richard Falk, international law professor and member of the Panel of Advocates, past tribunals were European. "Now," he said, "the moral, political, and legal platform is moving away from the Christian West."

He called the Iraq war "the eye of a larger global storm," in which there lies an "American project to dominate the world by force of arms, to exploit the peoples of the world through the medium of economic globalization, and to administer its idea of security from its Washington headquarters."

To say the remainder of the day was full and intense is an understatement. Images of the February 15 global demonstration against the US/UK invasion reminded everyone where majority opinion lies and where the resistance lives, despite the daily doses of propaganda which tell us why the Iraq war was necessary, how much Iraqis welcomed it, how well the democracy project is going and how "we" - those of us still opposed to the war/occupation - are in the minority.

Witnesses on this day included Phil Shiner, who gave a brilliant legal framework on the illegality of preventative attack, use of force in inter-state relations, and of the occupation. The war in Iraq is important, he warned, as, "It is plain that the neo-cons and Bush and Blair wish to restructure international law to make it weaker but more flexible, and less concerned with the peaceful resolution of disputes."

Hans Van Sponek, formerly with the United Nations oil-for-food program, accused Security Council member governments who hid behind its screen of being complicit both before the war (during the twelve years of sanctions) and after. "The failure of the Council to make a humanitarian, ethical and legal difference is much more monumental than is commonly known. There is not only the betrayal of the Iraqi people but also the betrayal of the UN Charter and the betrayal of the international conscience."

This is "a low point in the history of the UN," he continued as he laid out how sanctions paved the way for Iraq's eventual takeover in 2003.

Canadian professor of law Amy Bartholomew, Canadian human justice expert Jim Harding, Pilipino Walden Bello, director of Focus on the Global South, Tanzanian professor of international law, Issa Shivji, and Turkish journalist Mete Cubukcu were some of the additional witnesses who wove a web of responsibility for governments and accountability of the media.

Today, the legal framework was set, tomorrow, we will hear the eyewitness testimony of Iraqis who've borne the brunt of the neo-colonial brutality.

To read testimony of the witnesses and presenters, which I highly recommend, go to http://www.worldtribunal.org/main/# or for livestream, go to http://www.deepdishtv.org

Iraqis Prefer Saddam over U.S.

by Karen Button

Majda Abdullah Ahmad is sitting in an apartment in downtown Amman. She's on her way to the UK where she will stay with her son for the next six months, getting a break from war-torn Iraq.

Majda is 65 years old. She's witnessed a lot of Iraq's tumultuous history. She's lived through the assassination of King Faisal in 1958 (she says her uncle was his barber and witnessed the attack), which effectively ended Britain's four-decades-long stronghold over Iraq. She's also lived through the 1968 coup d'état, Saddam Hussein's takeover of the government in 1979, the Iran-Iraq War (Gulf War I), the Persian Gulf War (Gulf War II), and now, this second war and occupation of the United States, which she says is worse than anything she's experienced.

When I tell her that I will use a pseudonym if she is more comfortable, she waves the idea away with her hand. "I am 65; I am not afraid!" she declares.

"Strange people came to our country and destroyed all of the history of my country. Why? There is no reason for the US army to come to our country. They talk about many reasons, but it is all lies and propaganda! The situation is now clear. They lied because they want Iraq's oil and Iraq is a good strategic place. We call the US army 'thief.'"

Like many Iraqis, she says the current US-led war and occupation has had more impact on her and her country than any past conflicts, and has created more chaos and death than did Saddam Hussein during his reign.

As one example, Majda cites the home raids of most of her neighbors. Majda lives in the al-Adhamiya area of Baghdad, which most Iraqis refer to as the Fallujah of Baghdad.

The US has used extremely heavy-handed tactics in the district, conducting thousands of home raids that have left scores of Iraqis dead, fueling a resistance to the occupation that, despite what US media claims, is still made up primarily of the average angry Iraqi than any foreign insurgency.

Majda's 42-year old daughter, Fatima, a schools supervisor, speaks up, "The US has a very bad reputation. They always steal." They then begin telling the stories of their neighbors, long-time friends of theirs in this close-knit society.

"The women especially like to have gold." Fatima explains the custom of a man giving gold to his future wife as a type of dowry. "I know a woman the US stole this gold from and the man, they took one million Iraqi dinar (about $4,000 USD) from him," says Fatima. "Why?"

She resettles herself in her chair, her energy building. "Another family, this one sold ceramics, the US came and took the father and two sons. Then they smashed all their ceramics when they left. They took them because they allowed Saddam to stay at their house for two nights. For this, they were kept four months."

"Look, the US took over Saddam's palace when they invaded, and they are still there," Majda begins anther story. Fatima breaks in by saying this has caused a lot of resentment. "There are two boys, one sixteen, the other seventeen, they shot small household rockets toward the palace. The Americans killed both these boys." A third, a mentally disabled boy who happened to be walking by was also gunned down.

"My son's house is close by," says Majda. "The US military came and turned his house upside down. Since then, many times in the nighttime, he has heard them walking on his roof. Only two homes have not been searched, mine and another neighbor." Yet, she says they have come a number of times demanding to search her car, which is parked in front of her house, ostensibly for the presence of car bombs. She says the Americans come with "Iraqi spies," men who cover their faces and do not wear uniforms.

"They come with maps that have information about the owners of the houses. People are afraid."

Her daughter speaks up, "We know who these men are." She tells me they work for Mohammed Saddam, a man known before the war as a local criminal, owner of gambling establishments and a brothel in this deeply religious community. Now, she says, it is common knowledge that he is assisting US forces in identifying houses to raid in the never-ending search for so-called insurgents.

"One week after the three boys were killed, the Americans returned." Fatima tells yet another story. "A doctor lives in the next street from ours. They attacked his house and killed him. Then they took everything from the house and threatened his wife if she told they would kill her too." Everyone believes this was in retaliation for the three boys and was to serve as a warning to the community.

"Now, there is no security. Because of that we are scared. We wish Saddam is still our president. There is no comparison between Saddam and the US," says Majda.

"He was a dictator and he killed many people, but now we feel so bad because the Americans bring worse things." Fatima is talking now about the killings of professors (the 60th of which was just gunned down two days ago) and the unprecedented violence toward women.

"Of course, we were afraid for the rules before under Saddam, but we have never, ever seen kidnappings in our society, especially we have never seen this toward women." She continues, "this is not from our country."

Like most Iraqis, Majda and Fatima didn't like their dictator, but he was at least of their blood. For those of us in the states that don't like the policies of George Bush, think if China, for example, were to invade and occupy the country in order to free the people. Think of Bush hiding somewhere, only to be found, cowering, unshowered and unshaven, by the occupiers and brought to trial under their rules, not ours.

I think about this as Majda sums up her feelings. "I don't like Saddam, but I was very sad when the Americans captured our president. They said, 'We insult you!' by this act. Of course, we hate him, but we all say, we would keep him in our house to protect him!"

World Refugee Day in Iraq

by Karen Button

On the 17th of June, US-led forces launched a second attack in the al-Anbar province of western Iraq. Coalition forces claimed Operation Spear was designed to root out so-called insurgents and foreign fighters along the Iraqi-Syrian border. The communities of al-Qaim and its sister city Karabila have been the most recent target.

In a situation eerily similar to Fallujah (located a few hundred kilometers downriver on the Euphrates), US-led forces are destroying Karabila in order to save it. CNN reports that the US military suspects there are about 100 foreign fighters in this city of 60,000, yet 2000-pound bombs are being dropped on this community.

In order to escape certain death from the massive assault, families are attempting to flee across the river. Now, US forces have denied medical access to the city, as they did in Fallujah, claiming that the only people injured by the massive bombing are insurgents.

However, aid agencies and doctors have appealed to the US-led occupiers to allow them in to treat the injured, which they say include hundreds of women and children.

"The situation is critical in the village of Karabila. Hundreds of injured people are inside the town requiring urgent medical treatment but have been prohibited to leave the village by US forces and we are not authorized to enter there," Dr Hamed al-Alousi, director at the nearby al-Qaim general hospital, said in an interview with IRIN News.

"We have reported that more than 7,000 families from Karabila are camped in the desert near to the village. All of them need urgent food and medical supplies and more than 150 houses have been totally destroyed inside the village," Firdous al-Abadi, a spokeswoman for the Iraqi Red Crescent Society, said, according to the same report.

Ironically, this report was filed on World Refugee Day.

Later in the evening I received a message from a friend. A doctor who'd just been in al-Anbar Province said he had witnessed crimes in the west area of the country. “The American troops destroyed one of our hospitals”, he said, “ they burned the whole store of medication, they killed the patient in the ward... they prevented us from helping the people in Qaim." Qaim and Karabila are sister cities.

In bold, red letters the doctor pleads: "Urgent Humanitarian request, the hospitals in the west of Iraq ask for urgent help ..we are in big humanitarian medical disaster."

Read most US news accounts though and you will only hear about US military casualties and "insurgent" deaths in this battle on behalf of the Iraqi people.

You will not read the words of this or other doctors whose ability to provide medical care has been impeded by a military force that claims to be helping Iraqis. Nor will you read about aid organizations like the Iraqi Red Crescent (similar to national chapters of the Red Cross) providing the medical supplies that ought to be supplied by companies who've received billions in US taxpayer dollars to reconstruct and restore a country torn
apart by a needless and illegitimate war and occupation.

Iraq's Refugees Fear Hopeless Future

by Karen Button

In the heat of a blistering mid-day sun, Ruweished refugee camp comes into view. A large worn sign proclaims in English and Arabic: Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization, Ruweished Camp, In Coordination with UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees).

Sixty kilometers from the Iraqi border, Ruweished camp sits in the midst of a hot and barren desert that stretches as far as the eye can see. The UNHCR camp was constructed in response to the US threat against Iraq; anticipating a mass exodus, it was built to accommodate 10,000.

The camp is surrounded by a barbed wire fence making it look more like a prison camp than a refugee camp. Indeed, armed security guards greet our car and only after producing a permission letter from Jordan's Ministry of Interior are we allowed entry. The safety measures, we are told, are for protection of the camp's residents although there have been no security issues.

Immediately, we're surrounded by people desperate to tell their story to someone from the outside world. For the nearly 900 refugees who've been living in the isolation of this desert outpost, it's clear we represent a certain hope to those who have little left.

While residents can leave for short visits to the nearby community of Ruweished, their home remains this camp of tents, patched together with tarps and canvass bearing the logo of the United Nations. CARE International provides some schooling and limited vocational training, and the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization provides food, water, cooking stoves and other essentials, yet the mood here is depressing.

In fact, a number of Palestinians who originally fled decided to return to Iraq and take their chances rather stay at Ruweished.

As bleak as the camp is, about 750 of the residents have been recently relocated here from an even worse situation where they were stuck between Jordan and Iraq for two years. No Man's Land camp, as it came to be known, was under no state's jurisdiction. This left the refugees in a precarious security situation and the aid organizations' staff at considerable physical risk when attempting to access the difficult to reach camp.

According to the UNHCR, "Despite an agreement between UNHCR and the Ministry of the Interior to allow all Iraqis through, several hundred people were stuck between the two countries until just two weeks ago when Jordan finally allowed their relocation to Ruweished."

Several people I met with claimed three unexploded missiles had been found nearby No Man's Land and that a bomb-equipped car was intercepted only because a man ran from it, alerting both the community and security forces.

Second-generation Refugees

Most at Ruweished were already refugees of other nations residing in Iraq. Ethnic Kurds from Iran make up the majority population here, then Palestinians, Iraqis and a fourth group of mixed nationalities.

The first to arrive at Ruweished were the Palestinians. Having faced daily discrimination for years in Iraq from the community, many feared it would become worse after the fall of Saddam's regime. For example, one Palestinian neighborhood in Baghdad was collectively evicted after landlords raised their rents post-invasion. Several hundred fled, some ending up here. Those who stayed wound up in tent encampments within the city; only recently were the last of this group relocated back into apartments.

Here at Ruweished, the camp is divided along ethnic lines.

In the Iranian Kurdish section most families' stories are similar. They all fled Khomeni's fundamentalist regime; most are from Kermanshah. Some were with the peshmerga or PKK (the Kurdish resistance, also active in Turkey where the government there has engaged in armed battle for years). Most were farming families, sympathetic to Kurdish independence , but not actively resisting.

In 1979, the Khomeni regime began bombing their communities.

Zawar Malaki was just a child when three helicopters from the regime rained bombs on their village. His older brother Yawar unfolds a weathered piece of paper and hands it to me. On it are the names of 23 people who were killed during the bombing, a 24th name has written next to it in large bold letters, "executed." "We fled the very next day to Iraq," Zawar says as his brother carefully refolds the paper.

Some 12,000 fled to nearby Iraq, hoping for a sympathetic reception from the secular government. But, as 38 year-old Osman remembers, "Saddam wanted to bury us. Fortunately ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] discovered us, so we were relieved."

The UNHCR eventually settled the Kurds at Al Tash camp near the town of Ramadi in central Iraq where they remained until the current war. It wasn't an easy life. Work was hard to come by and medical care expensive.

"We fled death to Iraq but we were faced with such a hard situation. There was too much suffering and no money to go to the clinic." Osman points to his wife Fatima who holds two of their five children. Nine year-old Iysha and her seven-year-old sister Nasrim were both blinded at infancy from preventable causes, measles and high fevers.

The situation at Al Tash quickly deteriorated after US soldiers targeted Ramadi during the invasion. Since the Americans weren't securing Iraq's borders, most feared reprisals from the Iranian government once Saddam's regime fell. The community fled once again. Some of Al Tash's refugees went north into Kurdistan, some to Syria and some to Jordan where they now find themselves safe, yet with little hope for the future.

"I was in al-Tash since my birth in 1982. I am afraid to die in a refugee camp. I can't understand the meaning of a real life," 23 year-old Nakim Azizi admits as he holds up his hands in defeat.

Few Options for Camp Residents

We are standing under a scorching sky where the afternoon wind is picking up speed, blowing sand through the desolate camp. There is not a tree or bush in sight. The only escape from the sun is the shade offered by the tents, which are transformed into saunas during the day. There is no escape from the sand, which covers everything.

I'm invited inside one family's tent where the I'm welcomed profusely and offered the customary shay (tea). The floor consists of tarps with blankets laid atop and a few scattered worn-out pillows. There is no furniture, save a long dresser on which sits a television, which, ironically, most people here have. Numerous small satellite dishes are
scattered throughout the camp. Cell phones are also common, in glaring contrast to the camp's inaccessibility.

Here, in this place where one can smell the latrines before seeing them, the UNHCR is doing their best to find countries that will accept Ruweished's refugees, but it hasn't been easy. UNHCR, under tremendous pressures, does their best, but some of the refugees are embittered, feeling that the agency is not doing enough.

Nazakat Yossefi's is one of the families recently moved to Ruweished from No Man's Land. She is alternately full of fire and despondency.

"For 26 years we are living a bad life [in Al Tash]. We are vagrants. I went on a hunger strike to save my family from a situation of death. To save my children's family." Forty-one year old Nazakat and about 25 others went on a hunger strike earlier this spring to bring attention to their plight.

Nazakat ended her 26-day protest when UNHCR promised hers would be one of first families helped. But 384 people were later accepted to Sweden and her family was not amongst them. Now she is angry and she blames UNHCR.

"I feel so bad toward UNHCR. They didn't keep their promise. They didn't act for me." She believes," if UNHCR wants, they can save us."

She looks unflinchingly into my eyes, "Suicide is maybe better, or another hunger strike, If UNHCR does not save me, I have no choice. I prefer death to this life."

Her husband and children sit quietly by as she says this. She repeats, "I prefer death to this situation."

I look over at the two youngest girls, one is watching her mother carefully, the other looking down at the floor, which consists of tarps covered by some wool blankets. I don't know what to say in the long silence that follows.

Her eldest son, 18-year-old Khalil speaks up. "You are in a jail in No Man's Land. Now this is another jail. It is like before we were in Abu Ghraib, now we are in Guantanamo."

Nazakat's situation is made more unbearable, she tells me, because the rest of her family were granted entry to Europe years ago, but since she had married, she couldn't go with them. Now, her mother calls her frequently from Finland where she has appealed to the government on their behalf. Finland, though, like most countries, aren't accepting refugees from this camp.

Resettlement Not Easy

According to the UNHCR office in Amman, "UNHCR has had limited success in finding longer-term solutions for people stuck on the Iraq-Jordan border. In 2003, the Jordanian government accepted 384 Palestinian men and children with Jordanian spouses and mothers. Close to 400 others have been resettled to Sweden and Ireland."

There are some 800 Iraqi nationals in Jordan who are so-called "recognized" refugees, which means they have the option of "being integrated in to Jordan" or the UNHCR will attempt to resettle them in a third country, according to Protection Officer for Amman, Hanan Handan.

Another 15,000 who've fled since 2003 have been offered "temporary protection" status, meaning they are "protected from being returned by force to Iraq."

When I ask how the US and Britain have responded to resettlement applications, I am told, once again, that the officer I'm speaking with does not have the jurisdiction to answer.

After numerous thwarted attempts to reach UNHCR representatives, I begin to understand the intense anger some of Ruweished's residents vented toward the agency.

Epitomizing the bureaucracy is the standard UNHCR letter numerous refugees produced when explaining their case. In it they are told there is no guarantee that their resettlement application will be accepted and, if not, "there is no procedure to appeal the rejection."

A Plea to the World

People at Ruweished feel forgotten and that is their greatest concern.


"I want to communicate to the world after 23 years of suffering, now our children are deprived of everything," an angry Yawar Malaki states. His young daughter died last year while at No Man's Land he sadly tells me while holding a tiny laminated copy of the UNHCR letter.

Rabiah Azizi, more soft-spoken, puts it this way, "I know you are working hard, but please work harder. The world must know we are here. We need your help."

Fleeing Iraq Under Threat of Death

by Karen Button

Hassan loves sports and the arts. He graduated university with a degree in cinema. Prior to the US-led invasion of Iraq, he played basketball for a club in Baghdad and was the sound engineer for a local modern dance company. He also owned a small recording studio, which turned out to be his biggest problem.

I am speaking with Hassan (who chooses not to use his real name for fear of reprisal) in Amman, Jordan, where he fled six months ago from Iraq. Between glasses of sweet Iraqi tea, or shay, he tells me how much Iraqis love sports and the arts and how much their ability to do so is changing.

Although not a huge priority of Saddam Hussein, especially in a country whose economy was a near disaster due to economic sanctions, Hassan says still the government gave some financial support to the cinema, theatre, and music. Living in a secular state, Iraqis were free to express themselves artistically, as has been part of their rich cultural tradition since the time of Mesopotamia.

When US forces stood by and watched Baghdad’s National Museum be looted, the rest of the world stood by horrified. The museum was known for its amazing collection of ancient artifacts, documenting the wealth of Iraq’s cultural heritage. The loss was incalculable. Now, the current generation may be lost as well.

The numerous theatre groups that flourished in Baghdad before the war are quickly dwindling. Many groups continued to perform after the occupation even though government financial support was gone, but as the security situation worsened attempting to go across town for rehearsal became too great a risk, especially for the women members. Women, once safe during Saddam’s reign, are now mostly relegated to their homes for fear of kidnapping and rape. In Hassan’s theatre group, the number of women members has shrunk to two.

Now, there is an additional threat. Last summer, after the battle between the Medhi Army and coalition forces, the situation became worse. The Medhi Army is the religious militia of Muqtada al-Sadr, a cleric from the holy city of Najaf whose newspaper was shut down by the US. In retaliation, his army attacked US forces who, in turn, threatened to storm Najaf’s mosque, one of Iraq’s holiest sites. The days long standoff ended only through negotiations by Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani.

Shortly afterward, threatening notes began to appear on the door of Hassan’s recording studio. The notes said music was “harram”(taboo) under Islamic law. Those who wrote them said they would destroy Hassan’s shop and kill him or his family if he did not shut down. Since other music shops in his area had recently been destroyed, he had no reason not to believe them.

Hassan’s habit of running his hand through his hair increases as he gains energy relating his story.

After getting rid of most of the contents of the shop and shutting it down, Hassan and a friend were sitting in the storefront one evening visiting when two cars drive slowly by. One has four men inside covered in scarves, the other a single driver.

Hassan slows to explain that this arrangement is typical, in case something goes wrong there is an extra vehicle in which to escape.

They drive by a second time, looking into the shop and then pull over. Nervously, Hassan and his friend immediately shut off the lights and lock the door. Fortunately there is an exit in the back and they both run in opposite directions, Hassan climbing over the fence of a neighbor to escape. He goes to the home of his sister instead of his own where he stays the night. At 5am the next morning his brother arrives with some of Hassan’s things and he says goodbye to them, hiring a driver for the long and dangerous drive to Amman, leaving his country behind.

I ask him if the men are from the Medhi Army. He doesn’t know. He tells me, “this is the problem in Iraq, when you have someone trying to kill you, you don’t know who it is – they use it for politics. For example, maybe the Badr organization [the fundamentalist Shi’a militia with heavy Iranian ties and now ruling the south of Iraq] kill an Iraqi and they say, ‘look, mujahadeen kill this one, mujahadeen is bad,’ we don’t know. Just my shop and me are in danger, that is what I know. So I leave Iraq.”

With the secular governments of past, this type of violence and repression in Iraq has been unknown prior to the US occupation. Now, with the US having set up an interim government according to religious and cultural ties, they have brought secularism to Iraq.

Many Iraqi families are a mix of Sunni, Shi’a and Kurd. People have always been Iraqi first. Now, this is changing and the result is a growing fundamentalist movement.

This is what forced Hassan to leave the country he loves, doing the work he loved doing. In Jordan, he is not allowed to work without the proper papers and must leave every three months to renew his visa. The last time he went to the Syrian border to do this and watched as five others before him were denied re-entry. He was fortunate though and allowed back in. Who knows what the next time will bring.

Hassan bristles when I call him a refugee and says, instead, he is living in exile. For now, he is coaching basketball here in Amman, trying to find support for his dance troupe and taking work, when he can find it, doing translation – under-the-table, of course, like most of the 700,000 Iraqis living here in “exile” from their homeland.

Amman: Home to the Middle East's Refugees

by Karen Button

Arriving in Amman, we flew over vast stretches of desert punctuated by the occasional road and, closer to the city, groups of camels. While descending I could see the long, straight and notorious road that leads from Amman to Baghdad and the chaos that is currently Iraq.

Amman is a bustling city of 1.5 million where traffic jams are the norm, as are cars four abreast on a road that is three lanes wide. And if someone's horn didn't work, they probably wouldn't know how to drive. I've come to the conclusion that no one sleeps here.the vegetable stand across the street is still open at midnight, cars are still honking at one another at 2am, the first call to prayer arrives at 5am and the propane truck comes not long after with its tinny warbling of a soap-opera-like tune.

Jordan is a country ruled by a relatively benevolent monarchy, though the king's face is more prevalent here than any dictator I've seen while in war-torn Central America and more than Saddam Hussein's according to the Iraqis I've met.

Transjordan was carved out of Ottoman-ruled Palestine after World War I by British mandate rather than by any tribal boundaries. As a result, what is now Jordan is definitively Muslim Arab, yet has little of its own character. Its population of 5.6 million is 50-70 per cent Palestinian, most of whom fled during the 1948 and the 1967 wars. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis live here after fleeing first Saddam and now the American-led occupation.

My first few hours in Amman I'm introduced to a physician from Baghdad Medical City who will be going back to Iraq within a few days. I give him the huge suitcase of medical supplies I've brought over. He thanks me, then begins telling me of additional supplies needed: external fixators for the huge numbers of broken bones, sutures, any type of surgical instrument - all for trauma wounds mostly from gunfire and car bombs. He's matter-of-fact in his explanation, as one who's become accustomed to seeing the horrors of Iraq's daily violence.


We later go to dinner with a visiting sheik from Baquba. He is a kind and intelligent man, as ready with laughter as he is serious discourse on the illegality of Iraq's occupation.

Soon after another Iraqi friend comes by the hotel. She has been here long enough to take a small 2 bedroom apartment where there are now eight family members living. Her mother has recently come out of Iraq and is attempting to go to the UK to visit one of her sons. The embassy opens around 8am, but she tells us that her elderly mother will go at 4:30 or 5 in order to secure a place in the long line that forms each day, just for a tourist visa.

I later meet an Iraqi man who tells of his application for refugee status through the US Embassy and I am left with a simmering anger at the way he is treated by an interviewer who won't even address him by name as she dismisses his appeal. He received a death threat that isn't believed. He has no evidence. He laughs as he asks us, "Shall I go back to Iraq and be killed so they can have the evidence they want?"

When we go back to the hotel we have our ritual evening tea, political discussion and Al-Jazeera news translation with Ahmed, our hotel manager. It is impossible to walk by his office without a visit and it's quickly become something I look forward to, as much for the conversation as for the news update. Al Jazeera is the Arab news station out of Qatar that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has done his best to demonize and that the US bombed during the invasion (though they had given their coordinates to the military), killing one of their journalists.

It is the most watched news channel in the world and for good reason. Theirs is the most comprehensive and well-reported station I've seen, which explains why they've been kicked out of "democratic" Iraq and numerous other Arab countries for being critical of their regimes. A stamp of legitimate reporting in my book.

I've been here a short time, yet am struck by the effusiveness and spirit of the Iraqis I've met. Through laughter they tell of terrible injustices. They make fun of Bush and his adminstration and with kindness ask how Americans can have a leader such as him. The anger is there, of course, but it is infused with amusement at the stupidity of the situation as much as the heartache.

In the next few days I will go with some others to an Iraqi refugee camp close to the border. They have recently been moved from "no man's land," an outpost between the bordering countries, to outside the small town of Ruwaished. Most of these people, I've learned are non-Iraqi citizens who have already fled their home country and are now refugees of a second.