With the passing of the 5th anniversary of the beginning of the war and subsequent occupation of Iraq little has been said about the toll the war has taken on the Iraqi people. According to the group, Just Foreign Policy (justforeignpolicy.org), the estimated Iraqi deaths as a result of the U.S. occupation is 1,200,000 and counting and is 10 times higher than that reported in the American media. The UNHCR's (United Nations High Commission on Refugees) most recent statistics on Iraqi refugees estimates that "4.7 million Iraqis have left their homes. More than 2.7 million Iraqis are displaced internally, while more than 2 million have fled mainly to neighboring Syria and Jordan."
In March of this year, as the anniversary of the Iraq war approached, the Parishioners for Peace and Justice at St. Peter Claver, RC Church in Montclair, N.J. and New Jersey Peace Action sponsored a talk by Cathy Breen. Cathy, a nurse by profession and long time member of the Catholic Worker movement in New York has been dedicated to the cause of the Iraqi people caught in the quagmire of the U.S.-led war and occupation of Iraq. Cathy has stood alongside the Iraqi people, witnessing their daily struggles prior to and during the war and now in Jordan as refugees.
A few weeks after Cathy's talk I sat down with her in an attempt to chronicle some of her journey over the last five years to bring the plight of the Iraqi people to the American public. The following account is just some of the topics we touched on.
KL: Cathy, you traveled in Iraq before, during and after the war. How was each trip different for you as an American?
CB: When I traveled to Iraq I was always conscious that I was from the United States. Before the war began in March of 2003, I remember being stopped by an Iraqi woman on the street. She asked me "Are you going to bomb us?...Take our oil, but don't bomb our children!" During these times the streets of Iraq, still under Saddam Hussein's regime, were safe to walk.
During the "Shock and Awe" campaign it
was actually easier
for me to be in Baghdad, under the bombs, than it would have been for
me to be
on the streets of my own country during the bombing campaign, the
country
dropping the bombs. I
remember during
the bombing visiting the site of a U.S. missile, a residential area
where the
day before a cluster bomb had exploded hitting 7 homes and killing
three young
boys, 7, 13 and l8 years of age. As
I
walked through the debris and held ugly twisted pieces of metal
fragments I had
to listen to the sounds of people crying and keening their dead. The sounds of their
mournful grieving
hounded me for months afterward, and I came away with the ID piece of
that bomb
inscribed "JX2N8902, Made in the USA."
I carry this piece with me in my change purse and
sometimes pass
it around when I speak to groups about the consequences of war.
In August of 2003 I traveled back to Iraq
and stayed for about three
months. It was in
October of that time
that a young Iraqi journalist friend, he had been to a press conference
held by
Paul Bremer, visited us at the apartment we were renting. One of his questions
focused on George
Bush's statement that the United States was bringing democracy to the
Middle
East. "What if the
primarily
Muslim Middle East, and specifically Iraq in its constitution, chose
Islamic
'rules.' Would the United States allow this?" he had asked. He likened the Governing
Council to the
former Baath party system where people were given no options. "The only change we have
experienced is
this," he said. "America
has
taken the cotton out of our mouths that Saddam put there. But they [the Americans]
have put it in
their ears!"
Today, five years into the occupation, we are still unable to listen. Now when I travel back to the Middle East I am even more conscious of being an American. Whenever I am asked by someone where I am from, I find myself bowing my head in shame as I acknowledge that I am from the United States.
KL: Cathy, while many peace groups across the country have focused on ending the war and bringing the troops home you have chosen to focus on the plight of the Iraqi refugees. Why?
CB:
When I first traveled to
Iraq I was with a small peace team now known as Voices in the
Wilderness. Since
January of 2004 we felt that it was no
longer wise to travel to central or southern Iraq as our presence would
put any
Iraqi associated with us in mortal danger.
Since that time I began to focus on the situation of
Iraqis who have
fled their country due to violence.
I
was able to spend six months in 2006 and another six months in 2007, in
Jordan
primarily. Living
alongside of Iraqi
refugees has allowed me to witness their everyday struggles, fears and
concerns. Their
children have become my
children as it were. I
believe
wholeheartedly that peacemakers need to be throughout the Middle East
witnessing what is happening there as well as to take another face of
our
country to the region.
KL: There are now more than 4.5 million displaced Iraqi refugees both within and without the country of Iraq, especially in Jordan and Syria. What is driving the exodus?
CB:
We can't understand the
exodus unless we understand the scope of violence that Iraqis are
suffering. People
are no longer safe in
their own neighborhoods. They
have been
subject as we know to kidnappings, assassinations, suicide bombs,
militia
attacks as well as US air strikes, raids and detentions. If someone is thought to
have money because
of their status or profession, they are kidnapped for a ransom. So they flee.
KL: What has been the effect on host countries, particularly Jordan where you have been living?
CB: Jordan, with a population of about 5 1/2 million, has the largest per capital refugee population in the world. The country's infrastructure is staggering under the weight of an estimated 750,000 Iraqis who have fled there, with their own high unemployment rate, a grave water shortage (the 10th worst in the world) and rising fuel costs (they used to get fuel for free under Saddam). The vast majority of Iraqis in Jordan do not have residency and have overstayed their visas. Neither Jordan nor Syria is a resettlement option for Iraqi refugees. They are in hiding as it were and outside of the law. They are not in tents but rather urban refugees who must pay rent, electricity, water and fuel like everyone else. Unable to work to support their families, they are also subject to deportation if caught working. One of the results of this desperate situation is that oftentimes their children are working.
KL: Iraqis are a proud, highly educated and resilient people. How have these qualities affected their Diaspora and the region as a whole?
CB:
I want to reiterate that
we don't see tent camps like in other refugee crises.
Iraqis are "urban" refugees who rent rooms and
apartments. Without
residency and legal
status however, they are not allowed to work.
While
they live side by side
with citizens of Jordan and Syria, they are fearful to go more than a
few
blocks from their apartments for fear of pick up.
Having long overstayed their visas and unable to pay the
fines,
they are subject to deportation back to Iraq.
Many Iraqis who have fled since 2003 are
from the middle class, people
uprooted from their jobs and professions as engineers, scientists,
professors,
doctors, architects, writers, or in technical or managerial positions. Contrary to global
consciousness which I
believe views Iraqis in countries like Jordan and Syria as living in
relative
safety, their situation has become more and more precarious and
desperate as
time goes by. Their
money has run
out and, unable to work and find gainful employment, they are
contemplating
or have already returned to Iraq in order to find work.
It is incomprehensible to imagine people who
have fled for their lives having to return back into the flaming
furnace!
I know of no other culture which values
education so highly, and can
testify to families who have defied death threats within Iraq and
stayed in
their homes another two weeks or a month before fleeing for safety—so
their
children could finish out the school term! In
Jordan I know children as young as ten years of age working
for 1 dinar a day (approx. $1.40).
I
have felt the shame of parents who have to watch as their children go
off to
work. Not having
their children in
school is like rubbing salt into an already infected wound.
KL: A year ago, April 2007, the U.S. State Department had said that it could take up to 25,000 Iraq refugees for the year—more than three times what it had originally agreed to take-7,000. Sadly, the total for FY 2007 only amounted to 1,608. For FY 2008 which began in October 2007 the goal is 12,000. Six months into the year, only 2,627 have been accepted when it should be 6,000 by now. What is the hold up?
CB:
The UNHCR has registered
thousands of Iraqis, recognizing them as vulnerable cases, and referred
them to
the U.S. and other countries for resettlement.
For example, their work as translators for the U.S.
military or corporations
have put them and their families at risk.
They have undergone extensive and arduous interviews,
having to tell
their painful stories over and over again.
Over months they have gone "up the ladder" so to speak and
their hopes have been raised for resettlement.
Finally they reach the one final decisive meeting with an
official from
the Homeland Security team, the interview which will decide their fate. I have personally
interviewed families and
individuals who have received a rejection letter, a form letter with
the box
"credibility" most often checked.
I have seen letters which have not even been dated or
signed. Let me give
you an example.
A father of a family I know was kidnapped
in Baghdad as he was
returning to his home after work.
He
had worked for the U.N. for about seven years.
He was hooded and a gun was repeatedly placed to his head
and then
removed and fired. This
man refused to
give information about his U.N. or U.S. colleagues.
He was stripped, beaten, urinated on and suffered abuse
beyond
imagination. He was
released for a
ransom of $10,000 after promising to pay another $40,000 upon release. His wife sold her jewelry
and borrowed money
to get the $10,000. The
couple and
their three children fled to Jordan when the kidnappers revisited their
home shortly
after his release to say they would be back in a few hours to collect
the
remaining ransom.
Incredibly, during the interview with
DHS, the wife was asked
"Why did you pay the ransom? Why
did you support terrorism?" The
father said to me incredulously "Even a child would understand this."
That paying a ransom for the release of a
loved one is basis for
rejection by Homeland Security for resettlement to the U.S. can only be
viewed
as the greatest hypocrisy and final indignation we could inflict on a
proud and
dignified people. We
have truly reduced
them to a beggarly status
Equally convoluted is our policy with
respect to family
reunification. Countless Iraqi refugees have family in the U.S., those
who
received refuge here under Saddam Hussein's regime.
They are now citizens and in a position to support and
sponsor
their family members in desperate need.
They are prohibited however if the family member is other
than a
husband/wife or child. This
means that
sisters, brothers or cousins for example do not qualify. I ask you, are these two
factors alone not a
clear indication that there is no political will in our country to
receive
Iraqis here in the U.S.?
KL: There has been news of late that Iraqi's have been returning home. Can you tell us about that?
CB: If
I am not mistaken, the
media began to play this up in early December of 2007, especially with
respect
to Iraqis in Syria, attributing the return with the success of the
surge. But
alternative media sources, while not
entirely ruling out improved security in Baghdad and the desire on the
part of
some to find out if their homes were inhabited or inhabitable, indicated that the return
was due in large
part to expired visas, exhausted finances, fear of detention and/or
forced
deportation, etc.. Humanitarian organizations, the UNHCR, the Iraqi
government
and even some US military sources have attested to the tremendous
humanitarian
crisis that the internally displaced Iraqis are suffering, a crisis
that is
only aggravated by the influx of Iraqis returning.
KL: How would you like to see the American people respond to this crisis?
CB:
The words of a long-time
peacemaker, poet and mentor to many of us in the peace movement, Fr.
Daniel
Berrigan, come to mind. "Everybody
doing something." I
think that the
greatest challenge we face is to find out what that "something" is,
and if we are sleeping peacefully at night then something is amiss. If we are open
to risk and creative
measures, then I believe we will find concrete ways to act. Get involved with Voices
for Creative
Nonviolence's Occupation project to pressure elected representatives in
their
respective offices. Take
part in the
Iraq Student project to help sponsor an Iraqi student to study here in
the
states. Get in
touch with the Direct
Aid Initiative which responds primarily to one-time medical
aid/emergencies. All
of these endeavors
can be accessed by googling them on the internet.
Some of us have been trying to raise money to send to
families in
Jordan and Syria so that they can pay their rent and not have to return
to
Iraq. And let us
not forget the power
of fasting and prayer.
KL: Before we end the conversation, can you talk about something or someone that has left you with hope for the future?
CB:
Two stories. One
I have already mentioned earlier.
That of the father who was kidnapped,
tortured and fled with his family to Amman, where the wife was asked by
Homeland Security "Why did you pay a ransom?
Why were you supporting terrorism?"
I called this family by phone to see if I
could bring a Jesuit priest around to meet them.
I realized immediately that I had put this friend in a
very
awkward position. "Cathy,"
he
said, "you know that our door is always open to you.
You are like a sister to us."
And then there was an embarrassed
pause. "But what
good does it do
to tell our story to people in the United States?
What changes in our situation?
It is like we are in the circus."
And then he told me that he had just spoken with is wife
about a half-hour
prior to my telephoning, and that they decided they would have to
return to
Baghdad in a couple of months.
"Our money has run out" he said.
"And I cannot beg. I
just cannot beg." I
had brought
some envelopes with money and handwritten messages from people and
groups in
the U.S. for Iraqis in need on that three-month trip in the Fall of
2007. As my trip
was drawing to a close I had only
one envelop left. It
was not a lot of
money, but it was from a Franciscan priest who was at the time serving
a
5-month prison sentence in a California prison for speaking out against
torture. I ended up going alone with
the envelope to their apartment and
giving it to the family. The
mother and
wife broke down in tears, not for the amount which was negligent, but
for the
gesture--for the outstretched hand.
Is
this not a sign of hope?
The other story is of a young man who was
heading in a taxi to his classes
at Baghdad
University. He was
in his third year. As they stopped at
a checkpoint, a car pulled up alongside of them and exploded. This young man lost his
right leg and
received multiple wounds to his right side, some of the shrapnel pieces
are still
lodged in his body. I
met him in Amman
where his father had brought him for an operation in an attempt to save
his
right eye. They
returned to Baghdad
after the operation (about 20% vision remains in the eye). This young
fellow completed his studies as
a Civil Engineer in Baghdad in Sept. of 2007.
How can we not draw courage from his example?
If you will permit me, I would like to close with some words by Daniel Berrigan. "Where are the peacemakers, and why do they fail" he was asked. He replied: "We have assumed the name of peacemakers, but we have been unwilling to pay any significant price for peace. We want peace with half a heart…with half a life…and half a will…the war continues because the waging of war is total but the waging of peace is partial."