Translated material
Letters of Death
Iraq is approaching a humanitarian catastrophe
An international conference on the problems of Iraqi refugees and internally displaced persons opens today at the Geneva Palace of Nations. Statistics from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) show that since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, 1.9 million Iraqis fled their homes and found refuge elsewhere in the country, and 2 million lived outside the country, eking out a miserable existence. mainly in neighboring countries in the Middle East.On average, about 100 people die every day in Iraq today, 40% of adults are injured or injured, half of the working population is unemployed, and many schools are closed. However, some have found new work: for payment from interested parties, volunteers search landfills and river banks for the bodies of missing people. Due to insecurity, many schools are closed. The UNHCR report contains abundant evidence of the horror that has become everyday life in Iraq.
Here are examples. Computer engineer Case was kidnapped on May 20, 2004, while he was tinkering with his car in the garage. His pregnant wife Leila saw everything from the window and suffered a miscarriage from the shock. They expected reprisals every day after the inscription appeared on the wall of their house: “Their blood is required.” The fact is that Case is a Sunni Muslim, and Leila is a Shiite Muslim and Kurdish by origin. When they married in late December 2002, no one asked what their religious affiliation was. Such marriages were common, and the young people settled in a quarter where Sunnis and Shiites lived peacefully.
Three months later, the Americans invaded Iraq, and three months later, sectarian clashes began in the country. There were threats and intimidation of Leila’s parents: how could they allow their daughter to live with a “dirty Sunni.” But Case was “lucky”: he was kidnapped not by radicals, but by robbers. Having received 20 thousand dollars, they released him. After this, the husband and wife fled to Serbia: “If we return, we will have to walk through Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods, not knowing where death awaits us.”
Others are less fortunate. Nada's husband was kidnapped in Kirkuk in November 2006 and has not been heard from since. “People are being killed based on their ID,” says a woman who found shelter in Jordan. “You can’t tell who I am by my name, but the ID shows my father’s name, which is typically Shiite.” Fear creeps up your throat when you are stopped at some checkpoint in Baghdad. Anything and they can kill you.” But Nada’s family is not safe in Jordan either. Nada tells how her cousin and his friends were detained by the police, and after a night in the police station they were taken to the border and thrown into Iraq. There were cars parked there, and the guys asked who could take them to Baghdad without money. They were taken, but to a different place. Drivers are paid $100 to deliver one Shiite to the extremists.
Mixed neighborhoods no longer exist in Iraq. They simply sent a letter to non-believers: “We give you 48 hours to leave. Remember: 48 hours after receiving the letter, then death.” Sunnis move to Sunni areas, Shiites to Shiite ones, Kurds and some Arabs to the northern provinces, and Christians to the same areas.
It is not surprising that the flow of refugees is growing. During 2006, the number of people leaving their homes increased by 50%. The situation is no less tense in neighboring countries. Tens of thousands of Iraqis cross the border into Syria every month. 1.2 million people are seeking salvation here, 750 thousand in Jordan. Western countries do not really favor refugees from Iraq, and thus 95% of all Iraqi refugees, that is, almost 4 million people, were added to the 4 million Palestinian refugees. The Middle East has become the region with the largest concentration of displaced people.
International humanitarian organizations are not able to provide assistance to all those in need on their own. Countries in the region do not have the means to help outsiders. Inside Iraq, humanitarian organizations are trying in a very difficult situation to find ways to make life easier for people uprooted from home. The severity of the situation prompted the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to organize an international conference and discuss the possibilities of providing humanitarian assistance to millions of refugees and countries in the region.
The authors of the UNHCR report are not optimistic about the prospects for the new security plan, which is being implemented by government and US troops. The report quotes one Iraqi as saying: “The government wants us to go back to Baghdad. I called my Sunni neighbors and they said that the rebels were still using our house for their operations. Where should I go back?"