Iraqis Displaced within Iraq and Seeking Refuge Abroad

Walid Waleed, interviewd by John Malkin
February 2008

Walid Waleed is 38 years old and was born in the Alkhaalij quarter of Baghdad. He now lives in the country side in a village in south-east Baghdad. He was married in 1997 and now has two boys and three girls; Ows 10, Mohammad 8, Nowras 6, Nibras 4 and less than one year old Ziena. Before the violence he lived as one big family, with about twenty-two people, but now they live in individual temporary houses. Walid studies journalism at Baghdad University and got practical experience as a guide for foreign journalists for many years. He has done interviews for magazines, newspapers and TV and helped Japanese producers make a documentary film about children during the US/UN economic sanctions. He recently produced an autobiographocal documentary about the US invasion and occupation of Iraq.

John Malkin interviewed Walid in January 2008. John is a writer, musician and author of “Sounds of Freedom”, a collection of interviews with musicians concerning spirituality and social change. He is a regular contributor to Good Times Weekly of Santa Cruz, California.

JM: What kind of newspapers/TV are available in Iraq now? How do people get news there?

November 5, 2007
Amman, Jordan

Yesterday I visited a family whose 10 year old son is working for 8JD a week, that is about $10. A sweet faced slip of a child, he smiled as I took a picture of him at his work place. His father meanwhile suffers the humiliation of idleness and the inability to support his wife and other children. Beset by death threats, they fled to Amman about ten months ago; their home in Baghdad is now occupied by militia. I felt embarrassed as I offered them a small gift of money, money from a family in the states who wants to help Iraqis stuck here. The family is in need of basic foodstuffs, furniture, blankets and a heater as winter approaches. They once had work, a car and their own home. I met the wife and mother with her smallest child in tow on a bus last week. We were both making our way to the UNHCR. She to beg assistance.

October 27, 2007
Amman, Jordan

Dear Friends,

It is Saturday morning, and I just hung up the telephone. “Please pray for him” the mother asked me, referring to her son. Here in Amman from Baghdad, he is in the operating room as I write you, in an attempt to save his right eye. I will call him Fadi, though that is not his real name. Fadi already lost his lower right leg to a suicide bomb while going in a taxi to his classes at the university. Stopped at a checkpoint—Fadi was sitting next to the driver—a car pulled up alongside them and exploded. Scars from glass and metal wounds are visible on the whole right side of Fadi’s body.

I visited with this mother and Fadi a couple of days ago. As incredible as it seems given the tragic circumstances, Fadi was able to complete his studies. Just weeks ago he graduated from the University in Baghdad with a degree in Engineering.

October 10, 2007
Amman, Jordan

Dear Friends,

Yesterday I returned from a trip to Damascus, Syria. While I was there I had the opportunity, together with a young Iraqi Moslem friend, to visit the ancient Syrian monastery of St. Moses the Abyssinian. About 80 kilometers north of Damascus and 1320 meters above sea level, the stark and barren landscape brought back memories of Bolivia where, over a span of about ten years, I periodically sought silence in a hermitage hidden in the bowels of the Andean mountains.

Amman, Jordan
August 13, 2007

“GET A JOB!” These three words are very familiar to activists bearing signs calling for an end to war, whether standing on street corners, walking along highways, holding vigils, or nonviolently occupying the offices of elected representatives. Listen to the activists, and you’ll often hear, “We’re doing our job. We’re trying.”

I’m convinced that our work must always have one foot placed in nonviolent resistance to the forces that design and wage wars, with the other foot standing among people who bear the physical and mental affliction caused by these forces. Today, I’m thinking especially about two young women who found themselves in nightmare circumstances because, in their view, they simply wanted to have a job.

Amman, Jordan
August 3, 2007

Governments and Non-Governmental Organizations may seem to be transfixed, almost mesmerized, by the mounting humanitarian catastrophe in Iraq. But, since 2003, an admirable group of NGOs, including Oxfam, has steadily tried to address humanitarian needs through collecting and organizing data, establishing priorities, responding to emergencies, and working out ways to deliver food, medicine, and clean water to some of the neediest areas in Iraq.

Amman, Jordan
July 30, 2007

Last weekend was an important one, regarding education, here in Jordan. Jordanian high school students learned the results of exams qualifying them (or not) for University studies. Television news showed students - among the 52% who passed - dancing for joy. And, King Abdullah announced that Jordan will open its public schools to Iraqi students under fifteen years of age. Along with this news came a UNHCR request for $129 million in funding to help provide schooling for Iraqi children living in neighboring countries, especially Jordan and Syria.

I hope this will be good news for several of Abu Mahmoud’s children who have already missed three years of school.

July 24, 2007

Last week, Umm Daoud, (her name means “Mother of Daoud”), met me and three friends at a bridge that crosses into her neighborhood. It was just after sundown; the streets were darkening as she guided us toward the narrow path which leads to her home. She and her five children live in a humble two room apartment in a crowded “low-rent” area of Amman.

As guests, my friends and I sat on a makeshift piece of furniture, an old door placed atop two crates and covered by a thin mat. She and her children sat on the floor. Apart from a television and a small table, the living room had no other furniture. The television remained “on” while Samil, her youngest son, seemed completely absorbed in a “Tom and Jerry” cartoon.

June 18, 2007

BAGHDAD, 18 June 2007 (IRIN) - Sunni families remaining in Shia neighbourhoods of Baghdad are being forced to flee their homes: A 72-hour deadline announced by militants for them to leave these areas or face death expires on 18 June.

The ultimatum has put many Iraqi families in a desperate situation and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are worried as displacement camps could not cope with all the internally displaced people (IDPs) that this ultimatum might trigger.