IRAQ: Displaced villagers send concerns to representatives of Kurdish and U.S. governments.
agosto 20th, 2008
in:
CPTnet
20 August 2008
IRAQ: Displaced villagers send concerns to representatives of Kurdish and U.S. governments.
by Peggy Gish
Fifty children and adults of the Zharawa IDP (Internally Displaced Person) Camp, and Christian Peacemaker team and delegation members clustered around two large cloth banners along the bank of the shallow river not far from the Iraq-Iran border. Written boldly on one side was, “Bombing Hurts. Please Stop!” With paint, villagers put handprints and small drawings on this banner. Several children proudly held up their hands for us to see.
Soon they began to fill the second, blank banner with messages to governments and to the people of the world. “We don’t want war.” “We are against the bombing. “Stop the bombing.” “Long live Kurdistan. “We want peace.” Some messages were signed with, “the people of the Qandil area.” Others drew pictures on the banner of airplanes flying over houses, of fire coming down, or of the people of the village running away. At one point an area security police representative, sent there to observe what was happening, knelt down and drew his own picture of a village being bombed.
Five days later, two leaders of the Zharawa IDP Camp and CPTers met with a representative of the U.S. Embassy in Iraq. “The rebel groups living in the Qandil Mountains are not the targets of the bombing of our villages by Turkey or Iran and are usually not hurt by them. We are the only losers,” one of the displaced villagers declared. He went on to tell about the bombs that exploded next to his house, the difficulties of living in tents, and about the needs they will have for alternative housing come winter, if returning to their villages continues to be dangerous for their families.
The U.S. representative listened attentively, looked at the pictures of people in the camp, and took careful notes. When CPTers reported hearing anger expressed toward the U.S. government for allowing Turkey to fly over Iraqi airspace to bomb along the Iraq-Iran border and for helping them with intelligence information, the representative said that she had also heard such anger expressed. She agreed to consult with Kurdish officials about the IDP’s material needs and send a report of what was said at this meeting to the Embassy in Baghdad and the U.S.
Earlier that morning, the team had taken the concerns of the villagers to a Kurdish parliamentarian, who agreed that people need to learn to settle the tensions through dialogue and not violence. “I wanted the change of Saddam’s regime,” she said, “but I was also against the U.S. war with Iraq. Now I hope the U.S. will put diplomatic pressure on Turkey and Iran to stop the bombing of the border villages.” After seeing the computer pictures of the children at the Zharawa IDP Camp she said, “We need to see the children of these villages along the border—and not call them terrorists.”
20 August 2008
IRAQ: Displaced villagers send concerns to representatives of Kurdish and U.S. governments.
by Peggy Gish
Fifty children and adults of the Zharawa IDP (Internally Displaced Person) Camp, and Christian Peacemaker team and delegation members clustered around two large cloth banners along the bank of the shallow river not far from the Iraq-Iran border. Written boldly on one side was, “Bombing Hurts. Please Stop!” With paint, villagers put handprints and small drawings on this banner. Several children proudly held up their hands for us to see.
Soon they began to fill the second, blank banner with messages to governments and to the people of the world. “We don’t want war.” “We are against the bombing. “Stop the bombing.” “Long live Kurdistan. “We want peace.” Some messages were signed with, “the people of the Qandil area.” Others drew pictures on the banner of airplanes flying over houses, of fire coming down, or of the people of the village running away. At one point an area security police representative, sent there to observe what was happening, knelt down and drew his own picture of a village being bombed.
Five days later, two leaders of the Zharawa IDP Camp and CPTers met with a representative of the U.S. Embassy in Iraq. “The rebel groups living in the Qandil Mountains are not the targets of the bombing of our villages by Turkey or Iran and are usually not hurt by them. We are the only losers,” one of the displaced villagers declared. He went on to tell about the bombs that exploded next to his house, the difficulties of living in tents, and about the needs they will have for alternative housing come winter, if returning to their villages continues to be dangerous for their families.
The U.S. representative listened attentively, looked at the pictures of people in the camp, and took careful notes. When CPTers reported hearing anger expressed toward the U.S. government for allowing Turkey to fly over Iraqi airspace to bomb along the Iraq-Iran border and for helping them with intelligence information, the representative said that she had also heard such anger expressed. She agreed to consult with Kurdish officials about the IDP’s material needs and send a report of what was said at this meeting to the Embassy in Baghdad and the U.S.
Earlier that morning, the team had taken the concerns of the villagers to a Kurdish parliamentarian, who agreed that people need to learn to settle the tensions through dialogue and not violence. “I wanted the change of Saddam’s regime,” she said, “but I was also against the U.S. war with Iraq. Now I hope the U.S. will put diplomatic pressure on Turkey and Iran to stop the bombing of the border villages.” After seeing the computer pictures of the children at the Zharawa IDP Camp she said, “We need to see the children of these villages along the border—and not call them terrorists.”
