John is a retired architect. He has devoted his energies to living in communities under threat. He spent long periods living with Palestinians who were being harassed by Israeli settlers. Forget about ethnic stereotypes. John is a Jew working for a Christian Charity helping Arabs - and now Kurds. His recent e-mails have revealed a dire situation that is beyond the reach of television cameras.
13.6.09:
Villagers along the northern Iraqi Kurdistan border have been subject to repeated cross-border bombardment from Turkey and Iran for over two decades. Turkey has identified the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Iran cites the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK) as their targets. Those groups have been resisting Turkish and Iranian repression of their Kurdish populations, and both are on US and EU lists of terrorist organizations. Meanwhile thousands of villagers have been forced to flee. Those from around the town of Zharawa are 137 families from eleven villages, totalling more than 600 people, now sharing 45 tents.
In 2008, the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) contracted a private company, Qandil, to build an IDP (internally displaced persons) camp outside Zharawa. The conditions at the camp are terrible. There is no shade, and summer temperatures here can reach 48 degrees Celsius (118 degrees Fahrenheit).
"I spend most of my day looking for shade for my children," one parent told us. The people have no electricity to refrigerate their food. Latrines are dangerously close to their tents. They anticipate rampant illness, and worry about how the elderly will survive. There is no employment; whatever resources people had are dwindling away. "Some families cannot buy even a bag of fruit," one man told us. There is no prospect of an early return to their homes. Something must be done urgently before people start dying.
So two women from the Christian Peacemaker Team, Michelle from New York and Chichuan from Taiwan, will move into the tent camp on 14 June 2009. We hope their presence will help to focus international attention on the plight of the IDPs. A week later, all being well, the men from the team, Craig from Maryland and I, will follow them (so you may not hear from me again for some time).
21.6.09:
The situation is very fluid. Our threat to move into the camp and invite international media has produced promises by UNHCR to provide shading and a generator. The refugees judge it is best for us not to move in straightaway, but to wait and see what the promises amount to. Craig and Michele have gone to the camp today and are staying overnight. The rest of us are following tomorrow, without intending to stay permanently yet. So our plans should be clearer in a day or two.
The previous camp was in a zone from which outsiders, especially reporters, were excluded. The new camp is further from the border and bombing, so journalists can visit. We're trying hard to alert the media. We're also helping to train a few refugee spokespersons, especially women, to deal effectively with international media.
I'm wilting in the heat: over 100 degrees F every day.
23.6.09:
I was there yesterday. There was no electricity and no shading (a week ago the local mayor promised they would be delivered "in a few days"), so the situation is pretty desperate.
The political situation in Iraqi Kurdistan has improved greatly in the past month. There is no longer the same refusal on all sides to admit that Turkey and Iran have been bombing villages inside Iraq, and the bombing seems to have ceased for the time being. Several factors have probably contributed to this relaxation:
* the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) freedom fighters in Turkey and Iraq have declared a unilateral cease-fire, for a limited time.
* the Turkish parliament is renewing its efforts to reach a peaceful accommodation with its Kurdish minority, to further Turkey's entry into the EU.
* the Iranians have problems over their own disputed elections.
* elections to the Iraqi Kurdish parliament take place later this month; bombing would encourage votes for Kurdish extremists.
* maybe our appeals have contributed to international pressure on the Turks (especially) to stop the bombing. If so, thanks for your help and support.
The easing has encouraged some of the refugee families to leave the IDP camps and return to their villages. It's risky. The bombing may restart any day. I fear especially for the children – with no school and no relief from the constant fear of bombs and rockets. The attached photograph shows some of the women and children in the camp; (the one on the right is my team-mate Michele). Some of my team-mates have also put together a short video about the Zharawa children; you can watch it on –
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGskmxUmsXI
You can understand why families feel they must leave the camps. Conditions there are terrible. At last shade matting has been delivered to the Zharawa camp, where we have been staying; see attached photograph of mats being unloaded. But still the promised electrical generator has not arrived, and the agencies we have spoken to refuse to accept responsibility for providing fuel to run it. So food cannot be refrigerated although temperatures are over 100 degrees F every day. Who can blame these refugees for feeling abandoned by UNHCR, by the Kurdistan Regional Government, by the Iraqi government, by the whole world?
The UN agencies are run by good people, but they have to work in air-conditioned offices in their own guarded compounds and, for security reasons of which we are well aware (bombing, land-mines and hostage-taking), are not allowed to visit the IDP camps or the bombed villages. They ask us, “Isn’t it dangerous to go by bus?”, “Aren’t you afraid to go inside the camps?” Ours is virtually the only first-hand information they get, and it is often at odds with what they hear from government sources.
I know you will continue to uphold all the victims of this sad conflict – the officials on all sides, the soldiers and airmen, and the refugees who long to return home and raise their families in peace.me to update you on the situation in Zharawa IDP camp. The main change is that shading matting and poles have just been delivered, to everybody's relief. But still the promised electrical generator has not arrived, and no agency has accepted responsibility for providing fuel to run it. So food cannot be refrigerated although temperatures are over 100 degrees F every day. And of course the IDPs feel abandoned by UNHCR, by the Kurdistan Regional Government, by the Iraqi government, by the whole world.
The UN agencies here are run by good people, but they have to work in air-conditioned offices in their own guarded compounds and, for security reasons of which we are well aware (bombing, land-mines and hostage-taking), are not allowed to visit the IDP camps or the bombed villages. So they are shockingly complacent and ill-informed. Ours is virtually their only first-hand information, apart from government sources.
- this month's elections to the Iraqi Kurdish parliament; bombing would encourage votes for Kurdish extremists.
- the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) freedom fighters have declared a unilateral cease-fire, for a limited time.
- the Turkish parliament is renewing its efforts to reach a peaceful accommodation with its Kurdish minority, to further Turkey's entry into the EU.
- the Iranians have problems over their own disputed elections.
- maybe our appeals have contributed to international pressure on the Turks (especially) to stop the bombing. If so, thanks for your help and support.
The easing has encouraged some of the refugee families to leave the IDP camps and return to their villages. It's risky. The bombing may restart any day. I fear especially for the children. They will have no school. They will live in constant fear of attack.
i''d be grateful for any help you can offer to ease the plight of the refugees, who just want to get on with their own lives in peace. Yours sincerely -John
I'd be grateful for any help you can offer to ease the plight of the refugees, who just want to get on with their own lives in peace.
03/07/2009
Sadly the message I sent you a few hours ago is already out-of-date. Earlier today Turkey resumed cross-border bombing. We're distraught. John
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