U.S. expands Anbar model to Iraq Shiites

By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 4 minutes ago



KUT, Iraq - American commanders in southern Iraq say Shiite sheiks are showing interest in joining forces with the U.S. military against extremists, in much the same way that Sunni clansmen in the western part of the country have worked with American forces against al-Qaida.

Sheik Majid Tahir al-Magsousi, the leader of the Migasees tribe here in Wasit province, acknowledged tribal leaders have discussed creating a brigade of young men trained by the Americans to bolster local security as well as help patrol the border with Iran.

He also said last week's assassination of Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, who spearheaded the Sunni uprising against al-Qaida in Anbar province, only made the Shiite tribal leaders more resolute.

"The death of Sheik Abu Risha will not thwart us," he said. "What matters to us is Iraq and its safety."

The movement by Shiite clan leaders offers the potential to give U.S. and Iraqi forces another tactical advantage in curbing lawlessness in Shiite areas. It also would give the Americans another resource as they beef up their presence on the border with Iran, which the military accuses of arming and training Shiite extremists.

Similar alliances with Sunni tribes in the western Anbar province helped break the grip of groups such as al-Qaida in Iraq and were widely cited in the Washington hearings as a major military success this year.

Such pacts to fill the vacuum left by Iraqi police and soldiers unable or unwilling to act against Shiite militias carry even greater potential spinoffs(Something, such as a product, that is derived from something larger and more or less unrelated; a byproduct.
) for Iraq's U.S.-backed leadership — but also higher risks.

Shiites represent about 60 percent of Iraq's population and the bulk of the security forces and parliament. Worsening the current Shiite-on-Shiite battles could ripple to the highest levels.

But U.S. officials at the heart of the effort hope to tap a wellspring of public frustration with militias and criminal gangs to recruit the tribal volunteers, although they stress it is still in the early stages.

"It's an anti-militia movement ... Shiite extremists of all stripes," said Wade Weems, head of a Provincial Reconstruction Team leading the dialogue in the Wasit province southeast of Baghdad.

"We see consistently expressed deep frustration or anger with the activities of militia that appear to be untethered(Unattached to any data or power source by wire or fiber; in other words: wireless) to any sort of guiding authority, appear to be really criminal in nature," he added.

But while the military has made inroads with Sunni leaders in some Baghdad neighborhoods and areas surrounding the capital, including Diyala province, officials stressed it's too early to know if efforts to extend the strategy to Shiite leaders will take root.

"This is a very different province and a very different dynamic and we're not going to just adopt lock, stock and barrel another province's model and impose it here," Weems said. "This will take some time for us to understand exactly what it is these tribes want to do."

In Anbar, the goal of the Sunnis was to drive al-Qaida in Iraq away from towns and villages because of the terror movement's attempt to impose a rigorous Islamic lifestyle.

In Wasit, which borders Iran, the goal is to rein in armed Shiite groups, some of them probably armed by Iran, which are locked in a power struggle that is making life intolerable for ordinary people.

U.S. officers believe last month's fighting among rival Shiite militias during a religious festival in Karbala may have been the last straw. Up to 52 people died in the clashes, which marred what was supposed to be a joyous celebration.

Anger also rose after the assassinations of two southern provincial governors that were seen as part of a brutal contest among rival Shiite militias to control parts of Iraq's main oil regions.

Fearing a backlash, Muqtada al-Sadr, leader of Iraq's biggest militia, ordered a six-month freeze on his Mahdi Army's activities and began reorganizing the force to purge unruly elements.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the militias appeared to be alienating the Shiite community with internal violence in the same way al-Qaida in Iraq caused Sunni leaders to turn against it.

"There are some signs that the Shia are perhaps beginning to have the same — get the same kind of wake-up call with respect to their extremists that the Sunnis in Anbar did," he said.

Since Karbala, Weems said he has attended a "flurry of meetings" with sheiks interested in ways they can use their formidable influence to help restore order.

"They are well aware of what's happened in Anbar province, the role that the tribes played in securing some of the less secure areas in that province," he said. "There has been a good deal of success with those, not just in Anbar but in other areas."

Army Capt. Majid al-Imara, who said he has been charged with establishing the new force, said each battalion will be made up of 350 men chosen by tribal leaders, and they will be armed and equipped by the Iraqi government and paid $300 monthly, he said.

Col. Peter Baker, the commander of the 214th Fires Brigade that took over Forward Operating Base Delta near Kut in June, also said the idea was for the tribal volunteers to act as an "auxiliary police force" that could provide security in an organized fashion but let the sheiks maintain control of tribal members.

One of the obstacles is the lack of a single enemy, such as al-Qaida in Iraq, which alienated Sunni tribal leaders and even other insurgents by killing sheiks and trying to impose a strict interpretation of Islam.

Shiites are getting increasingly fed up, however, with the fighting among rival militia groups, as well as the criminal nature of gangs engaging in extortion and setting up illegal checkpoints.

Weems acknowledged fears that the tribal leaders could abuse their authority and said he expected the movement to start with small groups that would receive mandatory training in when and how to use force, with careful monitoring.

"As with any group that is taking on a security function where the police seem to be failing, there are concerns," he said. "We'll probably adopt a model of growing these from smaller groups and measuring their success before we broaden it."

But, he said, the ultimate goal was to quickly "integrate those tribal volunteers into one branch of the Iraqi security forces, be it the army, the police or — here in Wasit — the border patrol."

___

Associated Press writer Bushra Juhi in Baghdad contributed to this report.

The Shiachat Oppressors

Ref:
Written by:The_Truth

People of the world! These words come to you from those who up to this very day are struggling to survive under the sanctions imposed by the criminal moderating and administrative team at ShiaChat.

We are simple people who chose principles over fear. We have endured great pains and hardships and we are still suffering from the actions of the moderating and administrative team at ShiaChat.

Years and years of agony and despair, while the condemned Shiachat administrators and moderators deleted our posts, closed our topics, and banned our brothers under the pretext of maintaining the peace and ending the Fitnah.

Over 100 innocent and god fearing members stood their grounds, and took arms against the evil scorpions, while waiting for a light at the end of a tunnel that only ended with the banishment of those god fearing members and the deletion of their posts.

After the heinous crimes and violations committed by the moderators and administrative team at ShiaChat, we have chosen our future, the future of every resistance struggle ever in the history of man.

It is our duty, as well as our right, to fight back the slithering snakes and the insidious scorpions of the ShiaChat moderating and administrative team, for which the ShiaChat community will be held morally responsible; for what their self-appointed administrators and moderators have done to the god fearing members.

We have not caused Fitna on ShiaChat, we were never responsible for hacking the server of Shiachat nor were we ever engaged in any illicit mutah-like relationships with other sisters on ShiaChat. These are only a few of the lies that these criminals present to cover their true plans for the total control of the ideology propagated among the members of ShiaChat. It is ironic that the god fearing Shia's on Shiachat are to bear the full face of this large and growing conflict on behalf of the rest of this sleeping community.

We thank all those who supported us in any kind of way, including other members from other forums, those who protested against the rash and irrational actions of the ShiaChat moderating and administrative team.

Today, we call on you again.

We ask you to form a front against banning innocent members and closing their topics. A front that is governed by the wise and knowing, a front that will bring reform and order. New moderators that would replace the now corrupt.

Stop Banning people for no reason, Stop kicking out people from the live chat for no reason, stop closing topics, stop insulting members who defend the truth, who defend the faith of Ahlu el bait. Put an end to scorpionizim before it ends our community. Educate those in doubt of the true nature of this conflict and do not believe their propaganda for the stench of their lies is starting to fume. Something is certainly rotten in the ShiaChat community!

Know that by helping the god fearing Shia members you are helping yourselves, for tomorrow may bring the same destruction to you.

In helping the god fearing Shia members in their struggle does not mean giving up your grounds for the Sunnis here and there. You must continue to isolate their strategy.

This conflict is no longer considered a forum war. Nor can the community remain hostage to the never-ending and regenerated fear that the criminal ShiaChat moderators and administrators cause.

We will pin them here in ShiaChat to drain their time and manpower, and their will to delete and close threads. We will make them write as much as they delete, if not more.

And the earlier a movement is born, the earlier their fall will be.

And to the god fearing bunch of the ShiaChat moderators and administrator, we say, you can also choose to fight tyranny with us. Demote yourself, and join arms with our resistance, we will protect you. And we will undo the brain damage that was caused to you by the administrators at ShiaChat, as we have done with a few others before you.

Go back to your homes, families, and loved ones. Do not spend any more of your priceless time on ShiaChat.

And to the ShiaChat moderating and administrative team we say “You have asked us to ‘Bring it on’ and so have we. Like never expected. Have you another challenge?”




The_Truth Wa Salam

Summer camp in Lebanon for displaced Iraqi children

13 Sep 2007 23:00:00 GMT
Source: International Save the Children Alliance

Lebanese, and Palestinian children were dancing, singing, performing sketches and fashion shows in a small house in the mountains above the town of Hermel in North Eastern Lebanon.

More Iraqi, Lebanese, and Palestinian children took part in a summer camp organized by Save the Children Sweden, in its first initiative to work with Iraqi refugees.

Thirty Iraqi, Lebanese, and Palestinian children were dancing, singing, performing sketches and fashion shows in a small house in the mountains above the town of Hermel in North Eastern Lebanon. The 4-day summer camp held from the 8th to the 12th of September supported by Save the Children Sweden was an initiative to provide children with a safe space where they could feel some normality in their, filled with activities and fun.

"We've had so much fun. I hope there will be other camps soon" said Emila Sheybo, a 12-year-old Iraqi refugee.

Emila is one of more than 2 million persons who have fled the violence in Iraq following the US-led invasion in 2003. The vast majority of them have been seeking refuge in Jordan and Syria. There are not official statistics but it is estimated that 40,000 Iraqis have fled to Lebanon. They have been granted prima facie refugee status and have the possibility of registering with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Yet, ensuring and protecting their rights to education, employment and health remains a challenge. Emila and her family have been living in the Lebanese capital of Beirut for two and a half year where her parents pay school fees for her to attend a private school. Emila never wants to return to Iraq, "I'm afraid of being kidnapped or killed in Iraq, yet at the same time I don't want to stay in Lebanon either. I don't know what will happen in the future" she says.

Few displaced Iraqi families can afford the private school fees. Even former wealthy Iraqis are now running out of money after living for years as refugees. Thirteen year old Mariam Kaneni has been living with her parents and three siblings in a one room apartment in a poor suburb of Beirut for two and a half years. "I am studying in a private school. A non governmental organization pays the fee. One day I hope there will be peace in Iraq so I can return to my relatives" says Mariam.

There are many Iraqi children who never leave their homes in Lebanon, for a number of reasons that include fear of being arrested by the police for not having a residence visa. As Emila explains, "We are six persons living in two small rooms where I spend most of my time after school. I'm not leaving our home very often because I don't feel safe outside and I don't have any Lebanese friends."

The main purpose of the summer camp is to provide a safe space for children to play, learn about each other, and express themselves. Out of the 30 children participating in the summer camp, half are Iraqi and the others Lebanese and Palestinian refugees. The vast majority of the estimated 400,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon live in refugee camps and gatherings. Most of the Iraqis residing in Lebanon have taken up homes in the poorer areas of the cities and have few contacts with Lebanese. The summer camp was an excellent opportunity for the Iraqi children to interact with locals and Palestinians as Emila expressed "at the camp I've met both Lebanese and Palestinian children that have become my friends." Mariam described the camp as an opportunity for all of them to "learn more about each other and each others countries."

There is no doubt that the children have appreciated the activities at the summer camp, "the coolest thing has been to live in the same room with two other nationalities and having fun with them" said Ali Alam, a 14-year-old Lebanese. Dala Abdel Razek a 13-year-old Palestinian refugee said that mixing with children from the different nationalities was an enriching experience"we have realized that we are all the same."

In addition to activities and play, the camp was an opportunity for children to discuss their rights, focusing on how they perceived their own rights as individuals and as children. Mariam Kaneni expressed that "all children have the right to health care, to eat and not to be abused by adults." Thirteen year old Ranjwa Bleibel added "and education is a basic right for everyone."

There are tens of thousands displaced Iraqi children in Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria who do not have access to education. "Even if these countries haven't signed the UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, they have signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child which includes the right to education. If governments do not have the resources to support displaced children, we will do everything we can to help them. If Sweden received hundreds of thousands refugees in a short period of time, it would be a big challenge for Sweden. This is what has happened in countries like Jordan, Syria and Lebanon" said Sanna Johnsson, Regional Representative of Save the Children Sweden in Beirut. Save the Children Alliance aims to support between 10,000 to 50,000 Iraqi children by 2010 with special emphasis on vulnerable children in need of protection in Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.

In June 2007 Save the Children Sweden began working with Iraqi children; the lack of reliable statistics about Iraqis in Lebanon has been a great obstacle. Many of them have not registered with the UNHCR due to fear of being deported. Volunteers from Save the Children Sweden's Lebanese partner organisations undertook a mapping and identification exercise during the summer and spoke to more than 180 Iraqi children. 31 per cent stated that they were not enrolled in a school for the upcoming year, 37 per cent were not enrolled in school during the 2006-7 school year, 17 per cent were working and 45 per cent stated they had faced some kind of problem including depression, violence, detention and discrimination. "We will make sure that the children who do not have access to education can enrol in schools this autumn. There are several schools that are willing to receive them, mainly private and semi-private schools" says Sanna Johnsson.

Save the Children Sweden aims to ensure the right to education of all children. Save the Children Sweden and its partners will provide Iraqi children with after school support, remedial classes and psychosocial support.

Misunderstanding Muqtada al-Sadr

Friday, July 27, 2007


by Matt Duss for Foreign Policy in Focus

In a July 11 Wall Street Journal op-ed, writer Kimberly Kagan touted the success of the Iraq surge strategy. Kagan noted, among other supposed triumphs, that the Maliki government had "confronted Muqtada al-Sadr for promoting illegal militia activity, and has apparently prompted this so-called Iraqi nationalist to leave for Iran for the second time since January." While one can perhaps excuse Kagan’s sunny defense of the surge, (the plan was partly devised, after all, by her husband, Frederick Kagan of the American Enterprise Institute, a fact which the Wall Street Journal did not reveal to readers) the repeated attempts by conservative defenders of Bush’s Iraq policy to dispute Sadr's nationalist credentials and treat him as an Iranian puppet indicate a real and troubling lack of knowledge of the Iraqi political scene, and of Sadr’s place within it.

It’s almost comical how many times Muqtada, after provoking a reaction from U.S. forces, has gone to into hiding, and been declared irrelevant by wishful thinkers, only to return later, with his organization intact, drawing bigger crowds than before. True to form, less than a week after Kagan's dismissive aside, Muqtada returned to Iraq, (if indeed he had even left) to great acclaim, with his political base, his Mahdi militia, and social services network, more evident than ever.

Sadr and Iraqi Nationalism

Far from being an Iranian instrument, among Iraqi Shi'i leaders, Muqtada al-Sadr is probably the least susceptible to Iranian influence. Journalist Bartle Breese Bull, who has spent several years in Iraq observing the Sadr movement, wrote in the New York Times on June 3 that "The Sadrist movement has always been about Iraq for the Iraqis. They might accept help from Iran--and I saw Iranian supplies in their compounds in Najaf in 2004--but the movement is not for sale. Mr. Sadr gets his strength from the street. And the Arabs of the Iraqi street have no time for Persian bosses."

Sadr has repeatedly stated his opposition to Iranian interference in Iraqi politics, and has consistently advocated Iraqi political unity. He has fashioned a populist-Shi'i political platform that has deep resonance among Iraq’s long-oppressed Shi'i underclass, whose votes helped install a bloc of his loyalists in the Iraqi Parliament, and put control of the Health and Transportation ministries in his hands. There is a strong nativist element in his rhetoric; he has indicated his belief that the religious leadership of Iraq should be in the hands of ethnic Arabs, rather than the ethnic Persians who currently make up much of the higher Shi'i clerical establishment in Najaf.

Muqtada al-Sadr comes from a highly revered line of Iraqi Shi'i clerics. One of Muqtada's great-uncles was among the leaders of the 1920 Iraqi revolt against the British occupation. Muqtada's uncle, Grand Ayatollah Baqr al-Sadr (1935-1980), is widely considered to be the most significant Shi'i scholar of the 20th century. He engaged with and critiqued Communism and Marxism in his early works, becoming the first to elucidate a modern Islamic system of cooperative economics. He later developed a model of clerical activism distinct from the more quietist approach dominant in the Najaf clerical establishment. Along with Ayatollah Baqr al-Hakim, Sadr was one of the founders of the Da'wa Party in the 1960’s, and served as its guiding spiritual leader. After the establishment of Khomeini’s Islamic Republic in neighboring Iran, which was inspired in part by Sadr’s ideas, many Iraqi Shi'is hoped that Sadr would lead a similar revolution in Iraq. Fearing this, Saddam Hussein had Baqr al-Sadr executed in 1980, the first execution of a Grand Ayatollah in modern history.

In the wave of repression that followed Baqr al-Sadr's execution, many Iraqi Shi'is fled Iraq and found refuge in Iran. Among this group was Ayatollah Baqr al-Hakim and his younger brother, Abd al-Aziz. In Iran, with the support and funding of the Iranian government, the Hakims founded SCIRI (the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq). The goal of SCIRI, as its name suggests, was to create a revolution in Iraq and establish an Islamic republic on the model of Iran’s. Around the time of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, Abd al-Aziz reentered Iraq as commander of the Badr Brigade, the militia wing of SCIRI, which was armed and trained by the Iranian Republican Guard, and made up mainly of Iraqi defectors from the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War. After the murder of Ayatollah Hakim by a truck bomb in Najaf in 2003, Abd al-Aziz took over as leader of SCIRI.

In the wake of the Shi'i uprising after the 1991 Gulf War, Saddam Hussein attempted to dilute the influence of the largely Persian Shi’i clerical establishment by supporting the Arab cleric Muhammad Sadeq al-Sadr, Muqtada's father. Sadeq initially followed the plan, taking advantage of government patronage to build a network of loyal activist clerics throughout Iraq’s poor Shi'i communities that distinguished itself from the Shi'i establishment in Najaf. Soon enough, however, Sadeq al-Sadr turned his criticisms on Saddam’s regime, and was assassinated by Saddam’s agents in 1999, along with two of Muqtada’s elder brothers.

The massive demonstrations and riots that broke out in response to Sadr’s murder became known as the 1999 Intifada. After the fall of Saddam in April 2003, Sadrist militias quickly took over the huge Shi'i slum neighborhood in northeast Baghdad neighborhood known as Saddam City, and renamed it Sadr City, in honor of Grand Ayatollah Sadeq al-Sadr.

From nationalist standpoint, the legacy of the two Sadr martyrs has been a powerful rhetorical weapon for Muqtada. Posters and murals featuring the three men, Baqr, Sadeq, and Muqtada, adorn walls and billboards throughout Shi'i neighborhoods, and Muqtada rarely appears in public without a portrait of his father nearby. Their status as Arab martyrs of Saddam’s tyranny provides Muqtada with credibility that many other leaders lack.

The Shiite Split

Though both the Hakim and Sadr families suffered greatly from Ba'athist repression, Muqtada's adherents have relentlessly hammered at the fact that the Sadrs stayed and struggled in Iraq, while the Hakims fled. This gets at another of Muqtada's key rhetorical devices: presenting himself and his family as emblematic of Shi'i oppression under Saddam. Like the poor Shi'is that make up the bulk of his movement, he suffered. Like them, he lost loved ones. Like them, he is now entitled to a share of power in the new Iraq.

That the Sadrists have been able to compete so well against the far better organized and funded SCIRI indicates the effectiveness of this rhetorical framework. That SCIRI was founded in, and continues to be funded by, Iran, certainly makes them vulnerable to Muqtada's charge of being insufficiently Iraqi in their outlook. Recognizing this, last May the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) changed its name to the Iraqi Islamic Supreme Council, and indicated that it would now look to Iraq’s Grand Ayatollah Sistani, rather than Iran’s supreme jurist, Ayatollah Khamenei, as its main source of guidance. This move should be seen as an attempt to make up for SIIC’s nationalist deficit vis-a-vis Sadr, and to combat the perception that SIIC is an Iranian instrument by more closely associating themselves with the religious structures and culture of Iraq.

Mistakes of U.S. Policy and Looking Forward

It must be understood that the confrontational stance that the United States continues to take toward Muqtada's movement benefits no one as much as Muqtada himself. His staunch and consistent opposition to the U.S. presence enables him to credibly criticize the failure of the U.S.-backed Iraqi government to deliver services and security, while at the same time, his control of several government ministries provides access to government funds and resources, which can then be distributed as patronage and charity under the banner of his movement.

Given his popular support and nationalist credibility, the cooperation of Muqtada al-Sadr is essential for stability in Iraq. One possible way to bring about Muqtada's cooperation is for the United States to offer him the one thing that he seems to want from us: the U.S. out. Working through Ayatollah Sistani as an intermediary, the U.S. could agree to a phased withdrawal timetable, with each phase being contingent on Muqtada's ability to reign in of violence by his followers, and by his willingness to acknowledge the legitimate authority of the Iraqi government.

While a withdrawal by the U.S. will be cast as a victory by various elements in Iraq, including al-Qaeda, given that the eventual U.S. withdrawal is inevitable, it is imperative to use that withdrawal as an opportunity both to strengthen those figures in Iraqi society, such as Sistani, who can contribute to stability, and to give popular leaders such as Sadr a tangible stake in the survival of the new Iraqi state.

Muqtada al-Sadr and his followers are already deeply embedded in the political structures of the new Iraqi state, regardless of how Muqtada might currently challenge the legitimacy of that state because of its dependence on U.S. support.

It’s long past time that U.S. policymakers recognized this, left aside the questionable advice of "experts" such as Kimberly Kagan, and found some way to work with Sadr, encouraging and enabling him to use his influence to create stability and help strengthen and legitimize Iraq’s vulnerable new political institutions, rather than continuing to condemn and confront him, and thus ensuring chaos.

Matt Duss holds a Masters in Middle East Studies from the University of Washington and is an analyst for Foreign Policy In Focus.

New big quake in Indonesia's Sumatra, tsunami feared

13 Sep 2007 00:45:53 GMT
Source: Reuters


By Mita Valina Liem

JAKARTA, Sept 13 (Reuters) - Rescue teams and troops headed on Thursday for Indonesia's Sumatra coast as aftershocks continued to pound a region where a powerful earthquake the night before killed six people and perhaps many more.

Japan's Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami warning for Indian Ocean countries after the latest aftershock, a shallow quake which the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said measured 7.5.

"The city is in complete chaos. Everyone is heading to higher ground, I saw one house collapsed to the ground. I'm trying to save my family," said a Reuters witness in Padang, the capital of West Sumatra, soon after the first quake.

Indonesia's Health Ministry crisis centre in Jakarta said the latest casualty figures showed that six people had been killed and 40 injured after the initial 8.4 magnitude quake, which was also felt in neighbouring Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia.

But David Oppenheimer, a scientist with the USGS in California, said the death toll could well rise as authorities take stock of the impact in the light of day.

A quake with an eight magnitude typically leads to partial collapse of buildings, houses moved off their foundations, and other damage, he said.

"That's the kind of stuff that causes death, especially in the Third World. I think there is an information blackout at this point."

Japan's Meteorological Agency warned of a tsunami risk for Australia's Coco Islands and, further afield, the coasts of India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Sri Lanka within 3 hours.

A huge earthquake measuring more than 9 struck the same area of Indonesia on Dec. 26, 2004, causing a massive tsunami and over 230,000 deaths in countries across the region.

Indonesia suffers frequent quakes, as it lies on an active seismic belt on part of the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire".

Many people chose to sleep out in the open on Wednesday night rather than return indoors, a Red Cross official in Bengkulu, close to the epicentre of the quake, told Reuters.

"The emergency rescue system has mobilised and the president has ordered the military to help the rescue effort," President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's spokesman said.

Rustam Pakaya, head of the health ministry crisis centre, said the government would send one tonne of medicine, three tonnes of food supplements, and one tonne of noodles on Thursday for displaced people in the area.

Bahrain: An Encounter with an Iraqi Girl in Syria

Wednesday, September 12th, 2007 @ 02:11 UTC
by Amira Al Hussaini
Countries:Iraq, Bahrain, Syria


Bahraini blogger One in a Million (Ar) was in Syria recently, where she met an Iraqi girl, which gave her a lot of food for thought on the conditions of Iraqi refugees and the heartbreak the war on Iraq has brought them.

One in a Million was visiting the shrine of Sayeda Zeinab, grand daughter of Prophet Mohammed and daughter of Imam Ali, in Damascus - a sacred shrine for Shia Muslims.

بين صلاة المغرب و العشاء، قررت أن أسترق النظر في أرجاء الحرم المطهر و أن أملأ عينيّ بالمشاهد حولي. فهنا رجل
طاعن في السن قد جلس ليقرأ الزيارة المفجعة و عيناه تسترسلان بالدموع طالباً رحمة ربه، و هناك نساء من شبه القارة
الهندية قد تحلقن حول مقرئ يتلو عليهن ما جرى على العقيلة في كربلاء.
أخذت نفساً عميقاً لأملأ رئتي بالهواء العليل الذي لا يهب إلا في مشاهد العصمة و الطهارة.
استدرت حولي لتسجل ذاكرتي جميع التفاصيل و لتسجل ذاكرتي أنني قد أديت صلاتي في ليلةٍ صيفيةٍ في إحدى أطهر بقاع الأرض.
و بينما أنا في هذه الحالة الوجدانية، فاجأتني طفلة صغيرة قد تكون ابنة سبع أو ثمان سنوات. حملقت في وجهي و بادرتني
بالسؤال على استحياء: ” إنتو من البحرين؟
“Between the Maghreb and Isha prayers, I decided to take a closer look at the sacred shrine and fill my eyes with the scene around me. I saw an elderly man reading the horrific ziyara, with his eyes welling with tears, as he prayed for forgiveness from Allah. There were also women from the Indian Sub-Continent, who surrounded a reader who related to them what happened to Zainab in Karbala. I took a deep breath to fill my lungs with the breeze which only flows in such environments of chastity and cleanliness. I turned around in order to register in my memory that I have performed my prayers on a calm night in one of the most chaste spots on Earth. While I was in this trance, I was surprised by a little girl, not older than eight years old. She looked at me and asked: ‘Are you from Bahrain?’” she writes.
سؤالها عادي جداً، بل أصبح سؤالها معتاداً بالنسبة لي في بلاد الشام.
أجبتها بالإيجاب و دار بيننا حديث مقتضب لأكتشف أن الفتاة عراقية أجبرت على العيش مع أهلها في سوريا هرباً من الحمام الدموي العراقي.
كم أهوى الشاعرية في اللهجة العراقية.
قررت أن أقوم بعدها لصلاة العشاء. جلست الصغيرة بجانبي و لا زالت تنظر إلي بنظراتٍ لم أعرف سرها. نظراتها مختلفة، اختلطت فيها البراءة و الحزن و معانٍ أخرى لم أكد أصل إليها.
سألت الصغيرة عن اسمها فأجابتني: “زينــب”.
زين أب.. زينب، في حرم السيدة زينب.
لم تفارقني الطفلة فدعوتها إلى الصلاة معي. صلاتي كانت قصراً، و أثار استغرابي أنها صلّت قصراً معي
“Her question was normal, in fact a very recurring question for us in the Levant(The countries bordering on the eastern Mediterranean Sea from Turkey to Egypt). I answered her and we has a short conversation in which I discovered that she was from Iraq and was forced to live in Syria with her family, who have escaped the bloodbath in Iraq. How I love the poetic sound of the Iraqi accent. I decided afterwards to perform the Isha prayer while the girl continued to sit near me and gaze for a reason I didn’t know. Her looks were different - fused with innocence, sadness and other meanings I couldn’t delve(To search deeply and laboriously) deep into. I asked the girl for her name and she replied: ‘Zainab.’ Zain Ab.. Zainab at the Shire of Lady Zainab. The girl wouldn’t leave me so I invited her to pray with me. My prayer was Qasr (When travelling over long distances, one may shorten some prayers, a practice known as qasr) and I was surprised that she prayed Qasr too,” she explains.
بعد التسليم.. لمعت دمعة يتيمة في عينيها و دنت مني و همست في أذني: ” ما عدكم ثياب زيادة؟”
قالتها بصوتٍ خافت لم أكد أسمعه. لم ترد أن تبين لكل من هناك أنها بحاجة إلى ملابس. لم تكن تريد أن يسمعها الناس.
قالتها باستحياء عظيم و رأسها مطرق في الرخام الذي يزين أرضية الحرم.
قلت لها باستفهام و فضول: “ليش؟”
رفعت رأسها إلى السماء و في عينيها ألف نجمة و ألف دمعة.
قالت بصوتٍ كسير.. ” أبويه راح العراق من ست أشهر و لحين ما رجع”.
كادت أن تهرب دمعة حبيسة من عينها لكنها خنقتنها بين مقلتيها
“After our prayers, I noticed a tear in her eyes and she came close to me and whispered: ‘Do you have extra clothes?’ She said it in such a low tone that I found it difficult to hear her. She did not want to show everyone around us that she needed clothes. She did not want people to hear her. She said it with shyness, with her head bent down, looking at the marble flooring of the shrine. I curiously asked: ‘Why?’ She raised her head to the sky and in her eyes were a thousand stars and tears. In a broken voice, she said: ‘ My father went to Iraq six months ago and has not returned yet.’ A tear was about to escape from her eyes but she hid it.”
و عرفت حينها أنها ليست كغيرها من الأطفال هناك.
لم تكن تشحذ المال أو الملابس من غيرها بعلانية. لم تكن تتبع الزوار و تمد يد الحاجة لهم.
استغرقت وقتاً طويلاً حتى يخرج السؤال من بين شفتيها.
كم هو مرٌ الفقر، و كم هي صعبة الحاجة.
و كم هو قاسٍ هذا العالم الذي لا يُنصف الصغيرة زينب.
مسحت رأسها الصغير بسرعة و أنا أفكر في قرارة نفسي.. كيف سيرجع والدها؟ متى سيعود؟ بل هل سيعود أبداً؟
هناك ألف ألف زينب بيننا.. لكننا لا ندرك ذلك.
زينب ضاعت وسط الزحام و معها ضاعت آخر ذرات إيماني بهذا العالم.
“I realised then that she wasn’t like other children. She wasn’t begging for money or clothing in the open like others. She wasn’t following the visitors to the shrine and extending her hands to them. It took her a very long time to ask. How bitter is poverty! And how difficult it is to be in need! And how miserable is this world which doesn’t do justice to Zainab! I held her little head and thought to myself if her father will ever return? When will he return? How will be return? There were thousands of Zainabs between us but we didn’t know that. Zainab is lost in this congestion and with her I have lost all faith in this world.”

BAGHDAD LETTERS:Neither bombs nor bullets stop Baghdad's postmen

10 Sep 2007 11:07:00 GMT
Source: Reuters

An employee sorts packages for loading at a post office in Baghdad August 6, 2007.
REUTERS/Ceerwan Aziz FEATURE-Neither bombs nor bullets stop Baghdad's postmen

By Aseel Kami and Ross Colvin

BAGHDAD, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Carved over the entrance to the General Post Office in New York City is this inscription: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."

The postmen of Baghdad, however, braving war-scarred streets in their boxy yellow vans, live by another unofficial motto; come bullets, bombs or blast walls, the mail must get through.

"I consider the postmen to be mujahideen (holy warriors)," says the head of the Post and Savings Directorate, Safaadine Badr. "I call them that because they defy the bad security situation, like explosions, to deliver mail throughout Baghdad."

In a city whose streets have been turned into killing fields by violence between Iraq's majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs, and where water shortages, power cuts and fuel shortages are common, the postal system, incredibly, still works.

"I cover al-Saadoun, which is a dangerous area. One day shooting erupted. I hid until the firing stopped and then I continued delivering the post," said Sameer Abbas, 44, a 25-year-veteran of the postal service.

"Usually I change my route every day, especially when I am carrying money," said Abbas, who along with his colleagues is responsible for delivering phone bills and collecting payment.

A security crackdown by U.S. and Iraqi troops, who have set up scores of checkpoints and moved into combat outposts in Baghdad neighbourhoods, has helped to significantly reduce the number of roadside bombings and sectarian killings.

But sectarian militias still roam parts of the religiously mixed city of 7 million people and bombs are an ever-present threat to the postmen as they navigate through checkpoints and miles of concrete blast walls that have changed the face of Baghdad and sealed off sections of many streets.

ANYONE HOME?

"One of the main obstacles are the blocked roads and blast walls," said Badr at his office in the Post and Savings Directorate, a squat compound of two two-storey buildings.

Another is simply finding the addressee on a letter or parcel.

The sectarian violence has caused a massive population shift in the city, forcing thousands of Shi'ites and Sunnis to flee mixed neighbourhoods for the safety of areas where their sect is in the majority, or to leave the capital altogether.

"Being a postman in Baghdad is not like in other countries. Houses don't have postboxes, so you can spend hours trying to find the right house and then discover the person has left the address. With no postboxes we have to find a neighbour to give it to or put it under the door," said postman Abbas.

The redrawing of the city map has led to "job swaps" in the postal directorate, with Shi'ite and Sunni employees switching places with colleagues in offices where their sect is dominant.

"Twenty-one employees have had to move from our post office. They were Shi'ites," said Hayawi al-Azawi as he picked up a sack of post at the central sorting office. Azawi is manager of the post office in Abu Ghraib, a notoriously dangerous Sunni Arab insurgent stronghold.

Abu Ghraib, along with the volatile neighbourhoods of Tarmiya, Doura and Amiriya, is seen as too dangerous for postmen to venture into. Residents there are usually telephoned to collect their mail from the central post office.

Four of the city's 72 post offices have been destroyed in violence since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, said Badr. Only one postman in Baghdad is known to have been killed, in Amil in the southwest of the capital.

"Our job is definitely dangerous. There are explosions, we have to go into hot areas and then there are the checkpoints," said Abu Mustafa, a postman in central Karrada district.

"But I never think of quitting. I have been doing this job for more than 20 years. Besides, I like my job."

(Additional reporting by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)