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Apr 7 2007 Iraqi Refugees in Amman

I cannot tell a lie (well, hardly ever). I copied this from one of my favorite blogs:

http://healingiraq.blogspot.com/

I only know a couple of Iraqi refugees in Amman. I'd like to know more about their situation. What can we do to help?
Bruce

             

Iraqi Refugees in Amman   Tuesday, March 27, 2007

 

A photo of the endless queue of Iraqi applicants outside the UNHCR's headquarters in Amman, Jordan, taken yesterday.

Konfused Kid reports that undercover Jordanian security officers are randomly questioning Iraqis on the streets of Amman to find out if they are overstaying their residency. Some of my friends say they are afraid to leave their apartments.

You can also check the UNHCR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) on:

http://www.unhcr.org/country/jor.html

Mar 8 2007 Suffering of a displaced family

L wrote this from Amman where over a million Iraqis now live. Some rich, some poor, some very, very poor. All were driven out. Some by threats and kidnappings and death, some by economics, some by fear, and some by families and friends insisting that they go to preserve themselves; to keep the future alive.

Dear Bruce

   How are you and how is your family? I really feel happy when hear from you. It was out of my hands to delay writing because of the big problems I have sunk in.You know every thing in Baghdad hasbeen up side down especially very recent which is very influential on us psychologically and economically.

    Bruce I would like to apologize for not putting my signature on the last letter to you because I really was dizzy.  Salam to you and to all who like Salam and work hard to plant it between nations. Here are my words for the blog:

Americans carry out their bad plans in Iraq using low ways, which is very opposite or much less than what are announced in special channels. At the beginning Paul Priemer (the worst foxy man came to our country) was the first who enact the law of Militia, allowed men who most of them were young, rogue and criminal after the American troops broke the jails down and freed those criminal people. So within the Militia they earn much money by kidnapping people and robbing their properties. Certainly those people stick to their Militia because they are without morals. My family is a victim of those Militias.

  We are an Iraqi family, my husband and I have one boy and two young girls, the boy is twenty years old, the girls are 15 and 5. We both worked very hard throughout our life, we were wealthy family, we had a nice house and another house. My husband worked in the field of house equipment. He had a big store and we could live very comfortably in Baghdad contrary to how we live in Amman. Here most of the schools are privet, not free. You have to pay for every thing for schools, universities, kindergartens and all the necessities of them. Besides living in Amman costs much. Here every thing is more expensive than in Iraq, so the life here is too hard for us to stay more. We are thinking to leave here but where could we go?  WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL WHAT HAPPENED?

 We are a sample of many Iraqi families facing big difficulties because of the lack of money although we have properties but we can not take advantage of them, no work, no shops, no people to buy, over that we can not even sell them and make use of the money to keep on living and offering the minimum level of necessities to our children. What can we do? We are confused. Do you know we keep on thinking days and nights whereas we have to think of several matters which help much in many fields. WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL WHAT HAPPENED?

We were obliged by Militias to leave our house, our work and my husband's big business for nothing. What for are we both engineers and have riches. WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL THAT?   

   One of the biggest problems facing our children is that they can not get along with whom in the same age because of the big difference between them in the style of living. Moreover we ( the parents ) don't let them go out with others to have fun because of lack of money. Every thing here needs much and we haven't that much to give children all they ask.
in peace,
L

Feb 19, 2007 Baghdad refugee, 5 years old

This tells of hatred growing in a 5 year old girl. When I met her in Amman last month she was shy. This email, from her mother in Amman explains why she was shy of this US man who came to dinner. The family fled Baghdad when they were threatened. A 'note was thrown' telling them that they had to pay money or their children would be kidnapped for ransom. They packed quickly and fled to Jordan where they are trying to 'wait for the peace' to come to Baghdad. They are among the lucky refugees...father has found work. Try not to judge. Try to see into the mind of a frightened 5 year old girl.

Her email:

Here is not a story happened in Baghdad or in any other city in Iraq, but it is a story of a strange new hatred feeling which has been found in all Iraqis since the plans of Bosh started. 

This feeling is going stronger and stronger, and I think it is very bad to exist such feelings between nations because of the big ambitious leaders of some of those nations. Bosh is one of those leaders. He does any thing to carry out his criminal plans, and then tries to convince his people and the world that he is defending his country. Is it sensible to defend the country thousands of kilometers far away of it?

My daughter, she is five years and half old, asked me this day, “When we will be back to Baghdad?”   

Before I could answer she told me, "We will be back when Bosh leaves." And then she said, "when we return back to Baghdad we will find nobody there because Bosh will kill every body. He will kill all our relatives, friends, and neighbors.  So Baghdad will be an abandoned place."

By the way most of children in Iraq call American soldiers Bosh because they are dressed in army uniforms, and she is afraid of them. More than being afraid she is terrified of them. 

This is my daughter and there are thousands or perhaps millions of children like her who have this feeling inside them.  Now let us think: when they are growing up this feelings is growing with them, too, against your people and your nation, and I think this is the destruction to all meaning of love and humanity. 

The problem is much bigger than what I put forward, and writing the problem is not as influential as the problem itself. So let us work hard together to remove such feelings which may destroy the world, and try to insert love instead of it, God bless anyone who works to plant love wherever he stays.

in loving kindness,
L