The media is so
overwhelmed with war and conflict that it is easy to look away or to try to
pretend it is not happening. For some time, while watching Al-Jazeera, I was so
confused about Syria, after all, wasn’t it supposed to be a revolution, an Arab
Spring like the ones in Tunisia and Egypt? Every day they were covering a new
attack, more people killed, another town taken by the rebels or back by the
Syrian Army. I just thought, ok, please finish fighting so I can have my breakfast
without another bloodshed story. But when you meet someone, when you are touch
first hand, you think differently.
Iraq, my home for the past
2 years, is one of Syria’s next-door neighbor and many Syrians, especially
Kurds have come to the Kurdish part of Iraq. News of thousands fleeing into
Iraq were everywhere. They were coming into Domiz Camp, in Dohuk, a camp that
had Syrian refugees since 2004 from the previous uprising. Now it has been
overflowed by 30-40,000 Syrian-Kurds that have come to escape the violence
caused by 20-month-violently repressed revolution now mixed with civil war.
I was in Dohuk last week
and visited the camp to see how is the situation of the Syrian refugees here.
As we entered, I saw hundreds of tents lined up, I had goose bumps and a sudden
sadness, I had to take a deep breath not to cry in front of my colleagues. The
camp already looks like a city with street vendors, small shops and improvised
restaurants. Hundreds of people, mostly men gathered in the entrance of the
camp, as if lined up, more like crowded up waiting for something. I didn’t feel
intimidated or scared, I kind of expected what I saw, it was like a giant
Qalawa (is the camp that I work now in Suleimaniya). It felt kind of familiar,
as if I had been there before.
We went to visit one of
the programs run by one of the local NGO’s they provide psychosocial counseling
for people in the camp, mostly children. The camp is so big, and they visit the
families to see if there are families in need for help. Some children have been
treated for trauma. The staff say one problem is that there are no spaces for
children in the camp. We went around the camp and there were a lot of children
running around. A little girl in a dress and white stockings was trying to cross
through the muddy street, careful not to get herself too dirty, I carried her
up but it was too late, her shoes were all covered in mud. Many of the kids
were carrying backpacks; at least they are going to school, I said as to
console myself. But the consolation lasted a few minutes until we spoke
to one of the families, who said they were not sending their kids to schools
because it was far and they were afraid that something could happen to the
children on the way (to school).
This family said that there
have been several tents on fire. The people have organized in the different
camp sections to protect the common areas. Until now, no one knows what has
caused the fires. The reality is that tents are small, with unreliable
electricity connections. They criticized the UN for not providing enough
services. One of the women said that they get a monthly ration that includes
oil, flour, sugar, tea, and lentils, but that it was not enough to feed the
family for a month.
The family said they were
thankful for the Kurdish people’s hospitality. They were saying how they
remembered the atrocities committed against Kurds in Iraq and how every year
they commemorated the massacre of Halabja, where more than 5,000 Kurds were
chemically bombed by Saddam’s regime in Halabja. It was powerful to see my
Iraqi Kurds colleagues showing respect and solidarity with their Syrian Kurdish
neighbors. They also told us that children get sick more often there. Its cold
and the kids have to sleep with their jackets on, the UN promised to give them
heaters, but the kerosene that the heaters use is expensive. It reminded my of
my kids in Qalawa, when we got there, they had their jackets on. I’m angry, and
I want to do something. Angry at the international community that is not
supporting the revolution, saying that they don’t want to do the same as they
did in Libya. Instead of helping the opposition to reach their goals, they are
playing a “Little Cold War”. Turkey with supporting the Sunnis, Iran, the Shias
and the US neither, prolonging a war that everyday increases its toll on
civilians killed. The leftist and the peace movement debating if they should
keep their support to Assad’s regime because is anti-imperialist, while
ignoring Syrian people’s plight for freedom, which came out decided to
overthrow a 50 year dictatorial regime. They were inspired by the success in
Tunisia and Egypt and the support of the international community in Libya. They
find themselves betrayed by indifference.
Why are we and our
governments so hypocrites to call ourselves supporters of democracy and human
rights while we watch crimes against humanity happening in front of our eyes?
Why we are unable to respond? Why don’t we support the Syrian people’s
representatives and encourage them to start drafting a constitution for the
new, free Syria? Why are we not talking about a federal Syria, like in Iraq
with autonomy for the minorities like the Kurds and start to engage them in
drafting the new constitution? Is not straight forward, as the opposition is
very fragmented, but Im just saying is not impossible.
These are concrete,
diplomatic, non-violent actions that our government and diplomats could be
approaching. Instead we keep waiting…. and while we wait, the prospects of
reconciliation decrease, and murders, crimes against humanity, hate and
division grow.
See the next post where I
try to map the actors in the Syrian revolution/civil war....
