Angel by Graig Anderson, KNOCK #10

More than five million Iraqis have been displaced since the 2003 U.S. led incursion of Iraq. Conservative estimates issued by the U.N. and the World Health Organization indicate that at least 60,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed as a result of the conflict. More than 80 percent of Iraqi refugees are women and children. Approximately 2.5 million Iraqis have fled to neighboring countries in order to escape ongoing violence. The Collateral Repair Project (CRP) is working to facilitate relief to displaced Iraqis in Jordan and Syria. On July 30th, 2008, KNOCK sat down to interview CRP’s founder and Director, Sasha Crow.

KNOCK: What prompted you to create the Collateral Repair Project?

Crow: I actually didn’t anticipate this becoming as big as it did. The way this started was basically a kitchen table project with just myself. I had read an article by an Iraqi journalist. She had gone to Al-Anbar province immediately following the U.S. attack there and interviewed doctors at the hospitals and the family of those who had died in the attack. One of the people who had been killed was the hospital’s ambulance driver. His name was Mahmoud, and he left a widow and six small children behind; the youngest was two months-old at the time. The article gave these people’s names. It was like Google Earth, which is such a great way to describe it, because when you are looking at the earth it’s this big ball, this very beautiful ball and then you can zoom into your street and see your house with your car parked in the driveway. And reading this article where it describes people, their names, and experiences made them real to me. I was working two jobs at the time and thought, “Well, I can probably help this widow. This is one thing that I can do to counter this horror.” After a long search I was put in touch with the journalist who wrote that article. I asked her to contact this widow, Nouryia, and ask her what would help her family, which she did. Nouryia’s response was, “A quarter acre of land, 2 cows and 10 sheep.” This was a bit beyond my personal means at the time, so I engaged all my friends, the Seattle chapter of Women in Black, and the peace and justice community and said, “Hey, can you help me out with this?”. And so that’s how it began. We did a micro-project for Nouryia, and now she and her children have their own land and their own livestock. Nouryia is no longer in a position where she has to struggle, and now she doesn’t have to remarry just to have someone care for her children. We feel like not only have we provided them with some stability but we also provided Nouryia with empowerment and a model for her children of empowerment.

KNOCK: How are you going about networking for CRP and where are you finding your support base?

Crow: Initially it was among my friends, acquaintances, and the anti-war movement. Then Mary Madsen, our Co-Director, stuck with it and was really just the other half of this project. Last summer Counter Punch Online chose us for their website of the day, which really put us in the spotlight and we got a lot of hits. Through the Internet, people who are concerned with humanitarian disasters seem to find us by Googling the Iraqi refugee crisis. And because we are working in the field we have been meeting a lot of people in other organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) and networking with them. Code Pink has partnered with us on two big campaigns in the last couple months. They have such a wide base and a list of members throughout the nation that bring us a lot of support.

KNOCK: CRP has been working a lot with Iraqi refugees in Jordan. Can you describe some of the conditions and obstacles affecting refugees in Jordan?

Crow: First of all there are around five million Iraqis displaced, four million since the invasion of Iraq. A little more than two million of those are internally displaced. Over two million Iraqis are externally displaced. The estimates in Jordan are very low, and I feel, very inaccurate: 500,000 to 1 million. Most people I talk to in the field feel that 1 million is probably closer to the truth. Jordan itself is a very resource poor country. The population was 70% Palestinian refugees before the Iraqi refugee crisis. Jordan is very water poor. By some estimates they are slated to run out of water in 10 years. So this has put a tremendous burden on the infrastructure, and Jordan doesn’t have the money. So Iraqis who have fled to Jordan, the first wave were those who had money, a lot of money, and those people were the ones who have invested in Jordan’s businesses and have residency. Any Iraqi in Jordan has to have the equivalent of $100,000 in the bank in order to get legal residency. The majority of the people came just with their savings, which were running out before they left Iraq. And they are not, as illegal residents, allowed to work in Jordan, so there is extreme poverty. Their savings are running out, and the cost of living in Jordan compared to Iraq is much higher, which makes things really tough for these folks. There is no state welfare for illegal residents or “temporary guests,” as the Jordanian government likes to call them. Some of the poorest of the poor Iraqis get small cash grants through care organizations. And these grants are for approximately $100 - $200 a month depending on the family. They live in extreme insecurity. They don’t have legal status so they are fearful that they will be forcefully repatriated back into Iraq. They try to remain invisible among the population so that they don’t evoke any attention from the local authorities or annoy any of their Jordanian neighbors because they fear being brought in for interrogation and then possible imprisonment or repatriation.

KNOCK: Are Iraqi children able to attend school in Jordan?

Crow: Until September, 2007 Iraqi children were not able to attend public schools. If their parents had the money they could send them to private schools. So there were very few children being educated. In 2007, Jordan opened the doors to public schools for Iraqi children, but it’s not like in the U.S. where you pay nothing. There is tuition.

KNOCK: There are fees?

Crow: It’s minimal compared to the private schools. Some funding was made available through UNHCR and through Save the Children that allowed 25,000, and by some estimates 50,000, school-aged Iraqi children to attend school. This has put a tremendous strain on the Jordanian education system. Even with only a small percentage of Iraqi children attending school, classrooms are over-crowded because there has not been a significant increase in the hiring of teachers or creating of classrooms. So you have crowded classrooms and teachers who are totally stressed out. Many of the Iraqi students have not been in school for several years, so they are behind and many of the Iraqi children that we spoke to who attend these schools out before they left Iraq. And they are not, as illegal residents, allowed to work in Jordan, so there is extreme poverty. Their savings are running out, and the cost of living in Jordan compared to Iraq is much higher, which makes things really tough for these folks. There is no state welfare for illegal residents or “temporary guests,” as the Jordanian government likes to call them. Some of the poorest of the poor Iraqis get small cash grants through care organizations. And these grants are for approximately $100 - $200 a month depending on the family. They live in extreme insecurity. They don’t have legal status so they are fearful that they will be forcefully repatriated back into Iraq. They try to remain invisible among the population so that they don’t evoke any attention from the local authorities or annoy any of their Jordanian neighbors because they fear being brought in for interrogation and then possible imprisonment or repatriation.

KNOCK: Are Iraqis receiving visa renewals from the Jordanian government?

Crow: The only ones who can get visa renewals are the ones who have $100,000 in the bank, or they must be employed by a Jordanian business or an international organization that can give them that temporary residency status.

KNOCK: Which probably isn’t that prevalent.

Crow: No. This is a huge problem because the people who fled to Jordan were mostly the middle class in Iraq. And most of the people we talked to, the reason they left was because of death threats and kidnappings in their families. Anybody with any sort of resources in Iraq is really vulnerable because it is a lawless nation. And so there are death threats because of the sectarian violence. There are also just common gangs of thugs—criminals who want what other people have. So these people left Iraq and went to Jordan—middle class people, professionals who had a great deal at home. And they brought their savings with them, they sold their homes, their cars and other possessions, and the women sold their family’s jewelry. That’s a woman’s wealth. But that money is dwindling so quickly.

KNOCK: Are externally displaced Iraqis hopeful that they will return home?

Crow: Almost everyone we met has a strong attachment to home, just as we would if we were in their situation. They all want to return home, or almost all of them. But hope that Iraq will ever be safe enough for them to return is dwindling. Some of them left because of death threats. Those threats are still waiting there for them. And many of their homes have been destroyed or taken over by others or by militias. Despite the rhetoric that we are hearing, Iraq has not improved tremendously.

KNOCK: And it seems as if certain governments are attempting to create the illusion it’s feasible for Iraqis to return home.

Crow: That’s a really important point. I think that people need to understand that the government of Iraq is not a democratically elected government. The majority of the people—I think it’s 92 %—don’t consider it a valid government at all. It’s a puppet government that was promoted by, installed by, and protected by the invading country. And the interesting thing to me is that this Iraqi government is primarily loyal to Iran. And that the U.S. government is posturing against Iran—constantly claiming that Iran is our enemy. Yet the U.S. continues supporting the Iraqi government.

KNOCK: They are. It’s so embarrassing to watch. It’s obvious that they just don’t understand.

Crow: Oh, I think they understand really well, but it’s the whole divide and conquer theory. The U.S. played Iran and Iraq against each other in the Iran-Iraq war. We supported both sides, because the goal of our government, or the corporations that are behind our government, and the Zionist Israeli government, is to weaken and destabilize that region for many different reasons. This is what we’re seeing in Iraq. We’re seeing them doing things that appear stupid if you think that they’re honest in their stated intention to provide stability. But it’s absolutely serving their broader agenda. And Iraqis are not fond of Iranians, and vice versa. Many of the people in this current Iraqi government are people who fled Iraq during Saddam’s regime and the Iran-Iraq war because of family ties and security, and then lived in Iran, or lived outside of both countries. What we did when we invaded Iraq was we left all the borders open. Under Saddam it was very hard to get into the country. The borders were very well manned and so the U.S. opened the doors and said, “Come on in.” It’s become a playground. Well I shouldn’t say playground, but a battlefield for those who are against the United States, for those who have had long grudges against us and those who have had no grudges. We have created a terrorist state.

KNOCK: How do Iraqi citizens perceive Americans?

Crow: You know that was the one thing that just shocked me. Whether it was politeness, or an unwillingness to insult me as a U.S. citizen when I was a guest in their home, I don’t know, but I really felt they were sincere. They really hold no animosity towards us as people. They do question why we ever would have elected George Bush and they do wish that we would advocate for U.S. withdrawal. I think that some of them overestimate the power we have as citizens because we live in a supposed democracy and they think that we, as citizens in a democracy, have more influence on our representatives than we actually do, or perhaps more than we chose to use.

KNOCK: How do you think we can elicit more empathy for refugees within the American public and media; how can we help our society to view this crisis from a humanitarian perspective?

Crow: We have to get it in the news. We have to make people aware. We have to contact news sources and ask them why they aren’t reporting on it. Give them some figures. Give them some stories. Tell them that you want to know. They’re selling products; it’s a commercial venture. The Iraqi people never were and are not now our enemies. To me, as far as I know it was because of WMD and because of terrorism. So remember that, and when you talk to other people about the situation, remind them of that. Because what happens in war is we perceive those that we are fighting against as our enemy, and when we perceive somebody as our enemy we dehumanize them. Iraq was a very sophisticated country, with a highly educated population. Some women chose to wear burkas, but many women wore western clothing and makeup. They drive cars, held high positions in government, and the business sector. I think the “sameness” would astound people.

KNOCK: It’s tremendous, when one really stops to internalize the magnitude of what has happened. It’s overwhelming. I was talking to a friend who said, “It just seems like too much; what can we do?” I think CRP’s micro-projects are such a great vehicle to show people what they can do with so little, and what a big difference it does make.

Crow: One thing that we know, from being there and speaking with the families, is that just acknowledging their suffering as Americans—then responding by doing what we can to help—this is healing for them. This may create genuine peace and a return of goodwill between the U.S. and Iraqis.

KNOCK: Goodwill between one another as citizens and humans, separate from our respective governments’ objectives?

Crow: Yes, because Iraqis are really counting on us. They’re counting on us to end the occupation so their country has the chance to begin to heal and so that they can find their own way of rebuilding it. They’re really counting on us to care enough to make that happen. And they are living in such desperate circumstances right now. They’re really counting on us to do what we can do to ease their suffering.

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