Enforced disappearances in Iraq
In recent years, Iraq has been mostly in the news for the many attacks. Far less attention is reserved for news on the daily life of Iraqi people who increasingly organise themselves to stand up for human rights. A human rights violation that occurs frequently is that of enforced disappearances. Every year thousands of persons go missing. Abducted or killed by the national or regional government, one of the many militias, Al Quada or US army units. Often it is not clear which group is responsible for the violation, making it all the more difficult to find out what has happened. Under dangerous circumstances, various local human rights organisations in Iraq research the faith of disappeared persons. And they support the people - mostly women and children - that are left behind. Depending on their geographic region, the organisations deal with disappearance cases from various past conflicts. In addition, they fight the many disappearances that are occurring now.
Iraq blog
From 29 November until 4 December 2007, Aim for human rights employee Jan de Vries and Marjan Stoffers, manager of the Linking Solidarity team, visit Northern Iraq. On behalf of the programme Linking Solidarity, they discuss with Iraqi human rights organisations in what way Aim for human rights can support their development of a country-wide cooperation on enforced disappearances.
Wednesday 5 December 2007 – Honorary Iraqi citizens
Marjan and I have finished our three day meeting and are on our way back to the Netherlands. We are still dazed and somewhat confused by the eventful meeting. This is compounded by our tiredness. It was an incredibly hard meeting with many highs and some lows… But you have to have lows in order to appreciate the highs!
The first day of the meeting was designed to get to know each other and each other’s organisation. The Iraqi organisations discussed some common issues they work on and already started exchanging valuable information. All agreed that trust is the basis of collaboration. Building trust takes time, especially in the Iraqi context, but day 1 certainly was a good step in the right direction.
While on the first day the organisations gave and received (as they put it), on the second day they would mainly receive (or so we thought). The day was split up in a presentation on Iraqi laws on disappearances, a presentation by me on international human rights law and enforced disappearances in international law, and a presentation by Marjan on other networks of family members of disappeared all around the world. What happened was surprising (to us at least).
At the end of the day, while the meaning and purpose of collaboration were discussed, Mr. C stood up, put his fists on the table and looked somewhat threatening. He said something in Arab that changed the course of the meeting. The room fell silent and the only sound we could hear was that of the translator saying: “Mr. C says that the reason networks he participated in over the last years have failed is, because he thought the network would work by itself. The reason they failed is, because he did not invest time and energy in the network. It was his fault!”
This is not the remark of an undereducated man; this is the remark of a very well educated man who has had the misfortune of growing up in a state that did not allow human rights organisations. One must realise Iraqis can only organise themselves since the toppling of Saddam Hussein, and even then they have only been able to work in an extremely hostile environment.
Day 2 did not finish at 18:30 as intended. Instead, after the remark of Mr. C, it was decided to have a 15 minute break. Our host and chairperson of the meeting Mr. M asked us during this break if we could leave the room (without any disrespect). We did and we heard later that they continued discussing the worth of collaboration and some specifics of a network among themselves until 23:30(!).
On the last day we thought that perhaps our role would be minimal. However, after having decided to form a network, agreed on a name, a coordinator and a long term goal, they were ready to discuss mid-term objectives. This discussion was extremely emotional and at times fraught with a conceptual misunderstanding of the difference between strategies, goals and activities (as those discussions always are in every context).
We were made honorary Iraqi citizens and, as such, we were invited to discuss the issues with the organisations. It was a gratifying, but, in these circumstances, somewhat poisoned gift. We were involved in very complicated and long discussions. We did not impose our ideas, but were asked our opinion, and this the organisations took on board in their discussions. Sometimes they agreed with us, and sometimes they disagreed. The long discussions completely drained us, but we were kept alert and awake by the emerging idea that everyone was slowly going in the same direction.
The result of our three day meeting? Formally there is agreement on mid-term and short-term goals, and a set of activities on enforced disappearances. However, let us not repeat mistakes. The human rights organisations that are members of the network and the coordinator need to start activities and show the added value of working together. It is only then that we can effectively evaluate the success of this meeting. And we, of the Linking Solidarity programme of Aim for human rights, will do all we can to support the organisations in fighting disappearances.
Sunday 2 December 2007 - Who wants to be a millionaire?
“So thank you for your presentation. Does anybody have any questions?” Mr. A. raises his hand. “Yes, Mr. A. please tell us your question.” Mr. A looks towards the presenter: “I just want to say I have no question”. Iraqi people love to discuss every conceivable subject. They will voice their opinion, sometimes quite loudly, and with great passion.
We are here for a three day meeting of Iraqi human rights organisations. The organisations present at this meeting come from many parts of Iraq. Most of these organisations have very broad objectives and work on many different issues. One of these issues is enforced disappearances. The NGOs all work on different types of ‘disappearances’ from different periods (such as the Iran-Iraq war, Al Anfal (genocide in Kurdistan), First Gulf War, the whole reign of Saddam Hussein, the Second Gulf War, and the violence since the toppling of Saddam Hussein).
The organisations all work for different victims. These victims are the disappeared themselves (among others, soldiers, Kurdish men, girls who were abducted, political prisoners, ordinary citizens who were kidnapped, and perhaps killed). However they also work for other victims of ‘disappearances’, namely the families of the disappeared. These are often women and children. The NGOs provide basic needs and/or basic training on skills to these families.
The organisations we meet work on diverse issues such as the documenting of disappearances, tracing people by visiting prisons or, in some cases, opening mass graves. They lobby for better laws, and implementation of these laws. And they raise awareness on issues related to disappearances.
The issue of disappearances is considered one of the main problems facing Iraqi society at this moment. It has destabilised parts of Iraqi society and increasingly does so today. An important feature of this is that is has affected family patterns to the extreme. As such it will continue to leave a mark on Iraqi society for a long time.
What we notice is that, as if all the different tasks the organisations take up are not enough, the government unloads tasks on NGOs they should be performing themselves. For example, the government will recuperate bodies they find and hand them over to NGOs for processing. NGOs are then charged with identifying the bodies, either by themselves, or by tracing family members.
Another example is that NGOs often take up basic humanitarian tasks, such as the provision of food and clothes, and education for women and children. In essence this is not bad, but there is a growing acknowledgement that the government is not at all performing these tasks and the sole responsibility therefore falls on the heavily loaded shoulders of overstretched NGOs.
Since the situation of the people on the ground is not improving (apart from, to a certain degree, the security situation) those people increasingly blame NGOs for not doing their work well. Slowly they are loosing trust in NGOs, while of course they should be blaming the government (and to a degree the US).
These problems are further compounded by American involvement that is increasingly perceived as extremely negative. There are many indications that point towards this general assessment, such as the long list of human rights violations by US forces and the complete impunity for American perpetrators of human rights violations. This impunity has even, effectively, been put into Iraqi law. The law states that at no time an American citizen can be arrested, investigated upon, and prosecuted, for crimes committed in Iraq. These issues are raised continuously by Iraqi organisations and they are being identified as major barriers for a more peaceful and just Iraq.
These are issues the organisations agree upon in the three day meeting. And that is something quite special, as I already noted, because they will argue about everything else…to the extreme.
Mr. S. asks for the fifth time: “So did Iraq sign the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?” Somewhat loosing my patience I reiterate the fact that a State does not sign this Declaration, it accepts the Declaration by becoming a member of the United Nations, it is a consensus document among states and it has become part of customary law. Mr. S. takes a deep breath and starts reformulating the question in Arabic. Before he can end his sentence and the translator can say what Mr. S. said (as if I did not know), Mr. A. interferes, again in Arabic. Soon after some ten voices erupt in hefty discussion (I had the distinct impression they were about to start a fight). Before the translator can explain what is happening a telephone is put on ‘speaker’ function and a voice from Tikrit talks to all of us. Another participant in the meeting, mr. N., phoned his cousin, a professor in International Law and asked him to settle the matter. I understand, now, that the question put to him was whether Iraq has to sign the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They joke about it and say it is like phoning someone on “Who wants to be a millionaire”. So who will win the million? The professor in Tikrit (thankfully) agrees with me. The argument is settled. Mr. N. claims the million, but secretly I am already counting them…
Saturday 1 December 2007 - All is not so well in the best of worlds
Yesterday we drove through enormous construction sites over non-asphalted roads in Erbil. We came across two makeshift football pitches. Besides one of the pitches a group of little boys was changing into their outfit. On the pitches boys were playing what looked like some serious football. All the while our host, Mr. M., was busy phoning on two separate phones, clearly somewhat worried, and from time to time, visibly relieved.
Mr. M. was worried for two reasons. First of all he had taken the responsibility of getting some 20 people from different Iraqi NGOs, from all over Iraq, to Erbil to meet with us, and much more importantly, to meet with each other. This is the reason Marjan and I have travelled to Iraq some 6 months after our first visit. We facilitate a three day meeting of human rights organisations, working on enforced disappearances. The intention of the meeting is to see whether these NGOs want to continue working together on the issue of disappearances. There are many ways of working together and the organisations have to decide what type of collaboration they want in the future.
In addition Marjan and I will indicate what Aim for human rights can do if the organisations decide they want to work together more closely. In doing so we will also tell about the other networks we know and we work with. We will relate how organisations that are part of these networks have been strengthened by more close collaboration. Finally we will also give a presentation on international human rights law with regard to disappearances. The wish to do so was expressed by Mr. M.
So Mr. M was worried, because he felt a great sense of responsibility for the success of the meeting (and let us be honest a meeting without participants is not such a great beginning). Organising such a meeting in the Netherlands is also stressful, because you never know if the trains will run on time or whether people get stuck in traffic jams.
However, you hardly ever need to worry whether the participants will make it alive. In the context of Iraq this is still very much a worry. This is the second reason Mr. M. was somewhat anxious.
The three-day meeting will start tomorrow (Sunday), but most of the participants arrived today. So we got to meet and talk to all of them. A preliminary conclusion is that all people are quite positive about the security situation. It is clear that the situation has ameliorated very much in 6 months time, especially in Baghdad. There are still some major concerns (Kirkuk, Mosul, Najaf) and of course it’s all relative.
The ameliorating security situation has one paradoxical result. When the security situation was very bad, NGOs could function without too much government interference. Of course the dangers on the ground limited their capabilities to the extreme, but they were largely left alone by the government. In some cases the government even viewed these organisations as a good substitute and they referred work to them that is normally done by government.
The situation has become less volatile now and government can concentrate on other things besides security. Unfortunately they have decided to focus some attention on limiting the freedom of NGOs. In fact we are told they directly interfere with NGOs and are starting to refuse independent NGO’s. Only NGO’s affiliated with political parties will be allowed to exist and function.
Another strange phenomenon we already noticed in July, is the amount of organisations from the United States working in Iraq. Something we have noticed from some of these American organisations is their focus on a single blueprint for organisation structures and how they should work. They transpose this blueprint directly on the Iraqi organisations, networks and democracy, which I believe is not the best way to go.
Two days ago I saw PSV beat Excelsior Rotterdam by 2-0. The entire 90 minutes of the game were on Yemenite(!) television. The game was played a week ago. It was extremely bad and boring. I really hope the boys changing into their outfit yesterday did not see this match. They may think that this is the way to play football, because this is how Europeans play. I really hope, instead, that they took an example from the Iraqi national squad, and try and play their football the Iraqi way.
Thursday 29 November 2007 - They truly are everywhere
The Dutch have a tendency to meet compatriots in the most bizarre and remote places on earth. Whether it is on the back of an elephant in Nepal or in the jungle in Bolivia, it does not amaze us anymore. We acknowledge the fact that there is really no escaping our compatriots, and with them we complain about the weather and compare prizes.
The encounter we had with a Dutch national at the airport of Amman, Jordan was slightly different. In Amman we had to wait 5 hours for our flight to Erbil in Iraq. We were discussing our trip when out of a nowhere someone (looking very local…) started talking to us in Dutch. He appeared to be an Iraqi refugee who had lived in The Netherlands for over ten years. This was the first time he returned to see his family back in Suljemania. He was not so sure what he was going to find back in his home country. He travelled with us to Erbil where we could tell him about the security measures he could expect. For us it was our second visit in 6 months.
The word Iraq is synonymous to violence, kidnapping, videos of angry men with scarves and swords, roadside bombs and general suffering. Six months ago when we were in Erbil, Iraq, for the first time we saw a different side of Iraq. Apart from hearing about the suffering of Iraqis (something that is not always highlighted in Western media) we also met many incredibly courageous, ambitious and dynamic people working towards a more peaceful Iraq in their own way: by working on human rights for all Iraqis.
First time around we also visited the ancient citadel while it was dark, walked through the lively Soukh and had a close-up view of the biggest mosque at 23:00 at night. We could do all this within certain limits and some nervous looks towards us. We were strongly advised not to go out alone, wander to far from the car or our host, and certainly not stay in a single public place for too long.
Within those constraints we saw no sign of violence and no apparent threat. There were a lot of security people (state and private) and many guns in the open, but we did not feel unsafe at all. The town we were at, Erbil, was an exception then from the rest of Iraq. It was a single safe haven for Iraqis and a few foreigners.
The first time around family and friends referred us straight to a mental institution for even considering going to Iraq. We were not sure ourselves what we would find. We felt exited and right-out frightened at the same time. This second time around, less frightened and all the more exited (still with some anxious parents left behind) we feel a great shift. There is a greater sense of safety and security and an increased freedom to move around.
Of course you can read such a change in statistics throughout Iraq (lower numbers of deaths and of disappearances), but much more important are the small things here in Erbil: we walked around the town more then the first time; Marjan sat in the car for some time, alone and without closing the doors while I was getting my pants fixed; we went to the Christian part of town and looked around there. And at no moment whatsoever did we feel unsafe or did we meet nervous eyes and looks.
We, Marjan Stoffers and Jan de Vries, work on the programme Linking Solidarity, which deals with enforced disappearances. When you go to a country like Iraq with the intention of talking with people about disappearances, you will never get a rosy or positive picture. That is the nature of the work.
However, 6 months ago we met 12 people from different organisations apart from each other. Now we will be sitting with 20 organisations at the same time, to see whether all can agree on working together on the issue of enforced disappearances. The earlier perceived motivation and dynamism has provided people with the energy to move forward.
The group of Iraqis we met seems representative for a majority of people here. It is clearly also that type of attitude that gives such a positive feeling. Don’t misunderstand, all is not well, but it feels so much better!
It is this regained freedom that enables the Dutch Iraqi man we met to go back to his family. And we did not complain about the weather (ok maybe a little then) or the prices. Instead we wished him a safe trip to his family, hoping that he could undertake such a trip with even more confidence and frequency in the future.
In the coming week we will meet many new people and old friends. We very much hope that our positive feelings continue to be confirmed.
