Iraqi Voices

Some reflections from Iraqis on the eve of world refugee day.

Daniela Cavini has a moving profile of a former employee of CARE International in Baghdad, Ali al-Fadily moves us towards family and the interruption of war, and this week’s editorial from the NGO coordination Committee in Iraq runs a story about a life in Iraq.

Sadly, these types of stories – the human face of war - are all too often ignored by most coverage of the war.

IRAQ: The Love Stories Are Gone
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42808
Ali al-Fadhily, IPS, 14 June

This is the land of the Arabian Nights, and of love stories that became fables far and wide. In these stories, in the traditions of which they were born, the lover thought nothing of giving up his life for a beloved. But no one thought death would come to this land under the present circumstances.

We belong to the past, there is no future for us in Iraq
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/PANA-7FRBQ4?OpenDocument&rc=3&cc=irq
Daniela Cavini, ECHO Regional Information Officer, 19 June

Only four years ago Jamil Abdullatif, 44, had a decent job, a house in Baghdad, two cars and a normal life. He was the driver and logistician of CARE International, a humanitarian aid organization established in Iraq since 1991. For years he had been driving aid workers around his country, to provide food and health assistance to vulnerable Iraqis, mostly children.

A life in Iraq: An ordinary woman’s story
http://www.ncciraq.org/IMG/doc_NCCI_Weekly_Highlight_-_Issue_116_-_20080619.doc
NGO Coordination Committee for Iraq, Editorial 19 June 2008