"What?" one officer asked her incredulously, " Are you dreaming about democracy?" Aya Al Lamie was picked up from a peaceful demonstration in Baghdad in February 30 by plain clothes men, who put her into the trunk of a car and took her to the Jadiriiyah-Baghdad security facility where, she says she was beaten and threatened with rape. She was speaking at the 3rd International meeting of the Iraqi Civil Society Solidarity Initiative in Erbil, in northern Iraq's Kurdistan region. Hundreds of people, mostly Iraqis but also people and civil society organizations from Europe and the US gathered to talk about issues and develop peaceful, nonviolent strategies to confront and solve problems. How to get the word out, how to get international media attention for the on-the-ground-reality in Iraq was still a topic of discussion. Discouraging doesn't begin to describe my reaction.
The Dylan song, Blowin' in the Wind, kept running through my head, Indeed how many times, how many years? When will we finally draw the line on Iraq policy, and say we've seen enough, heard enough, we know enough, to demand action and a serious, substantive change of course?
I got involved in the movement to Lift the Sanctions against Iraq in 1998 when UNICEF and other reputable agencies on the ground were estimating that as many, and maybe more than 5,000 children under the age of five were dying every month as a result of US supported UN Sanctions. We didn't know, no one in the US knew, we thought, about the level of suffering. The main stream media was ignoring the situation. We put our efforts into educating the public, media activism and pressuring our legislators.
But the truth, we learned was that some people did know and worse, they weren't doing anything. Then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright knew. She didn't dispute the figures in her infamous interview with Leslie Stahl on 60 Minutes in 1996. Asked about the deaths of 250,000 Iraqi children under Sanctions, was it worth it? Albright responded, "I think this is a very hard choice, but the price--we think the price is worth it ..." What is amazing is that this public admission--that the government knew and was continuing the policy--didn't generate it's own media attention and public outcry.
In the late 90s, there was enough reporting about the alarming increase in infant and under 5 mortality, low birth weight and food scarcity resulting in under and malnourishment in children and youth to get attention. The UN reacted with the Oil for Food program in an attempt to alleviate the situation, but it wasn't enough. The program's first Director, Dennis Halliday resigned after one year, calling the economic sanctions genocide. His successor, another long-time senior UN diplomat, Hans von Sponek resigned a year later. This high-level rejection of the sanctions policy generated some press. After that, perhaps another honorable man or woman stepped into the position, I don't know. Whomever it was, they disappeared under the media radar, taking the issue with them.
My project, The Iraqi Children's Art Exchange (2000) tries to raise the media profile on Iraqi children, using exhibits of children's art and photographs to put a face on the humanitarian crisis in Iraq. I would begin my talks and writing in those early days by reflecting on the fact that most people in the US knew only two things about Iraq: that Saddam Hussein was the country's evil dictator and that he had used chemical weapons against his own people. I would spend the next hour talking about the ever increasing cancer and leukemia rates in Iraq, and the every-decreasing capacity to help. About the daily challenges faced by millions of men, women and children in Iraq as a result of the first Gulf War and the brutal economic sanctions.
The ongoing, violent occupation in Iraq has exacted a huge toll on both sides-- in lives ruined and lost, and in financial terms. Despite this, there is still little or no substantive information or analysis getting out in the US. Today, after more than twenty years, I feel almost nothing has changed. Most people in the US still know two things: the evil Saddam is gone, and (mistakenly) that Iraq had something to do with the 9/11 tragedy. Go figure!
We hear only of car bombings, of soldiers and "terrorists" killed, of neighborhoods being won and lost. How many people know that Iraq is "… ranked the fourth most corrupt country in the world…" by Berlin-based Transparency International’s 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index. How many hard-earned tax dollars wasted on this destruction?
And what about the health crisis…it goes on and on. Did you hear or read about the study on health outcomes in Fallujah 2005-2009. The study, reported in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health in July 2010, investigated the accuracy of anecdotal reports of dramatic increases in birth defects, infant deaths and cancer in Fallujah in the aftermath of our attack on that city. The study confirmed the situation, calling the increases "alarmingly high". Alexander Cockburn, writing in the Independent in the UK, quoted the report saying the " …toxic legacy of the assault was worse than Hiroshima."
Perhaps we don't hear much because it's extremely dangerous to report from Iraq. According to an Al Jazeera Iraq "…ranked as the deadliest country in the world for the press for six consecutive years, 2003 through 2008." A woman at the conference told me that the first independent TV station in Kurdistan was destroyed five days after it began broadcasting. Others expressed their dismay over the fact that the Iraqi Media Network is funded by the government. There are lots of papers in circulation they maintained, but there is little diversity in the news and views expressed. Then there are the informal source of information, the NGOs and civil society organization, eyes and ears on the ground many of whom have pulled out of central and southern Iraq, taking their capacity to help with this issue with them.
So, this may be why I didn't know, why so few people know that in the shadow of the international media lights shining so brightly on the Arab Spring in Tunisia, Egypt and other places, Iraqis also took to the streets. Who knew that in February thousands, maybe tens of thousands, maybe more filled city squares in Iraq? Who knew that in addition to Baghdad, there were strikes in Sulymaniyah and in Mosul. They are also demonstrating for democracy in Iraq, and more poignantly for me, they continue to demand what they've been asking for--what those of us working in solidarity with them have been asking for-- since the 1990 war: restoration and improvement of basic services such as electricity and water purification, an end to corruption, more jobs and a release of political prisoners. You can read more and see clips from these actions at the web site of The Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI).
So, back to Aya Al Lamie, our brave young Iraqi woman dreaming of democracy. Isn't democracy the aim of US policy in Iraq; isn't this the outcome we hope to achieve with our billions of dollars? Isn't democracy what troops have been fighting and dying for in Iraq for the last twenty years? The answers, of course: yes, yes and yes. But it seems these youth are not seen as legitimate partners or champions in this struggle. Indeed they are not seen at all. And, this is the point. The complicated reality of life on the ground in Iraq has been blacked out, ignored by main stream media in the US for more than twenty years.
Why isn't the US press featuring these youth, celebrating their commitment and determination. They could be seen as a measure of success, although I don't think we can take the credit. They are acting in solidarity with youth throughout the Middle East. But whatever authorities are in control don't seem to recognize them and their fellow peaceful, democracy-loving protestors as enlightened fighters for an Iraqi Spring. Rather, they are branded as terrorists and, it seems in some cases, they are dealt with accordingly.
Imagine the challenge of the situation in Iraq, a country fractured and wounded by so many years of war, economic sanctions and violence. The OWFI handout decried the occupation. It stole their opportunity to act on their own behalf, they said, denying them the possibility of a unifying struggle to overthrow their dictator and reform their country on their own.
What can we, who want to act in solidarity with democracy movements, do in this particular situation? What can we possibly do to change this media dynamic? Is the US -- "the west" --supporting the forces standing in the way, terrorizing and trying to silence this democratic movement seeking what other youth around the world seek?
I have no answers; they are surely blowin' in the wind. Iraqis--individuals, civil society organizations and NGOs-- have strategies on the ground and I sense a strong commitment, a determination to go on despite the enormous challenges. We must keep working on this; they need our solidarity and our attention.
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