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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
IRAQ: Syrian refugees face difficulties in troubled capital
BAGHDAD, 6 October 2004 (IRIN) - The Syrians in and around Baghdad may be Iraq's most unusual group of refugees. Many of the 500 Syrians live in central Haifa Street, scene of numerous bombings and firefights between insurgents and US forces in recent weeks.
At least five men have been arrested, including three last week, by Iraqi National Guard forces searching the apartment blocks where the Syrians and Palestinian refugees live. At least two of them are still in jail, their relatives told IRIN.
US forces have said in the past that insurgents fire mortars from the apartment blocks into the heavily guarded "green zone", home to thousands of US citizens, interim government officials and foreign embassies.
The insurgents know that US forces are unlikely to fire back into such a heavily populated area, a US spokesman told IRIN on condition of anonymity.
But the Syrians say they have nothing to do with the insurgents, who pull up in cars, fire their weapons, then leave. "It is a big problem for us, since these [insurgents] are like ghosts.
We don't see them and we don't know who they are," a 52-year-old Syrian man collecting a stipend at the Islamic Relief aid agency told IRIN, declining to be named. "Iraqi police took me and they took my gun, but then they let us go," he added.
The British-based NGO, Islamic Relief, one of the few aid agencies still in Iraq, is helping the Syrians with monthly rental stipends, transport for students, school supplies for children and job opportunities for all, Sarmad Mohiedin, Islamic Relief's refugee coordinator, told IRIN. About 80 of the very poor refugee families receive an additional monthly cash allowance.
"When three of them were arrested in the latest clashes by the Iraqi National Guard and held for two or three days, we asked the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to find a solution to their situation," Mohiedin said.
Many of the families, who consider themselves political refugees, now just want to get out of the Haifa Street area, several told IRIN.
Syrians come to the Islamic Relief office to pick up aid, saying it was too dangerous for Islamic Relief workers to come to them. Six times, the police have come to his apartment looking for fighters, Fawzi Abdulazeez Faris, 57, told IRIN. Faris was never arrested, but the police scared his children, he said.
"We don't want them here, but it's very dangerous for us to say anything. If we do, they'll burn our houses," Faris said. "We just want peace."
Resident Selham Rasheed, 47, was more negative about the fighting. She said she takes care of her mother and a sick sister in one of the high-rise apartments and doesn't want to be bothered by fighters or police anymore.
"All fighting is against humanity," Rasheed said. "The police said they considered us to be resistance fighters and threatened us. I showed them I live with just my mother and sister - my husband died several years ago."
Virtually all of the refugees were given political asylum by former President Saddam Hussein, who built the new apartment blocks for them in the 1980s.
They are scared they'll be put in jail for opposing the Syrian regime if they try to return home. Many have lived in Iraq for 30 years or so and left their homeland saying they were political opponents and it was not safe for them to return.
"If I go home, I will be arrested," a 52-year-old man said. "I want to go back, but here I worked as a professor at the university. There, I would have nothing."
Some of the refugees want to stay in Iraq, while others want to return to Syria. A third group wants to move to another country, Mohiedin said.
"No one is willing to listen to us now," Faris said. "Even our identification cards are not considered to be valid." Fighting on Haifa Street reached fever pitch several weeks ago after more than 30 people were killed by a helicopter gunship as they poured into the street to look at an armoured vehicle that was blown up by a roadside bomb. Four US soldiers were injured in the incident.
"The fighters didn't choose Haifa Street - they chose all of Iraq, from Basra to Mosul," Mohammed Nouraldin, 56, told IRIN.
"Around our apartments are many poor areas with narrow places between the apartments. We don't see the fighters, but we know they are there because we hear them."
Themes: (IRIN) Conflict, (IRIN) Governance, (IRIN) Human Rights, (IRIN) Refugees/IDPs
[ENDS]
This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2004
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