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12 May 2003 by Saleh Dabbakeh in Baghdad The bad news reached the Anis family at the height of last month's attack on Al-Doura neighbourhood in southern Baghdad. Their eldest son, Ra'ed, 34, was travelling home with a friend when the car in which he travelling came under fire. He was hit in the shoulder and arrested by US troops. "All we know is what his friend told us, Ra'ed was lying on his back on the ground while two soldiers were standing next to him," says his younger brother, Imad. "All I have done since is look for him, trying to find out his whereabouts." This was only the beginning of a saga that is far from being closed for this family. And it is just one of thousands of similar stories that speak volumes about the human suffering that war has inflicted on a population already reeling under 13 years of sanctions. Imad started looking for his brother in Al-Doura, approaching anyone in uniform in the hope of gleaning some news about his brother, be it good or bad. He has since expanded his search to other cities like Al-Najaf and Karbala. The power vacuum left by the collapse of the Iraqi government has made information as rare a commodity as security, power, sanitation and water. The telecommunications system was totally destroyed in the bombing of the central telephone exchange. Like most of his fellow citizens, Imad cannot contact friends or relatives in other parts of the country to ask for their help. He was left with only one option. "I travelled anywhere I heard there were Iraqi prisoners-of-war. I went to Umm Qasr, near the border with Kuwait," he says, moving his chair back and pointing at his feet in desperation. "I spent 21 days in Basra, looked everywhere, asked almost everyone. My feet can walk no further - and I've found out nothing." His mother would accept no excuses. "She sent me back onto the streets as soon as I came back home. She is certain my brother is still alive," Imad said as a volunteer from the Iraqi Red Crescent (IRCS) sifted through a pile of cards in an attempt to find the brother's name. "He is only one of thousands who have come to us asking for help in locating missing loved ones," said Yaseen Ali, one of the IRCS volunteers manning a table outside the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) office in Baghdad. "People are even asking us about family members who have been missing since the Iraq-Iran war in the 1980s." Imad went along after a friend who knows an IRCS volunteer told him the Red Crescent and ICRC were gathering the names of POWs. He went through hundreds of names of people listed outside. He left a card with his brother's name and a date scribbled on it "I was told to check back again on 21 May," said Imad, his eyes pleading for an answer that simply couldn't be given. "I am so tired of looking. We want to know what happened to my brother." Imad stops for a second as another young man asks the same question to a IRCS volunteer. He turns to another volunteer: "Please tell us something. Anything. Even that he is dead. It is important for us to come to some kind of a closure." But all the volunteer could do was to comfort Imad. Placing his palm on the young man's hand tenderly he asks him to keep hope up and to come back on 21 May. Maybe, just maybe, more information would be available on his brother by then. Tracing is just one of the important jobs being carried out by the IRCS in the wake of the conflict. As temperatures rise in Baghdad, Red Crescent volunteers continue their grim task of collecting corpses from the streets and burying them. But on the other side of the Tigris River other important work, crucial for the future of the IRCS was being carried out. Representatives of 17 of the IRCS's 18 branches had gathered to elect a new national leadership: the first Iraqi national organization to do so in post-war Iraq. "To have one united Iraqi Red Crescent Society is a great achievement under the present difficult circumstances. Yet it is only the first step to prepare ourselves for the new challenges we are facing," said Dr. Jamal Karbouli, the newly-elected IRCS president. "The doors of this society will not be closed to anyone, regardless of ethnicity or religious affiliation. Only with your work and efforts will we be able to build a strong and capable IRCS based on its long and solid history." The gathering, attended by representatives of the International Federation and ICRC, elected five people to a new transitional executive board that will lead the National Society during the next six months and prepare for new elections in each of the branches, after which a national congress will elect a new executive board. "As a woman and volunteer, I will be able to serve the people of my country better in my new capacity," said Dr. Yasmeen AbdulWahed Al-Muhami, president of the Kirkuk branch and the only woman elected to the executive board. "We never stopped helping the displaced and the returnees during the war. But I am sure I will be able to provide more assistance now". Pledging strong support to the IRCS, Ibrahim Osman, the special representative of the Federation's secretary general for rehabilitation in Iraq, congratulated the participants. He stressed that the IRCS was the "first national institution to show a great sense of responsibility by preserving its unity, representing the desire of the people of Iraq to hold the country together." The elections signalled the start of the rehabilitation of the IRCS. Branch representatives also discussed how to meet the challenges it faced after the war. "This is a time for solidarity and togetherness," said Sa'adi AbdulKareem, president of Al-Anbar branch and a new board member. "We will spare no effort to deliver more humanitarian services to our people who need it now more than anytime before," said AbdulKareem. An additional pledge of support came from the ICRC when Jeremy England, deputy representative of its Baghdad delegation, said it would work hand-in-hand with the Federation to develop the IRCS's capacity. "Such open and constructive discussions deserve only to be encouraged," he said. The rehabilitation of the IRCS will take another important step forward on 13 May when many donor Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies meet in Baghdad to study how best to support the IRCS. Related links: Iraq humanitarian crisis Profile of Iraq Red Crescent Society Make a donation |
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