Disrupted lives- new report and excellent new's report

The current CPT team in Sulaimani,  just released a report about the bombing and shelling of villagers in the Pishdar region of Iraq Kurdistan. Pishdar is the region which includes the village of Sunneh ( where we have been visiting the school ). I was there in November when team mates Marcus and Ramyar began the work on this report. I have watched it morph to  become better and more polished until finally on last Thursday it was released in a press conference at the Cultural Cafe in Sulaimani. You may think that it is too long for you to read, but I suggest at least opening it up and scanning it and talking a look at the photos.

Photos from the press conference held at the Cultural Cafe on Thursday, 30 May in Sulaimani, Iraqi Kurdistan. (Photos taken by Pat Thompson and an unknown journalist).
It was released in two language
 English:
http://www.cpt.org/files/iraq/Disrupted-Lives-Cross-border-attacks-2011-2012.pdf

Kurdish:
http://www.cpt.org/files/iraq/CPT-Jyaneki-Shewenraw-2012.pdf

Also today I watched a very good newscast about the shelling of villages. .HDNet's "World Report" correspondent Willem Marx travels to the mountainous border of Iraq and Iran, where Kurdish rebels are attacking the Iranian military, and in response Iran is shelling Iraqi territory, killing Kurdish civilians and forcing thousands of villagers from their homes.http://vimeo.com/13523382
It is 1/2 hour long but if you have interest in this it is quite worth it.

I am still quite new to this technology stuff and it appears that I can not put the video here because it is not on You tube. I hope that this works for you.

I am afraid of bombing (and there is shelling too)

As we walked through the door into the classroom the Grade two side rose and said,” good moring teacher”. The English teacher gestured with his arm to the Grade ones on the other side of the room, who obviously had not yet  learned the ritual, “stand up”, he said. They all stood. And then he gave permission to sit. “Thank you teacher”, they called in unison and sat on the small bench-type desks.

We had made the 3 hour trip  to Sunneh to teach English. This is not exactly the mandate of CPT. But we see these monthly trips as a way to become acquainted with some of the students in the school of around 80 pupils. We want our faces and presence to become at little more normal. Ultimately, we would like to ask them to be a part of a video telling of their life in the tiny villages in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan. We would also like them to tell us what it is like to be part of a village that is shelled every year from a country on the other side of the mountains. We want their story to be told to people who have never had to fear the sound of airplanes and the whistle of falling rockets.

Though they have had to face bombardment many times, the summer and autumn  of 2011offered the worst shelling that Sunneh and other surrounding villages have experienced. The villagers had to vacate their homes and take a few belongings to tent camps out of range of the shells. At the end of October the authorities came to the camp one day and informed them that all  water tanks and generators would be removed the next day. They were to return to their homes. The government deemed the area to be safe. They did not take into account the fear of the families that the authorities did not really know that the shelling was over. They did not consider the crying and nightmares of children afraid of the sound of the wind.  

The villagers had no choice but to go back to the houses and land. But, this was land that should have provided food for the summer and stored goods for the winter. One man said that when he usually gets 50-60 bushels of produce from his land., the harvest of 2011 provided less than one. Even though the villages are in the mountains the weather is still dry and hot. The gardens and fields need constant irrigation. When the farmer is in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps the crops become dry and die.

The new IDP camp dwellings being prepared for probable use once the snow clears and planting begins.

Spring 2012 is here now. The mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan are lush and green and the tiny fragrant narcissi are sprouting everywhere. Hope could be here for a year of freedom from shelling,, for the chance to run, play and grow crops in peace,  for 60 bushels of produce. However, there is evidence to the contrary. The government is building white, rectangular  cabins in the areas beyond the reach of shells. The IDP camps will not be tents anymore. But this seems to assure that there will be reason for these dwellings to be used. The families will still hear the whistle and explosions. They will still have to run from the houses, fields and animals. For, as one farmer told the team, “ they have built these close to another village. They will not allow us to bring our animals because they need the grazing area. Our goats and cows will have to stay where it is not safe.”



The Grade 9 class of Sunneh village. Next year they will have to travel 1/2 hour or board in the nearest larger centre to continue their education.

My friend and team mate Bud Courtney talking about life in New York (note the heating source in front of him)

Bud, trying to teach the boys how to stomp and clap in rythm

While two little girls look on

ON TEACHING A 7TH GRADE ENGLISH CLASS

Me: I like the colour blue. What colour do you like?

Boy: I like the colour black.

Boy: I like the colour yellow.

Me: I have two sisters and one brother. How many sisters and brothers do you have?

Boy: I have 8 sisters and 2 brothers.

Teacher: (He has a large family.)

Me: I like to cook. What do you like to cook?

Girl: I like to cook rice.

Girl: I like to cook dolma

Teacher: (a specially delicious Kurdish food of rice wrapped in grape leaves.)

Me: I have two cats. What pets do you have?

SILENCE

Teacher: (actually, in this culture no one has pets)

Me: OK. What animals do you have?

SILENCE

Teacher: (they all have animals especially goats and they have too many to count)

Me: I like to go walking for fun. What do you do for fun?

Girl: I like to play volleyball.

Boy: I like to swim.

Girl: I like to play guitar.

Me: I am afraid of very loud thunder. What are you afraid of?

Girl: I am afraid of snakes.

Girl: I am afraid of bombing .

Teacher: (and there is shelling too)

A simple explanation of the bombing and shelling of mountain villages of Kurdistan

(Photo credit: Marcus Armstrong)

(Photo credit: Marcus Armstrong)

Two days after I arrived back in Kurdistan (14 October), we closed up the CPT house in Suleymania and headed north on a public bus to join a 4 person delegation. In Ranya we met our bus driver, Aron and his 14- seater bus. Fortunately, there were only 12 of us together with all of our luggage. It made for some squishy travel arrangements when the rain fell and we could not put the baggage onto the roof. But, as I kept reminding them, at least there were no chickens or goats!

The mountains of the Kurdistan are amazing. They are rugged and many shades of brown. There are not many trees. Some reasons for this have been given, including that Sadaam Hussein chopped many trees down to decrease the hiding places for the Peshmerga, Kurdish resistance fighters. After that Sadaam applied sanctions on the Kurds at the same time as they felt the consequences of the sanction on Sadaam and Iraq by the United Nations.  In order to have fuel, they used  wood from remaining trees. Some reforestation has been implemented, but usually there are few trees to be seen.

A wonderful panoramic shot taken with team mate Lukasz
(credit: Marcus Armstrong)

Our trip took us up to the border regions of Kurdistan. The borders of Iran and Turkey have been the site of a lot of bombing and shelling this year. The reasons are plainly stated, but the history is not so easy and uncomplicated.  We have  been tolds that the Kurds are the largest ethnic population without a country of their own. Before World War I they had been living in areas of this region for centuries (and longer). The subsequent treaties and decisions at the end of that conflict split the Kurdish population into bits. Britain drew lines that created the modern borders of Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq right through the Kurdish areas. Out of all of these, the Kurds in Iraq have come out the best. They have been granted the opportunity to have a semi-autonomous government (I understand it as something like our provinces, although that image is probably more wrong, than correct). In the other regions the countries have wanted the Kurds to assimilate and to speak the region's language and to act in the region's way.

The mountains around the village of Suneh where we have accompanied the villagers this Fall
(Photo credit: Patrick  Maxwell (delegate))

This has caused frustration and anger leading to people becoming  resistance fighters- trying to tell the authorities that they don't appreciate being oppressed. These men and women have claimed the mountainous regions as their place of safety and home.  In return  for violence committed by the resistance fighters the leaders have turned to bombing and shelling into the mountainous regions, trying to rout them out and eradicate them.

This is where the villages come into the story.  The mountains have also been the home of small communities of subsistence farmers and nomadic shepherds. Some live in the mountains all summer and fall, then move down to lower latitudes for the snowy months. Others have adequate enough roads and houses that they can hunker down during the cold, preparing for the earliest time they can begin to plow and sow.

We are entering the village of Suneh

The men of Suneh are repairing the corner of the school that was hit by shells this summer. Fortunately, the children were on summer vacation. (credit: Marcus Armstrong)

But, this is when the shelling and bombing begins. As soon as the snow clears and people are on the fields, the planes begin to fly over (from Turkey) and the heavy artillery is pointed their way (from Iran). The vllagers don't know when a rocket or bomb will come close enough to hurt them so they escape from their villages down to the valleys. However, during the time they are away their houses are damaged by the rockets, their crops wither due to lack of frequent irrigation and their opportunity to earn a livelihood disappears. Also, they are forced into tent camps by the side of roads and rivers with minimal provision for their basic needs. In recent days some villages have been directed by the government  to return to their homes from the tent IDP camps. Government workers have forcibly removed all aid such as water tanks and generators. However, other villages are still being heavily bombed so they  are scrambling to create winter-secure tent dwellings as I write this.

Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) tent camp where the families of Suneh spent the end of summer and the Fall.


In my next blog I want to tell a couple of stories of people that we met from these villages.