El País: "Millions of Iraqis Flee the War"

[NV1962]

Here’s another thing I translated into English. Yesterday, Sunday January 28th, Spanish newspaper El País published a great report written by Ángeles Espinosa. It portrays a bleak and in my view in the US’ so-called mainstream media underreported image of millions of displaced Iraqis. That reality of massive numbers of refugees, on top of the excess deaths caused by the invasion and occupation of Iraq, should give any reasonable person pause, whenever one thinks of the name with which that invasion was christened: Operation Iraqi Freedom. Below, therefore, my quick & dirty translation into English.

For the record: the rights for the original text in Spanish belong, of course, to El País; this English translation is mine - warts and all. Use and spread it for enlightenment, not for monetary profit. A link back would be appreciated.

Here goes:

EL PAÍS - Report: The Conflict in Iraq

Millions of Iraqis Flee the War

The violence is causing the largest population displacement in the Middle East since the creation of Israel in 1948

By Ángeles Espinosa (special envoy) Amman – 1/29/2007

Reda D., his wife and their three children arrived in Amman last August, fleeing the sectarian violence in Iraq. They rented an apartment and readied themselves for a new life, far from the bombs, but they soon found out that wasn’t easy. They’re running out of their savings, and without a residence permit they can’t send their children to school, nor apply for public health care services. The fear they left behind in Baghdad has returned, increasing its hold on them as the date of February 6 approaches, when the extension of their visa expires. One million Iraqis are in a similar situation. Jordan doesn’t recognize them as refugees, and the international community ignores their fate. The chaos in Iraq is causing what the UN considers as the largest population displacement in the Middle East since the creation of the state of Israel in 1948: 1.7 million internally displaced persons, and another 2 million abroad.

While they site in their living room of an apartment in a middle class neighborhood of Amman, Reda and his family defy the stereotypical image of a refugee. But their fundamental anguish is the same. “We don’t have the money to pay for the second school semester for the oldest, and without a residence permit they won’t admit him in a public school either,” his wife declares; she already ruled out sending their second daughter, of four and a half years, to school. All in all, her biggest concern is her daughter Rahma, their youngest child, who suffers from cerebral paralysis and has difficulty walking. “We can’t pay for her treatment,” she adds with tears in her eyes.

(Read the rest here)