Fight, rape,war, pillage, burn. Filmic images of death and carnage are pornography for the military man”

- Jarhead: A Marine’s Chronicle of the Gulf War and other battles by formal sniper Anthony Swofford (Scribner, 2003)

“In the way, the taste of everything got mixed with the smell of the dead. What a smell? It stuck to our bodies, the collars of our shirts, hair, beards…a very annoying and disgusting inescapable smell…At that night, the smell makes each of us either a walking dead or a dead walking…What difference did it make when life and death were no longer differentiable.”

Crossing the Border!

“We left Iraq behind us and left everything along with that: the Tigris and the Euphrates; the warm golden sun that used to shine up on our corn and barley fields...we left Baghdad and our days- the sweet and the bitter ones…Everything around was reminding us that we are a defeated nation.”

Becoming Refugees

Rafha Camp (1991-2004)

Official recognition of individuals as refugees

ID Cards

“Here is my picture showing slowly; a pale yellowish face that was no different than an old lemon. Mustache and beard full of sand…. It was a dusty day when we arrived, messed up hair, confused thoughts, and unknown and lost destiny.”

“And finally, in that place, we were given temporary refugee cards, on the top of which clearly written “Dislocated Civilian,” which meant stateless citizen or citizen without a country. With these cards; it felt as if we officially lost our country. It left no hope for return. We came out of the tent with desert-cards that fitted our miserable faces…The face captured in the picture was no different than that of a person who just got hanged …funny pictures due to their misery…now we are waiting for the military buses to take us to our new country the camp.”

Living conditions in the camp

Development of Civil Society

Another World is Possible

UN Involvement in the Camp

Winter 1992

Schools and Education for the refugees:

Resettlement program and the power of the UN Bulletin board in the camp:

“like a Holly Shrine we visit and complain to about our loss in the desert...under the sand, our lives, years, and dreams were buried and no one to save us. Around the board, we smile, grieve and complain...it is like the dividing line between our life in Iraq and our awaited for refuge in a third country after this camp. Sometimes, we feel that there are magic hands behind it deciding on our unknown future...faraway continents… countries covered with ice.”

“We would hurry up to the bulletin board,our eyes were wide- opened longing to read our names. No move or noise was to be heard. Our hearts beat fast as if we were attending the trial of our lives.

A congratulated refugee for his name was posted on the board. Another left the crowd rushing to a far- away tent carrying good news to a friends whose name was also on there. Whereas, the majority of the crowd, would go back to their tents depressed for their names weren’t posted there.”

“Even if one of the refugees learned the news of a possible interview with a delegation or was granted asylum, he would wear a strange smile on his face that could be very confusing and hard to describe. Is it a smile of comfort and happiness? Or is it the smile of grieve and sadness due to leaving the camp forever?”

Good Bye Home….

The morning… came to declare our last day in the desert…a day of birth after a long and tiring wait…and the prisoners got out of the horrible prison to the welcoming world…our friends’ and neighbors’ crying faces all disappeared behind the double barbed wire fence. I felt my heart was aching for those people…I sat at the back seat in the bus, but my eyes were fixed at the camp as it was vanishing a bit by bit…For years, I always longed to see the camp from far…and finally, here it was nothing but a garbage disposal.

“After we are gone, remember us. Do not forget us. Talk about our faces and our words. Our image shall be dew in the hearts of those who wish to talk about it”

Popol Vuh (Recinos 1978:133)

Starting over! Overcoming the sense of loss Defining who you are relative to the new

social setting What to expect? Fear of failing. Scared of being judged/ misunderstood. Feeling everyone owes you. Speaking a foreign languageBeing discriminated against

Personal Experience of living in Canada