US soldier is having lunch over school debris in Fallujah

By Mazen Ghazi, IOL Correspondent

BAGHDAD, November 23, (IslamOnline.net) – Despite promises by the interim Iraqi government to compensate Fallujans for their unspeakable sufferings inflicted by a devastating US-led offensive, gloomy days are lying ahead for the refugees of the war-battered city of Fallujah.

A meager $100 for each family has been pledged by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, but no amount of money can make up for the loss of loved ones and destruction of their homes.

“How can we forget predawn raids and displacement during the holy fasting month of Ramadan?” tearful Zaydan Khalaf Al-Jarrad, a Fallujah refugee, told IslamOnline.net.

Thaer Naqib, the spokesman for the Iraqi government, had said the government would pay $100 and food suppiles to every displaced Fallujah family in addition to other forms of reparations for destruction in the western Iraqi city.

“The scene of giving two my relatives a final send-off as they were caught in the crossfire and couldn’t flee the city can’t fade away easily, as the premier might think,” Jarrad added.

“And what is the importance of money even if we returned home with the entire city reduced to a shambles?”

About 80-to-90 percent of Fallujah's 300,000-strong population are said to have evacuated the city, escaping the hell of continuous US air raids.

Some 10,000 US marines and army forces, alongside some 2,000 Iraqi national guardsmen unleashed a long-expected onslaught on the resistance hub on November 8, capping long nights of massive US raids.

The onslaught has, in effect, claimed the lives of hundreds of Iraqi civilians and turned the city into a ghost town.

Derogatory

The entire city was reduced to rubble by the US offensive

Abu Yahia, another refugee, finds the government’s offer derogatory and disrespectful.

“Their money is incapable of bringing smiles back or making up for the loss of our beloved ones and properties,” he said with crying eyes.

Yahia added that the city is no longer suitable for human beings, with its destroyed infrastructure, cut-off electricity, contaminated water and reported epidemic outbreak.

“This makes return to the city meaningless. It will take us years and years to rebuild the city,” he said.

“My house was razed to the ground, similar to other houses in the city. When will we be compensated by the interim government which only has two months to go?” added Mohammad Al-Duleimi.

A humanitarian crisis unfolded in Fallujah especially after the US occupation forces had denied aid teams access into the heart of the city.

The Iraqi Red Crescent has appealed for the United Nations to help its convoys reach local citizens, describing the situation as a “big disaster”.

Fardous Al-Abadi, the information director of the relief body, told IOL Monday, November 22, that aid convoys were still standing idle at Fallujah’s outskirts, noting that it cannot make sure that any of them had entered the city.

An eyewitness, who escaped the hell in Fallujah, told IOL on November 13, that bodies of children and injured in the western Iraqi city were “deliberately” crushed by US tanks.