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Ewa Jasiewicz defines herself as a “human rights observer” |
Come and hear Ewa’s first hand account of what life is really like in Iraq today. “We need to do something for Iraqis.” This is what a non-Muslim Scotsman said to me before entering the Central Mosque for Jumu`ah Prayer in Dundee, Scotland. He was handing out leaflets entitled “Eye-Witness Iraq Scottish Speaking Tour” to Muslims before and after the prayer. It was a scheduled tour, going around most Scottish cities including Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, and others.
From the first look, the event seemed to me like an activity for anti-war groups, but it was not so. It was an initiative from only one young lady from London who spent eight months in Iraq to support human rights groups, women’s organizations, families, workers, and trade unionists. She spent another six months with communities of resistance in Jenin and Nablus in Occupied Palestine, volunteering with paramedics at the Red Crescent Society, and monitoring checkpoints. Various issues have been raised in her speech and in an interview with her later on, such as the situation of the Iraqi people, and the safety of activists in conflict areas.
Ewa Jasiewicz defines herself as a “human rights observer”; she is an anti-capitalism activist and an ex-member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). Ewa took part in launching more than one activity in Britain in support of self-determination for Iraqis and Palestinians, but she considers that action too symbolic and wanted to do something practical to help people in these areas.
“I needed to help just one injured person. It is better than nothing,” she said. Ewa decided to work as an individual and traveled to Iraq and Palestine to discover what had happened and then returned to narrate these stories to the British people. “The government does not want the British people to know the truth. The media here is propaganda and does not reflect the real situation,” Ewa said. The event took place in a room in the University of Dundee; she drew a map of Iraq on the board, showed the positions of Baghdad, Basra, Fallujah, and Karkok, and began to narrate what she saw there during her journey. Ewa has been to many Iraqi cities, but stayed mainly in Baghdad and Basra. “Iraqi families wondered when I visited them. They consider me to be with the occupation troops, United Nations, or a journalist, and if none of these then I must be a spy. I began to explain to them that I am just an activist that wants to support them,” she said. “I can understand their fears. They have had no civil society for years, so it is hard to understand my type of work,” Ewa added.
People Uprising
According to her analysis, the uprising of people in different areas in Iraq is neither Islamist nor Nationalist; it is a mixture of all kinds of loyalties in Iraq. “This new uprising has been labeled a revolt in support of the anti-occupation cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr, but the reality is that it is widespread, varied, uncontrollable, and inchoate. It is not Islamic, it is not just nationalist, and it is not Ba'athist, although there are elements of all three loyalties involved,” she emphasized. Demonstrations have begun all over the country every day since the beginning of the occupation in May 2003. The protesters range from students to pensioners, the unemployed, women, former soldiers, and even children. They could not put up with the Coalition Provisional Authority Orders, mainly Order Thirty concerning salaries and employment conditions for civil service employees, which sets the minimum wage for Iraqi public sector workers at 69,000 Iraqi dinars which is US $40 per month less than half the recommended wage of a sweatshop worker in a free-trade zone in neighboring Iran. In addition, Order Thirty-nine on foreign investment allows for 100 percent foreign ownership-privatization and slashes the highest rate of income tax from 45 percent to 15 percent.
After people reach the level of anger, they are ready to do anything. “Not only their country is damaged, their dignities as well, the occupation is brutally re-cycling ba'athist bosses and intelligence agents for the sake of business as usual, repression as usual, reinforcing the old regime’s structures and hierarchies of entrenched privileges and injustice and compounding and prolonging the collective trauma and disempowerment and humiliation of Iraqi people,” she said, and she stressed on the Arabic meaning of humiliation by saying “You know what is the meaning of idhlal and someone wants you to feel that!” Actually, I was surprised when I heard some Arabic terms from her. It gave me the impression of how much she was involved with the people so that she was able to acquire these terms and accent. Her Arabic is advanced as well as her accent. When Ewa wants me to feel such a situation, she started to speak in a local Arabic dialect with an Iraqi accent.
Back to the uprising, it seems that the south of Iraq is calmer than the north, but in fact the uprising after the 1991 Gulf War began in the south, not the north. Ewa states the reason for this is that the people, and particularly Al-Dawa Islamic Party, need to be like that. I asked her if it was attributed to the British administration in cities like Basra, but she answered negatively and stated that there is no difference between the American and British administration; each of them are occupation forces. “Al-Dawa Islamic Party participates with the British, in the Security Council in Basra, and I have been told by one of the party’s leaders that the situation is calm because [they] want it to be like that. However, people’s patience has begun to run out,” she said. Ewa says that everyone there is well prepared to fight and resist the occupation at any time.
The humanitarian situation is more than worse everywhere in Iraq. In the city of Basra, for example, tap water in the houses is not suitable for drinking and people need to buy fresh water to drink. The problem is not only water, but also most of the necessities of life. When people don’t find gasoline they ask, “Where is our oil? We produce it, we need it!” Ewa also argues that the reconstruction process is not at all vital, simply because the Iraqis themselves can do it. “I have met many people in Iraq who emphasize to me that they are looking to reconstruct Iraq and are able to do that. Of course there is corruption, but occupation does not fight it. Foreign engineers cannot understand the country more than Iraqis,” Ewa said.
Activist Safety
Moving from city to city in Iraq and staying with families is a great experience, but is it a safe mission? And what kind of dangers, if any, may face the activist? She said that the dangers in Iraq are coming from the occupation forces and the public at the same time. The occupation forces do not like the public because it reveals what really happens, and the latter considers the occupation forces as a high-price head for kidnapping.
“Do you fear facing what was faced by Rachel Corrie in Palestine, who died under Israeli bulldozers?” I asked.
“In the beginning we thought that our humanitarian mission could preserve us, but after what happened to Rachel and another activist called Brian Avery, we felt that we had become targets in the conflict areas. We are not so much afraid for our lives. We want to make a difference, so we just tried to avoid the line of fire and when I want to go outside in Iraq I go with someone and never take a taxi on my own,” she answered. Brian Avery is an American activist who went to Palestine; he was shot in the face by Israeli forces while he was helping some children in the line of fire in Jenin.
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