electronicIraq.net

Iraq Diaries
The Prisoner of Three Prisons

Noah Baker Merrill, Electronic Iraq

Aug 14, 2007

Saad Karamallah Rahima has never seen his son.

He was married just over a year ago in Jordan. Saad was living as a refugee in Jordan and his fiance came from Iraq for the wedding.  His brother lives in the United States, having fled Iraq in the days of Saddam Hussein. The rest of Saad's family still lives in Iraq, in Sadr City in northeast Baghdad.

His son was born six months ago, but Saad has seen him only in pictures. For the last six months, Saad has been a prisoner in Juweideh prison on the outskirts of Amman and close to one of the oldest and largest Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan.  But Saad is not just a prisoner. He is a registered Iraqi refugee.

The lines outside the prison are long, and few foreigners visit the prison. The long hallways leading the visitors' area pass the cellblocks, where the acrid smell of urine is strong. The dark silhouettes of prisoners move behind the bars, and quiet voices can be heard from the alley below.

For months Saad's wife has been trying to get a visa from Iraq to Jordan for just one day in order to see her husband and introduce him to his son. She has been turned down repeatedly.

Because there are no Shiia mosques in Jordan, many Shiia here do not regularly attend communal prayers, a religious duty for Muslims every Friday. In many of the mosques in Jordan ignorance of Shiia beliefs and practices is widespread, and so Shiia Iraqis are intimidated or denied the opportunity to pray with Sunni Muslims. As political tensions have risen across the Middle East as a result of the continuing Iraq crises, Shiia from Iraq have come to be identified with Iranian political and military power, and so fear and repression of Shiia has taken root and intensified.

Early this year, Saad participated in a series of prayer gatherings held in the homes of Shiia Iraqis in Jordan. Some Shiia Iraqis who had come into Jordan on temporary visas, and who were planning to return to Iraq in a few days, also participated. Following one gathering, Jordanian security forces arrested many of those who attended.

They were told they were being held on the grounds that they constituted a security threat to Jordan, a charge that Saad denies. He describes his actions as religious, not political. Saad and others were taken to a police station. Because they were registered with UNHCR, they were given an opportunity to produce their passports, which family members were able to provide for all of the men except Saad - he is alone here in Jordan. The men whose passports were brought to them, and who had UNHCR advocacy on their side, were released in a few weeks. As time passed, and UNHCR failed to intervene, the Jordanian authorities issued a deportation order for Saad, signed by the Mayor of Amman.

According to Saad, it was only then that UNHCR protection officers intervened in his case. They requested that the Jordanian government prevent Saad's return to Iraq on the grounds that he was a refugee under their protection, and forcing the return of refugees to situations where they face the threat of violence (called refoulement) is forbidden by international law. The Jordanian government agreed not to deport him, but said that since a deportation order was already issued, they would not release him again. Instead, he would remain in prison until he was resettled to a third country, such as the United States, Sweden, or Australia. Saad claims he was told by UNHCR that he is not a priority case for resettlement, since he no longer faces deportation to Iraq.

For more than six months Saad has waited in the prison. In this time, he has received only one visit from UNHCR. A lawyer working for the refugee protection unit asked him to fill out a questionnaire about his situation three months ago; he has had no word since.

Iraqis here in Jordan describe Iraq as a prison where hope cannot enter. They speak of Jordan as another kind of prison where they hope and pray to leave these years of living in limbo behind them. Saad knows the inside of each of these prisons well. And he knows this third kind of prison, Juweideh Prison, even better.

Here, he is surrounded by people who have committed a variety of crimes - murder, theft, rape, petty crimes. His crimes are being Iraqi, being a refugee, and practicing a form of Islam made unpopular in many parts of the region by propaganda and the misrepresentation of politics. But rather than blame the Jordanian government for his imprisonment, Saad faults a lack of diligence and support on the part of the UNHCR.

He is eager for what news he receives from the outside world. Word from his family comes irregularly from a few close friends, other Iraqi refugees living in Jordan who visit him as often as they can. There is a television inside the prison, so sometimes he can see news from his country just across the border. And he shares in the sadness and anger that so many Iraqis feel while watching their homeland burn, day by day.

There is no hope for Iraq, says Saad, when asked about his hopes and dreams for the future. Not for several years. "The agenda of the American government and the agenda of the Iraqi people are different," he says.

"The Americans say that they are in Iraq to fight the terrorists. But the more they stay, the more terrorists there are, and the more people suffer. America promised great things and has delivered nothing. Iraqis need a government with the power and support to deal with Iraq's problems, and it can't have that while the US is there."

In a taxi back from the prison, two of Saad's Iraqi friends get into an argument about Iraq's future. The cab driver joins them. Ahmed believes that one day, Iraq will be strong again, that it will be like it used to be, only better. Mansur and the Jordanian cab driver disagree. "Iraq is finished," they counter. "It will never be the same again."

Noah Baker Merrill is in Amman, Jordan on behalf of the Electronic Iraq Direct Aid Initiative. To support the work of the initiative and to learn more, click here.