Life in the Zharawa Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Camp
Sulimanaya, Iraqi Kurdistan
by Gerald Paoli
May 19, 2009
The camp nurse and several small children greeted us as we entered the Zharawa IDP camp. She invited us into her tent supplied by the United Nation’s High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR). A furrowed brow replaced her broad smile as she began to describe her fears for the villagers living here.
“I am afraid for the old people and the young ones.” said the nurse, who is concerned that they won’t survive the summer heat. “When people live so close to each other many diseases will come and spread quickly.” Looking at the children, she wrung her hands. “Dysentery and dehydration are sure to follow.”
There are 45 tents for 132 families. That comes to roughly 3 families per every 2 tents. Each tent measures 4 meters by 4 meters wide by 2.2 meters high, pitched over a slab of cement that is 9 square meters, framed by a border of cinder blocks 2 rows high. They are lined with gold colored canvas on the inside and topped with grey canvas on the outside.
The residents of Zharawa camp have devised a system of sharing tents by rotating with each other, spending some time living with their families in the municipality and some time in the camp. While in school, children live with relatives in Zharawa municipality, separated from their nuclear families.
Because of the great strain on the local economy and on what few public services that are available, the municipality of Zharawa was reluctant to allow construction of the new camp and created several obstacles. The UNHCR recognizes that the site is not a sustainable resettlement solution for the camp’s residents.
The location is barren and desolate. There is not one tree for shade. The villagers cannot have animals of any kind in the camp. This is just as well because they had to sell what animals they could to buy the plot of land on which the camp is built. There is no electricity. The UNHCR has promised them a well, but the villagers have a wait-and-see attitude about whether or not this will ever happen. And since nearly every inch of land they occupy is covered with either a tent or a toilet, they cannot grow any food inside the camp.
The empty adjacent field mocks the villagers with the possibility of food it could provide. But they can’t grow food there, either, because it is private property. So they rely on what relief they get from the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) rations and the meager supplies the Iraq national food card can buy them.
This is the situation of Kurdish villagers who have been forced to leave their homes and chosen not to go back until the political situation is resolved. Ours was a rare glimpse into the lives of people who live outside the “radar” of international news but squarely in the crosshairs of sophisticated weaponry used by attackers who barely acknowledge that their victims exist.