Umm Samir sits in a Baghdad garden in the shade of two palm trees, worrying about the sons and grandchildren she left behind in Fallujah.
On a balmy spring evening, with the smell of freshly mown grass around her, her present refuge with relatives seems a world away from the nightmare city she left.
"It was the bombing, the constant bombing, and the children being so afraid, and the journey across the open desert to escape," she said when asked what was the worst thing about the week under siege.
Hundreds of families have driven out of Fallujah over the last two days, taking advantage of the ceasefire the Americans offered.
Families in Baghdad have provided food and money at mosques to help them, and many have taken refugees in.
The stories they tell have a theme: how the Americans used to be good when they first arrived in Fallujah, how arrogance and insensitivity gradually alienated people, and how now, under the pressure of so many deaths, almost everyone supports the resistance, the mujahidin.
Brigadier-General Mark Kimmitt, the US army spokesman, talked Sunday about getting Fallujah "back under Iraqi control," as though it was in foreign hands.
He accused the insurgents of using the population as "human shields." But, as the refugees tell it, the resistance is home-grown and mushrooming all the time.
"The mujahidin are our sons. I would become a mujahid myself. I can't bear to see Fallujah being bombed and do nothing about it. Even my older sister wants to join them," said Umm Samir, who is 62.
She is proud that her four sons all have college degrees -- a doctor, a road engineer, an agronomist and a psychologist.
"After the war we were very happy they had removed Saddam Hussein from power.
"Then they started to behave disrespectfully. Armored cars drove on the pavement. They began treating Iraqis as though we were beneath their feet. My doctor son was studying in the Czech republic and came back via Syria two months ago. There were about 20 US checkpoints on the road. They flung his papers around and when he said he was a doctor and should not be shouted at, they just swore," she said.
Ali, 28, the psychologist, explains how part of the family escaped Fallujah, crammed into two cars with his parents, his two sisters-in-law, their young children and a niece. They planned to join a convoy crossing a bridge on a back road controlled by the US Marines on Friday. Neither Ali nor his married brothers came because the troops were not allowing men of military age to leave.
"There was a terrible incident. One man in an Opel drove his wife and children to the bridge so they could walk over. As he drove back to town, an American sniper killed him," he said.
VAGUE: The criteria of the amnesty remain unclear, but it would cover political violence from 1999 to today, and those convicted of murder or drug trafficking would not qualify Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodriguez on Friday announced an amnesty bill that could lead to the release of hundreds of prisoners, including opposition leaders, journalists and human rights activists detained for political reasons. The measure had long been sought by the US-backed opposition. It is the latest concession Rodriguez has made since taking the reins of the country on Jan. 3 after the brazen seizure of then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. Rodriguez told a gathering of justices, magistrates, ministers, military brass and other government leaders that the ruling party-controlled Venezuelan National Assembly would take up the bill with urgency. Rodriguez also announced the shutdown
Civil society leaders and members of a left-wing coalition yesterday filed impeachment complaints against Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, restarting a process sidelined by the Supreme Court last year. Both cases accuse Duterte of misusing public funds during her term as education secretary, while one revives allegations that she threatened to assassinate former ally Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The filings come on the same day that a committee in the House of Representatives was to begin hearings into impeachment complaints against Marcos, accused of corruption tied to a spiraling scandal over bogus flood control projects. Under the constitution, an impeachment by the
China executed 11 people linked to Myanmar criminal gangs, including “key members” of telecom scam operations, state media reported yesterday, as Beijing toughens its response to the sprawling, transnational industry. Fraud compounds where scammers lure Internet users into fake romantic relationships and cryptocurrency investments have flourished across Southeast Asia, including in Myanmar. Initially largely targeting Chinese speakers, the criminal groups behind the compounds have expanded operations into multiple languages to steal from victims around the world. Those conducting the scams are sometimes willing con artists, and other times trafficked foreign nationals forced to work. In the past few years, Beijing has stepped up cooperation
Exiled Tibetans began a unique global election yesterday for a government representing a homeland many have never seen, as part of a democratic exercise voters say carries great weight. From red-robed Buddhist monks in the snowy Himalayas, to political exiles in megacities across South Asia, to refugees in Australia, Europe and North America, voting takes place in 27 countries — but not China. “Elections ... show that the struggle for Tibet’s freedom and independence continues from generation to generation,” said candidate Gyaltsen Chokye, 33, who is based in the Indian hill-town of Dharamsala, headquarters of the government-in-exile, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). It
RSS