After the war: the battle to give a life back to Iraq’s Marsh Arabs

Date:18/09/03

In the second of a two-part series Dana Spinant reports from Iraq on the plight of the Marsh Arabs - and meets the MEP who is championing their cause

THE Garden of Eden, which according to the Bible was situated between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in south Iraq, is no longer an apt symbol for the land and life of the people who subsist there - the Marsh Arabs.

The rich Mesopotamian marshlands, known for centuries as the Fertile Crescent, have been transformed into a harsh, moon-like landscape.

The swamps were drained on the orders of Saddam Hussein and the Marsh Arabs, or Ma'dan, were killed or chased off their lands. Saddam wanted to wipe them out in reprisal for the Shia uprising, which they supported, following the 1991 Gulf War.

The traditional Marsh Arab heartlands between Basrah and Al Amarah look lifeless but, when the eye gets used to the colour and contours of the desert, one can spot tents and mud huts dotted around, the appearance of which has changed little for centuries.

Emma Nicholson, the European Parliament's rapporteur on Iraq, has urged emergency measures to help the Marsh Arabs reinstate the marshes that provided a livelihood for thousands of years. Nicholson, who spent five weeks in Iraq during the summer, says the provisional government in Baghdad (and any future elected government) must integrate the Marsh Arabs, the most important agricultural community, in the reconstruction of the country.

Descendants of Sumerians, the Ma'dan have always been an important link in the food production chain. During the United Nations sanctions in the 1990s, when Iraq's economy was wrecked, their products fed cities and towns in the south.

They provided no less than 75% of Iraq's dairy products.

Nicholson says the Marsh Arabs were victims of genocide under Saddam's regime. Only 85,000 still live in the marshes - from the half a million who inhabited the area 50 years ago. The rest have been executed, displaced or have fled to Iran to escape persecution and poverty. "One family told me they were forcibly moved 17 times. Seventeen times they lost their houses, land and families. Now, they want to go back home," says the Liberal Democrat MEP.

Those who remained in the marshes were deliberately deprived by the Ba'athist regime of water, food and access to health and education.

The draining of the marshes turnedthe region from one of the world's most fertile zones to a wasteland of cracked, salinated earth.

To the outside world, Saddam made out that he wanted to recover the land for agriculture and to offer the Ma'dan a healthier lifestyle.

Yet only a few crops can grow in the arid, salty soil that remains. "It is a big environmental loss," says Nicholson, and "the international community should see if we can repair it".

The restoration of the marshes can only be realized by involving Iraq's neighbours, Iran, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, who were also affected by the draining project, she explains. "To get it right, we need the neighbours: such cooperation is long overdue anyway. It might be that the next war in the Middle East is over water."

Drying out the marshes not only deprived the locals of their livelihood, but also led to the extinction of a unique bird and fish habitat.

The people of Al Raafia, a Marsh Arab village 200 kilometres north of Basrah, say the climate has changed since the draining of the marshes.

"It is so much hotter now," one Arab man, Sayed, told me.

"Summers are increasingly hot. The water used to refresh the air before. Now, the air is just hot steam."

He complains that the number of water buffalo, a mainstay of the local economy, has been dramatically reduced since the draining of the marshes.

"Before, every family used to have 35-40 [water buffalo]. With no water, people can only keep one or two, to feed their family."

Illiterate, malnourished, in bad health and among the poorest people in Iraq, the Marsh Arabs are a group at risk in the current transition process.

They have a bad reputation with many Iraqis, who blame them for much of the looting and kidnapping that has proliferated since the toppling of Saddam.

"Yes, people blame them for looting and crimes," says Nicholson.

"But they have to do something for their survival. You have 85,000 people with no drinking water, malnourished, full of diseases, with no way to earn their iving ... so yes, what can they do?"

In a village north of Basrah, where British soldiers are meeting the locals to discuss refurbishing a school, the people decry the Marsh Arabs as "Ali Babas".

"They are a bit like the gypsies in Europe," one British officer with the Basrah-based 19 Mechanized Brigade explains. "They are also nomadic, with a charming lifestyle in a way, but have a very bad image among the locals."

However, is going back to the marshes and to a 5,000-year-old lifestyle still appealing to the Ma'dan? Nicholson has no doubts: "No land man would like to swap land for concrete," she says. "Moreover, with the degree of illiteracy nearly total, they can't survive in a big city. They want the basis of a modern life in terms of skills, education and health, but they want it at home."

However, the British officer said many young Ma'dan, who have been forced to grow up in urban areas, do not want to return to the traditional style of life in reed and mud huts. "People tend to romanticize the style of life of the Marsh Arabs," he said.

"We've all seen films about them and have the image of an idyllic life on the water. But their life was also tough and I am not sure they will all wish to go back to it. But they should be given a choice."

Nicholson points out that education should be the start of reintegrating the Marsh Arabs into Iraqi society. The priority for the Amar Foundation, an NGO which provides help to Marsh Arab refugees, is to speed up the process of refurbishing schools and clinics, so as to provide the population with the basics.

Amar, which is chaired by the MEP, has identified a number of schools and hospitals in the marshes south of Al Amarah, which can be refurbished quickly. The NGO sent the list of those buildings to the British army, which is employing Iraqi contractors to do the job. Captain Steve Little is in charge of coordinating so-called "quick impact projects" (QIPs) for the Marsh Arabs.

Based at the headquarters of the Multinational Division (South East) at Basrah airport, it is his job to assess the schools and clinics put forward by Amar for restoration and recommend what needs to be done. (Little, a reservist, is a civil engineer when not in uniform). He and his team regularly tour the region to identify new projects and check that the ongoing work is up to scratch.

"The QIPs are worth &036;10,000 each," he told me. "We disburse financing within 36 hours after the assessment team has selected them. It takes, on average, two or three weeks to refurbish the schools and clinics. As we only use Iraqi contractors, the projects provide employment for thousands of local workers."

Captain Little says working "in the virgin fields of Marsh Arabs villages" also demonstrates that there is little threat from going into these zones.

"Bechtel [the American company in charge of rebuilding Iraq] and American soldiers are reluctant to come here, they say it is too dangerous," says Sgt Major Simon Ellis, a member of the Marsh Arab QIP team. "We come here, prepare the ground and show them that it is not more dangerous than in other parts of Iraq."

Nicholson says the work of Amar aims to fill the void between a promise of commitments and actual delivery of aid. "When a disaster occurs, the international community now reacts so positively: it has meetings; donor conferences, assessments ... but months pass and the people down there are in deep need. I set up Amar to fill this gap," she said.

"You can do much more good with a little in the beginning than with millions in a year."