Beneath the rubble

Rana Al-aiouby carries bodies out from flattened Iraqi homes, and she carries medicine into plundered, crumbling Iraqi hospitals.
She has brought documentation of atrocities committed by the occupying American military, which gives the lie to claims that those war crimes we hear of are isolated incidents.
Rana spoke to Eddie Truman while in Scotland as part of efforts to build practical solidarity between the two countries.
In normal times, Rana Al-aiouby would be studying. She already has a degree in French literature and was teaching French but wanted to continue her university education, perhaps doing postgraduate studies and learning Spanish.
But in 2003, the Americans and British invaded Iraq and changed the course of her life forever.
Now Rana takes medical supplies into towns and cities under siege by the occupation forces in Iraq, and takes out those women and children who are willing and able to leave.
Asked about her family background, Rana says that, like many Iraqis, her family descends from a mix of different geographical and social backgrounds.
She is proud of her surname, Al-aiouby.
“Do you know who this is I am descended from?
“Selahedîn Ayûbî, the world’s first terrorist!”
“Freedom fighter,” I say.
“Yes, the only man to liberate Jerusalem.
“My mother and father are both from Baghdad, my grandmother on my mother’s side is from Fallujah.”
Fallujah is a name that appears regularly throughout my discussions with Rana.
Forty-three miles west of Baghdad, with a pre-invasion population of 350,000, the town hit world news headlines when it was besieged twice by the Americans.
‘The first siege of Fallujah’ has become both a symbol of the inhumanity of the occupation armies and of the spirit of resistance of the Iraqis.
Bringing wounded women and children out of the city, Rana became a news story herself when the ambulance she was in was shot at by American troops.
We talk for a while about the huge social benefits brought to Iraq by the Baathist revolution of 1968 and the nationalisation of Iraq’s oil industry - Iraq became the best educated country in the Middle East, and its citizens had access to free health care.
“We were brought up with the basic demands of the Baathist revolution; that there should be one unified state for the Arab people and the idea of unity, freedom and socialism.
“When the Americans invaded, I started working as a translator for the media, but when the terrible sieges began I started doing what I could to help with humanitarian work.
“Working in the conflict area we would evacuate women and children, literally from under the bombing.”
The organisation that Rana now runs with the help of activists from the US, Europe and Scotland, was born during the second siege of Fallujah, when an American aid worker saw her carrying boxes of medical supplies through an American checkpoint and suggested Rana form her own aid organisation.
It was named International Peace Angels, and while other NGOs pull out their workers when the fighting begins, Rana goes to wherever people need help, even if there are American snipers picking off anything that moves.
“Whenever a town is put under siege, the Americans put snipers on vantage points and they shoot anything that moves on the streets; men, women, animals,” she says, “even if they are carrying a white flag.
“All the major Iraq cities are now surrounded by checkpoints and they will suddenly close them. Nothing gets out, nothing gets in. People can’t go to work, get supplies or anything.”
For Rana it is the situation faced by women and children under the occupation that pushes her to continue her work.
She cites the fact that 30,000 women have had miscarriages because of the state of fear they are living under.
A further 1,500 women have had miscarriages as a direct result of a beating from occupying soldiers.
“Sometimes when I think about it afterwards, the blood and the bodies, it is not easy, I wonder how I was able to do something like that. But you have to do it.
“This is what I believe; that even if I get shot and lose my life, if I have saved one life then I have done the right thing, if I have saved more than one life before I lose my own, then I will have won.
“And I wish I could do more, we have been created to help each other, not to sit about keeping our brains warm.”
The occupation forces have been involved in some of the most appalling war crimes against Iraqi women and children.
Rana goes over the details surrounding the rape and murder of 14 year old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi in Mahmoudiya earlier this year.
Abeer had been sexually harassed by a group of US soldiers at the checkpoint she had to go through every day. Then one afternoon they came looking for her, raped her and killed her and her family afterwards.
Rana reads the details, carefully taken in testimony from friends and neighbours, from a notebook, with the full names and dates of birth of all those killed.
The details are horrific.
It was to become a worldwide news story, with the American military desperate to paint this as a one-off incident, but Rana has arrived in the UK with the same methodical documentation of other atrocities committed by occupation forces.
On 4 May of this year an American patrol was hit by a roadside bomb in Samarra’a. Very quickly the area was the subject a huge military operation.
The Zaidan family, 14 in all, took shelter in what they thought would be the safest room in the house.
Twenty American soldiers entered the house, shouting and abusing the family. Dragging the father outside, they then start to execute the family, shooting the Grandmother through the eye in front of the children.
The two youngest girls are the only ones who survive unscathed, along with the wounded nephew of one of the women killed.
Rana shows me pictures of the wall of the room splattered with blood and pieces of brain, and the blood soaked book of one of the children.
“We hate the Americans because they killed our Grandma, our Uncle and our Aunt.”
On 6 May 2006, again in Samarra’a, a big American patrol raided the house of Atif Abed Khalaf, his wife and their four children.
At 7am the Americans took Atif outside, while the family watched from the kitchen window, and executed him.
Rana shows me pictures of different calibre bullet holes in the wall; more than one soldier had done the shooting.
On 3 January 2004 Zaidoun Fadel Hassoun was on the way back to Samarra’a with his cousin.
They were stopped by an American patrol after their truck broke down and the two were taken in handcuffs to the edge of the river - where they were told to jump in.
Zaidoun pled with the soldiers that he was unable to swim but was pushed in and drowned.
His cousin survived and related the story to his mother, who launched a campaign to bring the soldiers to justice.
The pictures that Rana brings, the interviews with survivors and witnesses, though they are in-depth and meticulous, give just a glimpse of the brutality meted out everyday on Iraq’s streets and in Iraqi people’s homes.
This is what occupation means, and this is the occupation in which Britain’s troops play a part.
And for every day occupation continues, their will be another Zaidan family, another Atif, another Zaidoun.

Cannon fodder kids

by Carol Hainey

A Falkirk mother has received an apology from a school headmaster, after her children were handed over to the army for a day, in the teeth of her repeated objections
Her children, aged 11 and 12, were compelled to take part in exercises that included ‘imagining they were in a minefield’ and ‘acting injured’.
A soldier participating made the crude remark that he was, “having more trouble with you lot than with Iraqi terrorists”. 
The incident took place at the Graeme High Summer School, despite the mother previously stating that she did not want her children to attend any school events where the military were present.
The woman, who declined to be named in order to protect the identity of her children, alleges that during the exercise, the children felt bullied by inappropriate comments from the soldiers, as well as disturbed by the nature of some of the activities involved.
She claims the soldiers belittled the efforts of the children, telling them they were ‘rubbish’ and ‘unbelievably slow’.
She has been a long-term opponent of military recruiters in schools, and told members of the local SSP branch about information she has uncovered regarding military involvement in schools and her attempts to make education chiefs respond to this.
“I don’t think they should be there, when there is a war going on. But the...school seems to be...happy for the army to be there. That it’s just an ordinary job, an ordinary service. I’m totally against that.
“Children are discouraged from smoking or having sex, at least until they are 16. They are considered too young to vote or to view the most violent films until they are 18.
“So how can it possibly be acceptable to expose them to the idea of a job where they may kill or be killed, when they are only 12 to 16 years old? There was even an instance where someone from the army was at the primary school.”
She says the Army is “not like other organisations and I fear treating them as such will encourage children to see killing and bombing as something natural and normal, which it isn’t.
“It would be a shame if some of the children were being encouraged to join the military rather than continue their education for as long as possible.”
She is keen to point out that she has nothing against serving soldiers.
“They go into it thinking they are doing something good and once they are signed up they no longer have a choice. Blair lied to them too. It’s people lying to children, getting them interested in signing up without telling them the full facts of the horror of war, that I am opposed to. 
“I have read that once they sign up, if they are over 18, they can get a life sentence if they refuse to go to Iraq. They should be told about the lack of proper equipment before they are encouraged to join.”
She refers to a document called The Future Strategic Context for Defence.
“It is chilling. It explains how the Government needs to spin conflict to make it seem like war is humanitarian and in our best interests. So much money is spent on MOD spin.
“But war is wrong. I have to do something about it. We have to bring up our kids to feel that there is a point in challenging what is wrong.”
She recently received a poignant message of support to give to the school from Rose Gentle, whose son Gordon died in Iraq, aged only 19, after joining the army to escape poverty.
Rose wrote: “Gordon was told that he would get his driving licence and his training to be a motor mechanic, but after 24 weeks’ training, he was sent to Iraq and killed within three weeks.
“If a kid wants to go into the army, then when he or she leaves school, they can go to the recruiting office.
“But kids just now are getting killed for what? I don’t think letting the recruitment into the school should be allowed...
“I think the kids should be left alone until they are old enough to think what they really want to do.
“Remember these are just kids and so was my son, 19.”
The Falkirk parent believes activities of school military recruiters are enhanced by the presence of an organisation called Skill Force.
On their website, Skill Force claim to have been set up, in 2000, because every year many highly trained instructors who have worked with and mentored young people, leave the armed forces and return to civilian life.
It suggests that some of these former instructors could work with young people in schools to develop their self-esteem, problem-solving and team-working skills, as part of the emerging alternative curriculum.
The scheme was piloted in Scotland, in North Lanarkshire, in 2001, subsequently expanding rapidly across the UK.
In 2004, Skill Force distanced itself from the MoD, by registering as a not-for-profit company with the Charities Commission.
Two research reports have been produced on the Skill Force pilot projects, which in general praise Skill Force for helping pupils towards gaining non-academic awards, such as first aid and sporting certificates.
However, one revealed: “A secondary aim of the programme is to improve perceptions among pupils and other stakeholders about the role and value of the Armed Forces, to enhance their appeal as employers and their value to society in the general.”
Follow-up studies suggest they have been successful in this, with 75 per cent reporting an increased understanding of the Armed Forces, and 49 per cent expresssing an interest in joining up, compared to 15 per cent previously.
Concerns expressed by teachers are included in another report, for example: “I can’t trust them to handle parents’ evenings without my presence. It would turn into an army recruitment drive.”
A Hansard account of military recruitment in schools being discussed in the House of Commons, from October 2001, finds Defence spokesman, Dr Lewis Moonie, admitting: “...We also have a programme called Outreach, in which cadet forces work with youngsters who may have  problems in order to introduce them to life in the cadets.
“The programme has had remarkable success in producing recruits to the armed forces.”
He continues: “We have also developed a concept called Skill Force...”
The mum said: “I have real concerns about this. I’m sure many of these instructors are committed to helping young people, but as a parent I have to question why this has been done in this way, at this time.
“Why has Skill Force been introduced in schools where there is a lot of poverty?
“Skill Force have achieved these results by working with smaller groups of students, much smaller than normal class sizes. They also do things the kids love, like a lot of outdoor education.”
 She continued: “Skill Force claim that their connection with the armed forces is one of their greatest strengths, giving them credibility with disaffected students, particularly boys, but no research has been done to compare that to anything. 
“All occupations train young people, so maybe instructors from any walk of life, for example health care workers or environmental protection workers, could have achieved similar results, given the resources that Skill Force have.”
Skill Force had complained that they only got the “difficult kids” to work with.
Now, it seems, this has changed and they have “access to every pupil.”
Couldn’t the resources at Skill Force’s disposal be better used, she asks, “to reduce class sizes and give teachers more of a free reign?
“To sometimes do fun things with pupils, instead of a strict curriculum?”
In the course of her researches, this inspiring woman has also uncovered a link between school meals and the war in Iraq.
She says: “Scolarest, which provides the food for the PFI-funded Graeme High School, is the sister company of Eurest, which provides food for soldiers in Iraq.
“They are both part of the catering giant Compass, which paid £40 million to settle two American lawsuits alleging it engaged in ‘criminal conspiracy’ to win United Nations food service contracts.
“They also sacked some staff, in relation to that.
“The Compass group say that the £40 million settlement is not an admission of liability. Eurest has been criticised for providing poor quality and inadequate amounts of food for the soldiers in Iraq, and for paying workers as little as $3 a day, despite making millions in profit.”
She notes that the company has also been condemned for its junk food menu.
Some schools in Camden, for instance, opted out of a contract with Scolarest, after a report found the company’s food failed to meet basic nutritional standards.
“It seems that we are nothing but a raw human resource, or a source of profit, for Bush and Blair and the people they serve.
“This company is making money out of war in Iraq and also from a PFI contract in our school.”
She urges all parents to ask questions and demand the best for their children.
“School boards are being done away with next year. They are being replaced by parents’ forums.
“I don’t know what rights we will have, but at least it will give us all a voice and we should use it.”
She concludes: “I have to do this. I have to speak out. If I told my children I couldn’t do anything about these things, they would grow up fearful.”