Latest news feedRefugees Magazine Issue 146 ("Iraq Bleeds: Millions displaced by conflict, persecution and violence") – Refugee testimonies: Hussam
Collected by Rupert Colville
Hussam is Sunni, his wife Amira is Shia. Once upon a time, they owned a sewing factory near Basra, with 13 employees.
Hussam pulls a slightly dog-eared photocopy of a letter out of his wallet and carefully unfolds it.
Letter of 20 February 2006
To whom it may concern
We would like to inform you that it has been proven that Hussam XXX has worked for the past regime and that is why we would like to request his address and exact whereabouts and warn you not to hide any information for the benefit of the public.
The letter was fixed to the car windscreen of one of Hussam's brothers. Another brother was shot in the head in April 2006.
Hussam believes his brother was killed because of him: because he was making clothes for senior officials and army officers, and because his niece was married to an army captain. So he is indelibly associated with the former regime. "If you were living at that time and the government asked you to make uniforms, you didn't say no," he remarks.
Later in 2006, he says he received a call on his cell phone in his asylum country. "They said 'We killed your brother, and you're next. No matter what country you go to, we will find you.'"
Source: Refugees Magazine Issue 146: "Iraq Bleeds: Millions displaced by conflict, persecution and violence" (April 2007). Download the complete issue in pdf format: low-resolution (1.27 Mb) here or high-resolution (4.25 Mb) here.