Thursday, July 24, 2008

July 22, 2008 Interviews with Iraqi Refugees


Julan Ahmed Na’if and his wife from Fallujah now living in an apartment in Amman, Jordan

We left M and Z and I visited are Julan Ahmed Na’if and his wife from Fallujah. It is said that this couple are considering converting to Christianity but I seriously doubt it.
Julan was a reporter for the Falluja Tribes Shiek Council. Before being a journalist he worked as an electrician. But his dream was to be a journalist, so in 2005 he took a 6 month journalist course in Baghdad. Julan was almost killed by a bomb, which exploded in the next room of his office. Ibrahim Senat and Hadi Mora both directors of the news outlet were killed. Julan was kidnapped for 3 days. He was bound and gagged and placed in the trunk of a car. The American soldiers heard him banging on the car opened the trunk and after questioning him let him go home. When they saw his journalist card, the soldiers advised him to leave as soon as possible.

It was after this ordeal that Julan and his wife escaped to Syria by car and later came to Amman.

“I saw people who starved to death in Fallujah because we were not allowed to leave our houses for one year,” says Julans wife. “There was no medical treatment so a lot of old people or anyone who was sick, just stayed home and died. When the Americans left the Iraqi army came and they were much worse. They would take the pretty girls and keep them as sex slaves. They took our neighbors 19-year-old daughter, and kept her for a year, then they sent her home. Her family killed her, it was an honor killing.”

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