Publication:Chattanooga Times Free Press
Date:Friday, April 29, 2005
Section:Front Page; Page:1
DISPATCH Iraq
By Edward Lee Pitts
Military Affairs
KHANAQIN, Iraq -- After 24 years in exile, Ahmed Noor Mohammed brought his family of 11 back home to Iraq from Iran and into a tent about 12 feet long and 6 feet wide.
"They told me Saddam (Hussein) is gone and you must go back to your country," Mr. Mohammed said of the Iranian government officials who sent him packing.
Mr. Mohammed said he left a job as a laborer on a farm in Iran, where he was making just enough to support his family.
"In Iran, the Iraqis did all the hard work," he said.
Now Mr. Mohammed is an unemployed tent dweller begging for employment. But he is not alone here, where a stretch of desert has turned into a tent city for as many as 600 mostly Kurdish Iraqis also experiencing rough homecomings.
LIFE IN MILAKSHAH
Dubbed Milakshah by the tent dwellers, the village took root eight months ago about two miles outside of Khanaqin, a predominately Kurdish city of about 100,000 residents. The patchwork tent village is made up of a collage of people who came from all over Iraq and Iran in search of better lives.
Many of the people living in Milakshah claim to have deep family roots in Khanaqin, but the former regime leaders ousted them from the land during attempts to push out the Kurds and populate northeastern Iraq with more Arabs.
Now the euphoria of being able to resettle at their place of origin has melted under the harsh reality that many of their tribal properties now belong to other Iraqis.
When the 278th Regimental Combat Team out of Tennessee arrived here in December, about 30 tents had been erected. The number now has swelled to as many as 150 tents, and more are going up every day, according to Capt. Jim Reed, who commands the Iron Troop unit overseeing this section of Iraq.
"They are just growing so fast," said Capt. Reed, of Cookeville, Tenn. "The jobs aren't there, and the money isn't there for the people. They are struggling."
During a visit here this week by Sherman Grandy, a U.S. State Department official, hundreds of displaced people wandered from their beige canvas tents to air an avalanche of complaints.
"It is a shame you come here and take pictures of our women and families and do nothing," said one man to the State Department official through an interpreter. While crowding around Mr. Grandy, others unleashed a barrage of frustrations, talking all at once in rapid-fire phrases until the translator no longer could keep up.
But Capt. Reed said his Iron Troop unit makes regular visits here and hands out leftover food from nearby Forward Operating Base Cobra and bottled water, medical provisions and school supplies by the truckload.
The Khanaqin government donated the land based on tribal affiliation, Capt. Reed said. The city delivers water every 10 days inside a rusted tank hauled behind trucks. Government officials also decided to spray for bugs after they discovered several diseases, including typhoid, in the tent city.
Asel Achmed, who has lived in a tent for three months and spends her days trying to improve the village, said a lot of children here are sick. Their treatment is impeded by a lack of medicine, she said.
"We have a lot of diseases because of the quality of water," she said through a translator.
The residents of one tent rigged an outdoor purification system consisting of an upside-down clay pot dripping water into a tin pan on the ground.
Mrs. Achmed is just one of several people who volunteer their time to help. Lt. Col. Jeff Holmes, the regiment's 3rd Squadron commander, recently gave each of these workers $100 when he found out their efforts to organize and distribute aid did not come with a paycheck.
Despite donations from the 278th, charities and the government of Khanaqin, Ms. Achmed said there still is much to be done.
"The people need everything," she said, adding that during the winter the rain turned sand into mud and made living conditions much worse than the current warmer months. The biggest problem now is the windblown dust of the sun-baked desert, she said.
One man in the village said most days are spent sitting inside tents, since very few people have jobs. The more enterprising residents hitchhike, share taxis or walk to Khanaqin in search of work, he said.
Education also is a problem, Mrs. Achmed said. Many of the children here have grown up speaking different languages from Iraq or Iran and cannot read or write in the Kurdish language used in Khanaqin's schools, she said.
But despite poverty on a titanic scale, the people here seemed proud this week when showing some 278th soldiers around. Everyone took turns leading the Americans by the hands along the dirt paths toward their tents.
Once inside, the villagers delighted in showing the soldiers their few possessions, using hand signals to show where people can wash, relieve themselves and eat. Towels are used as beds at night and cover the dirt floor during the day. Hundreds of flies swarm in and out of most tents, many congregating around the metal pots and pans used for cooking and eating and left on the floor due to the lack of cabinets, stoves or shelves.
Soldiers could not go into a tent without being invited to sit down for hot tea. When two soldiers accepted one Iraqi man's offer, he proudly held up his 5-month-old baby and claimed he had named her "Usa" after the country that allowed him to return home.
MAKING HOMES
One family of 12 in two tents joined together had electricity from wires strung on metal poles and tapped into a nearby generator. An old television set and tape player both rested on top of a chair, the only furniture inside.
Other residents lucky enough to have electricity boasted refrigerators inside their tents. Those without electricity used donated foam coolers to chill food.
About two months ago some villagers started building more permanent homes for themselves. They used concrete blocks with canvas tents stretched tight as improvised roofs.
Each dwelling is different. Some villagers built simple one-room, box-shaped residences. Others created homes of varying shapes with rooms, porches, gates, private bathrooms and doors. The villagers claimed they had to take on debt to buy the material and tools needed to build.
More foundations dug into the copper-colored sand are appearing all over the village as residents prepare to enhance their own living conditions.
Some villagers are concerned all this work may be for naught. Rumors are spreading that this is private land, and that the owners soon will return to kick the squatters out of their homeland again.
Despite such fears, the city continues growing as people are attracted to the low cost of living in and around Khanaqin, Capt. Reed said. This week villagers asked him for help with security because people are beginning to descend on the town to pilfer from the tents, he said.
Capt. Reed said 12 Khanaqin police officers would take turns patrolling the village 24 hours a day.
As 278th soldiers prepared to end their visit this week, Mr. Mohammed made sure to thank them. He said he is comfortable here in the place of his ancestors despite not having a job and only having one tent for his extended family.
"I am very happy America occupied the country," he said through a translator. "Hopefully they will make it better."
E-mail Lee Pitts at lpitts@timesfreepress.com
On the Web: Photos by U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Russell Lee Klika of the 278th Regimental Combat Team are available on the Times Free Press Web site. Visit "a href="http://www.timesfreepress.com/kp"> .
U.S. Army Photo by Staff Sgt. Russell Lee Klika - A family of Iraqis living in a tent outside of Khanaqin, Iraq, look at photos shared by an unidentified 278 th soldier. The Iraqis are among 600 who live in about 150 tents after returning to their homeland following the fall of Saddam Hussein.
U.S. Army Photo by Staff Sgt. Russell Lee Klika - A women exits a tent she shares with 11 others in a city of nearly 150 tents outside Khanaqin, Iraq.
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