Kidnap Victim Finds Refuge in Syria

Karen Button

Mamoon Chalabi is one of hundreds of thousands who’ve narrowly escaped death in the lawlessness of Iraq—whether at the hands of American troops, Iraqi forces, government-backed death squads and other militias, armed groups or criminal gangs. Most who’ve been interviewed have harrowing tales to tell, either about themselves, a family member or friend. Chalabi’s is no exception. It was a hot July evening in 2004 when Chalabi, an assistant to renowned Iraqi eye surgeon Dr. Abedin, was kidnapped by Iraqi police while leaving the Baghdad medical clinic (...) Chalabi remained in Baghdad after the incident, hoping things would get better, but also needing to work. "Because I saw no reason for them to capture me another time, I went. You know, I have to work to live." Others interviewed have expressed similar sentiments; while they may be safer outside Iraq, they also know they will suffer financially. For many, it takes a second or even third threat before making the difficult decision to leave everything behind. "But the situation became very miserable, day by day," Chalabi continues. "It became worse and worse and it began to change. Now, the kidnappers kill not even for the money, because there are no doctors, no merchants left in Iraq. Now, police just kidnap a lot of people and kill them". (...) Though armed groups target civilians across the board — Sunni, Shi’ite, Christian, Palestinian — the biggest change in the past few years have been the rise of militias and death squads, some US-backed and many of which operate through the government apparatus. Both the Iranian-backed Badr militia and Muqtada al-Sadr’s Madhi militia are known to operate through the sectarian Ministry of Interior and routinely abduct, torture and execute civilians, most of which are Sunni...

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