Focus on much needed housing for Kurds

In Kurdish, Ekmala means "one house". But in the northern Iraqi village bearing that name there will soon be 32 new houses for a community that has suffered badly over the last 15 years. "I am so proud and thankful. And I am so happy to have this help come from across the world," the village mukhtar (chief elder), Ahmad Khalid, told IRIN from his home about an hour’s drive northeast of Dahuk. The help has come from the Danish NGO Mission East, which, with funding from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), has almost completed building the new houses in the Kurdish region. But life has not always been so good for Ahmad and the village his ancestors came to over 200 years ago. In 1988, when the Iraqi ruler, Saddam Hussein, launched the destructive Anfal campaign against the Kurds, Ekmala suffered the same fate as thousands of other villages in the north. Iraqi troops burnt and bulldozed the houses, shot the animals and destroyed the fields that the 80 families relied upon. Saddam wanted to punish the Kurds for their resistance and make them reliant on the state by shifting them to collective villages that have been likened to concentration camps. After the suspected gassing of a neighbouring village, Ekmala’s residents attempted to flee, but were caught by Saddam’s troops. Seventy-two men and boys were taken away and have never been seen again. The remaining residents were relocated, and it was not until 1992 after the Kurdish uprising and establishment of a safe area in the north that they were able to return to Ekmala. Ahmad said nothing had been left, the orchards, houses and vineyards having been destroyed. The Swedish-based NGO Qandil helped rebuild some of the houses as people filtered back, but in time, the children grew up and had families of their own, leading to overcrowding. According to UN studies, Ekmala is one of the most impoverished and vulnerable villages in the Dahuk Governorate and the people had no funds to build more houses. In August last year, Mission East met villagers and area officials to offer help. And on 18 September building began on the 32 concrete houses. If winter holds off, the first houses could be finished within a month. Hasan Sulayman, 37, is one of the residents set to move in to a new house. With two children, he has been forced to live with his parents until now in an overcrowded home. He said life would be so much better with a new house, but they had paid a high price in the past. "If I start to tell you about the suffering, you would not believe it," he told IRIN in Ekmala. His wife, Sowsan, was so excited about the new house she could talk of little else, Hasan said. But while she was keen to shift into their new home, he was happy to wait and make sure everything was right. The houses have been designed according to the needs of the families set to occupy them, and all have toilets and bathrooms, concrete roofs and kitchens. Ahmad said 63 families had returned to Ekmala and he hoped others would shift back from larger centres such as Dahuk where they had been living until now, many without a source of income. "If the people see the village is rebuilding and there is a future, then they will come back." While farming was not easy in Ekmala there was land where people could grow tomatoes, apples, grapes and peaches and graze stock, Ahmad said. "We are poor, but when we see foreign people coming to talk to us, we feel like we are human beings again." Brandon Pustejovsky, Mission East’s country representative, told IRIN in Dahuk that the bulk of the money for the project, about US $132,000, had come from UNHCR. As well as the new houses, the NGO had given each family a pregnant ewe to try and increase the village’s flock, and was building a fence around the primary school. Pustejovsky also hoped the new houses would encourage more villagers to return to Ekmala, based on the fact that 80 percent of Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in Dahuk had said suitable housing was a prerequisite for them to move from the cities. Other important factors in getting IDPs to return were health and water facilities, schools, roads and a means of earning a living, Pustejovsky said. "I just wish we could provide this comprehensive solution to more villages." After the completion of this project Mission East hopes to continue reconstruction work in a number of villages in Iraq’s north. Pustejovsky said he was happy with the progress made in building the houses at Ekmala, but the real pleasure would come later. "When I talk to them afterwards and see how they are doing and they say this is what they were needing and when I hear people wanting to return to Ekmala, then I’ll get a buzz - that will be worth it." But back in Ekmala, Ahmad Khalid is already looking forward to a celebration and feast when the first families move into the houses. "Now we have forgotten the misfortunes of the past and are just concentrating on today and looking forward to the future. The most important thing is that we live in peace."