Children of War

by Deborah Ellis

  I attended the American-based Baghdad College High School. It is a very good school. Our father went there, too. I made a lot of friends at Baghdad College. They became my best friends, but unfortunately they are still back in Baghdad. I worry about them every day. We contact each other from time to time, but it’s not the same.

  During the sanctions sometimes we needed medications that we could not get. We needed things for our computers that were not available in the country. After the war, they became available.

  YEMAN – Before the war, I remember mostly my friends, my school days. We lived in an old neighborhood in the eastern part of Baghdad. The Tigris River wound through it very beautifully. It was a sort of island, the greenest part of Baghdad. A very good place to live.

  My favorite thing to do was play computer games. Dead Man’s Hand and Grand Theft Auto are the ones I like best. Plus, I play classical guitar.

  HUTHAIFA – There was so much talk on the news of the war coming. We had a satellite dish. Even before the war when it was forbidden, we had one. We watched BBC and CNN and got many different points of view on whether the war would happen or not.

  YEMAN – It’s complicated, the reasons why they wanted to bomb my country. We all know George Bush didn’t like Saddam, but it was also that they wanted our oil. I think it was even more reasons than that, reasons we might not know about for a long time.

  We heard the bombs and we saw them. Most of the explosions were far from our neighborhood. I think our neighborhood then was one of the safest places in the city, safest from the bombs. We could see the sky light up at night, and of course we heard the noise. Very loud noise. And our window glass got broken from the ground shaking.

  When the bombing was happening, the sirens would go off. We were living in our house with eighteen other people. My grandparents and other relatives came to stay with us because their homes were in more dangerous places.

  When the sirens went off we would all gather in one small place, because nobody wanted to be alone. The electricity stayed on for the first half of the bombing time, so we would be able to play computer games or watch TV, or listen to music really loud, to drown out the sound of the explosions. When the electricity stopped, we listened to a battery radio, or played cards, and lit candles.

  There was also a lot of work to do in the house with all the people living there. We had to get clean water, prepare food, keep things clean.

  Even when the bombs were falling, my parents would make jokes and encourage us to make music and play games and tell stories. I think that is the best way to be. Being scared and crying would not have protected us. So we tried to laugh.

  HUTHAIFA – I really thought I would die, but I was ready for it. I felt like an angel, without sins. But later, the war got worse, and then I became afraid.

  After the war, the clashes between the militias started happening, and that affected our neighborhood.

  YEMAN – There was a car bombing at my school one day. I was walking along a corridor with glass all down the side of it. The bomb went off and the glass shattered all around me. I ran away as fast as I could. As the explosion happened, a song came into my mind, “I Disappear,” by Metallica. It goes

  Do you bury me when I’m gone?

  Do you teach me while I’m here?

  Just as soon as I belong,

  Then it’s time I disappear.

  I think it’s on the soundtrack for Mission Impossible II, with the glass breaking. I felt like I was in a movie.

  HUTHAIFA – I had a lot of thoughts go through my head when we saw Saddam Hussein be executed. Saddam didn’t mean anything to us. He did a lot of bad things, but he also did good things. Iraq had a very good education system, free for everyone. Even university was free.

  When the Americans came and took Saddam from power, we thought that maybe it is the time for a new, bright Iraq. We were wrong. Many Iraqis would like to have the old days back, because at least then we could have our families together. So many families are separated and spread out far from each other.

  For nine to twelve months after Saddam fell, things were kind of getting better. There was killing, but not the same as now. We used to go out and feel safe to stay out until 10 p.m. Then it gradually got earlier and earlier when we felt we needed to be at home.

  When the bombing of the shrine in Samarra happened, I was in my last year of high school. It was the most important year in my life because the outcome of the examinations would decide what my future would be. A good average would mean a chance to go to a good university and study medicine or engineering. I had to study a lot. I also went to private lessons. These were held in different areas of Baghdad, so I had to travel around the city. The militias were everywhere in the street. You couldn’t predict what was going to happen. We would see a checkpoint and we wouldn’t know if it was the real army, or if it was the militia wearing army uniforms, wanting to rob us or kill us.

  YEMAN – There were many car bombings in our area. We got up every morning to learn that someone else was killed in a brutal way. My friends and I would talk about it. We decided the whole world had gone crazy.

  HUTHAIFA – I remember one of my father’s friends predicting this. It was about five days after the fall of Saddam. This friend had a generator, so we could watch TV. I went to his house. He is a doctor and lives in Baghdad with his son, my friend. He said to us, “Don’t be very much happy, because things will get worse. One day all of us will have to carry a weapon just to protect ourselves.”

  After the war, in October of 2003, our father got involved with LIFE, an American-based NGO. LIFE’s mission is to rebuild schools, get children school supplies and uniforms, books and bags. There had to be new textbooks, not the ones that were used under Saddam. They do other amazing things, like fixing up the water supply.

  Then his colleague at LIFE was abducted and killed. It was a terrible shock for everybody. This was a brilliant man, and a great friend to our father. They killed him the same day they abducted him. It was for sectarian reasons.

  Our father decided not to take any more chances with our lives. He sent us out of the country, and he joined us two months later. He stayed on his own in Baghdad to finish up some work.

  YEMAN – First me, my brother and our mother moved to Syria to stay with my aunt and her children. I thought at first it was going to be a holiday. I didn’t know we were leaving forever so I was able to enjoy being in Syria, away from the danger. Then my father called and said we should forget about Baghdad, that we would not be going back.

  I cried for three days, because it meant I lost the chance to go to Baghdad College. I wanted to go there so much! It was the only high school in Baghdad that taught only in the English language. It had the most beautiful campus, the biggest in Baghdad, and it has a history of creating leaders. I think even the minister of health for the United Kingdom went there.

  Praise God, though, that my father’s LIFE office moved from Baghdad to here in Amman. So he has a job, and can continue his work.

  HUTHAIFA – I hope I can continue my studies somehow, here in Amman.

  YEMAN – In Syria I began to compose music. There is a website called Macjams, where you can meet up with other people creating music all over the world. If you go on it, you can hear some of my music.

  Here is the site: http://www.macjams.com/artist/BirdmanWayne94.

  HUTHAIFA – In Baghdad I played guitar for the US army. It was one of those nights the soldiers were going from house to house, searching for weapons. They came to our house at 2:30 in the morning. I was awake, studying for my Arabic final exam. There were five soldiers at the door. I was friendly to them, so they were friendly to me in return. I let them see that we had no weapons, and one of them saw my guitar. His name was Smith, and he was twenty-three, very young. He asked if I would play them a song. He asked in a way that was kind, like he really wanted to hear some music. I played them something from Metallica. You can tell that we both like Metallica. Then he picked up m
y brother’s guitar and we jammed together on “Fade to Black.” It was a good moment.

  I saw them later, during the day. They asked me to help translate for them with someone. First they asked to search my bag. I was coming home from swimming, so I had my towel and swimsuit in a bag. Then they asked me to help translate. I did, but just for five minutes. Then I got scared that I could be killed for helping them, and I went home.

  YEMAN – I wish we could use music somehow to stop war. Maybe it sounds silly, but instead of picking up a gun, soldiers should instead pick up a guitar or a saxophone or a trumpet. They could have battles with music, to see who could make the best music. That would make the world much, much better.

  HUTHAIFA – To make the world better, I am planning to be like my father, and find a way to work with an NGO to stop people from suffering.

  YEMAN – I wish American kids could understand that we have many things in common. Really, we are not different. They don’t need to be afraid of us.

  Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.

  — Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953

  Glossary

  Abu Ghraib – A prison near Baghdad, known for torture and executions of political prisoners under Saddam. Photos of US soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib appeared in newspapers around the world. It has been renamed the Baghdad Central Detention Center.

  Arabic – A language and a reference to a group of people with roots in the Middle Eastern areas of Iraq, Saudia Arabia and others.

  Ba’ath – A political party that stood for Arab unity, socialism and the separation of religion from government. It was formed in the 1950s in the Middle East.

  Bedouin – Nomadic Arabs who live in the desert.

  Coalition – A collection of diverse groups coming together for a specific purpose.

  Democracy – A system of government where citizens choose their leaders and tell them what to do.

  Depleted uranium – Radioactive waste product from enriching uranium; it is added to weapons to make them more deadly.

  Dictator – A leader who rules by force and does not tolerate dissent.

  Dinar – A form of currency in several countries, including Iraq and Jordan.

  Guerrilla – An armed fighter who engages in unconventional warfare.

  Hijab – A head covering worn by some Muslim women.

  Inflation – When the price of goods goes up but the value of money goes down.

  Insurgent – Someone who takes up weapons against the official government.

  Kurds – An ethnic group from Kurdistan, an area that currently occupies parts of Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey.

  Mandaean Sabians – Followers of a very old religion that reveres John the Baptist.

  Mehdi Army – A Shia Muslim guerrilla army, formed in Iraq after the US invasion in 2003.

  Muslim – A follower of the religion of Islam.

  NGO – Non-governmental organization.

  9/11 – September 11, 2001, the day planes attacked the Pentagon in Washington and the World Trade Center in New York City.

  Refugees – People who have to leave their home country because their lives are in danger.

  Sanctions – Economic and diplomatic “punishments” one nation can impose on another to try to bring about policy change.

  Sectarian – An interpretation of a religion; sectarian violence refers to violence between different branches of the same religion.

  Shia – A branch of Islam.

  Sunni – A branch of Islam.

  Terrorist – Someone who uses violence or the threat of violence to force others to behave in a certain way; generally, terrorism targets civilian populations.

  UNICEF – United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund; an agency that helps governments (especially in developing countries) improve the health and education of children and mothers.

  Visa – A document allowing someone to enter another country.

  White phosphorus – A chemical that can be used to light up areas of a battlefield; it is also mixed with explosives to create weapons that start large fires.

  For Further Information

  CARE (a humanitarian organization that works around the world with people living in poverty) www.careinternational.org

  Caritas (a Catholic humanitarian organization) www.caritas.org

  Collateral Repair Project (an American organization that provides assistance to Iraqi refugees and people who need help inside Iraq) www.collateralrepairproject.org

  Iraq Body Count (keeps track of confirmed Iraqi civilian deaths due to violence) www.iraqbodycount.org

  Iraqi Children’s Art Exchange (exchanges art between Iraqi and American children) www.iraqichildrensart.org

  Iraqi Red Crescent (Red Crescent is an Islamic relief organization that serves people of all faiths; Iraqi Red Crescent assists Iraqi refugees and those who are internally displaced)

  Life for Relief and Development (a Muslim relief organization that assists people around the world) www.lifeusa.org

  National Priorities (keeps a tally of the cost of the Iraq war to the American taxpayers) www.nationalpriorities.org

  No More Victims (provides medical care in the United States for Iraqi children injured in the war) www.nomorevictims.org

  UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees; the UN Refugee Agency formed to protect refugees) www.unhcr.org

  About the Author

  DEBORAH ELLIS has achieved international acclaim with her courageous and dramatic books that give Western readers a glimpse into the lives of children in developing countries. She is best known for her Breadwinner trilogy, which has been published around the world in seventeen languages, with more than half a million dollars in royalties donated to Street Kids International and to Women for Women, an organization that supports education projects for Afghan girls in refugee camps in Pakistan.

  Royalties from this book are being donated to the Children in Crisis Fund of IBBY, the International Board on Books for Young People.

  Also by Deborah Ellis

  FICTION

  Looking for X

  The Breadwinner

  Parvana’s Journey

  Mud City

  The Breadwinner Trilogy (Anthology)

  A Company of Fools

  The Heaven Shop

  I Am a Taxi

  Sacred Leaf

  Jackal in the Garden: An Encounter with Bihzad

  Jakeman

  Bifocal (Co-written with Eric Walters)

  Lunch With Lenin and Other Stories

  No Safe Place

  NONFICTION

  Three Wishes: Israeli and Palestinian Children Speak

  Our Stories, Our Songs: African Children Talk

  About Aids

  Off to War: Voices of Soldiers’ Children

  Children of War: Voices of Iraqi Refugees

  About the Publisher

  Groundwood Books, established in 1978, is dedicated to the production of children's books for all ages, including fiction, picture books and non-fiction. We publish in Canada, the United States and Latin America. Our books aim to be of the highest possible quality in both language and illustration. Our primary focus has been on works by Canadians, though we sometimes also buy outstanding books from other countries.

  Many of our books tell the stories of people whose voices are not always heard in this age of global publishing by media conglomerates. Books by the First Peoples of this hemisphere have always been a special interest, as have those of others who through circumstance have been marginalized and whose contribution to our society is not always visible. Since 1998 we have been publishing works by people of Latin American origin living in the Americas both in Engl
ish and in Spanish under our Libros Tigrillo imprint.

  We believe that by reflecting intensely individual experiences, our books are of universal interest. The fact that our authors are published around the world attests to this and to their quality. Even more important, our books are read and loved by children all over the globe.