Advice for Iraq not easy, MCC administrator says

When it comes to solutions for the problems in Iraq, the administrator most connected to Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) programs in that war-torn country has no answers.

Peter Dula

“The problem with Iraq is that the tribal structure has been decimated by the politics of the West,” Peter Dula said in a Nov. 8 interview in Amman, Jordan. “Thoughtful people don’t know what to say about Iraq anymore. No one knows what the helpful advocacy line is.”

Dula lives in Amman and works out of MCC’s Middle East office there. From that vantage Dula has unique opportunities to listen to Iraqi perspectives about the war.

“If you speak with Iraqis,” Dula said, “they will say yes [they want U.S. troops to stay], but they will immediately start qualifying: ‘Leave the cities, stop offensive operations and do not have a permanent presence.’ ”

Dula, a native of Lancaster, Pa., said he has enormous respect for the antiwar movement in the United States. But he also is skeptical about the motives of some antiwar activists.

“They hate [President] Bush more than they love Iraq,” Dula said. “At least I would take a political position on Iraq aside from a position in the [U.S] culture wars.”

Dula described one specific problem in the way the United States is making decisions about Iraq. Although evangelical Christian churches in the Arab world are in close conversation with the missionary community, those Christians are neglected by policy makers in the United States.

He pointed to a group of Iraqis living in Virginia who have been ignored by U.S. officials as an example.

Partnerships

In anticipation of the time when MCC can enter Iraq, it is establishing partnerships with other non-government organizations (NGOs) working inside the war-torn country. Dula declined to name those partners for security reasons, but described the assessments they are completing.

“At enormous risk to themselves, they brought out pictures of burned-out hospitals,” Dula said. “They refuse to take [U.S. military] coalition money but are willing to accept MCC money. They are laying the groundwork for other larger NGOs, most of whom are afraid to go into the country.”

Among the partner projects MCC supports is an after-school program in Baghdad for 80 students who are learning English. In Mosul, MCC supports a Chaldean convent that is running a shelter for women from all backgrounds.

Alain Epp Weaver

Alain Epp Weaver, country co-representative for MCC’s Middle East programs, said since the fall of the Baathist regime in Iraq, new organizations have begun forming to meet civil needs.

“We want [any new] civil structure to emerge from the culture,” Weaver said. “Maybe they won’t be NGOs.”

Weaver also said that MCC is sensitive about working too closely with mosques in Iraq because of the possibility of violence and because “mosque members may be helped first.”

According to Dula and Weaver, MCC observes a strict code of conduct ascribed for international NGOs; the code requires them to remain neutral in political matters and first build “local capacity.”

In the meantime, MCC continues to provide material aid to Iraqis in need. This includes 4,200 relief kits and 24,000 school kits. The relief kits will be distributed to Iraqis displaced by urban warfare. Some have moved in with family members and others are living in tents or in the streets. The school kits will go to children in low-income neighborhoods in Baghdad.

—Everett J. Thomas for Meetinghouse

Everett J. Thomas is editor of The Mennonite. He travelled to Jordan on a tour sponsored by the Associate Church Press and the Jordan Tourism Board.