An exodus of more than 2 million Iraqis is reshaping the Middle East -- with ominous implications for the region.
Iraq: A grim milestone, and a horrible dilemma
Published December 16, 2008
Matthew Hay Brown, for the Pulitzer Center
Washington, DC
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees announced on Monday that it had referred its 50,000th Iraqi for resettlement. Buried in the press release is the story of another refugee facing a horrible dilemma.
The woman, identified as "Reem," fled Iraq for Damascus with a two-year-old daughter after her husband and another infant daughter were abducted by masked men in Baghdad. The release says she has paid US$3,000 trying to find out what happened to them, to no avail.
Now she has been accepted for resettlement to the United States. She cannot decide between continuing to look for her loved ones or moving on. She has until early next week to accept resettlement.
"Sometimes I wish the monsters that did this to my little baby and my husband would call me to tell me they are both dead so that I could leave," she says. "I'm so tired, so very tired of hoping."
JARAMANA, Syria -- Hasem Abed is thinking about going back to Iraq.
The small-time auto trader, 32, left Diyala earlier this year after members of a Shia militia destroyed his house.
It's not that Muhammad Shumri imagined building a new life in Baltimore would be easy. But he didn't expect it to be so hard.
Grantee
Matthew Hay Brown is a Washington correspondent for The Baltimore Sun. He has reported in English and Spanish from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East; he has written...
