Now Indians cry foul over
Iraq By Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI - While the world gets a first-hand
peek into the prison horror stories of Iraq, Indian
workers who have managed to "flee" US military camps
have an equally harrowing account to tell. The tales add
to the fast-receding image of the United States as the
moral keeper of the world, and have brought the Indian
government under severe criticism for its failure to
protect the interests of its citizens.
The war
in Iraq has not only witnessed hordes of Indian
ex-soldiers looking for non-combat employment
opportunities, but has also engendered a rush of workers
looking to perform back-end menial jobs for coalition
troops stationed in Iraq and Kuwait. Various travel
agencies across India have recruited hundreds, perhaps
thousands, of military support staff - chefs, kitchen
assistants, service assistants, camp supervisors, mess
supervisors, accountants, financial supervisors and bus
drivers.
Because of the risk as well as the
demand for such personnel, the salary packages offered
are considerably better, US$1,000-$2,000 a month, than
what such professions would offer in India. The
assignments are for periods ranging from six months to
two years. In addition to the emoluments, the candidates
are offered free flight tickets, food and accommodation.
On April 15 the Indian government banned workers
from going to Iraq, for security reasons, but it seems
that the government, as well as US authorities, were
prepared to turn a blind eye to the illegal transit of
Indians through Kuwait or Jordan on their way to Iraq.
Until Aliyarkunj Faisal, Haniffa Mansool, Shahjehan
Abdul Aziz and his brother Hameed Abdul Aziz, who hail
from a village near Kollam town in Kerala, narrated
their horror story.
The four were promised
$1,000 per month to work in Kuwait, but ended up in a US
military camp living in horrible conditions. They claim
they were made to work non-stop for 18 hours, beaten up
when they complained and paid only $200 a month instead
of the promised amount. Faisal says he counted at least
30 other Indians in the camp living under similar
conditions. He and his friends managed to escape by
bribing an Iraqi truck driver, as well as getting some
help from local citizens who are friendly to Indians.
The account of the four Indians has resulted in
widespread protests. In Kerala, the state that supplies
the largest immigrant population to the Middle East,
election-campaign posters have denounced the US
occupation of Iraq, as well as the Indian government's
failure to check immigration.
"There are
hundreds of Indians trapped in various American camps
across Iraq," Communist Party of India-Marxist leader V
S Achuthanandan told an election rally in Kochi, Kerala.
"They are doing all kinds of menial jobs. Why is the
[Atal Bihari] Vajpayee government not rescuing them? Why
does the Indian government want Indians to be slaves to
the American army in Iraq? Vote out the Vajpayee
government that supports American imperialism!"
The Indian government has asked the United
States for information on reports that Indian nationals
were being forced to work for contractors in Iraq with
little rest and low pay and held "against their will".
The Ministry of External Affairs asked the US Embassy in
New Delhi for details on the number of Indians working
in Iraq, a ministry spokesman said. The ministry
"expressed its concern regarding the disturbing reports
about the conditions in which some Indian nationals are
being forced to work for contractors active in Iraq", a
statement said. The embassy was asked about news reports
"that Indians who wished to leave were unable to do so,
and were being compelled to continue to remain in Iraq
against their will", the statement said.
In
Washington, a State Department official confirmed that
Indian officials had been in contact with the US Embassy
in New Delhi. The official said the embassy was seeking
additional information about the allegations by the
Indian workers. The embassy is looking into reports that
US contractors lured Indians into Iraq and mistreated
them, the State Department has said. "Our embassy has
started to look into these reports and has advised the
[Indian] Ministry of External Affairs that it's doing
so. Obviously, we take all such reports seriously, and
we'll do our best to find out the facts of the matter,"
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
The plight of workers, whether exaggerated or
not, has fueled the antipathy of the US invasion of Iraq
that has wrecked the livelihoods of thousands of Indians
in the Middle East. Images of treatment meted out to
Iraqi prisoners add to the hostility. Nearly 3.5 million
Indian expatriates are employed in the Persian Gulf
states, contributing to the bulk of foreign-money
transactions in the form of inward remittances.
Thousands have returned to India because of instability
in the region. There is further hardship to the Indian
economy due to the hike in oil prices, with several
retail outlets as well as large and small industries
exporting to the region affected.
In March
thousands of people from many different backgrounds
gathered in New Delhi and marched to the US Embassy
protesting the occupation. Political-party leaders,
members of parliament, activists, schoolchildren, film
actors, workers and laborers from various sectors took
part in the march. Renowned writer Arundhathi Roy
(Booker Prize winner for God of Small Things)
said that the United States should be expelled from the
United Nations for its blatant violation of
international law. She appealed to people to impose
"sanctions" on the US by boycotting its goods. Three
hundred thousand people marched through the streets of
Kolkata on March 30 to register a vociferous protest
against the US aggression on Iraq.
Highlighting
the case against the US, a comment titled "Iraq abuse
cases are no aberration" in the Times of India dated May
7 reads: "President George W Bush declared that the
evidence of torture at the Abu Ghraib prison in
US-occupied Iraq is 'abhorrent' and 'does not represent
the America that I know'. The reality, say US-based
human-rights groups and legal scholars, is that the Bush
administration's 'war on terror' has spawned a set of
aggressive detention and interrogation practices that
have broken down the time-honored taboo against torture
and exposed prisoners to the depredations of
interrogators and guards who know the usual rules no
longer apply. From the notorious black hole of
Guantanamo [in Cuba] to the numerous detention centers
run offshore by the CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] so
as to exclude the oversight of US courts, it is routine
for prisoners to be humiliated or subjected to physical
abuse and violence."
As Tom Friedman wrote in
his column in the New York Times: "We are in danger of
losing America as an instrument of moral authority and
inspiration in the world. I have never known a time in
my life when America or its president were more hated in
the world than today."
The treatment of the
Indian workers only buttresses this view.
Siddharth Srivastava is a New
Delhi-based journalist.
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