Mohammad’s body was found dumped in wasteland on the outskirts of Basra. His
killers had burnt cigarettes into his back, broken one of his hands and legs
and shot him three times in the head and twice in the chest. His crime: to
have worked as an interpreter for the British in Iraq.
Both he and Alaa chose to become interpreters for the coalition because they
wanted to help to build a better future for their country. Mohammad, 25,
father of a six-month-old son, was the first interpreter to be killed — or
at least his was the first killing to be recorded — since Gordon
Brown promised to review the Government’s refusal to give interpreters
special help in seeking asylum.
“We are being targeted because we have worked for the British Forces,” Alaa,
24, said. He did not want to give his family name for fear of being
recognised.
Shia militiamen in Basra have a hit-list of people who work, or previously
worked, as interpreters for the British-led coalition in southern Iraq,
according to Iraqi interpreters and a police source.
They consider all such people to be spies and collaborators who deserve to
die, the sources say. In addition, some employees on Britain’s main military
base in Basra are suspected of passing information about interpreters to
local militias who single them out to be killed. “They watch who is working
with the British Army to see who should be killed or kidnapped,” Alaa said.
He feels that he is a priority target on the list.
The Government faced added pressure last night over its treatment of Iraqi
employees when a British company said that it considered it a moral duty to
move endangered workers to safety. Erinys International became the first
British company to do so, saying it was unthinkable that employees would not
receive help.
The company, which provides security for the US military and construction
companies, has said that it will move Iraqi workers out of the country if
they are threatened by extremists.
The tragedy to hit Mohammad and Alaa’s family unfolded last week when Alaa
received a dreaded message from a Shia militiaman. “The militia told me that
they wanted me to stop my work and work instead with the militia,” he said.
He works as an interpreter for a Glasgow-based firm, Turner Group, contracted
to the British Forces to provide support services such as engine maintenance
projects and facilities management. “I said, ‘No, I will never do that’.
They said, ‘We will kill your sister and brother’,” he said, speaking to The
Times from the British airbase on the outskirts of Basra.
Alaa believes that his brother was targeted partly because he worked as an
interpreter for the British in 2004-06 and because Alaa still works on the
British base. Mohammad was kidnapped, along with his wife and sister. The
militiamen interrogated the women and released them, but held on to Mohammad
before killing him.
Alaa said: “I want to tell the British people that I have lost my brother and
I do not want to lose the rest of my family. I want a chance to build a life
for them I cannot live here in Iraq with my family. Iraq is no longer my
country because I work with the British. I think Britain is my country. All
other interpreters also feel this way.”
The brothers started work as interpreters in 2004. Mohammad, a thoughtful, shy
man who liked listening to Western music by artists such as Elton John and
Céline Dion, was placed with the British military at Camp Abu Naji in Maysan
province, north of Basra. Alaa, who also enjoyed Western music by the likes
of Lionel Ritchie and Britney Spears, found a job with the Danish forces
that were deployed in southern Iraq. Intimidation tactics by militia groups
such as the al-Mahdi Army, however, prompted the brothers to resign last
year.
Mohammad and his new wife moved to Syria but returned when they ran out of
money. The couple also tried unsuccessfully to travel to Britain, Sweden and
Denmark.
Stuck in Iraq and still fearful of being killed, Mohammad had to rent a house
outside Basra where he lived with his wife and newborn son. Two months ago,
however, the three of them moved back to the city to live at Mohammad’s
family home as they could no longer afford the rent. A friend of Mohammad,
who also worked with British Forces and was too scared to give his name,
recalled: “I remember at the time I told him to return again because the
militia still keep their eyes on our houses, but he said, ‘I don’t have
money so I have to come back’.”
Alaa fled Iraq to Qatar, Jordan and other countries in the region, but
returned early this year after hearing that his family needed financial
help. He accepted a position with Turner as an interpreter on the military
side of Basra airport, which is attached to the British base. He also does
some security and transport work for the company.
“I took the job because I needed the money to build my life and help my
family,” he said. He was aware of the risks of returning to such a
profession.
Threats from the militia forced Alaa to move to the base permanently three
months ago. He could not even leave to attend his brother’s funeral
yesterday. “Mohammad was a great guy, he respected everyone. He liked to
spend time on his own and was really interested in religion, both
Christianity and Islam,” Alaa said. “He wanted to go to the UK, Sweden or
Denmark but it was not possible because he needed money.”
Alaa wants to take the surviving members of his family — his mother, sister
and her three children as well as his brother’s wife and child — out of Iraq
to save them.
As a former employee of the Danish military, Alaa asked several times whether
he could be accepted on a programme for asylum offered by the Danish
Government. Sixty staff and their families were flown to Copenhagen last
month before the Danish contingent pulled out, but Alaa was not among them.
“The Danish Army said I could not have refugee status because I now work
with Turner and the British,” he said. “It is the British Army’s fault.”
With the prospect of British withdrawal from the centre of Basra looming,
Alaa, like scores of other interpreters, is terrified about what will become
of him and his family unless Britain has a Danish-style policy to help its
Iraqi staff. “In Basra City it is a very dangerous situation, all the
interpreters are afraid that they will be killed. There is no chance for
us,” he said.
The militia has also threatened Alaa’s sister, aged 34, wrongly accusing her
of working with the British Forces when she actually worked at an Iraqi
hospital. “My sister had a message yesterday saying that they want to kill
her and they would find her even if she hid inside the belly of a fish in
the sea,” Alaa said.
Six hundred Iraqis would be eligible to settle in Britain if asylum
regulations were relaxed. It is unclear, however, whether Alaa would
immediately qualify for help as he works for a civilian company that is
contracted to the military — but the militia does not distinguish between
those working for the Armed Forces directly and those who are contracted via
a third party.
Iraqi interpreters still working in Basra say that the number of colleagues
who have been killed since gunmen started targeting them towards the end of
2005, allegedly in response to British operations against the al-Mahdi Army,
is between 30 and 40. Asked about the claims that the British base in Basra
had been infiltrated by employees who passed on information about
interpreters to the militia, Major Mike Shearer said: “We do not know about
that and it is hearsay. There is nothing to substantiate that. Nobody has
come to us.”
Whitehall officials have begun a review, involving the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office, the Ministry of Defence, the Home Office and the
Cabinet Office, of policy towards local staff in Iraq, but a result is not
expected for several weeks.
Many companies feel no obligation to help their Iraqi employees on the grounds
that they volunteered for the work and were well paid. But Erinys’s stance
is likely to add to the pressure on the Government.
Erinys is unusual in having a policy to help Iraqi employees while most
businesses operating in the country are still wrestling with the issue.
John Holmes, a director of Erinys, said: “These people have been working with
us for four years and no matter what is going on we owe them.”
Erinys is one of about half a dozen British private security companies
operating in Iraq. In 2003 it was hired by the US Government to train Iraqis
for an oil protection force and its current contracts are to provide
security for the US Corps of Engineers, which is responsible for Iraqi
reconstruction.
The company, along with others, also provides security for construction
companies operating in Iraq, such as Amec. As reconstruction in Iraq has
wound down, Erinys has reduced its workforce but still has about 350 people
in the country, including about 40 Iraqis. Mr Holmes said: “We are very
aware of the threat to our employees and we take every measure to ensure
their safety.
“But if they are getting threats or family members are being kidnapped then we
will help to relocate them.” Mr Holmes added that workers were given the
choice of how they would like to deal with threats from extremists as some
simply preferred to stop working for the company and return to their
communities.
Others ask to be moved to safer areas of Iraq, where they will not be known,
or to nearby countries such as Jordan or the Gulf states. “They don’t want
to go far,” Mr Holmes said, “because they see this as a temporary measure
and they ultimately believe they will go back.”
Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, has said the Government will not announce a
new policy on the possibility of asylum until the autumn.
That is too late for Mohammad. Alaa fears that it might be too late for him
too.
Additional reporting by David Robertson
