tv Close up Deutsche Welle February 19, 2020 8:30am-9:01am CET
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you know what time of. the 77 percent talk about the issue. from politics to flashes from housing boom boom town this is where. 77 percent. this weekend r d w. the tigris river provides the residents of mosul with a welcome relief from the oppressive summer heat. perhaps for a few moments these youngsters can forget the war that robbed them of their
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childhood. the black flags of the islamic state no longer fly over iraq's 2nd largest city. the all noori mosque blown up by us and 2017 is now being reconstructed. in 2014 bias leader abu bakar all baghdadi came to the mosque to announce the creation of the islamic state caliphate. the effort by the iraqi army and its allies to drive us out of the city caused heavy damage and killed or wounded thousands of civilians now 2 years later many local residents still have not recovered from the effects of the war they've suffered too much and their grief cannot be measured.
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more than 35000 people live at this camp for displaced persons in the town of hamam . about 20 kilometers south of mosul. most of the residents are alleged to have ties to i asked fighters. there are a number of orphans and widows here. one of those widows lives in this tent with her 5 children her name is rose. her husband was killed in an air raid on a mosque in mosul he was the more prayer leader there will says he did not belong to i asked. as iraqi troops clashed with islamic state fighters and 2017 she and her children fled. they've lived in this tent ever since. i was told that the authorities say that my husband was a member of i asked about and that's why they refused to give us identity documents
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they say they were and i asked family what i was watching. it come up if i don't and because we don't have those documents we can't leave the camp that has been that we can't go anywhere in that one of the way that it was for her. role and her family spend much of the day watching t.v. . she herself was not a member of aa yes but the wives and children of islamic state fighters are paying a heavy price for crimes committed by their husbands and fathers. omar is 8 years old and he's now the breadwinner in his family he's just come home from his job in town he walked for 2 kilometers so he's hot tired fuck you did he pay you know why not he just didn't. feel. are you tired of this did they give you anything to eat yet
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have you eaten at all let me know. omar talked to grow sure and to giving him a bag of tomatoes it's not much but it's better than nothing he earns the equivalent of less than a euro a day as a workman's assistant. we used to live well. back then we came here and i started working. money he's all i have. many adults sometimes i think we deserve this but then again my children are not at fault in. chile as they and other family members haven't committed any crimes. i'm afraid of the iraqi troops i don't have any documents and the authorities say that my husband was in i.a.s.
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. as. well imagine all i want is my identity papers. without those documents the children can't go to school. the camp is run by international n.g.o.s but iraqi law applies here. robert gottliebsen in april the ministry of education announced that schools will no longer accept children who don't have a flea but have you apply at the ministry to get them. to do it that if they don't there must be registered and their school year one count. the new regulations apply to i.a.s. families in particular. the ministry says we can admit those children. if
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they don't have the documents i can't help them. these families also need papers to qualify for food aid from the iraqi government. today an international organization is handing out surplus flour to large families . but the flour could spoil an extreme heat. families that don't have id documents have to rely exclusively on international food aid on. that issue at the moment that we only get flour and rice there's no more salt sugar or oil or even whole grains at the british are grateful for what they give us but we need those identification papers most of them we can't go on like this and when
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i go to see the security authorities are they hold up my file and say your husband wasn't i honest we're not going to help you because that ship i mean and i'm not in the to show us it wasn't. raul is fairly comfortable here her sister's tent has some benches and other furniture. the children seem to be getting along well. but omar can't forget that he's the only member of the family who's earning money. did they pay you what the boss said not till this afternoon. but he said this morning. i don't know he said afternoon. well that's. the question of what are you going to work tomorrow. i don't know.
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your boss is a dog he said he plays in the morning in the same as yesterday. well they hand out more food soon. probably some flower do you have any left a little it's probably spoiled they said they'd be flowers. right now nearly 900000 children are living in displaced persons camps around iraq an estimated 45000 of them have no identification documents countless other children live in miserable conditions outside the camps. iraqis refer to the id papers as the gold square there an indispensable part of everyday life people need these documents to travel or apply for a job or for food aid. to get these documents people have to go to their local
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police station the process includes an interview with a representative of the security forces. that can be intimidating for a single woman or the widow of an islamic state fighter. this is. still poses a threat. if those fighters are still alive their women will try to help them. we do sometimes insurgents will get new papers and try to sneak back into society. to change their appearance shave off their beard or grow a new one. i think these i.a.'s families are really dangerous they hate the security forces and then a rock all they care about is causing destruction and bloodshed egoless so little. of this. islamic state once controlled large parts of iraq and syria
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it has now lost almost all of that territory but several 1000 i as fighters remain in iraq and they're still dangerous. insurgents have launched attacks on villages near hamam. and they placed improvised explosive devices or i e d's along the roads there's some sort of incident every week. they burn down much of the vegetation along this part of the tigris river. this open land is a perfect place for insurgents to hide and launch their attacks. but terrorist activity is rare in mosul it's that small compensation for children like omar who work on the streets for very little money. the children often do jobs that no one else wants. that this 14 year old boy and his
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cousin are empty in garbage bins. they're paid by local merchants and private citizens. these children are in the equivalent of less than 3 euro's a day. off i have to make some money. sell myself so i can buy food for. my family. i. think. i. so she just breaks my heart to see these kids sniffing like this they don't go to school and they have no future none at all. they have to work to provide food for themselves and for their family there's no shame in working but they do this because they have to most. of
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the dishes so i you know mother let's see if you don't pay the kids to empty the bins they'll just fill up at least they're making some money the city certainly won't pay them well they're going to be a month so i. this is the nabi yunis shopping street in central mosul. it survived the war largely unscathed. children also work here for pennies a day. they are the countless tireless little workers in post-war mosul. that most of the kids here orphans their fathers mothers or brothers are dead or they lost their home during the war they don't earn a lot for this kind of work just enough to survive. parents are still alive but their house was destroyed in the fighting with their rebuilding it bit by bit and aboud helps to pay for that. i dare say i
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want to bet you that it is. but many other children in mosul have lost their entire families i the municipal orphanage has now reopened its doors and takes care of about 50 children but that's just a fraction of the total number. yet of. life for orphans is difficult anywhere but particularly in muslim countries orphanages are rare and although muslims are encouraged to care for these children adoption in the western sense is controversial. even if. they may be the children of i.a.s. fighters or iraqi soldiers they may simply be poor hungry or homeless it's some more sex slaves for the terrorists. but their lives were changed forever by
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a conflict over which they had no control. and i had no idea when don't distinguish between i asked children and others who i don't even use the words and yes that they are children period they're not to blame. for. the liberation of mosul was a welcome victory for the iraqi army and its allies. but that victory was achieved at a terrible cost to the local residents. the 8 the parents of the children who lived in this house were killed in the war they're being raised by an aunt the youngest child can't even remember her mother and father. the boys all want to become military officers the oldest of them is 17 and he can enlist soon. yes i went back to school so that i could join the army i want to keep my ass from
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coming back. there savages and they're taking everything from us they killed my parents. when i think about islamic state i get so angry that i want to join the army and fight them. as innocent as. for some people here the grief will never end many of tried to expunge the islamic state from their collective memory. some have whitewashed a black flags that i as painted on the walls. deitch the name for i as used almost universally by arabic speakers has been painted on buildings such as this one. although it actually houses the office of a local elected government official called a mokhtari. his primary job is to help people work their way through the
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bureaucracy but it was. my muscle i need i.d.'s for the family and both witnesses and then you can have your disability card oh my oh great i'll be back in 10 minutes. i don't know the owners of this house r.i.'s yet you would why the graffiti. out there so you know it's an eye as house. doesn't that bother you. that absolutely not i as road christian or infidel on the homes of civilians and government workers. where they started all this. and now we're doing the same to them why didn't it that they so you behave like they did no no no i doubt it but it's a case of an eye for an eye and 2 through 2 it's payback time i see your id card. was a bit of a. fish into. the muck tar keeps
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a close watch on all the official paperwork including applications for the all important gold squared document that. he's especially bit jealous when it comes to suspected i-s. families. but it's just that as they come in here and try to get new papers but i know them and they won't get any of them. neither did these people have to leave iraq even though they're iraqi citizens. they've shed too much blood they've killed too many people. do you want someone like that living next door to you. yeah you want them living in your town police it's just not acceptable and half of the pitch if. you are sure much little office those that are still with this islamic state kill children and old people officers and soldiers and we should let these people back into the community but their kids
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are just like them i guess killed our children but now liberation i think. you have to pay a price for hurting people. the high as fighters should have thought about that before hand. they should have thought about their children their wives their brothers their family their tribe the book of life you know what kind of guy but they knew this would be a dead body but it was don't you can't join i.a.s. commit awful crimes that matter and then expect us to take care of your kids i think it absolutely not be a thought oh no of course not so this is committed to keeping suspected i as family members out of his neighborhood. but some people are reportedly taking the law into their own hands. there are rumors going around that some who've been linked to islamic state have been killed by local residents. little old new
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people some family members fear for their safety to the point where they've gone into hiding. we've come to a suburb of mosul to meet some of them we wanted to find out whether they still support an organization that is now condemned by so many local residents. here opinion of ah yes. i'm sorry to interrupt i thought it was fine to tell you the truth. i could practice my religion as i wished with no restrictions credit. so i enjoyed my life under islamic states. sure things were better back then nowadays everyone gives us a hard time to do that but without us with felt secure and everything was fine to hold on month. the summer no we don't feel safe anymore if i want to go out in
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public on my i have to sneak out of the house. does the outline of the car no party that love and trust me. this woman's husband is said to have been and i as fighter she says he's dead but he supposedly survived the battle of mosul. she claims to know nothing about is a work as she calls it. and has a good look to it now where sometimes he said he was a soldier other times he said he was a commander i don't know for sure or my father had the house he never told me about his work he didn't trust anyone. yet the watch out of course his work frightens me but i don't know anything about it. and i'm scared because he did that work for a long time. and that's why the authorities are looking for him doors i'm afraid that they'll arrest me because of him. and their army are not what they want to.
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be so bring back i s. . so run searing my situation i'd like to see that. she has a 10 year old son one of the islamic state child soldiers the lion cubs of the caliphate. they were trained in special camps but i also use them as human shields . we've agreed not to show his face he suffers from a nervous tic and vision problems. i've been exercising to make myself stronger. i do push ups and target practice by throwing rocks at bottles but. the boy works at a construction site in mosul to earn money to help his family. so far he's managed
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to escape the security patrols that are constantly on the lookout for islamic state sleeper cells. reports say an estimated 20000 people who have alleged ties to why it's are being held in iraqi prisons among them are several 100 former child soldiers. what will become of these prisoners. the authorities seem to have forgotten that islamic states origins can be traced back to a u.s. detention facility that was set up in 2003 during the iraq war. the prisoners could decide to join forces just as they did back then. baghdad based authorities have now come to mosul to make sure that all residents are properly registered. the norwegian refugee aid organization that manages this camp also offers legal advice to widows. this
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mother needs documents for her 2 year old son who was born after the battle of mosul. just was he born in a hospital or attends this it can attend. just. how many in the family. 7 of them he's your youngest yes. we do you work or stay at home but i stay home with him at home yes and your husband he's dead. did he stay with you. when they arrived he waited a year and then joined them. if he wanted to see you was it was he wanted i don't know but i applied for a security clearance from the authorities. official if you get it do you have the documents yes yes here they are. but show me.
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that security clearance is called it's a bria it proves that a spouse is no longer legally wed to an i.a.s. member it gives people who are suspected of having ties to i.a.s. the opportunity to start life with a clean slate. that's a bria is mandatory even if as in this case the family member never actually belong to islamic state. we were down here i told my husband don't join them think of our children he said god will protect you. this morning more than 600 residents of the hamam hollioake camp are to be sent back to their home regions. and the norwegian aid organization can't do anything to stop it. all the representatives can do is keep an eye on the situation because the iraqi government has the final say. critics consider such actions forced
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repatriations which are illegal under international human rights law. i. think that is a doesn't go on and you go as i was on that up i'll have to take your daughter to the local i do feel like i go civil careful a sanction on certain future disabled and sick people are just being herded onto a bus that it's unacceptable. to just accept them i. don't know where we're going to know i think there does no good here to another camp. and what camp no one's told us anything. so i know for sure we're not just going to
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dump you someplace. they didn't say we're going to another camp they just said you're leaving. this is oficial government policy. but you can ask the authorities to take you to another town that somehow the i cannot is definitely and i know you don't want to leave this camp are safe here there are no iraqi troops here and no one's harassing us they treat us well here that's why we want to stay if we return to our home region there might be trouble i nuts if i was you know i just i some families have already received death threats on social media because of the. are alleged ties to why yes. in the district of. about 100 kilometers southwest of here some victims of islamic state terrorist attacks are said to be plotting revenge against the returning us. that could have deadly
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consequences for some of these people most of whom are women and children. and. these are the 1st major forced repatriations from this camp and the authorities say there will be more. the gradual closing of the camps is yet another indication that the government is serious about restoring law and order in iraq. but for these families it's a potentially dangerous journey into the unknown. because of the deportation operation the rest of the residents have to stay in their tents that means that omar won't be able to go to work today. his mother is nervous right now everyone knows what's going on outside.
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if that's it of course i'm scared yesterday i heard that they were going to shut down the camp i couldn't sleep all night what am i supposed to do i still don't have any idea papers are that's my big problem right now and not revenge attacks. so. i know that i don't want to stay here. so now that mosul has been liberated the iraqi authorities are working to restore order but regardless of where these families end up they are marked for life by their. and we have. state.
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