Soldiers help Iraqi family settle in North Dakota
Sunday, May 22, 2005 Posted: 9:06 PM EDT (0106 GMT)
FARGO, North Dakota (AP) -- The Iraqi woman had been in hiding with her children since her husband was pulled from his truck and shot in front of one of his sons.
This weekend, they began a new life, brought to America with help from soldiers who befriended the slain man and were tormented by the idea that their relationship contributed to his death.
The woman and her seven children arrived in Fargo on two flights Friday and early Saturday. One of the boys greeted waiting North Dakota National Guard soldiers with a cheery "Hi, guys."
The children were presented with gifts, including toys and a soccer ball.
"They didn't kick it," said Sgt. 1st Class Shayne Beckert. "They just sat there and stared at it."
Beckert and a fellow guardsman, Capt. Grant Wilz, worked for months to bring the family to the United States, appealing for help on radio and television and contacting Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-North Dakota, who helped arrange the trip.
Pomeroy, who met the family earlier this month during a trip to Iraq, described them as "bright and strong and wonderful," and said their resourcefulness would help them adjust to life in the United States.
Pomeroy said the mother described the journey as "her birthday ... the beginning of a new life."
"This isn't the end of the story. This is the beginning of the story," Pomeroy said. "They don't know English. They have never seen winter."
Officials had planned to bring the family out of Iraq while the woman was pregnant with her seventh child, but the child was born six weeks early. The woman was waiting in line to get a passport for the newborn when her 2-year-old daughter was hit by bomb shrapnel and suffered severe injuries to her right eye.
Beckert, Pomeroy and Wilz spoke at a news conference Saturday at an office of Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota, which is helping to resettle the family. The woman's brother also recently moved to the Fargo area and is helping the transition.
Their names are not being released because of potential danger to their relatives in Iraq.
"I wish I could take them and put them on the Oprah Winfrey show," Wilz said. "But we want to protect them."
Pomeroy described himself as "emotionally wrung out," and at times during the news conference, Beckert and Wilz's eyes reddened and teared up.
Beckert said he met the husband, whom the soldiers call Mr. M, while on a patrol in Iraq last summer. The man's truck had broken down along the roadside, and an AK-47 assault rifle and two ammunition clips were inside. Beckert and other soldiers had to convince themselves the man didn't mean them harm.
But the soldiers discovered the man, a strapping 6-foot-3 and about 250 pounds, was a "teddy bear." He described being tortured by Saddam Hussein's regime, spread-eagled with nails driven into his fingers, and his knees being stabbed with daggers.
"It's amazing what he endured," Wilz said.
Mr. M began to help the soldiers, giving them information about hidden bombs, insurgent activity and general goings-on.
In January, insurgents pulled him from his truck and shot him dozens of times in front of one of his sons, the soldiers said.
Wilz and Beckert, both of Bismarck, have no doubt that the man's cooperation with U.S. forces spurred the killing, pointing to several previous attempts on his life.
They took up the cause of bringing his family to the United States when their 141st Engineer Combat Battalion returned from Iraq in February after spending a year in Iraq.
Pomeroy said the woman and her family were in hiding until a military escort brought them into Baghdad's high-security Green Zone on May 5. They were flown to Jordan on Tuesday, then left for New York before continuing to Fargo.
They are in the country by special permission, which lasts three months, and have applied for permanent asylum. Pomeroy said he was optimistic it would be granted.
Pomeroy praised the soldiers for persisting when they could have forgotten the family as one of the casualties of war.
"They might have come back and not looked back," Pomeroy said.
He said the woman knew the soldiers would not forget her.
"She knew that these soldiers would get them to safety," he said. |
