Word: iraqi
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...Detroit may be the poster child for urban flight, but there's one group that still regards it as a city of hope: Iraqi refugees. Like previous waves of Arabs fleeing violence and political upheaval - or merely seeking new economic opportunity - thousands of Iraqis have been arriving in the Detroit metropolitan area since 2007, when the Bush Administration began accepting refugees from Iraq. (See TIME's photo-essay "Detroit's Beautiful, Horrible Decline...
...half without food, some have suffered fainting spells, others vision loss or heart attacks. But the ambulance soon brings them back, because they refuse to be given IV drips. The strikers are relatives of Iranian dissidents living in a camp in central Iraq that was taken over by Iraqi police once U.S. troops had handed over control of the area. Their message to the U.S. is clear: protect their relatives and make Iraq release the 36 prisoners they took after a bloody raid of the camp at the end of July...
...which the MEK traded in their arms in exchange for "protected persons" status under the Geneva Convention. (The U.S. considers the MEK a terrorist organization, though it has reportedly tapped the group for intelligence on Iran's nuclear program). But ever since the U.S. handed sovereignty back to the Iraqis in June, Camp Ashraf no longer feels like a safe haven. On July 28, clashes between camp dwellers and Iraqi forces left 11 Iranians dead, scores more wounded and 36 imprisoned. Now the remaining MEK members in the camp live in fear of being sent back to Iran and thrown...
Since the raid, women from the camp have written letters to the U.N. claiming the Iraqi forces threatened them with rape. Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have called for an investigation of excessive use of force, while an Iraqi court has ordered the prisoners' release. But the Iraqi government has kept them locked up, saying the violence only broke out after the dissidents refused to let the police establish a base at the camp...
...Middle East experts say it's unlikely, however, that the U.S. would take back control of the camp. "It would be difficult go backward now that the Iraqi government is recovering sovereignty," says Pakzad of the IRIS. "The best they and other humanitarian-minded nations could do would be to accept [the camp dwellers] as refugees." A small patrol of U.S. troops is still stationed at Camp Ashraf, but video footage of the July raid shows they did not interfere - some even withdrew into an SUV and rolled up their windows as Iranians begged them for help...