By Nasir Ali
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Abdulrahman Omer was just 20 years old when he left Zakho in 1994. He left early in the morning to collect his father’s crop payment from a government bank, but he never returned home and his family never heard from him again.
Abdulrahman's family shared the story of their missing son with Rudaw shortly after reading a Rudaw story about a family in Erbil who reunited with their missing son, Jangi Haji Sulaiman, in the Turkish city of Van after he had been missing for 20 years.
Jangi left home in 1999 at the age of 17 after a serious quarrel with his father. He told Rudaw that he first fled to Iran, then crossed from Iran to Turkey in order to migrate to Europe. However, after finding a job and falling in love with a girl in Van, he decided to stay in Turkey.
After holding a grudge against his father for many years, he started trying to get back in touch with his family in 2007. After multiple unsuccessful attempts, some friends advised him to reach out to Rudaw, and in early December he contacted the Rudaw office in Duhok asking for help to discover his family.
The story of Jangi reuniting with his family with the help of Rudaw’s Duhok office renewed hope for the Omer family and as many as 15 others in Duhok province whose loved ones had gone missing inside the Kurdistan Region or en route to Europe.
"On an early morning of 1994, my brother left home. He has gone missing since," Hussein Omer said, weeping while holding a photograph of his missing brother.
Hussein said his brother went missing after he had collected the family’s crop pay from the bank, amounting to 12,000,000 Iraqi dinars.
"We spent much time searching for him, but to no avail," Hussein added.
Abdulrahman also has two sisters, and their parents are deceased.
"Two months into his disappearance, a relative from Silopi in Turkey contacted us saying they had seen Abdulrahman and [he] informed them of his intent to go abroad," Hussein says, adding that his family never heard from Abdulrahman.
"We spend a hellish life. We do not know whether he is alive. My parents died grieving for him," the distraught brother said. "Yet, we have not lost hope."
Many people in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region are also missing due to decades of conflict and oppression under previous Iraqi regimes.
After the 1991 popular uprising of the Kurdish nation against Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime, thousands of individuals and families left the Kurdistan Region, emigrating to Europe, Canada and the US due to miserable economic and political conditions. People sought a safer, more prosperous life for them and their children, but not everybody reached their intended destination.
"Until now, 210 names of missing people, including some from the Kurdistan Region, have been registered with us," Ari Jalal, head of The Summit Foundation for Refugee and Displaced Affairs (Lutka), told Rudaw on Monday.
"Anyone who has someone missing in their family can contact us to register the name and information with us," Jalal said.
Jalal said through their organization, they have been able to discover at least 200 missing people from Iraq including many from the Kurdistan Region.
"In some cases, we have even been able to return the bodies to the families," he said.
Hussein said his family never registered his brother Abdulrahman’s name with any local or international organizations.
"Except for authorities, we have not yet registered Abdulrahman's name with any organization. We even did not know that that there were organizations to register his name with. We have only reached out to Rudaw after hearing the story of Jangi reuniting with his family."
Hamdi Barwari, head of the Erbil Branch of the Kurdistan Human Rights Organization, says they frequently deal with cases of missing persons.
"So far, five cases have been registered with us, including some people who have gone missing for ten years now," Barwari said.
"We have plans to officially call on the prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government and ask for assistance to help determine the fate of the missing," Barwari added.
According to the latest data from the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), somewhere between 250 thousand to one million Iraqis are missing.
Translation by Zhelwan Z. Wali
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