Iraqi Refugees Suffer Long-Term Effects of Torture

[Barrett808]

Source: NPR

Iraqi Refugees Suffer Long-Term Effects of Torture
Deborah Amos

One of the grim legacies of the war in Iraq is the vast number of torture victims. One in five Iraqi refugees has been tortured or has suffered from other violence, according to data collected by United Nations in Syria.

...

Nibras Naseer is a rail-thin 18-year-old. He fled Iraq more than a year ago, he says, after spending 10 days in a hospital for injuries that resulted from severe beatings.

...

"I am just trying to forget what happened to me," Naseer says. "I can't say that I can sleep. Sometimes I can, sometimes I can't. I am trying my best to forget what happened to me."

In 2006, Naseer was kidnapped from his Baghdad neighborhood, shoved into the trunk of a car and subjected, he says, to weeks of so-called investigation, along with six other Iraqi men and an 11-year-old boy.

Read more: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18164366&ft=1&f=2

[Lone_Star_Dem]

1. Suzanne Jabbour, chief psychologist at a clinic in Lebanon says,

'The Worst Is Yet to Come'

Jabbour says the people being treated in Lebanon have a chance of recovery. But she is not optimistic about the refugees in Syria, who have little or no access to mental health services now.

"The worst is yet to come for these people in Damascus," Jabbour says.

[Barrett808]

2. Yes, a sobering thought. n/t