What has become of the people


Jürgen Todenhöfer holds regular telephone conversations with Andy’s (Andy and Marwa) family in Tampa, Florida. Whenever Norma speaks about her son Andy, the 18-year-old marine who lost his life near Baghdad on April 7th, 2003, she weeps.

Because Andy had been buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia, an additional memorial had been built for him on the verge of the S Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa, Florida, by persons unknown. The “Andy Memorial” was taken down shortly before a visit by George W. Bush on February 16th, 2006.

Not long afterwards, traffic authorities in Tampa said they had removed Andy’s memorial together with several placards. According to the St. Petersburg Times, Florida transport services spokesman Chris Carson said: “It was a misunderstanding. We didn’t realize that we had removed the memorial until it suddenly appeared on the bed of our truck.” To this day, Norma and Oscar still don’t understand why for three years, Andy’s memorial posed no danger to traffic, and that it was only regarded as such shortly before the American President’s visit.

It was October 2006 before Norma and Oscar could summon the strength to open the box containing Andy’s belongings, sent to them long before by the Marines. In it, they found the following farewell letter:

“Dear family, if you are reading this letter, that means the worst has  happened. I want you to know that I gave it my best. I know I’m still far too young. But some of us have to leave this world sooner, because their time is up. I’m in a better place now. But I will always be with you. One day we’ll be together again. I love you, your Andy.”

Marwa


As for Marwa, who lost her right leg in a US bombing raid on the day Andy died – a bombing raid that killed her sister Azra. Jürgen Todenhöfer bought her a small house in Sadr-City, a district in the east of Baghdad. He wanted to get her and her family out of the Sabah Qusur area, an even poorer district of Baghdad.

Like many Iraqi children, Marwa no longer goes to school. She received a new prosthesis in February 2008, paid for by Jürgen Todenhöfer using proceeds from the book Why do you kill, Zaid?

On the recommendation of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Jürgen Todenhöfer provided Marwa with some money to enable her to open a small grocery shop. Because Sadr-City is controlled by the Mahdi Army, an Iraqi paramilitary force created by the Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, fixtures and fittings for the shop had to be smuggled to Marwa’s house in the back of an ambulance.

But more misfortune was to befall her family. Marwa’s oldest brother Ahmed drowned in the Euphrates. Marwa’s mother Faleeha, a woman who used to be able to laugh so cheerfully, rarely has cause to laugh these days.

Abdul


Abdul, featured in Jürgen Todenhöfer’s book `Who will bother to weep for Abdul and Tanaya?´ in 2003, is doing well. In the course of several operations, doctors in Tübingen were able to save the life of the 20-year-old youth, who was close to death after being severely burned in the Pakistani city of Peshawar in 1984. Abdul now lives in Mehtar Alam, southeast of Kabul. He is the proud father of six children, three sons and three daughters.

The “Verein für Afghanistan Assistance” (Association for Afghanistan Assistance) has been regularly transferring a small sum of money to Abdul over the past few years, from the interest accrued on a special account that has been set up without his knowledge, and which is being administered by Professor Bernd Domres, a trauma surgeon from Tübingen. It was Professor Domres who brought Abdul to Germany in 1984, on an intrepid flight from Peshawar in a German air rescue service jet.

Today, Abdul earns a living by running a small shop, in which customers can buy pretty much anything. But his large family means his house is full to bursting. In 2007, Todenhöfer gave him most of the money in the special account so that he can at last build an extension on his home, and expand his business.

Tanaya


Tanaya, whom Jürgen Todenhöfer visited in 2003 just before the start of the war, is not doing quite so well. She lives with her aunt in the Baghdad district of Al-Karkh. Tanaya has also stopped attending school, because getting there is just too dangerous. Todenhöfer has also provided her with some money to enable her to set up a small business.

In early 2007, he arranged for renovation work to be carried out on her aunt’s dilapidated house in the district of Al-Fadhel. But the area is especially dangerous, and Tanaya and her aunt had to leave the newly renovated house and move to Al-Karkh. The house in Al-Fadhel stands empty. Tanaya’s prospects are gloomy. She is poor, and has no education. She no longer dreams of one day becoming a doctor.