News
HRH hosts a reception at Clarence House for a charity that supports Marsh Arabs
3rd March 2006
The Prince of Wales has praised the work of a British-based organisation fighting to alleviate the plight of the Marsh Arabs in southern Iraq.
The Prince, who is Patron of AMAR International Charitable Foundation hosted a reception at Clarence House for conference delegates who have spent the week debating initiatives to help the Marsh Arabs.
The AMAR (Assisting Marsh Arabs and Refugees) International Charitable Foundation was set up in 1991 to provide emergency aid for refugees in southern Iran and the Iraqi marshlands in response to the acute humanitarian crisis there.
More than 200,000 Marsh Arabs were forced to flee their homes after the former dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, set about draining the marshes in a bid to destroy their homeland.
The people of the Iraqi Marshlands are heirs to a culture based around water and reeds, hunting and fishing that can be traced back thousands of years. They have occupied wetlands that have had a unique ecology, with birds, fish, animals and plants that cannot be found elsewhere.
The marshes of the Haur al-Hammar and al-Huwaizah used to provide habitat for two thirds of the wintering wildfowl of the Middle East and are a vital staging area for birds moving between breeding grounds.
At the reception, The Prince met Arab tribal leaders from the marshlands and heard first-hand how they were victimised.
Al Sheikh Haddam Safah Mohan from the Al Bushama tribe speaking through an interpreter and wearing traditional robes, told The Prince how Saddam destroyed the houses and the livestock and that most people were forced to emigrate from the region.
The Prince, in his speech to the delegates, said: “I've felt deeply for the plight of the Marsh Arabs for some considerable time. I know that they have been persecuted and tortured, bombed, murdered, forced to move as many as eight times.”
He added: “I know you've had to witness the most bio-diverse wetlands eco systems being deliberately burnt, drained and poisoned.
“If I may say so one of the great things about the marsh Arabs is that they're able to use natural resources in a sustainable manner due to the complex tribal social system which is so unique to the region and which has almost been forced into extinction.”