melissa paulik - Friday, December 28, 2007 12:31:36 AM

 

Due to the prolonged violence and chaos in Iraq, millions of the country’s citizens have fled their homes out of fear for their lives.  They sought refuge in neighboring countries.  Nearly five years after the start of the war, Iraqi refugees’ lives are in limbo with no end in sight.

 

Part One: Collateral damage

            It had been very hot July day, but at night it cooled off just enough to sit outside comfortably and relax.  Late in the evening, a family gathered to enjoy the soft, warm breeze off the desert.  They invited a friend who was relatively new to the area for tea, nuts and a peaceful night of conversation.

            The 19 year old guest, Mohammad Subhi Jabbar, sat with the family and discussed everyday occurrences like the horrible traffic earlier in the day and the unusually warm weather.  He was animated and very polite.  He cracked jokes and seemed to be fully enjoying their company.

            Then the subject switched.  Jabbar is not a native Jordanian like the family he was visiting.  He is not from Amman and he did not come to Amman by choice.  He was forced.

            Two years ago, Jabbar and his identical twin brother were walking to a small store in the heart of their hometown, Tikrit, Iraq, to buy sodas; just enjoying the walk and the company of each other.

            “It was a just a regular day.  It was quiet in the city and we were having fun,” said Jabbar.

            And in an instant, Jabbar’s life changed forever.  A man shot Jabbar’s twin directly in the head. The attacker ran away and Mohammed rushed to his brother’s side to discover that his brother, his best friend was dead at age 17. 

            The life Jabbar had planned for himself was over.  He always imagined his brother would be right by his side during all the important parts of his life; college, marriage and when he had children of his own. 

As Jabbar speaks of the day that has shaped who he is today, he is unemotional, almost stoic. His tone and expressions are very unlike how they were just 10 minutes before when he was laughing and talking about the weather.

“He was gone, and there was nothing we could do about it,” said Jabbar matter of factly.

            The Jabbar family mourned the loss of their son and brother.  Jabbar assumed it was Sunni insurgents who murdered his brother but never knew for sure.  A week later, the Sunni family received a threatening letter from their son’s killers.

“Get out of Iraq now, or your other son will be next.”

Jabbar and his mother and father packed up all they could carry and headed to a safe refuge in Amman.  They left their home, their friends, family and their business.  The Jabbars owned several hotels in the city of Tikrit, hotels where American soldiers and contractors stayed.  Jabbar says this is the most likely reason their family was targeted by insurgents.

They left their lives and everything familiar not for monetary gain, intrigue or whim but out of necessity; for fear for their lives.  Jabbar is now an Iraqi refugee, one of approximately 2.2 million who have fled the violence and chaos in their country.

Jabbar came to Amman in November 2005.  He entered the New York Institute of Technology in West Amman and is studying English.  The family has registered with the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees, and Mohammed has been given a temporary visa by the Jordanian government. 

His parents have not received visas, however.  Without permanent or temporary visas, they are not allowed to work legally in Jordan; they cannot pay taxes or vote.  Without steady employment, their savings are dwindling and they do not know how much longer they can live off what money they have left. 

Jabbar is among a long line of refugees waiting to be resettled to a third country.  The UNHCR office in Amman has registered approximately 50,000 Iraqi refugees as of Oct. 1, 2007.  Approximately 6,000 Iraqis have been formally recognized as refugees and have been submitted for resettlement by the Amman based UN agency.

 As of Oct. 1, only 753 refugees have departed Jordan.  An estimate of the total number of Iraqis in Jordan is 700,000.  The total resettled is approximately one-tenth of a percent of the total numbers of Iraqi refugees in Jordan.

Yaghdan (only Yaghdan’s first name will be used to protect his identity), a young Iraqi man from Baghdad, was very excited and optimistic when the U.S government came to Baghdad.  He was working for a computer supply company up to 20 hours a day for $8 a month.  Life under Saddam Hussein was not easy and he felt the U.S would help improve the Iraqis’ lives. 

            “The UN sanctions after the first Gulf War put Iraq in a very bad economic situation.  But at least it was safe.  If you didn’t complain, you were left alone,” said Yaghdan.

            Yaghdan said at the beginning of the 2003 war, everything was going relatively well.  The computer company he was working for was booming as was the whole Iraqi economy.

“Everyone was very happy at first.  We all had very high expectations.  We saw Germany and Japan as an example as what we could do as a nation with America’s help.  We were all optimistic; no one thought the situation would get worse,” Yaghdan explained.

            The first mistake, he said, was the lack of focus regarding security on the Iraqi borders and in the jails and prisons. 

“The borders were wide open.  The gangs and the criminals got out of the prison and were free to do whatever they wanted because the government collapsed and there was no police,” Yaghdan said.

            After the economy took a tailspin and the security situation worsened, Yaghdan began to work for USAID in the Green Zone helping rebuild the Iraqi education system.  He was proud of his new career because he saw first hand the results and efforts being put forth by the American government.

            As the situation in Iraq became more chaotic and violent, so did Yaghdan’s personal life. 

“At all four main gates of the Green Zone there were militia observing.  Militia men followed me many times but I was able to get away.  Unfortunately one day, one of the militia was from my neighborhood and they recognized me,” said Yaghdan.  “They sent me a threat… a dog’s head and a paper that said my head would be next and in the garbage.  I left Iraq for good.”

            Just like Jabbar, Yaghdan left his life and everything he knew in Iraq.  Yaghdan’s family is still in Baghdad and he has managed to stay in contact with them via e-mail.  He has never told his parents or the rest of his family he was working for the Americans in Baghdad.  All they know is that he is alive-not where he is and certainly not that he is in America.

            Yaghdan worries if the word gets out he is in America and he worked for the American government, the militia and other criminals would think he is wealthy which could put his family in Baghdad even more at risk.

            “They might kidnap or torture them,” said Yaghdan.  “They are trying to stay alive.”

            After Yaghdan received the death threat, he and his wife fled to the United Arab Emirates and became two of the over 2 million Iraqis without a home or a resolution in sight.

            Once Iraqi refugees get out of Iraq safely and arrive in a neighboring country, their problems rarely stop there.  Many Iraqis in Jordan and Syria, the two countries that are hosting the majority of refugees, have extensive problems finding health care.

Fortunately, there are several non profit organizations that have opened clinics to help refugees.  Caritas International is a Catholic relief organization based in Vatican City that has set up a free clinic in Amman.

In July 2007 the waiting room is crowded with Iraqis in desperate need of medical help.  Most are women and children, some with very serious conditions like tuberculosis or cholera.  The patients are very vulnerable and have suffered tragic losses, according to Tarek Nassar, a case worker at the clinic.

“I do not think I have met an Iraqi who has not lost a family member or friend due to the violence in Iraq.  They describe it as complete chaos,” said Nassar.

He says they feel lost and abandoned.  Some just want to be resettled to call anywhere a home, but many still hope to one day return to Iraq.  Overwhelmingly, Nassar says they have lost hope for their country.

“Some still pray to go back, but their faith is weakening,” said Nassar.

Nassar’s patients have experienced problems after they left Iraq as well. In Amman, an Iraqi patient almost lost his wife in a hit-and-run car accident.  The person responsible for the accident was later caught and jailed by Jordanian authorities, and the victim, his wife, was taken to a private hospital and put in intensive care with severe brain injuries.

The cost of private healthcare is expensive in Jordan, however, and the Iraqi man could not afford to pay.  He pleaded with the accused family to help with the burden.  The victim and her husband were then threatened by the other family.  A group of lawyers who are dedicated to refugee rights have begun working on the Iraqi man’s case and are trying to reach a settlement with the accused family.

Although many Jordanians sympathize with the Iraqis’ hardships, they do not feel their country should have to shoulder such a burden.  Since the influx of Iraqis began in 2003, prices for housing have risen, making it difficult for many to afford homes.

            Zeralda Haddad and Eyad Musharbash married in April 2005 and had their first child, a son Jad, in August 2007.  Haddad was a classmate of Musharbash’s sister in college.  The two met and fell in love in 2002.  Haddad is now a college professor and Musharbash is a bank manager. 

If the young couple lived in America, they could afford a home and would be considered upper middle class but in Amman they have a small two bedroom apartment and are barely making enough to get by let alone put money aside for their child’s future.

“At first, it was the rich Iraqis who came to Jordan, and all the prices went up.  We will never be able to afford a villa with the prices like this,” said Haddad.

The couple both came from upper middle-class families in Jordan.  The families had to sacrifice to become this way.  The fathers in both families had to leave Jordan to find work that paid adequately.

      Although it was very difficult for Haddad’s father to leave his family and his home, Dr. Yasser Haddad moved to Saudi Arabia to practice medicine.  In Saudi Arabia, Haddad who specializes in kidney diseases makes more than three times the salary he would if he remained in Jordan with his loved ones.  

            Musharbash’s father moved to Jacksonville, Florida to open a convenience store.  The youngest son, Eyab, has not seen his father since he left over 15 years ago.  Eyab has not been able to receive a tourist visa from the U.S government and only communicates with his father by phone.

            The common experience of growing up with an absent father has infused a fierce desire in the young couples’ hearts.  They do not want to ever separate their new family for financial gain nor want to leave Jordan together.  

But the dream of giving their son and future children bright futures seems to contradict that vision.  The couple hopes to send their children to private schools and give them the best of everything.

            “I love my country and never want to leave, but I fear we may have to move to Dubai to make a decent salary.  I do not want to split up our family, but I see no choice,” said Haddad.

 

 

 

Part Two: Fleeing the violence; seeking safe refuge.

            The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is a small country with a history of giving refuge to people.  Ever since the creation of Israel, Jordan has been home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinian people.  Many of the Palestinians have integrated into Jordanian society, but approximately 160,000 still live in refugee camps across the country.

Jordan lost a large amount of land after the creation of Israel.  The monarchy assisted the Palestinians in the wars of 1948 and 1967. After both wars, large numbers of Palestinians fled to Jordan.  

The lost land was some of Jordan’s most prized not only for the religious significance, but because of the quality of the land for farming and grazing. 

            The country has no oil production, a limited amount of fresh water and a severe deficit of natural resources.  The official unemployment rate is 15 percent.  Roughly the size of the state of Indiana, Jordan’s population is approximately 6 million. The influx of Iraqi refugees has increased this struggling country’s population by 12 percent over the past four and a half years.

            “Jordan is in dire need of international funding.  They can not economically maintain the amount of people in the country without outside assistance,” said Imran Riza, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees representative in Amman. 

A former UNCHR representative in Amman, Robert Breen, wrote in a 2006 report that the situation in Jordan is deteriorating and only getting worse.

            The Jordanian government says the large number of Iraqis is costing the kingdom approximately $1 billion per year. Jordan’s annual budget, including revenue and expenditures for 2006, was approximately $10.5 billion, which means one-tenth of Jordan’s annual budget is now being spent on non-citizens many of whom are illegally residing inside Jordan’s borders.

               The Jordanian government has provided schooling to Iraqi children as well as health care services to all Iraqis.  But the Jordanian government was surprised at the start of the 2007 school year to find many Iraqi children had not enrolled in school.  UNHCR worries the lower than expected turnout is due to illegally residing Iraqis who fear they will be deported if they are discovered. 

            Queen Noor, the wife of the late King Hussein, in partnership with a U.S.-based aid agency and UNHCR, has started an outreach program to provide basic health services and also gives vouchers for school uniforms to Iraqi families.  The volunteers also give the families’ information on UNHCR services such as the official registration and applications for resettlement.

            “Community outreach for Iraqis is essential.  Our experience of the past year shows that many Iraqis do not come to our offices,” said Riza.  “It is therefore our responsibility to go to the areas where Iraqis live to ensure that they receive our support and attention.”

            The goal is to reach 14,000 Iraqi families and to encourage 50,000 Iraqi children to enroll in the Jordanian public school system.  But there is a price tag on the services provided by the Jordanians.

“The provision of these services has resulted in a great burden being placed on the government budget, as many commodities and services are still highly subsidized by the government,” Mukhaimer Abu Jamous, the Secretary General of the Jordanian Minister of Interior, wrote in a UN special report in June 2006. 

            Jordan has been hampered by its meager resources and the increasing demand for services, which Abu Jamous says has caused inflation and a rise in the cost of living for Jordan’s citizens.

            “The kingdom faces serious pressures in terms of natural resources, infrastructure and economic capacity,” wrote Abu Jamous.

            Despite Jordan’s economic difficulties, the government said it will stick by the Iraqi people on humanitarian terms and because the two countries have a long-standing relationship.

            At the same time, Jordan has requested financial aid from the global community to lessen the economic burden.  The government has also appealed for international support to resettle the Iraqis in Jordan.  Many nations, including the U.S, have given aid but the Jordanian government says they need more help.

Jordan is not the only country Iraqi refugees are fleeing to.  The Arab Republic of Syria has absorbed approximately 1.5 million Iraqi since 2003.  Per capita, Jordan’s population increase due to Iraqi refugees is larger than Syria’s.  Due to the increasing numbers of Iraqis fleeing the violence, Syria has suspended its open-door policy to refugees.

Visas are either issued in Baghdad or at the Syria border but only to a limited group of people.   The categories of Iraqis the Syrians are primarily allowing in the country are those who work in commerce, transportation or education industries.

“Your average refugee is lucky if they manage to get a visa at all,” said Sybella Wilkes, the press officer for the UNHCR office in Damascus.

Jordan has not officially closed its borders but like Syria, all Iraqis need a visa before entering the country.  The government says the visa requirements are in part due to the strains being put on their economy and infrastructure but more so because of security concerns.

Jordan’s neighbor to the east is troubled about the situation in Jordan.  The Israeli government fears Jordan’s economy is being pressured and the influx of refugees is destabilizing the country.

The Israelis are also uneasy about Jordan’s security.  Andy David, the Israeli deputy consul general in Chicago, said open borders may result in terrorist infiltration.  David said there are too many uncertainties regarding who is a terrorist and who is a refugee.

“But at the same time, the Jordanians feel sorry for the Iraqis.  The refugee situation is breaking the Arab honor, the strong loyalty to family.  The destabilization in Jordan will affect the whole region and Israel,” said David.

But not everyone sees Jordan and Syria as economic victims of the war in Iraq.  Yaghdan, the Iraqi man who worked for USAID, said host countries like Jordan and Syria are taking advantage of the Iraqi refugees and the current crisis for their own gain.

“At the beginning, I wasn’t looking to be a refugee.  I was looking for any possibility to go back to Iraq; but it never settled down,” said Yaghdan.

Yaghdan and his wife fled to the United Arab Emirate and stayed illegally for five months.  They could not get visas.  The young couple did not want to live illegally any longer especially since without visas, they were not permitted to work.  They traveled to Syria in hopes of attaining a UAE visa at the embassy in Damascus.

            “But unfortunately, UAE doesn’t want Iraqis.  I couldn’t get a visa.  The government is against Iraqis, they don’t want Iraqis in the country.  Maybe they just hate Iraqi people, I don’t know,” said Yaghdan.

After five months in U.A.E and another five months in Syria, Yaghdan reached out for help from an old American friend whom he worked with at USAID.

After all the terror and frustration; the fear of being of murdered by insurgents in Baghdad and the frustration over visas in UAE and Syria, the couple was finally resettled and is now residing in the west suburbs of Chicago.

“We were waiting with out any information.  Were we going to get refugee status, were we going to be resettled?” Yaghdan said. 

Yaghdan’s resettlement is unique; very few Iraqi refugees have been resettled.  But his waiting and hoping for resettlement or a residence visa is commonplace.  Jordan’s resettlement numbers are below one percent of the total Iraqi refugee population. 

Jordan is not a participant of the 1951 Convention on the status and treatment of refugees and has not signed the treaty that stemmed from the meeting.  The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a 30-article proclamation adopted by the UN General Assembly to ensure the rights and equalities of all people.

            According to the UNHCR, despite Jordan’s lack of participation in the convention, the country has been tolerant of the laws and articles in the declaration.

    But according to the 2007 World Refugee Survey, Jordan has failed on many aspects of the convention principles.  The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, a private, non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C, compiles the annual report.

       

Jordan has several Palestinian refugee camps.  One in particular near the Iraqi border, Ruweished camp, confined 100 Palestinian Iraqis until they were resettled to Brazil in fall 2007.  The largest camp in Jordan is near the capital city of Amman; Al-Baqa is home to more than 100,000 Palestinians from both the 1948 and 1967 wars with Israel.

Jordan and Syria have denied Iraqis residence visas, which is needed to find legal employment in both countries.

               "They do not have permission to work or otherwise support themselves or their families,” Lavinia Limon, the president of United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, wrote in the 2007 World Refugee Survey.   Reports of prostitution and child labor are growing more common as other options disappear.”

               A study conducted by Fafo Institute for Applied International Studies, a Norwegian think tank, in May 2007 found approximately one in five Iraqi adults in Jordan are employed.  The report also found one in five Iraqis hope to emigrate to a third country.

Yaghdan said the Syrian and Jordanian governments are mistreating the Iraqis in their countries.  “The Iraqi people are not living there for free.  They are paying double for rent, double for food, double for health care.  They are spending money but not really making any,” Yaghdan said.

The two governments do not deserve international financial support, said Yaghdan, who is extremely upset about his fellow Iraqis’ struggles.  He said Syria and Jordan are already economically gaining from the Iraqis while doing nothing in return for them.

“They are using the Iraqi issue to blackmail the international community to benefit their own people.  Don’t know where the money goes to, maybe filling some pocket of a corrupt government official,” said Yaghdan.

 

 Part Three:  A way out

               Yaghdan said the U.S government had the best intentions when Iraq was first invaded in March 2003.  “The U.S’s goal was to help the Iraqi people, and a lot of Iraqis were happy to see the U.S,” said Yaghdan.

               He primarily blames the Arabic world surrounding Iraq, especially the Iran government, for the chaos that now overwhelms Iraq.  “Because of the Iranian influence, all the good things we were trying to do they were destroying.  We were doing a very good job, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough,” said Yaghdan.

Regardless of who is to blame for the current violence in Iraq, one fact remains: the Iraqi people are living in turbulent times and face an unpredictable future.  There are not many solutions to a situation of the magnitude of the Iraqi refugee crisis.  And the 2.2 million Iraqis refugees are only one-seventh of the world’s refugee population.

“This time we are speaking about Iraqis fleeing civil war and fleeing occupation and fleeing ethnic carnage and fleeing chaotic violence.  Just like the war itself, this refugee crisis is complicated, has grown exponentially, and has no end in sight and no simple solution,” wrote Limon in the USCRI 2007 report.

One solution would be to resettle the 2.2 million Iraqi people to the 19 countries worldwide that accept refugees.  The host countries, like Syria and Jordan, could also provide the Iraqis with visas and give them the same rights as natives.  In turn, the international community could provide the governments with financial resources to help lessen the burden. Or the global community could work together to resolve problems of violence and instability in countries like Iraq that are causing its people to flee for their lives.

According to USCRI, the American government should take “moral leadership” by urging the host countries to fully protect the rights of Iraqi refugees, regularize their status and allow them to work, to ensure Iraqis have the means for survival during their exile and establish an effective and efficient program to resettle refugees.

               "The United States must acknowledge our special obligation to Iraqi refugees," wrote Limon.  "The sad and salient fact is that America has been unable to protect these people while they were in Iraq."

            Yaghdan agrees the international community, and the American government in particular, should help with resettlement and the general treatment of Iraqi refugees but he also feels it is time for the Iraqi government to step up and help its own people. 

“The Iraqi government has a lot of money, and they should give money to the Iraqis to help them live outside of Iraq.  The government should take responsibility to make things safe and keep them in the country, but the Iraqi government is too corrupt,” said Yaghdan.

Of the approximately 14 million refugees worldwide, over 2 million are Iraqi, but only 69, 400 were resettled in 2006.  That is less than one half of one percent of the world’s refugees. 

            “Most of the world’s refugees will never make it to these (American) shores,” said Merrill Smith, a director of USCRI and the editor of the World Refugee Survey.

USCRI says there is an international silence and inaction in regard to the Iraqi refugee crisis and the global disregard to their plight is only compounding the Iraqis’ tragedy.

               "Millions of disenfranchised, desperate people could lead to the destabilization of the host governments or to repressive, inhumane treatment," wrote Limon.

America resettled nearly 60 percent of 2006’s refugee, but when the number of resettled refugees is put into context with the nation’s population, the U.S is only ranked sixth. 

Not all Iraqi refugees wish to be resettled in America, though.  Jabbar, the Iraqi refugee whose twin was murdered by insurgents, does hope to be resettled but does not want his new home to be America.

“I’m not sure how I feel about America and I’m not sure how Americans would feel about an Iraqi,” said Jabbar.

Nevertheless, some Americans, angered by the low resettlement numbers, are taking action.  When Kirk Johnson was in Iraq in 2005 working for USAID, he met many Iraqis who risked their lives to help the U.S. government.

Johnson and Yaghdan worked at USAID together in Baghdad and became close friends.  When Yaghdan was stuck in UAE, he reached out to Johnson who rallied for the Iraqi man who lost his home to help the U.S. rebuild his country.

            UAE does not allow any UNHCR representatives in the country so any refugee is virtually stuck in the country unless they make the make the perilous trip back to Iraq or like in Yaghdan’s case, move to another country seeking visas. 

           Yaghdan’s horror story sparked Johnson’s List Project, a database of more than 800 Iraqis that includes their contact information and whereabouts.  All of these Iraqis have worked for or aided the U.S. government and are now seeking refuge.  Twelve Iraqis have been resettled from Johnson’s list after the US Department of State began working with Johnson.

            Johnson is no longer optimistic when it comes to the government’s actions although he does acknowledge the U.S. Congress has a few champions of the Iraqi refugee crisis, including US Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MASS).

            “Instead of protection, we have offered them bureaucracy and doublespeak, false words and dubious hopes,” wrote Kennedy in a September 2007 press release supporting the passage of a Senate bill he co-sponsored regarding Iraqi refugees and the need for resettlement reform.

            The bill, if passed, would specifically target refugees like Yaghdan for resettlement.

            “Because they supported us, insurgents have repeatedly threatened to kill them.  Many have lost their homes, their property and their livelihoods.  They face ongoing threats every single day,” wrote Kennedy.  “So

have fled the country and are waiting in refugee camps, and others are in hiding.  All of them hope that the United States will not forget their sacrifices.”

            The Senate bill, if passed by the House of Representatives, will oblige the U.S Secretary of State to set up a refugee resettling process inside of Iraq.  The Department of State is the authorized federal department that officially accepts registered refugees referred to them by organizations, mainly the UNHCR.

      “If you are very vulnerable, if you are afraid for your life, if you have no other chance 
to be resettled, it means the difference between life and death.  It's very important,” the U.N. High Commissioner 
Anton Guterres said in a State Department press conference in February 2007.

                 The Department of State has promised to accelerate the resettlement process.  
To date, the department has never reached the proposed number of resettled Iraqis in any given month.

                "We spent many months putting together a very complicated infrastructure.  
There are many moving parts in the refugee resettlement,” said Ellen Sauerbrey, the Assistant Secretary 
of State for Population, Refugees and Migration, at an October press conference. "I have no doubts that we will 
easily reach 12,000."

                  Johnson doubts the government will reach the proposed 12,000 by the end of the year. He said 
the State Department in March promised to resettle 25,000 Iraqis, yet in the very next month, it allowed in one.
  He does not see any requirement for action by the US government.

             "Do refugees have to be destitute, hungry and helpless for the world to take action? 

Without the pitiful pictures, will international institutions and governments mobilize to protect and assist refugees?” wrote Limon in the USCRI report.

            Johnson said the U.S government has recognized the threat but not the urgency of the Iraqi refugee crisis and the actions leading to a solution should lie strictly on the American government’s shoulders.

            Yaghdan said the ultimate solution to the devastating crisis is to make Iraq safe and stable.   He said Iraqis just want to go home but he does not believe the county will be stable enough any time soon.

“Maybe in 10 years, but I don’t think so.  I lost everything in Iraq, why even go back there, to those memories,” said Yaghdan.

Violence levels in Iraq are at the lowest levels since February 2006.  The Iraqi embassy in Syria organized trips for Iraqis to return home.  Thousands from Syria have gone back to Iraq.  The Syrian Government recently imposed stricter visa regulations, making it more difficult for to receive visas.

UNHCR said the time is not right for a mass exodus back to Iraq and do not believe the departure should be promoted, organized or encouraged.    The UN agency interviewed 110 Iraqi families leaving Syria who said their reasons were lack of visas, money and difficult living conditions in Syria.  They added they were merely encouraged by the reports of lower violence levels.