After the major assaults in Iraq were over in mid-April, thousands of foreign humanitarian workers and human rights activists from around the world have come to work for United Nations (U.N.), non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and human right groups to help the people of Iraq. The U.S. occupation forces, Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). and the U.S. military have destroyed every government agency in Iraq (except the Ministry of Oil).

In post-war occupied Iraq, there's no immigration authority nor government bureaucracy to with whom to register. There is no monitor to coordinate the works of all international agencies. No one really knows how many international organizations are in Iraq. Baghdad has become the "wild-wild west" of international and Iraqi organizations. Anyone can come to Baghdad, ironically, it's very easy now. They can just get an apartment or hotel room to setup their own office in Iraq without going through any paper work, everyday a new group pops up and no one necessarily knows who they really are. Groups range from faith-based organizations to media activists; medical aid groups to human rights monitors; some groups are multi-million dollar operations with hundreds of staff and some are just "mom-and-pop" efforts with only one person in Baghdad.

The human rights operations in Iraq are just another of the experiences of international organizations in developing countries producing both successes and failures.

According to United Nations' International Children Funds (UNICEF), the humanitarian situation in Iraq has gotten worse since the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

Ewa Jasiewicz, now British, originally from Poland has spent much her past year in Palestine. She has been in Iraq for the past three months and is planning to stay until next year. She's with Voice in the Wilderness with Garcia and Wiva at Palestine refugee camp in Baghdad.

While she supports the call for more human rights groups to come to Iraq, she thinks "there's a lot of bullshit coming up, everyone has their own NGO's, and everyone wants to setup their own NGO's (in Iraq)... one of the key reasons is that just like U.S. troops, many foreign activists do not understand Iraqi culture, and think this is an opprtunity for a "white people to the rescue" campaign. In Palestine we were confronting, opposing the occupation forces. We try to use the pathological white skin supremacy of racism that dominates this planet to confront the soliders, using the fact that we are a westerners to try somehow slow their barbarity, but, that wasn't the case.." she said.

Another problem she confronts is mistrust from Iraqis. She said people are being very suspicious, quite on guard, and wondering why they are here. "In some cases, they are very hostile against us, men in particular," Ewa says. Because of the popular representation of western women as half naked women flirting themselves in American TV shows and films, Iraqis do not have a context in which to understand the western women as solidarity volunteers or acknowledge that western peace activists exit.

Ramzi Kysia, from Washington DC, a third-generation Lebanese-American, has spent the past two years in Iraq for Voices in the Wilderness. He was in Iraq during the first two weeks of the war, and got kicked out of Iraq by the Saddam government. After the fall of the regime he immediately come back to Baghdad. At the peak, Voices in the Wilderness had 33 people in Iraq during the war. These volunteers hailed from around the world. Later some left, others arrived and some got kicked out of the country.

Voices in the Wilderness set up a independent media center in downtown Baghdad. Working with a group of mostly university and high school students, they have started an independent newspaper called "Al-Muajaha" (The Iraqi Witness, URL: http://www.almuajaha.com). Currently they desperately need financial donations to run the newspaper, and a full time staffer with a journalism background who can speak English and Arabic to run the Baghdad independent media center.

"I think our ultimate goal is try to achieve peace, social justice, and some kind of accountability for the policy leaders and makers who pursuing a policy that is really devastating entire nations such as in Iraq. One thing that has been absolutely consistent about U.S. policy through Iraq of the last thirty years is the total disregard of the welfare of the Iraqi people." Ramzi says.

Voices in the Wilderness has been coming to Iraq for the past eight years and has brought about 500 people from around the world for the peace missions. "Iraqis are the most generous, most hospitable of all the Arabs, people here are unbelievably kind to you. They take you to their homes, they welcome you as the member of their families, they will give everything that they own. I think the occupation has become increasingly more violent and hostile and the response of the Iraqi people to it has become more violent and hostile." Ramzi concludes.

What is the future of the international peace movement in Iraq? Ewa says it is very important to listen to the people of Iraq, "you know, everyone wants to know why you are here, everybody wants to know why your government is responsible for this invasion. People do still take you as the representative of your government's policy. They feel frustration and anger against the policy of your government. They may allow themselves, as a kind of revenge, to take it all out on you, and tell you what your government has been doing to them for many years. You have listen to that, you know. You've got to absorb all their anger because it's the first chance these people have had to just find out what ordinary people from other countries are like ... what's going on that country" she concludes.