Hussein Saleh, you are not alone

My journalist (McClatchy) friend and fellow Haverford graduate Roy Gutman tweeted this moving short video about a Yemeni International Committee of the Red Cross worker, Hussein Saleh:

I Know Where I’m Going from Intercross on Vimeo.

It reminded me of what I know: most of the people who work for humanitarian and other organizations, nongovernmental and governmental, in conflict zones are host country nationals.  They take enormous risks and get killed at an accelerating rate:   they are most of the more than 300 humanitarian workers killed last year worldwide.

My first encounter with what the State Department now calls “Foreign Service nationals,” that is citizens of the country in which a U.S. government facility is located, was with Danilo Bracchetti, who worked in U.S. embassy in Rome from the late 1940s until retirement sometime after I left in 1993.  When he started, Rome had no garbage collection, because no one threw anything out.  He was the only Italian I ever met who admitted to having been in a fascist youth organization (virtually everyone was of course).  By the time I came along in the late 1970s, Italy was still in the throes of the Red Brigades, so working for the Americans was not without risk.  He never betrayed the slightest hesitation.  So far as Danilo was concerned, working for the Americans was an honor and a privilege, one I’m sure he was proud of to his premature dying day.

I’ve met other “host country” nationals in more dangerous situations.  Iraq was particularly challenging.  The U.S. Institute of Peace employees there did not always tell their families for whom they were working.  In 2006/7 especially, they lived in risky conditions.  One of our security contractors–an Iraqi Kurd–was killed then in a militia hit.  A number of our employees and collaborators later applied for and got visas to come to the U.S., on grounds that they were in danger if they remained.  Others fled to Kurdistan, which is still relatively safe from the sectarian violence that plagues other parts of Iraq.

A number of the key players in Afghanistan’s bureaucratic upper crust these days spent the Taliban years working for international relief organizations, some of which were active even then.  It is amazing how well acclimated they are to Western habits, even though they conserve their Afghan roots.  It was no small thing to deliver international aid during the years in which the Taliban ruled.

In Syria today virtually all the people distributing substantial amounts of international humanitarian assistance during the civil war are Syrians. The risks they face every day are unimaginable.  Or, depending on how you look at it, all too imaginable.

Despite the very real risks they run on behalf of Western governments and organizations, these host country nationals are largely invisible in today’s world.  But talk to any journalist, aid worker or diplomat.  They will recount tales of their heroism and devotion.  The host country (and third country) nationals run risks every day.  As the year comes to a close, I hasten to express what so many of us have felt:  deep appreciation and respect for the commitment they demonstrate and the sacrifices they make.  Hussein Saleh, you are not alone.