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CNN Live Saturday

Interview With Fareed Yassen

Aired April 19, 2003 - 12:46   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR: Those Iraqi families are getting help in finding more than 100,000 missing. Fareed Yassen is an Iraqi- American who founded Mafqud.org, a web site that keeps files and records of those Iraqis who have disappeared.
Fareed, we do have a couple of e-mails from our viewers, but I want you first to explain as we look at your web site how it works and where you get your information.

FAREED YASSEN, FOUNDER, MAFQUD.ORG: Thank you, Andrea. I'm an Iraqi-born resident of the U.S., not a citizen.

The information that we have was compiled by a number of Iraqi human rights organizations, either that were community-based or geographically based in northern Iraq or in neighboring countries. They submitted their files to us, and what we did was create a database that would comprise all of these files together.

KOPPEL: And so there are about 10,000 names that you have in there. And I recognize that this is kind of thrown you a curveball, but one of our viewers -- and I want to apologize in advance for perhaps mispronouncing. This is from Aziz of Miami, Florida, who says I am looking for my uncle by the name of Qatan Jawad al Shukri (ph) who was taken at night by Saddam's regime in 1988 in Najaf, and the family has not seen him since. He is the father of five children.

What should Aziz do to try to find his father -- his uncle?

YASSEN: Well, you know, previously the only way to exert influence on the Iraqi government was via the United Nations commission on human rights. So the recourse for him would be to compile a file and to submit it to these authorities, who would then follow up with the appropriate authorities in Baghdad. Of course, that didn't lead to much.

And now of course, you know, things are open in Iraq and the files are going to be available, and at least one should hope to try to get written record of what happened to these people.

KOPPEL: But there's also the possibility, and I recognize that it's an outside chance, that this gentleman's uncle could perhaps be in your database. So he should probably check your database first, right?

YASSEN: Well, in terms of odds, I think the odds are against it. Like you said, we have about 10,000 names on the database, and nobody really knows how many disappeared there are in Iraq. I think the only way to get an idea of the number of disappeared is to conduct a nationwide census to get that precise figure.

KOPPEL: OK, Fareed, we have a second e-mail from Athir, from Annandale, Virginia, who says I'm a Kurdish-American U.S. citizen, and I have three brothers who have been held hostage in Iraq since 1982.

Again, what advice do you have for Athir?

YASSEN: Well, again, the same advice that I offered to the previous e-mailer, which is to contact the appropriate authorities at the U.N. What he can also do is to submit, to fill the form that we have on our web site, and send it to us. It's really a subset of the information that is required to conduct legal action, but at least, he will have a record of -- a written record, a virtual record, of his relatives.

KOPPEL: Fareed, in just the remaining moments we have, now that Saddam Hussein is no longer in power, how is that going to change things on the ground for your organization, and many others, who have to start tracking down their loved ones?

YASSEN: Well, Andrea, mafqud.org is, in fact, the second phase of our work. The initial phase was to try to set up a center for the disappeared in northern Iraq, where we had human rights workers to try to document these cases of disappeared people.

Now that, you know, human rights action, if you will, is permissible in Iraq again, I think it behooves us to try to set up centers for the disappeared in all major cities in Iraq. To try to reach out to people to get information on the disappeared, to try to help them, to try to give them solace, if you will. In fact, all of these we're not reinventing the wheel. All of this has been done, to really good effect, by people we're trying to copy, who are the Chileans and the Argentineans.

KOPPEL: Well, this is incredibly important work. Fareed Yassen, who is the founder of mafqud.com, thank you for joining us.

YASSEN: Dot org.

KOPPEL: Dot org, thank you.

YASSEN: Thank you, Andrea.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired April 19, 2003 - 12:46   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR: Those Iraqi families are getting help in finding more than 100,000 missing. Fareed Yassen is an Iraqi- American who founded Mafqud.org, a web site that keeps files and records of those Iraqis who have disappeared.
Fareed, we do have a couple of e-mails from our viewers, but I want you first to explain as we look at your web site how it works and where you get your information.

FAREED YASSEN, FOUNDER, MAFQUD.ORG: Thank you, Andrea. I'm an Iraqi-born resident of the U.S., not a citizen.

The information that we have was compiled by a number of Iraqi human rights organizations, either that were community-based or geographically based in northern Iraq or in neighboring countries. They submitted their files to us, and what we did was create a database that would comprise all of these files together.

KOPPEL: And so there are about 10,000 names that you have in there. And I recognize that this is kind of thrown you a curveball, but one of our viewers -- and I want to apologize in advance for perhaps mispronouncing. This is from Aziz of Miami, Florida, who says I am looking for my uncle by the name of Qatan Jawad al Shukri (ph) who was taken at night by Saddam's regime in 1988 in Najaf, and the family has not seen him since. He is the father of five children.

What should Aziz do to try to find his father -- his uncle?

YASSEN: Well, you know, previously the only way to exert influence on the Iraqi government was via the United Nations commission on human rights. So the recourse for him would be to compile a file and to submit it to these authorities, who would then follow up with the appropriate authorities in Baghdad. Of course, that didn't lead to much.

And now of course, you know, things are open in Iraq and the files are going to be available, and at least one should hope to try to get written record of what happened to these people.

KOPPEL: But there's also the possibility, and I recognize that it's an outside chance, that this gentleman's uncle could perhaps be in your database. So he should probably check your database first, right?

YASSEN: Well, in terms of odds, I think the odds are against it. Like you said, we have about 10,000 names on the database, and nobody really knows how many disappeared there are in Iraq. I think the only way to get an idea of the number of disappeared is to conduct a nationwide census to get that precise figure.

KOPPEL: OK, Fareed, we have a second e-mail from Athir, from Annandale, Virginia, who says I'm a Kurdish-American U.S. citizen, and I have three brothers who have been held hostage in Iraq since 1982.

Again, what advice do you have for Athir?

YASSEN: Well, again, the same advice that I offered to the previous e-mailer, which is to contact the appropriate authorities at the U.N. What he can also do is to submit, to fill the form that we have on our web site, and send it to us. It's really a subset of the information that is required to conduct legal action, but at least, he will have a record of -- a written record, a virtual record, of his relatives.

KOPPEL: Fareed, in just the remaining moments we have, now that Saddam Hussein is no longer in power, how is that going to change things on the ground for your organization, and many others, who have to start tracking down their loved ones?

YASSEN: Well, Andrea, mafqud.org is, in fact, the second phase of our work. The initial phase was to try to set up a center for the disappeared in northern Iraq, where we had human rights workers to try to document these cases of disappeared people.

Now that, you know, human rights action, if you will, is permissible in Iraq again, I think it behooves us to try to set up centers for the disappeared in all major cities in Iraq. To try to reach out to people to get information on the disappeared, to try to help them, to try to give them solace, if you will. In fact, all of these we're not reinventing the wheel. All of this has been done, to really good effect, by people we're trying to copy, who are the Chileans and the Argentineans.

KOPPEL: Well, this is incredibly important work. Fareed Yassen, who is the founder of mafqud.com, thank you for joining us.

YASSEN: Dot org.

KOPPEL: Dot org, thank you.

YASSEN: Thank you, Andrea.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com