Fairuz Yamulky, a 38 year old Iraqi-Canadian, was taken hostage in Iraq on Sept. 7 and held for 16 days. She was tortured, beaten and threatened with death. She escaped with the assistance of one of her captors.
U.S. forces diverted a Blackhawk helicopter to pick up her and her protector in the desert, they provided medical tests and trauma counselling and gave her a place to stay in a general’s apartment.
Her treatment by Canadian government officials?
Once in Amman, Yamulky said Canadian officials never offered any followup medical help. She eventually saw her own doctor in Dubai, where her family lived while she worked in Iraq.
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Yamulky said she could afford to pay what Canadian officials required and despite feeling traumatized was able to make some decisions.
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But others in similar situations might not have her financial resources nor be able mentally to cope with such demands, she said.
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“Some people come out of these traumas and they’re totally distorted,” said Yamulky.
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“I do thank the Canadian government for keeping in contact with my family. But I do at the same time want them to have something in place when things like this go wrong.”
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Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Marie-Christine Kilkoff said officials followed Yamulky’s plight very closely and worked with local Iraqi authorities and “other countries with a presence in Baghdad.”
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Once Yamulky was free, they obtained an emergency passport for her and arranged travel to Jordan, though the flight was paid for by relatives and friends, said Kilkoff.
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“While in Amman, Canadian officials advised Mrs. Yamulky that we could assist her with hotel and flight arrangements, which she declined,” she said.
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The department has been warning Canadians since 1995 not to travel to Iraq, said Kilkoff, and its travel advisory states it has no consular services in that country.
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Canada has one foreign service officer as a liaison with the Iraqi interim government and an RCMP officer looking into ways of aiding the country’s police forces.
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Dining with Canadian embassy officials in Amman, Yamulky said one left the table to take a telephone call from Ottawa. She returned to ask if Yamulky would make a statement that the Canadian government had helped her.
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“I refused,” she said. “I said I do not know how much you guys have done in my case.”
One might argue that when policies are established, and warnings given to travellers, that those who ignore them do so at their own risk and expense. Fair enough – but let us not forget that this is the same Canadian government that issued emergency passports and paid the airfare for the Khadr terrorism clan to return to Canada from Pakistan.