Vertaling http://marritanne.wordpress.com/2012/06/10/geachte-minister-leers-beste-gerd/

 

Dear minister Leers, dear Gerd

 

Dear mister Leers, dear Gerd...

 

I want to introduce you to my friends, I don't know them that long, but when I met them I couldn't do anything else but to close them in my heart.

I would like to tell you how special they are and how strong and how they continue to trust in the good, in spite of everything. How they tell me that they rely on God and the people, that they definitely know that nobody would hunt them into death.

How they are doing despite the fact that they are surviving for years and pause their lives,  with so much love, so much friendship.

 

I would like to tell you about the sadness  I see in their eyes when they take care of my kids, how much love they give and how terribly they miss their own family.

The only thing they want is just a little space, freedom to work, to live, to have a life ...

 

To maybe meet a sweet wife so they can , like me, have a family in the future. They have so much love to give, despite the bombs and the wars in which they grew up.

 

I'd like so much to explain to you how special these people are and how enriching it is to know them, how much they have to give and how thankful they are just because we treat them like human beings.

 

I know for sure, that if you knew them like I do, you would welcome them. Not only in our country, but also in your life. I'm sure you would never think of a deportation where after, for many of these dear people, death awaits them.

 

I cried when I saw the lists, hitlists, with names of my friends. You would cry too, if you knew them like  I know them.

 

Therefore, Minister Leers, dear Gerd, therefore I introduce you to my friends, as I know them. They are always welcome at my place and my home is a part of the Netherlands as well...

 

Photo I

Photo II

 

Dear minister Leers, dear Gerd,

 

I cannot and will not believe that you truly want these people to die within two months.  I cannot and will not believe that you're such a bad person.

Perhaps you've learned yourself to stop thinking about it, or maybe you tell yourself every evening, that it's safe enough to live in Iraq for people who are accustomed to war. On the front of the bottom photo in the purple t-shirt is Hussain, he survived an attack in which his brother was murdered ...

 

He managed to duck and dive the bullets one more time and had no other choice but to flee. He had to live on the streets for two years; he got no residency. Not even when the message came that his other brother was also found dead on the street, with his hands handcuffed behind his back and a gunshot wound in the back of his head.

 

They all have their own story, they saw people die and they fear for their own lives. All they want is a place where they can build their future. They don't ask for money, nor a house, freedom is all they ask for.

 

Freedom to work, freedom to maybe fall in love and start a family, freedom to stay alive ...

 

Dear Gerd, as human-to-human, if we look each other in the eyes, if you were to look in the eyes of these people, could you still send them to their death?

And I, we, how must we live on, how can I  explain it to my children when these people are send back and the inevitable time comes when all contact ends...

 

That one time that there are no more answers in reply to a simple message 'How are you?'

That one time that they no longer answer 'just fine', because they have not been able to, for the third time, avoid the bullets ...

 

We, as humans can not allow this anyway? I cannot stand by and do nothing while my friends are being sentenced to death? Or when 'all well,ends well' for them,they will be put on the streets like stray dogs, again.

 

As a human being, I ask you, I beseech you,listen to your heart and to your conscience, please, dare to be human and please,let my friends live.