News & Views 04/07/07

Photo: Al Jazeera obtained exclusive footage of the Islamic Army in Iraq on a training exercise. From Al Jazeera website.

REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ

Pity The Sick Of Iraq

HOSPITALS AND CLINICS FACED WITH A CRITICAL LACK OF RESOURCES: On 19 January 2007, a group of some 100 eminent UK doctors signed a letter to British Prime Minister Tony Blair to voice their grave concern over the fate of Iraq's children. The statement read: "We are concerned that children are dying in Iraq for want of medical treatment. Sick or injured children, who could otherwise be treated by simple means, are left to die in their hundreds because they do not have access to basic medicines or other resources. Children who have lost hands, feet, and limbs are left without prostheses. Children with grave psychological distress are left untreated." The Iraq Medical Association reports that 90 per cent of the almost 180 hospitals in Iraq lack essential equipment. At Yarmouk Hospital, one of the busiest hospitals in Baghdad, five people die on average every day because medics and nurses don't have the equipment to treat common ills and accidents, according to Yarmouk doctor Hussam Abboud. That translates to more than 1,800 preventable deaths in a year in that hospital alone. Hassan Abdallah, a senior health official in the Basra Governorate, says that information suggests that from January to July 2006, about 90 children died in Basra as result of the lack of medicine, a worse figure than for the same period last year, when some 40 children died for similar reasons. Marie Fernandez, a spokeswoman for the Vienna-based aid agency Saving Children from War, deplores the lack of essential supplies, especially intravenous infusions and blood bags. "Children are dying because there are no blood bags available," says Fernandez.

HOSPITALS SUBJECT TO MILITARY ATTACKS AND OCCUPATION: "The Geneva Conventions state that hospitals are and should remain neutral and accessible to everybody, particularly civilians. Yet, when it's occupied by armed groups or official forces, people don't have this free and humanitarian access," says Cedric Turlan, information officer for the Coordinating Committee in Iraq (NCCI) NGO. His observation is corroborated by numerous reports and sources. In the first week of November 2006, in Ramadi, some 115 kilometres west of Baghdad, 13 civilians entering the hospital to get treatment were killed by snipers. Less than 10 per cent of the hospital's staff was still working there when US-led forces burst into the hospital many times day and night, looking for snipers on the hospital's roof. "The multinational forces were outside, surrounding the hospital, but they intruded into the hospital on a daily basis," Turlan said. "Now people rarely go to the hospital because they fear being shot or arrested."

Daily Life in Baghdad Often Traumatic

In 2003, when Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq, a woman named Hamdiyah al-Dulaimi had three handsome sons. They had grown into good men with wives and families. They were the shining accomplishments of her life. In hindsight, it was a much better life than she realized at the time. Most certainly better than it is now, four years after the fall of Baghdad. On April 9, 2003, the people of the city cheered invading U.S. soldiers in the city square. Leaders of the coalition troops promised liberty, freedom and life without tyranny. But Baghdad still has none of those things. And al-Dulaimi has no sons. One day last spring, a dozen men in black uniforms knocked down her door with machine guns. They screamed "Filthy Sunnis!" and they handcuffed her sons: Haqqi, 39, Qais, 37, Ali, 31. "Why? What did my boys do?" the mother cried. She got no answers. The dozen gunmen dragged their new prisoners across the floor, pummeling heads with their rifle butts. Al-Dulaimi dropped to her knees, clinging to the ankles of a kidnapper. She begged, kissing his shoes. Then she bargained: "At least leave me one. Take the other two. Leave me one." They beat her head with their gun stocks until she passed out. Then they took her sons.

…….Faiza al-Arji last visited Baghdad in November. She stayed for a week. She had planned to stay longer, but her friends begged her to leave. It's too dangerous, they said. Maybe someone will shoot you. Maybe there will be a bomb in the road. Who knows where death comes from? But she remembers a night when she and her friends had gathered for dinner. There was laughter at the table. Al-Arji could not join in. She couldn't even eat. She sat there, bewildered by the revelry, astonished that her friends could make light of such darkness. "Faiza, relax," they told her. "It's OK to have fun. We have to go on. We cannot give up." Al-Arji gave up on life in Baghdad long ago. She now lives in Jordan, which has become home to roughly 700,000 Iraq refugees — a staggering number for a small country whose population is 5.6 million. Another estimated 1 million are scattered in Syria, Lebanon and other countries. Al-Arji is lucky. She and her husband have money and can afford to live in the expensive city of Amman. Both are civil engineers. They left in 2005, even though she vowed after the invasion that she would never leave. She endured having guns shoved in her face and her car stolen. She reported it to the Iraqi police, who said, "My sister, I understand. But what can I do? The police are weak." But when they kidnapped one of her three grown sons, that was the end. He was abducted by security guards at his university, who considered him a terrorist because "he had a beard on his face," said his mother. The kidnappers demanded $20,000. Her husband paid it. They fled. [Her son was kidnapped by Interior Ministry people, and her son claimed that the Americans were working closely with the Interior Ministry in the summer of 2005. Faiza writes the blog “A Family In Baghdad” - dancewater] http://afamilyinbaghdad.blogspot.com/

Tal Afar Refugees Arrive at Mosul Camp

Families fleeing the March 27 bombing and massacre in Tal 'Afar have been accomodated in Mosul in a camp set up by the Iraqi Red Crescent Society, the organization announced on Friday. Shamil Muwafaq, a security official for the Iraqi Red Crescent's Mosul branch told Aswat al-Iraq on Friday that 246 families, or approximately 1250 individuals, had fled to Mosul after the explosion and massacre. The organization is housing them in a camp constructed near the northern transit garage of the city, near the eastern Nineva wall, he said. More families are on the way to the camp, Muwafaq added.

Iraqis Unwind in Baghdad Before Friday Curfew

Each Friday the war torn capital is put under a day-long curfew as thousands of Muslim Shiites and Sunnis head to their respective mosques to perform the weekly Friday prayers. Today Al-Zawraa park was full of families who came before the curfew was imposed to take advantage of the good weather and spend the day outside their houses.

REPORTS – IRAQI MILITIAS, POLITICIANS, POWER BROKERS

Sunni Groups Condemns Iraq al Qaeda

An influential Iraqi Sunni armed group has called on al-Qaeda in Iraq to "review" its behaviour in the country. The Islamic Army in Iraq, believed to be the largest group of former Baathists and army officers fighting Iraqi and US forces, called on Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader, to take more responsibility for al-Qaeda in Iraq. "Killing Sunnis has become a legitimate target for them, especially rich ones. Either they pay them what they want or they kill them," a statement from the group said. "They would kill any critic or whoever tries to show them their mistakes." The group said it had dealt with al-Qaeda with "patience and wisdom" to keep a united "resistance front". "But this was not fruitful," the group said.

Iraq Says British Raid Was a Violation

A British-led raid on a police intelligence headquarters in southern Iraq last month violated Iraq's sovereignty as well as a U.N. Security Council resolution, the government said on Friday. On March 4, British forces raided the National Iraqi Intelligence Agency building in the southern city of Basra and said they had captured an alleged death squad leader and found 30 prisoners with signs of torture. The rest of the prisoners in the facility fled during the raid, but Britain said that was unintentional. The report on an investigation into the raid said the commander of the U.S.-led Multi-National Forces in Iraq should "officially apologize to the Iraqi people, the residents of Basra and the Interior Ministry." It also said coalition forces should "acknowledge that members of the Multi-National Forces have overstepped their authority, committed a major mistake and were negligent in allowing prisoners to escape." The report, signed by Minister of State for Parliament Affairs and acting Justice Minister Safa al-Safi, said coalition forces should not take prisoners already in Iraqi custody without first getting a warrant from judicial authorities. It did not mention that some of the detainees showed signs of torture.

REPORTS – US/UK/OTHERS IN IRAQ

The British navy has suspended all boarding operations of cargo vessels in the northern Gulf while a complete review of the practice is under way following the capture - and release - of 15 navy personnel by Iran, it was confirmed Friday

COMMENTARY

One Iraqi Child in Eight Won’t Live To Be Five Years Old

"Political tumult" is the euphemism for a situation where one Iraqi kid in 8 dies before age 8. A price which is deemed an acceptable price for the privilege of simply denying the Iraqi oil fields to anyone else. A price which will increasingly appear low as alternative sources become unavailable and the untouched bounty in Iraq increases in value. I've long been a sceptic of the conspiracy theories that center around the capture of oil as the goal of the Iraqi campaign. But I've also said that sitting on these largely untapped reserves while the oil market inexorably went through the roof sort of made sense. The perspective of the accelerating decline of the resources most easily accessible to the West (Cantarell, or the North Sea oil) makes that all the more rational - and that might have been the kind of industry information that the Cheney taskforce had, already back 5 years ago.

How to Help

Very few organizations are working on getting aid to Iraqi refugees, and of those that are, many are too small or too beleaguered to accept individual donations; the Iraqi Red Crescent, for example, has suffered bombings and mass kidnappings, yet its volunteers continue to deliver aid to displaced families inside Iraq. One of the larger relief organizations working with the refugees is the Catholic group Caritas, whose caseworkers I shadowed while in Amman. Bucking the image of the Land Rover-driving aid worker, they made their rounds in an aging gray Honda, its roof eaten through by rust. They visited Iraqi doctors, engineers, and executives desperate for food, heat, or blankets to fend off the desert winter; one family told the crew they had just sold their stove to buy food. Caritas helps a few thousand families a year, but "the demand far outstrips the money available to us," says Magy Mahrous, who oversees the project. You can make a contribution at:

International Catholic Migration Commission
Citibank USA
153 East 53rd Street, 16th floor
New York, NY 10043
Account # 10100491, ABA # 21000089, Swift Code CITIUS33
To ensure that the money reaches the Iraqi program, write "Iraq-icmc" on your check.

Another way to help: War Child International