News & Views 06/14/07

Photo: Demonstrators stick pieces of footwear onto a U.S. flag during a protest in Baghdad's Sadr City June 14, 2007. Protesters denounced the presence of the U.S. military in the country, which they say led to the sectarian violence and the bombings of Samarra's Golden Mosque. REUTERS/Kareem Raheem (IRAQ)

REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ

Number Of Iraqi Civilians Slaughtered In War On Iraq - At Least 655,000 + +

From Roads to Iraq blog:

As you see in the image above taken from Al-Sadr statement saying: “You know [people of Iraq] that Sunnis are not behind the bombing of the shrine of the two holly imams and this is not a work of Muslims, it was done by the occupiers…..We call on the Iraqi people to refute the American agenda.” Almelaf quoted Iraqi sources saying: “Iraqi and American forces had received intelligence information several days ago indicates the presence of armed activity in the town of Samarra. Other sources reported that the American forces were near the city of Samarra, and number of American helicopters over the city had caused such an explosion.” Aljazeera reported that special Iraqi forces came form the Interior Ministry in Baghdad clashed with the forces who guards the Shrine and took over the site this morning.

Sectarian violence and displacement follow Samarra attack

Civilians are defying a curfew to flee their homes in fear of an increase in sectarian violence after insurgents blew up two minarets at a revered Shia shrine in Samarra on 13 June. Partial destruction of the shrine last year sparked spiralling sectarian bloodshed.
"The curfew is preventing everyone from moving but some families insist on leaving their homes trying to save themselves. We have been informed than many people have been killed while trying to flee and others have been killed in their homes by militias," said Fatah Ahmed, an Iraq Aid Association spokesman. "Some displacement camps on the outskirts of Baghdad have received a huge number of people since yesterday and cannot cope. Also, NGOs, because of the curfew and violence, are unable to reach families in need," Ahmed added. Since 13 June, Mahdi army militants have been targeting Sunni mosques and families. At least six Sunni mosques have been burned in the capital and many civilians killed, said some observers.

Expired food products causing sickness

Hassan Fae’ek, a 43-year-old shop-owner in Baghdad’s Sadr City District, told IRIN he would not stop selling food past its sell-by date because there was demand for it. The violence meant he had trouble buying new products in any case, he said. “If the food is well packed, even if it has expired, people can consume it without being worried. Of course, what I sell is cheaper and people like that,” Fae’ek said. “When they buy I make them aware that I don’t take any responsibility for the quality or any effects caused,” he added. Health officials are concerned by the increasing number of expired foods and medicines. “Doctors have raised serious concerns about the increasing number of people who get food-poisoning as a result of consuming such products,” said Mustafa Muhammad, a senior official in the Ministry of Health. Another Sadr City shop-owner said he changed the expiry dates to shift the goods: “I make up a new expiry date. People say that most of the products can be consumed after the expiry date for at least one year so I don’t see why I should throw away such food items. What I do is change the stamp to a later date and people can buy them, and I will not get into trouble with the government.” He is not bothered about fiddling the dates: “People are dying because of violence and I’m not killing them, if they have any health problems, they have a doctor to take care of them.”

……In public markets it is common to find women and children selling medicines, most of them with expired sell-by dates. “Many medicines are not found in pharmacies but can be got from us. They are beyond their sell-by date but they work and are cheaper,” said Samiha Khudaifa, 56, a medicine seller in Baghdad’s Alawi District. “Some medicines we find in the rubbish bins of pharmacies, and some we buy from people who get them very cheap from pharmacists. We sell for less than half price, and every day we have dozens of clients,” Samiha said.

Requiem for a Brave Woman

Sahar al-Haideri, killed by insurgents on June 7, used the pen to counter violence and intolerance in Mosul, her home town. Sahar al-Haideri had to die because she was a journalist - an Iraqi journalist who dared to ask questions, and who gave a voice to Iraqis who do not want their country to be torn apart by sectarian violence or ruled by terror imposed by al-Qaeda’s franchise organisations. Haideri, 45, reported from her home city of Mosul, a troubled place considered Iraq’s second most dangerous location for journalists after Baghdad. Insurgent groups have been pushing at alarming speed to establish an Islamic “emirate” in the northwestern provinces of Anbar and Nineveh, and Mosul would be designated its capital. Haideri was among the first Iraqi journalists to publicise the rise to power of extremists in Mosul. The first story she pitched to IWPR – during a course on how to report women’s issues held in May 2005 – was about insurgents trying to impose Taleban-style restrictions on women in Mosul. She described how female lecturers and civil servants were being targeted and killed. “The intimidation and attacks have forced other women in Mosul to give up going to work,” she wrote.

The Struggle for Kirkuk Turns Ugly

In 1986, as part of his Arabization process, Saddam Hussein called for the relocation of Arab families to Kirkuk, the center of Iraq's petroleum industry, to outnumber the Kurds living there. He also uprooted thousands of Kurds from Kirkuk. Since the downfall of Saddam's regime in 2003, the Kurds have been demanding Kirkuk, something that the Sunnis curtly refuse, and are returning to the city en masse. Some observers point to the "struggle for Kirkuk" as the real reason why the Turks are seemingly so serious about invading Iraqi Kurdistan. If given to the Kurds, the city would add tremendous political, geographical and financial wealth to Iraqi Kurds, which in turn threatens neighboring country's like Turkey, Iran and Syria. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, in a search for friends in Iraqi domestics, has allied himself with the Kurds and backed Article 140 which says that a referendum should be held in Kirkuk to see whether its inhabitants favor remaining part of Iraq, or being annexed to Kurdistan. Given that authorities have started, under Maliki's instigation, to call on the 12,000 Arab families brought to Kirkuk by Saddam to return to their Arab districts, the referendum will almost certainly come out in favor of annexation to Kurdistan. Kurdish aspirations are becoming serious - and dangerous - to Iraqi Arabs. The US is seemingly supportive of these aspirations, complicating matters all the more for Turkey, Iraqi Arabs and neighboring Iran, which is also very worried about the future of Kirkuk.

"I have to keep working despite being sexually abused"

Mahmoud Rafid, 13, says he is afraid to go on selling goods on the streets of Baghdad, after being sexually harassed and abused. He lost his father a year ago and his mother has cancer so Mahmoud, his two sisters, 14 and 11, and brother, 9, had to find ways of feeding themselves. After selling many of their possessions to raise money, they can now be seen at traffic lights selling chocolates, newspapers and pens. "My mother is very sick and if we lose her our situation is going to be even worse. We were all forced to leave our school to help boost our household income but the situation is dangerous and sometimes I have the impression that one day I won't return home. "My sisters are the ones who suffer most. There are many very bad men in Baghdad who want to do bad things to them. They stay near me when we are working and I always carry a knife with me to defend them in case someone wants to sexually abuse them. I have suffered that, and don't want this to happen to them too. "I have to keep working to help my family despite being [sexually] abused. Our relatives have turned their back on us and my father didn't leave us enough money. "My mother stays at home waiting for us, crying, desperate and afraid that something might happen to us on the streets. Her cancer is developing fast and if she dies we will have to rely on ourselves and maybe we'll have to sleep on the streets.

Six Sunni mosques attacked in Iraq

Two more Sunni mosques bombed south of Baghdad in reprisals to bombing of revered Shiite shrine. Two more Sunni mosques were bombed early Thursday in apparent reprisals after a revered Shiite shrine was damaged by suspected Al-Qaeda militants in northern Iraq, police said. The Al-Mustafa mosque in Iskandiriyah and the Al-Bashir mosque in Mahawil, both towns located in Babil province south of Baghdad, were bombed in the early hours Thursday, Lieutenant Kamal al-Ameri of Hilla police said. Since the attack on the Al-Askari shrine in the northern town of Samarra on Wednesday, six Sunni mosques have been attacked. A few hours after the Samarra bombing, three mosques in Iskandiriyah - the Grand Mosque, the Abdullah Jubburi mosque and the Hatteen mosque - and the Khudair al-Janabi mosque in Baghdad's Bayaa neighbourhood, were bombed, police and local residents said.

REPORTS – IRAQI MILITIAS, POLITICIANS, POWER BROKERS

Kurdish fighters deployed in restive province

Iraqi Kurdish fighters known as Peshmerga are increasingly involved in the current U.S.-led military operations against armed groups in the country. Thousands of Kurdish fighters have joined the battle for Baghdad which started nearly three months ago but has failed to bring stability to the Iraqi capital. The spokesman for Kurdish Peshmerga, Brigadier Jabbar Yawer, now says the Kurds are sending 2,000 more of their armed men to quell the rebellion and violence in the Province of Diyala. The participation of Kurdish Peshmerga alongside U.S. invasion troops has been harshly criticized by Islamic groups in the Kurdish region. Kurdish Mulism Ulema or clergy have issued fatwas or decrees denouncing the move and branding those taking part in U.S.-led military operations as ‘non-Muslims’.

Iraqi rebel groups said to have solved differences

Two major rebel groups fighting U.S. occupation troops are reported to have signed a deal to stop fighting each other. News of the deal cannot be independently confirmed but residents in restive quarters of Baghdad say they have seen fighters of Jaish al-Islami and al-Qaeda patrolling the streets together. A statement faxed to the newspaper by Jaish al-Islami, one of the largest resistance groups in the country, said it had come to terms with its Qaeda rivals. The terms of the deal, according to the statement, call for an immediate ceasefire, exchange of prisoners and suspension of hostile media campaigns. U.S. media reports have highlighted the differences between the two groups, saying that U.S. invasion troops in the country were arming Jaish al-Islami against Qaeda. Sources from Jaish al-Islami, whose operations are mainly directed against U.S. troops, denied U.S. support. If confirmed, the backing is likely to discredit the group in the eyes of many Iraqi factions, particularly nationalist an Islamic groups who oppose U.S. military presence in the country. Iraqi resistance blames U.S. invasion and tactics for the imploding of Iraq and has sworn to settle on no less than an immediate withdrawal of the invaders. However, not all resistance factions are happy with Qaeda, who they blame for fuelling sectarian strife and targeting innocent Iraqis. Qaeda still seems to be the largest and more powerful faction among groups fighting U.S. invaders.

REPORTS – US/UK/OTHERS IN IRAQ

No Drop in Violence Seen Since Troop Buildup

Three months into the new U.S. military strategy that has sent tens of thousands of additional troops into Iraq, overall levels of violence in the country have not decreased, as attacks have shifted away from Baghdad and Anbar, where American forces are concentrated, only to rise in most other provinces, according to a Pentagon report released yesterday. The report -- the first comprehensive statistical overview of the new U.S. military strategy in Iraq -- coincided with renewed fears of sectarian violence after the bombing yesterday of the same Shiite shrine north of Baghdad that was attacked in February 2006, unleashing a spiral of retaliatory bloodshed. Iraq's government imposed an immediate curfew in Baghdad yesterday to prevent an outbreak of revenge killings. ………..The 46-page report, mandated quarterly by Congress, tempers the early optimism about the new strategy voiced by senior U.S. officials. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, for instance, in March described progress in Iraq as "so far, so good." Instead, it depicts limited gains and setbacks and states that it is too soon to judge whether the new approach is working.

UN Extends Forces Mandate in Iraq

The United Nations has extended its mandate for US-led forces in Iraq after the country's foreign minister said they were "vitally necessary" for security and regional stability. Hoshyar Zebari called the UN security council's move "very positive for Iraq". He said all Security Council members understood "what the Iraqi government is facing", illustrated by the bombing of Samarra's Askariya shrine on Wednesday by "terrorists ... seek to destroy the fabric of Iraqi society". The resolution adopted by the Security Council last year, which extended the mandate of the multinational force for one year starting on December 31, authorised a review of the mandate by June 15. At an open council meeting, Zebari said that despite Iraq's daily violence, "the government has made tremendous strides toward the day when security will be provided by a self-sufficient, Iraqi national security force". He said: "While Iraqis will always be grateful for their liberation from an absolute despot, no Iraqi government official - indeed, no Iraqi citizen - wants the presence of foreign troops on Iraqi soil one day longer than is vitally necessary. "But today, and for the foreseeable months at least, the presence of [foreign] troops is vitally necessary not only for Iraq but also to safeguard regional security and stability."

From Juan Cole’s blog:

There was also a big labor demonstration in Basra on Wednesday by former workers at defunct Iraqi state-owned factories (petrochemicals, steel, etc.) who want the Iraqi government to revive these industries [in Arabic via Sawt al-Iraq]. The Bush administration shut down the state-owned factories as part of its plan to destroy Arab socialism, and appears to have believed that the magic hand of the market would miraculously start back up Iraqi industries. The bankruptcy of American laissez faire as a development tool is pretty obvious in the economic catastrophe that Bush visited on Iraq. This big labor demonstration will not be reported in the American press, which generally is pitched to be about and for people who make at least $80,000 a year.

COMMENTARY

Report Calls on U.N. to End "Complicity of Silence"

The U.S. Coalition is the principal cause of Iraq's current woes, charges a report released Wednesday by the Global Policy Forum (GPF), a New York-based watchdog group. Since the March 2003 invasion, the U.S.-British occupation of Iraq has "utterly failed to bring peace, prosperity and democracy, as originally advertised," says the report, entitled "War and Occupation in Iraq". "The United Nations and the international community must end the complicity of silence and they must vigorously address the Iraq crisis," it says. Produced by GPF and 29 international non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the report was released to coincide with U.N. Security Council consultations on the Iraq problem. The 117-page report assesses conditions in the country, especially the responsibility of the U.S.-led Coalition, for violations of international law and concludes with recommendations for action, including a speedy withdrawal of Coalition forces. It covers areas such as destruction of cultural heritage, unlawful detention, killing and torture of civilians, displacement, corruption and fraud, attacks on cities and long-term military bases. "This is ongoing, is not under control, and is something the Coalition is saying it is doing under mandate of the U.N. Security Council," James Paul, GPF's executive director, told reporters Wednesday. "It's time for a new approach," Paul stressed. "The Security Council has done virtually nothing on this subject; [it] has to take its head out of the sand." GPF has shared the report with all the members of the Council.

………The increasing bloodshed and sectarian division among Iraqis is abhorrent, the report emphasises, but whatever responsibility Iraqis themselves bear for the present impasse within the country, the primary responsibility lies with the U.S. and its Coalition, whose military occupation gave rise to these groups and whose policies have failed to protect the Iraqi people. The U.S. and its allies ignored the warnings of NGOs and scholars concerning the protection of Iraq's cultural heritage, including museums, libraries, archaeological sites and other repositories, and as a result arsonists badly burned the National Library and looters pillaged the National Museum, according to the report's chapter on destruction of cultural heritage. The chapter on detention details the U.S. Coalition and its Iraqi government partners' practice of holding large numbers of Iraqi citizens in "security detention" without charge or trial, in direct violation of international law. "More than 40,000 Iraqis are being held," Paul stressed.

IRAQI REFUGEES

Iraqi Refugee Children Bear Scars of Violence

As some 50,000 Iraqis continue to flee each month to Jordan, Syria and other neighboring states, Iraqi refugee children bear the brunt of one of the world's largest and fastest-growing refugee crises, a new report from World Vision warns. In particular, the Christian humanitarian agency observed psychological distress in many school-aged children. The report, Trapped! The Disappearing Hopes of Iraqi Refugee Children, finds that 43 percent of children surveyed in Amman, Jordan have witnessed violence in Iraq, and 39 percent say they have lost a loved one through violence. However, the structured classroom environment is a powerful place where children can find comfort in routine and support to ease the effects of trauma. The report calls for immediate access to education for all 200,000 Iraqi refugee children in Jordan.

"Some of these children have been kidnapped and held for ransom, or witnessed brutal home invasions, suicide bombings and murders. Without access to education, their life as refugees offers them few options. Some work as child laborers, which exposes them to the threat of deportation," said Ashley Clements, World Vision's emergency response advocacy advisor and report author. About one in four of the Iraqi refugee children World Vision surveyed did not feel safe in their Jordanian homes. This sense of insecurity is due to a combination of factors including traumatic past experiences and the lack of refugee status, which denies them basic rights in the host country including public schooling or access to health care. Even if these children were given refugee status, the already overburdened infrastructure in Jordan would not be able to provide necessary services. Less than 10 percent of Iraqi children in Jordan currently attend school.

VIDEO: What Brings Iraqis to Syria?

The international press is again highlighting the growing Iraqi refugee crisis. There are at least 4.2 million Iraqis displaced from their homes, with 2.2 million now believe to be outside Iraq. The UN has now warned the number should be expected to rise to 5 million displaced Iraqis in the near future. ..….Although the primary reasons for Iraqis fleeing their country are violence and insecurity, many are also looking for better health care and the chance for their children to have an education without the daily risks of traveling between home and school in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq. Ali Abu Teeba, interviewed by Alive in Baghdad, claims his son was diagnosed with diabetes, after the bombings in Iraq. More likely, this is due to the collapse of infrastructure. Diabetes and Thalycemia are two conditions that Iraqis repeatedly mention when discussing health problems that forced them to flee Iraq. Others need urgent and continuing care due to torture and other injuries they have received due to the war. According to the UNHCR, “Just over half of the 88,447 Iraqis who registered as refugees in Syria since the beginning of this year were in need of special assistance, including “many” torture victims.”

How to Help Iraqi Refugees

Quote of the day: “So let us regard this as settled: what is morally wrong can never be advantageous, even when it enables you to make some gain that you believe to be to your advantage. The mere act of believing that some wrongful course of action constitutes an advantage is pernicious.” Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.)