Photo: Iraqi girls do their final exams at a school in the Dora market in southern Baghdad, Iraq, on Sunday, June 17, 2007. Scores of Iraqi students have been killed and their campuses targeted by Iraqi militants on both sides of the sectarian divide. Extremists see universities as bastions of Western thought. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ
Video: Violence Simmers in Iraq
At least 12 people are killed and 40 wounded in three separate car bomb attacks in Iraq. Hospital sources say three people were killed and 15 others were wounded when a car bomb blew up in a popular market in Iraq's western city of Falluja. The blast turned market stalls into mangled wreckage and demolished a number of shops and buildings in the market. In the Iraqi capital Baghdad, police confirmed at least a further nine people were killed and 25 wounded when two car bombs exploded in quick succession as motorists queued for petrol in the southern district of Saidiyah. [One of the many things I found deeply disturbing in this short video is an Iraqi child, crying in pain, face covered with blood and bandages, while someone is putting pressure on a bandage on his chest. The person holding the bandage on his chest has bare hands. – dancewater]
No Measure of Safety
In a country where no less than 70 civilians are killed on any given day, and where over a million have fled their homes to live in makeshift camps, the Iraqi parliament has taken the extraordinary step of forming a committee to question what they term "exaggerated reports" by international humanitarian organisations about the situation in Iraq. Alaa Al-Talabani, chairperson of the committee on civil society organisations, was quoted by the local press as saying that a parliamentary committee had been established to investigate the statistics and reports released by international organisations about the security and living conditions in Iraq. "A great number of those organisations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), have no headquarters in Baghdad and issue statistics that border on the fictitious," Al-Talabani said. The committee on civil society organisations intends to question representatives of these international organisations about the statistics they release. "Reports from the Human Rights Commission, the UNHCR and the ICRC have made serious allegations concerning the deteriorating health and social conditions of large numbers of orphans and widows. These reports and figures do not reflect reality, and some are exaggerated," Al-Talabani remarked.
………. Violence of a sectarian nature by the various militias is on the rise again following the meeting of the Iranian and US ambassadors in Baghdad. Several attacks were carried out against mosques, including the Fattah Mosque in the dominantly Shiite neighbourhood in south Baghdad. Yet, Iraqi officials continue to put their own interests ahead of those of their people. Instead of admitting his mistakes, recognising the failure of the government's security plans and seeking national reconciliation, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki warned of a coup that he said was being planned against his government. The prime minister called on military commanders to foil all coup attempts, hinting that an unnamed Arab capital was conspiring against his government. His remarks may be related to a recent meeting in Cairo, during which Iraqi politicians expressed their willingness to form a moderate and broad-based front for the salvation of Iraq. According to Iraqi sources, Nuri Al-Maliki visited Irbil last week and spoke with Massoud Barzani, head of the northern administration, about the possibility of a coup.
Violence Complicates Final Exams
Heads bent over final exam papers, the students were impossibly jammed together at wooden desks and sofas in one of the few classrooms safe from the routine gunbattles outside. When shooting broke out about 100 yards away, the young men and women dove to the floor of the Baqouba Teachers College, only climbing back in their chairs five minutes later when it stopped. A few miles away, the College of Law stood empty after warnings by al-Qaida-linked militants and a series of attacks caused students to flee. "This law is of the infidels," said militant graffiti on the walls. Six guards sharing two rifles said they were afraid to wipe off the slogans. "If we did that, we would lose our heads," said one, who refused to give his name for fear of being targeted. Such is the life of university students in Baqouba, the capital of Diyala province north of Baghdad. The verdant region has become a new center for al-Qaida and radical Sunni insurgents since they fled the security crackdown in the capital and a revolt by moderate Sunnis in Anbar province to the west. It's not much easier in Baghdad, now in the fifth month of the U.S.-led security crackdown.
……. "Inside the classrooms, we can hear the screams of women and men coming to collect the bodies from the morgue. We also hear the shooting from the kidnapping and assassination attacks that are frequent here," he said.
Bridges
Recent months have seen a spate of insurgent attacks damaging bridges and disrupting transportation routes, but this week insurgents managed to bomb at least four, starting first with a bridge near Mahmoudiya on Sunday, which collapsed, killing three soldiers. A suicide car bomber struck a major bridge in Iraq's volatile Diyala province on Monday, reportedly cutting the span that links Baquba to northern villages. Insurgents bombed a bridge over a major highway for the third consecutive day on Tuesday, and on Wednesday a bridge on the main road between Tikrit and Kirkuk was destroyed.
Baghdad lockdown gives way to problems
Residents emerged from their homes Sunday at the end of a four-day lockdown and found themselves caught in traffic congestion born of hundreds of new police and army checkpoints. Many wondered if the extra security and the curfew imposed after last week's bombing of a major Shiite shrine had only created inconvenience and delayed an inevitable explosion of revenge attacks. "The militias will still take revenge, today or tomorrow," agricultural materials merchant Nasser Ali Jaber, a 56-year-old Shiite father of three, said Sunday. The bombing of the Askariya shrine north of Baghdad was the second there in 16 months. The first, which destroyed the glistening golden dome, unleashed a torrent of Shiite-Sunni violence that continues to this day.
…. Sunday saw some of the longest gas lines since Iraqis began suffering what are now chronic shortages. The lines stretched for a mile or longer, in some cases weaving around several blocks, stretching from main roads deep into side streets. Black marketeers, some of them boys as young as 10, positioned their jerry cans of gas near the lines, charging three times the pump price. Residents complained they had run out of fuel to power generators, and fresh food, and said merchants were price-gouging. For Mona Abdul-Hussein, a 32-year-old engineering lecturer and mother of two, little came from the lockdown aside from higher food prices and longer power outages. "I think things will get worse now," she said of a possible outburst in sectarian violence. "Anyone who wanted to do this may have just delayed until after the curfew."
More sabotage acts target national grid
The ailing national grid, which is still struggling to boost generating output to pre-war levels, has been target of frequent acts of sabotage recently. Saboteurs have been specifically attacking pylons and major connection and transformation networks which usually plunge cities like Baghdad into total darkness. The Ministry of Electricity says it can hardly cope with the repairs to extensive damage the attacks have been causing. As the ministry was announcing the completion of repair work to a major line linking central and northern parts of the country, saboteurs blew up pylons carrying power to Baghdad. “We were hoping to increase power supply to meet part of the surge in demand in the hot months of summer, but saboteurs seem to be ahead of our repairs,” a ministry source, refusing to be named, said. He said the saboteurs seem to have substantial knowledge of the grid as their attacks normally target “sensitive connections with maximum detrimental impact on the grid.”
Iraq second most unstable country
Iraq is now the second most unstable country in the world, a private survey finds, its standing deteriorating from last year's fourth place on a list of the 10 nations most vulnerable to violent internal conflict and worsening conditions. In the third annual "failed state" index, analysts for Foreign Policy magazine and the not-for-profit Fund for Peace said that Iraq and Afghanistan, which ranked eighth, show that billions of dollars in development and security aid may be futile without a functioning government, trustworthy leaders and realistic plans to keep the peace and develop the economy. Preventing Iraq from becoming a failed state is a key part of the Bush administration's argument for keeping U.S. troops in the country. The administration says the troops are needed to keep Iraq from becoming a breeding ground for international terrorists. The ratings are based on 12 social, economic, political and military indicators. Sudan, which topped the list, and seven other sub-Saharan African countries are among the top 10. Violence in the Darfur region was the main contributing cause to Sudan's top position.
PHOTOS: Sadr City Holds Funeral For Tae Kwon Do Team
Catholic priest kidnapped in Iraq released
A Catholic priest has been released in Iraq after being kidnapped and held for ransom this month, the Rome-based Catholic news agency Misna said on Monday. Father Hani Abdul Ahad was snatched by unidentified gunmen in Baghdad on June 6. Four fellow Christians who were held with him were released two days later. Misna quoted Shlemon Warduni, auxiliary bishop of Baghdad, as saying the priest had been released on Sunday and was well. The kidnappers had asked for a ransom, he said, without giving further details. "We ask everyone to pay attention to our situation because at this moment Christians in Iraq are in a terrible state," he was quoted as saying. "We have nothing against anyone, we only want to rebuild Iraq."
Threats, violence in Baghdad threaten new wave of displaced
Sunni families remaining in Shia neighbourhoods of Baghdad are being forced to flee their homes: A 72-hour deadline announced by militants for them to leave these areas or face death expires on 18 June. The ultimatum has put many Iraqi families in a desperate situation and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are worried as displacement camps could not cope with all the internally displaced people (IDPs) that this ultimatum might trigger. “Kadhimiya and Shu’ala districts are the most affected. Dozens of Sunnis have been assassinated in their homes since the second attack on Samara mosque on 13 June. Neighbours are invading homes and killing people without remorse,” said Abdallah Seif Salman, president of the Iraq Aid Association (IAA). “Many families are being kidnapped as soon as they leave the area, or the men are being killed by militias. Something should be done to protect these families urgently,” Salman added.
“I was cooking for him but he was already dead”
As Noor Muhammad, 36, was cooking dinner for her family in their Baghdad home two months ago, she heard her son scream from the living room. He had just seen his father dead on TV. Marwan Muhammad was shot dead as he was leaving his shop in the Alawi District of the capital. Noor, a mother of three, never imagined her husband would die like that, and never thought she would learn of his death in that manner. Now she struggles to find ways to raise her children without her husband’s income. “I was cooking for him but he was already dead. When my son screamed my name, crying, I ran to the living room and saw his father lying on the ground with bullets in his body on an Iraqi TV channel. The presenter was saying that he was one of the victims of an exchange of fire between insurgents and Iraqi soldiers in Alawi District. “I got frantic and confused, dropping to the ground on my knees and begging God to tell me that it was all a mistake - that the person wasn’t my husband, even though I could see that the dead man was wearing the same clothes that my husband was wearing when he left home in the morning.
A DREAM CALLED ELECTRICITY
Simmering in the summer heat, Iraqis now have a dream called electricity. It is a part of the bigger dream of reconstruction that collapsed. On all measurable levels, the infrastructure is worse than under the former regime of Saddam Hussein, even when it was crippled by the harshest economic sanctions in modern history. Iraqis lack security, jobs, potable water, and these days when it really pinches, electricity.
Iraqi family typical day
I’m sure everyone would love to have a vacation but to make it clear for everyone I’m talking about everyone all overt the world but not in Iraqmy wounded country. I was forced since last Wed. to have a compulsory vacation. I stayed home because of the curfew that was imposed after the explosions of the holy shrine in Samaraa city north of Baghdad. I lived the daily suffering of my family for whole three days (I didn’t count Wed because I spend most of the day out). So, I spent full three days with the family started from Thursday until the midnight of Saturday. Here are the activities of me and my family since 8 am until midnight. Its something I can call an Iraqi family typical day.
The first thing was the daily suffering of the breakfast. My mother were telling my sister and my wife not to waste the cooking gas and to do breakfast for everyone at the same time to save gas because the propane gas cylinder is too expensive (about 30 thousand Iraqi Dinars = 23,8 $ for the cylinder which is really very high price for a propane gas cylinder that lasts for only five days or a week as a maximum period. The second activity of the day is the daily cleaning of the house which is a very difficult job because of the lack of water. We had to use the water in the small water tanks that we have which automatically causes a crisis because of the water shortage. I couldn’t have my bath until they finished the daily cleaning which is for my mother more important than my bath. So, for the sake of the family interest, I delayed my bath until after 2 pm.
Music: An Incident in Al Amiriya by Naseer Shamma
REPORTS – IRAQI MILITIAS, POLITICIANS, POWER BROKERS
Ba'th Party "Involved in Samarra Bombing"
Preliminary investigations have revealed Ba'thist involvement in Wednesday’s attack against a Shi'a shrine in Samarra, an Interior Ministry official said. Al-Melaf reports in Arabic that a “top official” in the Interior Ministry has said that “preliminary investigations” revealed Ba'thist infiltration of the security forces, and involvement of the deposed ruling party in the into the bombing attack that demolished the two minarets of the al-Askari shrine, which houses the tombs of two Shi'a imams. The official, who requested anonymity, told al-Melaf that some of the information indicated that the planners of the attack were members of the now-banned party, who implemented the operation in coordination with members of the police. The official said that the ongoing investigations have revealed the involvement of several police suspects in the event, the news agency writes. The source also told al-Melaf that the Interior Ministry would announce “over the next few days” the results of the investigations, which have been conducted under the oversight and participation of officers from the American military leadership.
…… Iraqi opposition figures, meanwhile, have pointed the finger at pro-government forces. Muqtada al-Sadr released a statement accusing the US occupation of plotting the attack in order to sow sectarian crisis, while the Association of Muslim Scholars of Iraq, a key Sunni group, released a statement accusing the Iraqi government itself of involvement.
Arab Papers Monday: Sadr Attacks Iran
Al-'Arabiya reported that the relatives of 'Abeer al-Janabi, who was raped by US soldiers and killed -- along with three family members -- have refused to accept a financial compensation that was offered to them by the US Army. Al-'Arabiya spoke to the mayor of the village in which the uncles of the 16-year-old victim reside. According to the mayor, the paternal and maternal uncles of al-Janabi have rejected a $100,000 payment that was presented to them by an American officer. The relatives told the US officer that “their main compensation" would be "to witness the execution of the accused soldiers" -- on television, "in the same fashion as Saddam Husain’s execution,” the mayor added.
Al-Hayat said that officials in the Sadr Current have criticized the Iranian role in southern Iraq, in what may be another attempt by Muqtada to distance his Current from the Islamic Republic. In the past weeks, Muqtada al-Sadr has been attempting to gather Sunni support for his movement, and to extend political alliances with Sunni parties. In order to deflect a reputation he had acquired as “Iran’s man” in Iraq, al-Sadr has made a point of critiquing Iranian intervention in the country and asserting his commitment to notions of Iraqi sovereignty. According to al-Hayat, a high-level aide to al-Sadr, Aws al-Khafaji, accused Iran of becoming a “strategic depth for al-Qa'ida in Iraq,” and claimed that “its intelligence is implicated in acts of sabotage in the Iraqi South.” Al-Khafaji said that the Iranian intelligence has established an “operations room,” led by an officer by the name of Muhammad Taqawi, “charged with the planning and execution of armed attacks” in the southern provinces. Al-Khafaji added that the Iranian apparatus “has attracted a large number of the leaders of the (state) security agencies” and that Ittila'at (the Iranian intelligence service) has been “providing information for al-Qa'ida” for its operations in southern and central Iraq.
Tensions rise in Kirkuk over Kurdish-held detainees
Arab tribes in the Province of Taameen of which the oil-rich city of Kirkuk is the capital have warned to kidnap Kurdish citizens unless Kurdish authorities released their Arab detainees. Some 300 Arab tribal chiefs in the province held a meeting to denounce the detention of Arabs by Kurds and their transference to prisons inside the Kurdish-held areas. The Arabs, many of whom were brought to the province by former leader Saddam Hussein, have set up a council to administer their affairs amid calls from Kurdish authorities to have them transferred to their original areas in central and southern Iraq. Ahmad Hameed, a member of the council’s presiding committee, said the Arabs were becoming “the victims of Kurdish oppression and usurpation. They are kidnapping our sons and sending them to Kurdish prisons.”
Arming Sunni militias undercuts Iraqi government, critics say
A U.S. program to combat al-Qaida in Iraq by arming Sunni Muslims undercuts the Iraqi government and years of U.S. policy, and is a tacit acknowledgment that the country's violence is really a civil war, some U.S. military officials in Washington and foreign policy experts say. The program, which Bush administration officials have hailed as a sign of progress in Iraq, has sparked heated debate among military and foreign policy analysts. It is opposed by the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Supporters see it as a welcomed change in the American approach in Iraq, one whose benefits have been obvious in the drop in violence in Iraq's Anbar province, where al-Qaida formerly held sway. They say it could give impetus to the Shiites and Kurds to make political concessions. But others contend the program has long-term repercussions that can only be guessed at now. By giving weapons and training to Sunnis in Anbar and Baghdad who've been previously associated with Sunni insurgent groups, the program endorses unofficial armed groups over official Iraqi forces as guarantors of Iraqi security, military officers who oppose the program say. Those officers also say it abandons the long-stated U.S. goal of disarming militias and reinforces the idea that U.S.-trained Iraqi forces cannot control their country. At the Pentagon, at least six officers who served in Iraq shook their heads when asked about the idea of arming the Sunnis. They said they had little faith in a Sunni community that was aggressively killing their comrades just months ago. "Why did we spend all that capital disarming them last year?" asked one military officer who served in Iraq last year under former Iraq commander Gen. George Casey. "As a military man, I cannot fathom the logic of putting more weapons out there." The officer declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak about the matter.
………In Baghdad, the mostly Shiite government already is saying it cannot be expected to disarm militias if Sunni groups are receiving arms from the Americans. Maliki, a Shiite, voiced his opposition to the program directly to Petraeus, according to Sami al-Askari, a close adviser to Maliki. "It's a sort of militia, when we are trying to get rid of the current militias," Askari said. "By arming these tribes we'll make it worse."
Basra Police Chief Replaced
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has replaced the Basra police chief Monday over his force's failure to stop weekend attacks on Sunni mosques in Iraq's second-largest city, police said. At least two major mosques were attacked in the Basra area over the weekend, in retaliation for the bombing Wednesday of a prized Shiite shrine in Samarra, north of Baghdad. A new police chief would replace Maj. Gen. Mohammed Hamadi al-Moussawi on Monday, a Basra police officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information. Al-Moussawi will take another job in the Interior Ministry, which controls police. Al-Moussawi was "seen as incompetent, because he couldn't stop attacks by Shiite extremists against two Sunni mosques in the wake of the Samara attacks," the officer said.
REPORTS – US/UK/OTHERS IN IRAQ
U.S. Losing Ground Through Tribal Allies
U.S. attempts to win over tribal collaborators in the al-Anbar province have won it more enemies instead. The U.S. military has launched one of its biggest operations to date to
regain control of the province, to the west of Baghdad. It had lost control over the region more than a year back. The province, which represents a third of the total area of the country and is inhabited by roughly 2.5 million people, mostly Sunni Muslims, has stood firm against the U.S. occupation of Iraq since the early days of occupation that began in March 2003. Fallujah, the second biggest city in the province after capital Ramadi, ignited fierce resistance to U.S. forces after they killed 17 unarmed demonstrators protesting in front of a school occupied by the military in May 2003. Resistance then spread to Khalidiya, 80 km west of Baghdad, then Ramadi, 105 km west of Baghdad, and reaching Hit, Haditha and then al-Qa'im on the Syrian border. Massive U.S. military operations have brought short-term victories, but turned people more and more strongly against the occupation. The province remains the most dangerous for occupation forces, and attacks have continued to escalate. This year U.S. military authorities worked to firm up a tribal coalition that they said would oppose al-Qaeda terror groups fighting against U.S. forces. Unnamed officials in the Bush administration have made claims to reporters that the move has reduced violence in al-Anbar, but residents in the area think otherwise.
.....Policemen loyal to tribal leaders in the Revolutionary Force for Anbar Salvation have told reporters that the U.S. military provided them weapons, funding and other items like uniforms, body armour, pickup trucks and helmets, besides paying loyal tribal fighters 900 dollars a month.
A Dramatic Nighttime Escape
First Kuwaiti has been accused repeatedly by dozens of workers from the Philippines and Nepal of forcing them to work in Iraq over the past three years, including by Ramil Autencio who recounted his tale last November while sitting in front of his home -- a two-room shack assembled with old wood and sheet metal in metropolitan Manila. A tattered curtain hangs across the front entrance. Along the dirt alley off a busy commercial street, his neighbours live much the same while jets fly overhead connecting some 8 million Filipino labourers, 10 percent of the nation's population, to the global economy -- most seeking more than the 10 dollars a day that many make at home. A stray dog and a few cats pattered by as his wife Angela and his two small children watched him carefully unfold a plastic bag holding his documents. Speaking in Tagalog, he held each paper like a sacred text strengthening his resolve to share the hell he says he endured during the cold winter months of 2004.
The Measure of a Life, in Dollars and Cents
What's an Iraqi life worth? How about an Iraqi car? For the U.S. military in Iraq, it may be roughly the same. A report released late last month by the Government Accountability Office examines the practices and rules guiding condolence payments that the U.S. military can distribute to families of Iraqi civilians killed "as a result of U.S. and coalition forces' actions during combat." These voluntary payments -- known as "solatia" payments -- can also cover injuries and loss or damage to property. They constitute "expressions of sympathy or remorse based on local culture and customs, but not an admission of legal liability or fault," according to the report. The Pentagon has set $2,500 as the highest individual sum that can be paid. Most death payments remain at that level, with a rough sliding scale of $1,000 for serious injury and $500 for property damage. Beginning in April of last year, payments of up to $10,000 were possible for "extraordinary cases" but only with a division commander's authorization.
COMMENTARY
Iraq's unbreakable deadlock
Furious at the demolition of the remaining two minarets of the Shia Askariya Mosque in Samarra on Wednesday, radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr instructed his followers in the Iraqi parliament to boycott the chamber and stay out until the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki promises to rebuild the mosque and strengthen security at all holy sites. This is bad news for the Bush administration: it is keen to see the Iraqi legislature pass expeditiously crucial laws on oil, constitutional changes, and liberalising the de-Baathification policy - all geared to creating national reconciliation among Shias, Sunnis and Kurds. Even at the best of times parliamentary leaders have to struggle to ensure a quorum. With 30 Sadrist MPs abstaining in a house of 275, the chances of a quorate chamber is much reduced. From Washington's viewpoint, the time frame is crucial too. The US Congress for the war in Iraq only until September and laid out legislative benchmarks for the Iraqi government on hydrocarbons, constitution and de-Baathification. With Baghdad drenched in searing heat in July and August, MPs are anxious to go on vacation, thus leaving White House officials fretting over the delay.
After much discussion, the draft oil law, crafted chiefly by the Shia oil minister Hussein al-Shahristani, won the approval of the Iraqi cabinet in late February. The White House applauded the decision partly because it incorporated the principle of hydrocarbon revenues to be distributed to provinces on a basis of population - a main demand of Sunni leaders, well aware that the Sunni-dominated areas lack oilfields.
A cry for justice from a good man who expected us to protect his son
From the moment I knocked on the front door of Daoud Mousa al-Maliki's home in Basra, I knew something had gone terribly wrong in the British Army in southern Iraq. I had seen British military brutality in Northern Ireland - I had even been threatened by British officers in Belfast - but I somehow thought that things had changed, that a new, more disciplined army had emerged from the dark, sinister days of the Irish conflict. But I was wrong. Baha Mousa, Daoud's son, had died from the injuries he received in British custody, a young, decent man whose father was a cop, who did nothing worse than work as a receptionist in a Basra hotel. Then I went to see Kifah Taha, who had been so badly beaten by British troops in the presence of Baha Mousa that he had terrible wounds in the groin. He told me how the soldiers would call their Iraqi prisoners by the names of football stars - Beckham was one name they used - before kicking them around the detention headquarters in Basra. There were stories of Iraqi prisoners being forced to kneel on sharp stones, of being kicked and punched in the groin, the kidneys, the back, shoulders, forced to sit with their heads down lavatory holes. All this is among the evidence which ex-prisoners - and Baha Mousa's father - are taking to the High Court, now that the courts martial which followed Mousa's death have produced just one solitary conviction, a soldier jailed for a year and dismissed from the Army for "mistreating" prisoners. There's an old rule of thumb which I always apply to armies in the field. If you find out about one abuse, you can bet there were a hundred others that will never be revealed. New stories of "forced disappearances", hostage-taking and torture in British custody are emerging from Basra. US troops are still being questioned about unlawful killings and torture in Iraq. If one girl is raped and murdered and her family slaughtered by a US unit south of Baghdad - all of which is true - how many others have died in circumstances we shall never discover?
IRAQI REFUGEES
Plight of refugees worsens as Syria, Jordan impose restrictions
Scores of Iraqi men, women and children gathered on the pavement of Baghdad's central Salihiyah area waiting for the big grey bus to take them to neighbouring Syria and help them flee their country's violence. "Staying in Iraq is like committing suicide," said Hala Numan Jabre, a 41-year-old mother of three girls as she threw her six coloured bags onto the bus. "There is no safe life in Iraq, it's like a jungle. There are no public services, there is no rule of law, and everywhere there is killing and kidnapping. That is why we've decided to take our daughters away until things get better, God willing," Hala, a teacher of English, said. Every month, tens of thousands of Iraqis flee to Jordan and Syria - the only two neighbouring countries which have opened their borders to Iraqi refugees. "The situation in Iraq continues to worsen," the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said in a statement on 5 June, and "the number of Iraqis fleeing to neighbouring countries remains high”. At least 2.2 million Iraqis are sheltering in Jordan and Syria.
….. Every refugee has a story of desperation, and most come with voluminous files of death certificates, X-rays and medical records to support their claims. A businessman watched as Sunni extremists gunned down a man at a gas station because he was wearing shorts. A teenager was chatting with a friend on a street corner when a carload of Shiite militants pulled up and abducted the other boy in broad daylight. A father of four was blindfolded, beaten and stuffed in the trunk of a car because insurgents suspected him of helping the Americans. A young woman still fumed over the day U.S. troops kicked down her door and carted off her brother.
…….. And then there are the ordinary Iraqis, hundreds of thousands of them from diverse upbringings, all with the same thread of violent displacement running through their stories. The reasons they give for fleeing read like the script of a Hollywood action movie: death threats, kidnappings, car bombings, torture, gunfights, airstrikes, drive-by shootings, mortar attacks and hit squads. "It was intolerable," said Zahra Jalil, 36, a Shiite from the Karrada neighborhood in Baghdad. "We've had so many relatives kidnapped or killed."
Iraq: The World’s Fastest Growing Refugee Crisis
“Iraqis who are unable to flee the country are now in a queue, waiting their turn to die,” is how one Iraqi journalist summarizes conditions in Iraq today. While the US debates whether a civil war is raging in Iraq, thousands of Iraqis face the possibility of death every day all over the country. Refugees International has met with dozens of Iraqis who have fled the violence and sought refuge in neighboring countries. All of them, whether Sunni, Shi’a, Christian or Palestinian, had been directly victimized by armed actors. People are targeted because of religious affiliation, economic status, and profession – many, such as doctors, teachers, and even hairdressers, are viewed as being “anti-Islamic.” All of them fled Iraq because they had genuine and credible fear for their lives and the lives of their loved ones.
National Call-In Day: Tell President Bush to Increase Funding for Iraqi Refugees
We were wondering if you might possibly want to promote our National Call-In Day for Iraqi Refugees on June 19th. We're hoping that Americans can call attention to the 4 million Iraqis who have been forced out of their homes. We would really appreciate it if you could support us in any way you can. Here's the link to our National Call-In page. Our homepage (www.refugeesinternational.org) is a good source of information for everything we're working on. Currently, we have a mission out to Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria assessing the refugee situation, interviewing refugees, and speaking to NGO's to get a better idea of how the situation is going. Here's a link to our Iraqi mission page.
How to Help Iraqi Refugees
Quote of the day: The deep foundation of true security is based in transforming your enemies into friends. -- George Ellis
Photo: Iraqi girls do their final exams at a school in the Dora market in southern 
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