News & Views 12/05/07

Photo: A Red Crescent volunteer gives a shirt to a girl in a refugee camp in Baghdad's Sadr City December 5, 2007. About 90 residents from Dualiya village in Diyala province were relocated by the Red Crescent to Sadr City after their village was attacked by suspected al-Qaeda insurgents on Saturday. Police said 12 civilians were killed while 35 others were abducted in the attack. REUTERS/Kareem Raheem (IRAQ) [In all the pictures that I saw, the children are barefoot. – dancewater]

REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ

Car bombs kill at least 23 in Iraq as Gates meets leaders

Car bombs in Baghdad and three northern Iraqi cities killed at least 23 people and wounded more than 40 others Wednesday as the U.S. defense secretary arrived for an unannounced visit with senior Iraqi officials. The car bombings, including a particularly deadly suicide car-bomb attack on a crowded street in eastern Baghdad that killed more than a dozen people, served as a vicious reminder that the months of decline in daily violence were not a sure harbinger of any kind of lasting peace. Indeed, the four car bombs - the first of which detonated in the northern city of Mosul shortly before Defense Secretary Robert Gates's plane arrived there early Wednesday, seemed timed to coincide with his visit. None of the bombings, however, occurred anywhere close to Gates or his entourage. In Baghdad, Gates met with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and other top government officials to press them to use the recent nationwide lull in daily violence and sectarian killings to pass critical legislation and improve government services.

24 died of Cholera in Iraq in 4 months- ministry

A total of 24 individuals died of Cholera in Iraq over the past four months, including three in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, the health ministry said on Wednesday. "Three people died of Cholera in Baghdad, including one in the capital's western side of al-Karkh and two in al-Hanan Orphanage, eastern Baghdad. Others died in several Iraqi provinces, mostly in northern Kirkuk, Sulaimaniya and Arbil," a senior under secretary in the Ministry of Health, Aamer al-Khazaie, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). When asked about the measures taken by the ministry to combat the disease, al-Khazaie said that a supreme committee has been set up to curb the spread of epidemic by taking all precautionary measures and holding community-wide symposiums to raise public awareness of the disease. "The committee is composed of representatives from the ministries of health, environment, electricity, oil, municipalities and education…," he added. Precautionary measures have put in place, al-Khazaie added, explaining that the committee had treated drinking water with chlorine and improved hygiene conditions in Iraqi schools.

First drop in Iraq's internally displaced: Red Crescent

The number of internally displaced Iraqis fell by 4.8 percent in October, or nearly 110,000 people, marking the first significant drop in two years, the Iraqi Red Crescent said Wednesday. As of October 30, it said in its latest report, there were 2,189,804 Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in Iraq compared to 2,299,425 at the end of September. They had fled their homes in the wake of the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq and a subsequent explosion of sectarian violence in February last year after a Shiite shrine was bombed in the central city of Samarra. The figures mark the first time the number of displaced families has dipped month on month after a steady rise that began after the Samarra bombing. The Iraqi Red Crescent offered no explanation for the trend but the Iraqi government has said IDPs and refugees in neighbouring countries are beginning to return to their homes in numbers in the wake of a drop in violence across the country. The Red Crescent said children under the age of 12 accounted for 58.6 percent of the internally displaced population. "In addition to their plight as being displaced, the majority suffer from disease, poverty and malnutrition," the agency said.

Bleak Prospects for Kurdish Returnees

Former Kurdish residents of Kirkuk are being encouraged to return - but for many the homecoming has been a big disappointment. Laylan, a tented encampment on the outskirts of Kirkuk, is home to Kurdish returnees who left places like Erbil, Sulaimaniyah and Ramadi to start new lives. But their initial optimism at returning to their former home is beginning to wane, as many feel let down by the local authorities who appear to have done little assist them. At the makeshift Tirkashkan primary school, 36 students attend lessons under canvass. “Because we don’t have enough space, four different lessons are taught at any one time by four different teachers,” said Ihsan Shareef, the 36-year-old head teacher. “It’s difficult [for the students] to concentrate, and the conditions will badly affect the students’ education.” Poor education is not all the returnees have to contend with. The water and electricity supply is poor, so too is the sewage system. And with violence in Kirkuk increasing, returning families hopes of a new life are evaporating.

As many as 200,000 Kurds and Turkoman were expelled from Kirkuk in the 1980s, when Saddam Hussein’s regime brought Arabs into the province. The settlers - many poor Shia farmers from the south - consolidated the Ba’ath regime’s grip over the oil-rich province. Under Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution, Kirkuk voters are expected to decide whether the province is administered by the central government or the Kurdistan Regional Government, KRG. Before the vote is held, a voluntary resettlement process is to be carried out, giving returning Kirkukis the right to land and 10 million Iraqi dinars (about 8,200 US dollars) in compensation, while those who settled in Kirkuk under the former regime’s Arabisation campaign are entitled to 20 million dinars and a plot of land in their places of origin.

Help renovate 2 Iraqi orphanages in Duhok, Iraq!

Ausama Idrees, a medical student in Iraq, needs help raising some funds to renovate 2 existing orphanages in Duhok, a city in northern Iraq where he currently lives. Idrees sent us an excellent proposal, part of which is:

The project is based on two ideas:

The primary idea behind the project is to help to improve the orphans’ quality of life. The project aims to provide two orphan houses with heaters and carpets because the houses are lacking this important part at the moment.

The project is also trying to provide the houses with some educational materials like books, stories or toys, with re-establishing an existing computer network and hopefully provide it with internet supplies.

In the same time, I will be addressing another issue which is youth empowerment and gender equality, by giving the youth in my close community the chance to work and to be creative and helpful. Through this project and other similar activities we hope to be giving equal chances to both males and females to work together and accomplish things as a team.

REPORTS – IRAQI MILITIAS, POLITICIANS, POWER BROKERS

Iraq Urges Refugees To Stay Put: Cabinet Endorses Another Year for U.S.-Led Mission

The Iraqi government on Tuesday urged some refugees not to go back to their homes yet, saying the country was unprepared to accommodate their return. "The reality is that we cannot handle a huge influx of people," Abdul Samad al-Sultan, the minister of displacement and migration, said at a news conference to announce a joint plan with the United Nations to help returning Iraqis. "The refugees in some countries, we ask them to wait." The acknowledgment came as the Iraqi cabinet asked the United Nations for what the government called a final one-year extension of authorization for U.S.-led forces to stay in Iraq. … But Iraqi officials said U.S. and British troops needed to remain in Iraq, and the cabinet voted to ask the United Nations to authorize the U.S.-led forces to remain in the country until the end of next year, according to government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh. "The renewal of this mandate will protect Iraq," said Dabbagh, who added that the cabinet vote did not need ratification by parliament. "There was really almost no discussion about it by the cabinet."

Iraq: Volunteer Militias to Expand

The number of volunteer militiamen helping patrol the Baghdad area should grow nearly fourfold to 45,000 next year and will assume roles under Iraqi military command, a security official said Wednesday. The comments marked the clearest signal yet that Iraq's Shiite leadership may now be willing to work with the mostly Sunni factions - praised by the Pentagon as a key ally against extremists such as al-Qaida in Iraq. Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, the chief Iraqi military spokesman in Baghdad, predicted that the volunteer forces could swell to 45,000 next year from the current 12,000 in the Baghdad area. He also cited their contribution in the recent downturn in violence in the capital. "The reason behind the drop is the good performance of Iraqi security forces, support from Baghdad residents and the backing of U.S. troops," he said.

Power-Sharing Ends Northern Iraq Dispute

Sunni Arabs ended a yearlong political boycott Tuesday in Kirkuk - the hub of Iraq's northern oil fields - under a cooperation pact that marked a bold attempt at unity before a planned referendum on control of the strategic region. The Sunni-Kurdish deal - urged by U.S. diplomats - could also move ahead other reconciliation bids demanded by Washington but stalled by disputes that include sharing oil wealth and compromising with Sunnis who backed Saddam Hussein's Baath party. Sunnis have struggled to find political footing since Saddam's fall, as majority Shiites cemented control of the government and security forces and Kurds enjoyed an economic boom in their semiautonomous enclave. A planned referendum on Kirkuk, possible next year, could give the Kurds another windfall. It will ask whether the province - and its important oil fields - should fall under the Kurdish borders or continue to be governed by Baghdad.

REPORTS – US/UK/OTHERS IN IRAQ

In Iraq, Psyops Team Plays on Iran Fears, Soccer Love

Psychological operations specialist Sgt. Joe Colabuno spent a year-and-a-half helping convince the Sunni residents of Fallujah to turn against local extremists by appealing to citizens' sense of civic pride, pumping up their love of the national soccer team, citing the Koran, and provoking jihadists to overreact. Colabuno also appealed to the Sunnis hatred and fear of Shi'ites, and of Shi'ite Iran. "For 7 or 8 months," Colabuno tells me, "all we hear about is 'Iran is doing all [of the attacks], Iran is behind everything.' There was frustration from them [Fallujah's locals] because we wouldn't 'admit it.' Like maybe the U.S. was conspiring with Iran." "We'd stress in our SITREPS [situation reports] that in order to get these people on our side, we've got to play into their fears abut Iran," he adds. Then, in January, "the White House suddenly got involved," talking tough about how Tehran was stoking instability in Iraq. "That overnight changed the attitudes of the people towards us. They took it as almost an apology," he adds. [Anyone remember ‘villianize Zarqawi – leverage xenophobic response? Same shit as all this. – dancewater]

In local newspaper articles, in radio and loudspeaker broadcasts -- and in talks on the street -- Colabuno started playing up "operations against Shi'a militia." He played up how the U.S. troop "surge" was silencing Shi'a leader Moktada "al-Sadr's yipping and yapping." The successes of the American counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq have, so far, been hyperlocal: local watchmen, patrolling their mini-neighborhoods; local tribal and political leaders, making deals with American commanders. And in that context, playing on fears on Shi'ite boogeymen in Sunni regions makes a ton of sense. The question, though, is what are the national consequences of this local strategy. How can the U.S. encourage country-wide reconciliation -- while riding a wave of sectarian hate? [They can’t and they don’t intend to do so. – dancewater]

IRAQI REFUGEES

“We are living ghosts.”

That’s how one former Iraqi businessman whom I met last week in Syria described the situation of Iraqi refugees. His words have haunted me ever since. What has happened to Iraqis inside their country and as refugees is a humanitarian catastrophe. Four and a half million Iraqis are displaced from their homes. It's a staggering number. I went to Jordan and Syria as part of an AFSC team to assess the Iraqi refugee crisis. While there, I met dozens of Iraqis who have fled the insecurity of their homes and dozens of people working in organizations to improve the refugees' lives. You'll be hearing more about AFSC’s plans in coming emails. Today, I wanted to share some experiences with you, experiences that convey a small fraction of what I saw in those countries. Talking with Iraqi refugees and hearing their stories made it clear to me that many of us have not begun to recognize the price Iraqis have paid in this war.

A number of patterns emerged from the stories I heard. Many of the families we met were led by women whose husbands were missing or killed. Many of the refugees, adults and children, have witnessed killings. Many of the families had members kidnapped in Iraq. Every family we encountered is dealing with trauma and grief. Iraqi refugees, estimated at 1.5 million in Syria and 500,000 in Jordan, are not living in camps, but in urban areas. They are not allowed to work in the countries to which they fled. As I met a wide cross-section of what used to be Iraq's society -- teachers, engineers, artists, political leaders, policemen -- it was evident they had few means of support and nowhere to turn. Read more about Iraqi refugees on our web site and spread the word.

How to Help Iraqi Refugees

ANOTHER Way to help: The Collateral Repair Project

COMMENTARY

Real Idiocy: Salami Tactics

"Sectarian hate" predated the American invasion of Iraq, and we'd be foolish not to exploit it, when possible, to further our own ends. This is how empires effectively managed unruly provinces for centuries. Noah's not all wrong, it's certainly a dangerous game. But it seems that the strategy, for now, is showing obvious signs of success. Down the road it may cause problems, but back in January, everyone expected down the road to be all out civil war--so this seems like a good problem to have. [Sure it is – continues the disintegration of the country, and increases control by the invaders. What’s not to like? – dancewater]

Quotes of the day: "When I tell the truth, it is not for the sake of convincing those who do not know it, but for the sake of defending those that do." ~ William Blake