News & Views 12/06/07

Photo: Immigrants, carrying no travel documents, who said they were from Iraq and had sailed from Lebanon, sit on the beach of Kato Zakros on the Greek island of Crete, Thursday, Dec. 6, 2007. Coast guard officers transported 193 illegal immigrants to shore Thursday after being spotted on the Silver Wave cargo ship off the island of Crete. The Merchant Marine Ministry said one man was found dead on the ship, while seven people were arrested on smuggling charges. The ship had no flag. (AP Photo)

REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ

IRAQ: “Honour killings” persist in Kurdish north

At least 27 Iraqi Kurdish women have been murdered for having illicit affairs in so-called “honour killings” in Iraq’s northern semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan over the past four months, an official from the regional government said on 4 December. “Ten murdered women were from Arbil, 11 from Dahouk and six from Sulaimaniyah [the three provinces making up the Kurdish region], while 97 other women - 60 in Arbil, 21 in Dahouk and 16 in Sulaimaniyah - had tried to commit suicide by self-immolation during the four months,” said Youssif Mohamed Aziz, the regional minister of human rights.
“Since the beginning of this year, the regional government of Kurdistan has formed a committee… to address all forms of violence against women and especially the `honour killings’,” Aziz said. Since then, he said, awareness-raising campaigns had been conducted, human rights education had been introduced in schools, and Muslim leaders had been denouncing the phenomenon as being against Islam.

Iraqi Legal System Burden by War's Wake

Iraqi judges and their families live behind 12-foot blast walls. Hundreds of lawyers have fled the country. Critics complain about rapid-fire trials in an overburdened court system. This is the fractured state of Iraq's criminal justice system - the destination for many of the 25,000 detainees now in U.S. custody and often held without charges for months or years. Among them is Bilal Hussein, an Associated Press photographer who was picked up by American soldiers on April 12, 2006, in Ramadi. Hussein's first hearing is scheduled for Sunday. The military has not made clear its specific allegations - not required under Iraq's legal system until the hearing - but has pointed to a range of suspicions that attempt to link the photographer to insurgent activity. These include claims that he offered to provide false identification to a sniper seeking to evade U.S.-led forces and took photographs that were synchronized with insurgent blasts.

Iraqis Turn to US for Municipal Services

The U.S. Army captain balked when his Iraqi contact, a middle-aged man in a sharp business suit and tie, told him the military should pay municipality workers fixing cables in Baghdad's northern Azamiyah neighborhood. "They should get their money from the municipality," Capt. Albert J. Marckwardt told the Iraqi, Abdul-Qader al-Dulaimi. "It has no money," he retorted, "You are the money man!" "Every time you see me, you ask for money," Marckwardt said with a laugh, but he may not have been altogether amused. Since the arrival of American troops, Iraqis have grown steadily more dependent on the U.S. military, saying it needs to help since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 led to the collapse of whatever infrastructure Iraq had. That dependence has grown much deeper in Baghdad since thousands of American troops have moved into forward bases in neighborhoods as part of an ongoing major security drive in the capital, with U.S. soldiers in sight almost round the clock.

Iraq Food Ration System Could Get Cut

Food rations might have to be cut due to a lack of budget funds, the trade minister said, warning such a move would pose hardship for the majority of Iraqis who depend heavily on the Saddam Hussein-era program. Food rations might have to be cut due to a lack of budget funds, the trade minister said, warning such a move would pose hardship for the majority of Iraqis who depend heavily on the Saddam Hussein-era program. The comments by Trade Minister Abed Falah al-Sudani came as critics have called for the costly system to be revised or eliminated. Two-thirds of the some 26 million Iraqis rely on the rations, al-Sudani said. "Any change in the ration items will create new problems that will add new burdens on families," al-Sudani said in a statement Wednesday. He said his ministry had requested $7 billion for the program in next year's budget but only received $3 billion, a move that could force it to cut the number of items distributed from 10 to five.

"I just want one real friend"

"Sometimes you want a real person to hang out with," he said. "I just want one real friend." Naively I worried the kids at school were being mean. "What's wrong? You don't like anyone at school?" I asked. "No. It's just a part of me is always a secret," he said. "I can't have a real friend." Even if he befriended someone, he couldn't bring him or her home to play. No one can know his mother works as a journalist. Not only does she work with us, she and her family live here. Working for a foreign news agency could put her and her children's lives in danger. He isn't lucky enough to have the typical teen-age angst. At 13, most kids start to resent their parents and rules. They fight for a little bit of independence. "I wish I had those problems," he said. "I could get killed coming home from school."

He talked about his dreams. He wished that he could sit outside in the garden on this cool windy day. He wished that he could go to the movies and one day have a girlfriend. But in Baghdad, even this Baghdad that has gone from terrifying to a little less terrifying, these dreams are not within his reach. A month ago gunmen came to his school and shot three guards during his last period. The U.S. Military came and the students ran out the door to catch their rides. That day he made it home safe. Tomorrow, he doesn't know. The burden he carries is not fit for a 13-year-old. But this is not an R-rated movie; you can't keep the children out.

Red Cross visits Iraq gov't detainees

The International Red Cross has made its first visit to detainees of the central Iraqi government since the U.S.-led invasion of the country, a spokeswoman said Thursday. The visit took place at the beginning of October at Fort Suse, a prison in Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdish north once run by U.S. forces but now under the control of Iraq's central government, said Dorothea Krimitsas of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The ICRC has visited the detainees of U.S.-led forces - but it took three years of negotiations with Iraqi authorities for similar access to their prisons, she said. "We were able to meet a certain number of detainees privately to have talks with them in order to monitor their detention conditions and treatment," she said. Under the Geneva Conventions on the rules of warfare, the ICRC must monitor conditions for prisoners of war and other detainees.

Iraqi returnees…hope on the horizon

With the levels of violence dropping in a country that has long been tormented by war, many Iraqis have begun streaming back to their homes, establishing a permanent settlement following years of displacement and instability. Citing harsh attitudes in neighboring countries, many returnees said that their return to the host countries is not on the cards. Abu Mustafa, a 52-year-old retired employee from southern Baghdad's al-Doura neighborhood, said that he retuned with his family from Syria, where he stayed for almost a year, after the return of relative calm to the Iraqi capital.

FEATURE-Specialist doctors a vanishing breed in Iraq

Ear, nose and throat specialist Abu Samir laments that he has only one colleague left to call after an exodus that has robbed Iraq of about 70 percent of its most qualified doctors. "My phone book became empty. Out of 50 numbers, I find one name left from the specialists I know," said the 66-year-old, who asked not to give his full name. Specialist doctors have fled Baghdad and other cities in scores since the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, with most going abroad or to the relative safety of Kurdistan in the north. Once the elite of Baghdad society, medical specialists quickly became a target for insurgents, militias and kidnappers in search of rich ransoms. Of the 2,327 doctors with 15-20 years experience registered as specialists, 60-70 percent have left Iraq, said Nadhim Abdul-Hameed Qassim, head of the official Iraqi Doctors' Syndicate. Among senior consultants with even more experience, as many as 80 percent have fled, he said.

REPORTS – IRAQI MILITIAS, POLITICIANS, POWER BROKERS

Iraqi parliament closes shop for month

Sunni leader in parliament Adnan Dulaimi Cleared

Sunni leader Adnan al-Dulaimi has been cleared of suspicion over two bombs found at his Baghdad office but his bodyguards are still under investigation, the Iraqi army said. Brigadier General Qasim Ata, spokesman for the army in Baghdad, told a news conference that 42 people are being held for questioning over the car bombs, which were discovered on the MP’s Baghdad office premises on Thursday. Dulaimi had been put under effective house arrest immediately after the primed car bombs were found, prompting a boycott of parliament by the National Concord Front, Iraq’s main Sunni political bloc. He said his son Mekki had been detained along with dozens of his guards.

Basra Police Chief Doubts Security

The police chief of Iraq's southern Basra province acknowledged Thursday that his forces lack the means to maintain security in the region after a British troop withdrawal later this month. The rare admission from such a high-ranking Iraqi officer reflected concerns ahead of the British pullout from the overwhelmingly Shiite province, which has seen major fighting between militants and coalition troops as well as between Shiite militias vying for control of Basra city and its security forces. "I'm faced with a lot of hardships," Maj. Gen. Jalil Khalaf, commander of the Basra Police Division, told The Associated Press. "Frankly speaking, we have rifles, machine-guns and a few armored vehicles, which aren't as advanced as the British weaponry and are insufficient to maintain full control of the province."

Shiite, Sunni Lawmakers Argue in Chamber

A shouting match erupted in parliament Thursday between a Shiite lawmaker and a powerful Sunni Arab politician whom he accused of harboring sectarian sentiments against Iraq's Shiite majority. The public outburst illustrates the intense sectarian tensions in the country and could renew calls by Shiite politicians that Adnan al-Dulaimi, the Sunni politician, be stripped of his parliamentary immunity to stand trial for inciting sectarian strife. The quarrel began when Bahaa al-Aaraji, a follower of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, told the 275-seat house that he had evidence that al-Dulaimi has branded Shiites "heretics" whose killing is legitimate. He said the evidence was in documents he held while addressing parliament, but declined to divulge their contents when he later spoke to reporters. "Legal action must be taken against him," he said over al-Dulaimi's protestations. "They are false, they are false," the Sunni Arab politician shouted.

Iraqi Government Fragments Further

Iraqi security forces backed by the U.S. have jailed an opposition leader who opposes the permanent presence of U.S. troops. As sectarian tensions escalate politically, a new fissure is appearing within the already fragmented Iraqi government. Adnan Al Dulaimi, head of the Sunni political bloc the Accordance Front in the Iraqi Parliament, has been placed under house arrest by Iraqi and U.S. security forces in the Adil neighbourhood west of Baghdad. Iraqi security forces also detained his son --Makki -- and 45 of his guards. They were accused of manufacturing car bombs and killing Sunni militia members in the neighbourhood who have been working with the U.S. military. "Two car bombs were found at Dulaimi's office area ready to be blasted and we believe they were going to be used against the Awakening Forces [men the U.S. military is paying to work with them] in the Adil Quarter," Kassim Ata, spokesman for the Baghdad Crackdown Force -- which is part of the Awakening Forces -- told IPS. "Dulaimi's office guards testified against his house guards and so we arrested all of them as well as Al Dulaimy's son Makki," Ata said.

IRAQI REFUGEES

IRAQ: Refugees Caught Between Deportation and Death Threats

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis driven out of their country by violence are now faced with detention abroad, or a homecoming to death threats. More than two million Iraqis, in a population of about 25 million, have taken refuge in many countries. Only a few have won official status as refugees. Most refugees in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and many other countries stay on as illegal residents, facing threats of deportation and imprisonment. "To deport an Iraqi refugee is to issue a death warrant," Ali Jassim, an Iraqi journalist recently deported from Lebanon told IPS in Baghdad. "The Lebanese authorities are applying regular migration rules to Iraqis, meaning that most Iraqis in Lebanon will be deported." The Human Rights Watch report titled 'Rot Here or Die There: Bleak Choices for Iraqi Refugees in Lebanon' released Dec. 4 says Lebanese authorities are arresting Iraqi refugees who have no valid visas, and detaining them indefinitely to coerce them to return to Iraq.

"Iraqi refugees in Lebanon live in constant fear of arrest," Bill Frelick, refugee policy director for Human Rights Watch told reporters. "Refugees who are arrested face the prospect of rotting in jail indefinitely unless they agree to return to Iraq and face the dangers there." There are at least 40,000 Iraqi refugees in Lebanon, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

……The World Food Programme (WFP) reported Dec. 4 that about a third of Iraqis in Syria are skipping one meal a day in order to feed their children. WFP officials said nearly 60 percent of Iraqi refugees reported purchasing cheaper, less nutritious food in the face of a dramatic increase in food prices.

Desperation comes in all professions

An educated Iraqi, a veterinary surgeon who asked to be called Omar, arrived on the coast of Italy this summer after 30 hours drifting at sea. In a small backpack, which was all he carried on the overcrowded rubber dinghy, was a computer memory stick containing copies of his passport, diplomas and letters. Those documents, upon which his future depended, portray an often unnoticed group of migrants trying to get into Europe: The professional people who move by any desperate means from one unwelcome way station to another. "They are honest people, they are professionals, they respect the rules, they felt so embarrassed, so sorry they had done something illegal," Laura Boldrini, one of the officials from the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees who interviewed the new arrival.

Baghdad may be safer, but few Iraqis in Syria risk returning

On a recent chilly afternoon, Bahija Jawad, an Iraqi grandmother living here, was out for a stroll when she noticed drivers looking for passengers to fill several large, white GMC trucks destined for Iraq. "Baghdad! Baghdad! Rides to Baghdad!" the drivers called. Jawad began to feel faint at the mention of her beloved hometown, which she fled earlier this year after gunmen forced her from her home. "When I heard those drivers, I could barely stand, and I started to cry," Jawad, 61, recalled this week at her apartment in Damascus. "One of the boys came up to me and said, 'Auntie, it's OK if you don't have the money. I'll take you for free.' I told him it wasn't a matter of money. We just can't go back now."

JORDAN: Iraqi asylum-seekers fall victim to resettlement scams

Many Iraqi asylum-seekers in Jordan have fallen victim to resettlement scams in which they are approached by individuals claiming to guarantee their resettlement in a third country with the help of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), according to UN officials and Iraqi residents. There are no exact figures about the number of those who have been defrauded but testimonies of individuals and police records show they are in the thousands. Officials from the Ministry of Interior declined to say how many people have been arrested in connection with such scams. "We heard… rumours from within the Iraqi community about certain individuals who charge money to asylum-seekers, promising to guarantee their resettlement with the help of the UNHCR. We are here to assure everybody that the UNHCR does not charge money for relocation applications or other procedures," said Imran Riza, the UNHCR representative in Jordan.

How to Help Iraqi Refugees

ANOTHER Way to help: The Collateral Repair Project

COMMENTARY

'Meeting Resistance': The movie

Yesterday I was finally able to get to see the movie 'Meeting Resistance', which was showing at George Washington University's student center. It's a gutsy, very well-executed look at the early months of the Iraqi resistance to US occupation, told in the form of intercut interviews with ten participants in the resistance.

The film-makers are Molly Bingham and Steve Connors, she American, he British, both of them with backgrounds as war-zone photographers. They had been in Baghdad during the US invasion in March 2003, and stayed around to "shoot" newspix of the aftermath... But soon enough they became curious about the-- at that time-- small incidents and altercations that the US occupiers met from some of the Iraqis, and in classic journalistic mode they set out to "meet" and try to report on the members of this emerging resistance. This inquiry then took onthe form of film, a new medium for both of them I think. They worked as a small, two-person team. Steve shot the footage and arranged the sound recording while Molly asked the questions in the interviews.

They shot the footage over the course of ten months-- up until May 2004-- working in the largely middle-class, north Baghdad district of Adhamiyeh. (You can read more about their modus operandi here.) All the interviewees required that their names not be used. Only one agreed to let his face be shown. The rest are all shot in a way that conceals their identities. One is a woman. One is a non-Iraqi. A number-- I think Steve said three?-- were Shiites. They come from a variety of social and professional backgrounds. They talk on-camera about, mainly, their strongly nationalistic, anti-occupation motivations for becoming involved with the resistance-- though for just about all of them, their Muslim religious belief was also to one degree or another a part of their motivation. One of them actually is an imam.

RESISTANCE

ANTI-WAR RESISTANCE GROWS

National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance, Year 2007 Resistance Against the War Update - I am of the opinion that there has never been a movement in U.S. history with the number of arrests which have taken place in opposition to the Iraq War. This list of appeals, arrests and legal cases is not all-inclusive. Please send additions, corrections and updates to mobuszewski at verizon dot net.

We Support the Troops Who Oppose the War

On the weekend of 13-15 March, 2008, Iraq Veterans Against the War will assemble history's largest gathering of US veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as Iraqi and Afghan survivors. They will provide first hand accounts of their experiences and reveal the truth of occupation. We support Iraq Veterans Against the War and their Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan Investigation. Join us in supporting the effort to reveal truth in the way that only those who lived it can.

Please go to this website to sign the petition.

Christmas in Fallujah And No One Gives A Damn

Quotes of the day: The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it... Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate.... Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. - Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.