Easy Riders on the Tigris19 Nov 2006The traffic chaos and the constant fuel crisis are driving a fast-growing motorcycle market in Baghdad. Demand for new models is high, but trading in second-hand ones is also becoming quite lucrative. The traffic police authorities say they do not have a figure for how many motorcycles have been imported. And since April 2003, there have been no regulations for riders, while license plates are not issued anymore. This report, by an Iraqi journalist in Baghdad, is about more than motorcucles, its about Iraqis attempting to adapt to a country transformed by war.
Life as a street seller…dodging bombs19 Nov 2006Ususally we feature diaries written by Iraqis. This diary features the thoughts, experiences and fears of an illiterate Iraqi street vendor, Amin, and is not written by him. “When Amin leaves his house in a suburb of the capital at 6am every morning” this short profile begins, “he needs to choose carefully where to sell his goods from. Frequent explosions have forced him to change his location daily. Carrying three big sacks full of electronic gadgets made in China and pirate CDs made at home, Amin takes the first bus he sees to find different places to sell his wares and make money to feed his family of nine.”
Neglected nurses fight their own war19 Nov 2006“Iraq is suffering a dearth of nurses. Those who could afford to have already fled to neighbouring countries. Those with working husbands stay at home, afraid of the escalating violence. But the rest must soldier on in their fight against fear and poverty. More than 160 nurses have been murdered since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and more than 400 wounded, according to al-Mawin. In addition, he said thousands had fled the country or were forced to leave their work after receiving threats from insurgents and militia fighters”
Dutch Defence Minister denies abuse in Iraq17 Nov 2006Just days before a general election, Dutch Defence Minister Henk Kamp was under fire on Saturday for not making public possible abuses of prisoners by military intelligence officers in Iraq in 2003. Defence Minister Kamp said he was aware that Dutch troops had interrogated Iraqi prisoners but did not know of any abuses. Kamp said military police investigated the case in 2003 and that inquiries did not reveal any crimes took place. “I think prisoners should be treated with great care… That’s the reason why I have decided to launch an independent enquiry,” he said. The minister said an earlier inquiry had concluded “no reprehensible deeds took place”.
Locals Accuse U.S. of Massacre in Ramadi17 Nov 2006U.S. military tank fire killed scores of civilians in Ramadi, capital of Al-Anbar province, late Monday night, according to witnesses and doctors. Anger and frustration were evident at the hospitals and during the funerals in the following days. Iraqi doctors and witnesses at the scene of the attack said U.S. tanks killed 35 civilians when they shelled several homes in the Al-Dhubat area of the city. Ramadi, located 110 km west of Baghdad, has been beset with sporadic but intense violence between occupation forces and insurgents for several months.
Investigation into Dutch misconduct in Iraq16 Nov 2006The Dutch government will install an independent commission to investigate the process of interrogation by Dutch military intelligence in Iraq. The investigation will look into the conduct of these intelligence officers during interrogation of fifteen Iraqi prisoners during the month of October in 2003 in the Iraqi province of Muthanna. According to the Dutch leading morningpaper De Volkskrant Dutch military officers were involved in the torture of dozens of Iraqi prisoners in the southern Iraq.
Dutch officers tortured Iraqis16 Nov 2006Dutch military officers were involved in the torture of dozens of Iraqi prisoners in the southern Iraq province of Al Muthanna, it has been claimed. In November 2003, a cell of the Military Intelligence and Security Service carried out “hard-handed interrogations”. Members of the Dutch Parliament today called for an investigation into reports the nation’s military intelligence abused Iraqi prisoners in 2003.
Documentary on death squads in Iraq16 Nov 2006London’s Channel 4 has aired the first documentary attempt to document and explain the tragedy of Shi’ite death squads in Iraq. We’ve included it here. There are graphic scenes, to be sure (it is about death squads, after all). But Channel 4 has only used graphic footage to the extent that it is necessary to illustrate the grim reality of death squad violence in Iraq. Other scenes, while not graphic, are disturbing and provide a rare glimpse at what life for millions of Iraqis has become.
Ethnic tensions mount in Kirkuk16 Nov 2006There are fears that Iraq’s northern city of Kirkuk will be a hot spot for increased violence following a mass influx of Kurds into the city in a bid to reverse the Arabisation policy of the government of ousted president Saddam Hussein. “People are dying every day in Kirkuk because everyone wants to control the city, which over the years was under the Sunni Arabs and the Turkmen. In the past two years, it has come into Kurdish hands,” said Saleh Younis, political analyst and spokesperson for North Political and Sociological Group (NPSG), a local organisation that monitors political tension in northern Iraq.
Farmers in Dire Straits16 Nov 2006“The prime minister seems not to be aware of the real problems we are facing here,” Haji Jassim, a farmer from the rural Al-Jazeera area near Ramadi, told IPS. Speaking from a relative’s home in Baghdad, he added, “What he is talking about would have been good if prices were the only problem, but someone should explain to him the other obstacles we are facing.” Jassim said that one of the main problems is lack of manpower, “since most of our young men who were not killed by U.S. and Iraqi troops are in jail or missing.”
The frustrated farmer added that obstacles like lack of electricity, fuel and security in the field and “dozens of others, should be known to the man who claims to be our supporter.”
Blaming the victim16 Nov 2006“On Tuesday, Senator Carl Levin (D-MI), incoming chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee; argued his case for phased redeployment of US troops from Iraq. In a startling statement, he highlighted his belief that the US must reconsider its goals in Iraq, because, “We can’t save the Iraqis from themselves.” The problem, according to the Democratic leadership, is not the occupation; it’s the failure of Iraqis to make the US-imposed system work.” Noah Merrill reacts to a growing antiwar sentiment that is increasingly “blaming the victim.”
Malachi Ritscher, 1954-200615 Nov 2006In this thoughtful and troubling rememberence, Nitsuh Abebe reflects on the immolation suicide of Malachi Ritscher, a Chicago peace activist and entrenched member of Chicago’s avant-garde jazz community. On November 3, Ritscher doused himself with gasoline on a highway overpass and lit himself on fire. He had with him a sign that read “Thou Shalt Not Kill.” The question everyone’s asking, Abebe writes, is: “Was Malachi Ritscher a political martyr or a mentally troubled suicide?” That question, the writer determines, is a distraction.
Iraq’s future hangs in the balance15 Nov 2006Iraqi society has reacted with mixed sentiments to new signals from the White House indicating a change in US policy in Iraq. With insecurity and humanitarian crises escalating in the country, the one thing all sides agree is that something has to change. In this report, Iraqis consider difficult issues like disarming militias, an international peacekeeping force, and civil war.
Sources of violence15 Nov 2006“Ironically,” writes veteran Iraq activist Kathy Kelly, “I think some of the people who can best empathize with Iraqi refugees are the U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq, far from their homes and families. Displaced Iraqi refugees describe to us how they want to take care of their children, how they’re beset by feelings of uncertainty and anxiety, and how, sometimes, they have a lot of “down time” with no meaningful work. I’m guessing that similar conversations happen amongst U.S. military in Iraq. A major difference is that vast sums of money are spent to maintain the U.S. soldiers in Iraq and to equip them with weapons and supplies.”
An unforgettable week15 Nov 2006Iraqi blogger Baghdad Treasure translates a grim diary from a friend. “It has been almost two weeks since I talked to Ahmed,” he writes, introducing his friends diary, “one of my best friends, who lives in my neighborhood. I received an email from him. To be honest, I don’t know whether I should be happy or sad after reading this email. On one hand I am happy because he is alive and on the other I am sad because of the content of this email broke my heart.”
The Meaning of Gates: From Imperial Offense to Imperial Defense14 Nov 2006“There are many reasons why President George W. Bush might have wanted to replace Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld with Robert M. Gates,” writes Michael Klare, “To distance himself from the current military disaster in Iraq, to make the adoption of a new Iraqi strategy easier, to prevent further disunity within the military, or to clear the path for a revival of Republican fortunes in the 2008 elections. All of these may, in fact, have been contributing factors in Gates’ appointment; yet, on a deeper level, the move can also be read as signaling a momentous shift in America’s global posture—from imperial offense to imperial defense.”
Health wokers risk lives to go door-to-door in immunisation campaign14 Nov 2006The Ministry of Health is in the midst of a five-day national polio immunisation campaign to protect 4.8 million Iraqi children after countrywide security problems delayed it for weeks. Launched on Sunday and ending on Thursday, the campaign involves more than 5,400 health workers. They are going house-to-house across Iraq to immunise every child under five against polio. “In Iraq security concerns over children have delayed a serious matter. 69 percent of the population has no access to drinking water and 19 percent has no sewage access, making the health of those children more vulnerable to diseases,” said Ahmed Obeid, press officer in the Ministry of Health.
Human Rights Groups Seek Criminal Investigation In Germany Of Rumsfeld13 Nov 2006The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the Republican Attorneys’ Association (RAV) and others, represented by Berlin Attorney Wolfgang Kaleck, filed a criminal complaint in Germany today alleging that high-ranking U.S. civilian and military officials, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, committed war crimes in Iraq and in the U.S.-controlled Guantanamo Bay prison camp. Additional co-plaintiffs include dozens of international human rights groups from various regions in the world, Nobel Peace Prize winners Aldolfo Perez Esquirel and Martin Almada, as well as Theo van Boven, the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture.
Iraqi TV journalist gunned down in Mosul13 Nov 2006The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the brutal murder of an Iraqi journalist in Mosul today. Unidentified gunmen shot Muhammad al-Ban, 58, a reporter and cameraman for the privately owned Al-Sharqiya TV, as he was leaving his home in Mosul’s al-Nour neighborhood at around 8 a.m., according to CPJ sources.
Get lost…13 Nov 2006Recently, Kathy Kelly writes, “the New York Times featured a chart it had obtained in which the U.S. military used a color coded layout to chart variables that contributed toward a dreaded total chaos in Iraq. If we earnestly ask why people who undertake terrorist acts against the U.S. and its allies would be so angry, we find claims not so different from the ones that fueled the U.S. Revolutionary War: people don’t like to live under occupation; they don’t want to turn over their resources to a far away country; they don’t want foreign bases on their soil—and they don’t want to carry their children, starved and diseased, to burial grounds.”
Mass abduction at Iraq’s Ministry of Education13 Nov 2006As many as 150 people-Sunni and Shi’ite-were abducted today from a government building belonging to Iraq’s education ministry this morning. The mass-kidnapping is the largest yet in Iraq. The operation apparently took about 20 minutes. Gunmen wearing Iraqi police commando uniforms stormed all four floors of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Scholarships and Cultural Relations Directorate, which is tasked with granting scholarships to Iraqi professors and students looking to study abroad.
Internally Displaced Persons worse off in north eastern Kirkuk Governorate13 Nov 2006An IOM report published today finds that families who have been displaced by recent sectarian violence in the oil-rich and volatile governorate of Kirkuk do not have adequate access to shelter, food, water and sanitation, healthcare and other services, such as education and legal assistance.
An urgent appeal for Palestinians fleeing Iraq13 Nov 2006The situation in Iraq continues to deteriorate quickly. It has become so untenable that over 1.5 million Iraqis of all ethnic and religious backgrounds have fled to seek refuge in neighboring countries. Palestinians, who in an act of political solidarity were welcome during Saddam Hussein’s rule, are particularly at risk. With the exception of Syria, Arab countries have now closed their borders to Iraqi refugees. Despite Syria’s policy of giving Iraqis safe haven, it has started refusing entry to Palestinians from Iraq. With an estimated 700,000 Iraqi refugees (and 2,000 to 3,000 more arriving every day) adding to the 450,000 Palestinian refugees already living in Syria, the country is quickly reaching its limits.
Karbala says it will not host additional displaced families13 Nov 2006Iraq’s Karbala province, 80 km south of the capital Baghdad, is overwhelmed with displaced families and can no longer host and provide services for an additional influx, a local official said on Monday. “The province is suffering under the pressure of the increasing number of displaced families. Service directorates like health, education and municipality are no longer capable of meeting the needs of more [displaced] families,” Ghalib al-Daami, a member of Karbala Provincial Council, told IRIN.
A new/old story in Iraq every day12 Nov 2006The Democratic victory last week means that in January, the Democrats will, to a certain extent, inherit the war in Iraq. There is already talk of a phased withdrawal to begin months after Democrats officially take over and Nancy Pelosi has thrown her weight behind Jack Murtha, nominating the pro “re-deployment” congressman for majority leader. Today’s news from Iraq is horrible. There is still tomorrow, and next week and next month. If the American public truly is hungry for a new story about the war, they are getting it every day. The new story is the old story: this war is a murderous failure.
Electronic Iraq