|
by Sarah Meyer,
member of the
BRussells
Tribunal Advisory Committee
(17
April 2007) Sarah Meyer articles and researches published by the BRussells Tribunal |
"Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate" Dante, Inferno.
Girls look through a fence at a refugee camp in Mosul April 5, 2007.
About 250 families moved from Tal Afar town to camps in Mosul since
last weeks' violence attacks. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled al-Mousuly
1. General
2.
Children of Iraq
3. Cities in Iraq
4. Health in Iraq
5. Refugees in Iraq
6. Human Rights in
Iraq
7. Death in Iraq
8. Resistance in
Iraq
9. Videos
Video. Iraq street scenes
before Shock and Awe.
Life in Hell: A Baghdad Diary.
06.08.06. A. Ghosh, Time / Truth Out.
In Baghdad, the American Army Erects Walls Between Communities.
16.08.06. R. Ourdan, le Monde / Truth Out.
IRAQ: Children living without limbs lack support.
04.02.07. Irin. According to Save the Children, a UK-based NGO, many
children were killed or injured in the initial US-led invasion of Iraq in
April and March 2003. The NGO said the injured children continue to suffer
the effects of the conflict, have become more vulnerable to chronic diseases
and lack assistance. … The exact number of children living without limbs in
Iraq, as a result of the war and the daily violence countrywide, is not
known. However, local NGOs estimate that they must be in the thousands.
"Every explosion, air strike, fighting or targeting in Iraq makes a child
injured. In addition, we cannot forget the remaining UXOs [unexploded
ordnance] whose victims are mostly children," Khalid Ala'a, spokesman for
local NGO Keeping Children Alive (KCA), said. "If you make a summation of
all these children, they are going to be thousands and we cannot forget that
the number of them killed since April 2003 by diseases, explosions or
bullets, has reached 260,000," Ala'a added.
IRAQ: 4.5 million children undernourished.
05.03.07. Reuters / Irin.
60,000 Marriages broken by Iraq, Including Mine.
05.03.07. Stacy Bannerman, Alternet.
Third of Iraqi children now malnourished four years after US invasion.
16.03.07. Caritas Report
70% of Iraqi schoolchildren show symptoms of trauma.
17.04.07. USA Today.
In Baghdad, the American Army Erects Walls Between Communities.
16.08.06. R. Ourdan, le Monde / Truth Out.
Insecurity prevents clean-up of Iraq pollution.
07.02.07. Reuters. "We have identified more than 350 priority polluted
areas, which include amounts of hazardous chemicals and depleted uranium,"
Environment Minister Nermeen Othman said on the sidelines of a major U.N.
environment conference in Kenya. Environmentalists and anti-nuclear
activists have linked depleted uranium used in U.S. and British munitions to
higher Iraqi cancer rates and birth defects after the 1991 war and called
for swift clean up campaigns. … polluted "hot spots", like the Khan Dhari
petrochemicals site west of Baghdad that was partly burned down by looters
during the war in March 2003.
The Locusts
26.02.07. Felicity Arbuthnot, Global Research. Killing Civilization in
Mesopotamia. After the illegal invasion, the US military did the
unthinkable. They made a camp in the great turquoise memorial to the half
million lost souls of the Iran-Iraq war The locusts in uniform, who have
destroyed Iraq, humanity, sustenance, its history, predating the time of
Christ and the Prophet Mohammed, are never, it seems, satiated or satisfied.
From the early defiling (ongoing) of Mosques, cemeteries (Muslim, Christian,
Yazidi ...) even the sacred tributes to the memory of the martyrs are being
destroyed and defiled.
Iraq: New Martial Law Powers Threaten Basic Rights
01.03.07. uruknet. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's new security plan
for Baghdad grants military commanders sweeping powers to arrest people and
restrict their basic freedoms of speech and association, Human Rights Watch
said today.
BAGHDAD CHAOS PLAN.
03.03.07. McClatchy. Iraqi government call it (BAGHDAD SECURITY PLAN) and we
call it (BAGHDAD CHAOS PLAN) every single member in the security system
taking money from the people to be released like for example I have paid in
one day 30,000 Iraqi dinars to the traffic police and the peace keeping
forces to be forgiven for the mistake that I did, my mistake was that I was
driving my car in the street to go to my work in the time that I not suppose
to be driving I mean the government have sill! y law obligate me to drive
three days a week in the street in Baghdad because the numbers of the car as
you know the (odds and even ) numbers my car was odd and I was driving in
the even day so can you imagine he took 15,000 Iraqi dinars to him self
instead giving me the 30,000 Iraqi dinars penalty recede from the government
and the keeping peace forces guy did the same thing at the time that it is
non of his responsibility….
Full electricity in Baghdad 6 years off.
03.03.07. Baltimore Sun. ( is that a
promise?) Getting full-time electric power turned on in Baghdad,
a key wartime goal toward which the United States has spent $4.2 billion
dollars, won't be accomplished until the year 2013, U.S. officials said
yesterday, in what others called a significant setback for the new U.S.
initiatives to quell Iraq's bloody insurgency.
US asks us to pick up litter while city is in ruins, says mayor of Baghdad.
04.03.07. Damien McElroy, Telegraph.
Four years into the
occupation: No health for Iraq.
22.03.07. Dr. Bert De Belder, BRussells
Tribunal. Iraq’s health status, four years into the occupation, is nothing
short of disastrous. Iraq’s health index has deteriorated to a level not
seen since the 1950s, says Joseph Chamie, former director of the United
Nation’s Population Division and an Iraq specialist. People’s health status
is determined by social, economic and environmental factors much more than
by the availability of healthcare. Not surprisingly, all these factor! s
have deteriorated in the course of the occupation...
Shortage of safe water risks cholera in Iraq -U.N..
22.03.07. Suleiman al-KhalidiReuters / uruknet. United Nations agencies
working in Iraq warned on Thursday a chronic shortage of safe drinking water
risks causing more child deaths and an outbreak of waterborne disease such
as cholera during the summer.
Thousands without food and supplies due to failing distribution system.
17.04.07. Report, IRIN. "The effectiveness and efficiency of the PDS ...
have declined significantly," said the report issued on 10 April by the
Washington-based NGO Refugees International (RI), an advocacy group.
Iraqis on the Run.
04.02.07. P. Cockburn, Counterpunch / ICHBlog. Iraq is experiencing the
biggest exodus in the Middle East since Palestinians were forced to flee in
1948 upon the creation of Israel. "We were forced to leave our house six
months ago and since then we have moved more than eight times," said Abu
Mustafa, a 56-year-old man from Baghdad. "Sectarian violence has now even
reached the displacement camps but we are tired of running away. Sometimes I
have asked myself if it is not better to die than to live like a Bedouin all
my life."
War in Iraq Propelling A Massive Migration.
04.02.07. Washington Post. As the fourth year of war nears its end, the
Middle East's largest refugee crisis since the Palestinian exodus from
Israel in 1948 is unfolding in a climate of fear, persecution and tragedy.
Nearly 2 million Iraqis -- about 8 percent of the prewar population -- have
embarked on a desperate migration, mostly to Jordan, Syria and Lebanon,
according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. The refugees include
large numbers of doctors, academics and other professionals vital for Iraq's
recovery. Another 1.7 million have been forced to move to safer towns and
villages inside Iraq, and as many as 50,000 Iraqis a month flee their homes,
the U.N. agency said in January.
The State Department's Rosy Deception on Iraq Refugees.
09.02.07. Electronic iraq. The message from the State Department paints a
picture that is filled with the positivity of good works being carried out
in the name of America. From Jordan the view is different.
Iraq: The facts on displaced persons and refugees">Iraq: The facts on
displaced persons and refugees.
28.02.07. Relief Web. The situation currently facing Iraqi refugees and
internally displaced persons has very quickly become one of the most
pressing humanitarian crises in the world.
Leaving Iraq: Tales from a new diaspora.
04.03.07. The Star. REFUGEES | Nearly 2 million Iraqis, about 8 per cent of
the pre-war population, are fuelling a desperate migration.
UN Plans to Open Iraqi Refugee Office in Jordan.
06.03.07. Democracy Now.
Europe Struggles with Inlfux of Iraqi Refugees.
06.03.07. NPR/ICH. After four years of chaos and violence, nearly two
million Iraqis remain outside their country, according to the UN agency for
refugees.
Video Report.. Iraq’s growing
refugee crisis. Channel 4 News (12.03.07)
No Child Left Behind? Iraqi Edition.
13.03.07. R. Palta, Mother Jones / uruknet. 'few of the estimated 172,000 to
230,000 school-aged Iraq War refugees living Jordan are enrolled in school.
Those children, many of whom are from middle class Iraqi families, lack the
proper residency status to qualify for public school, and their families
lack the finances to enroll their children in private institutions. As a
result, over a hundred thousand Iraqi children have been out of school for
as many as 4 years now--and that's just counting those in Jordan. '
U.N. seeks $1.7M to feed Iraqi refugees.
15.03.07. AP. 'The World Food Program has launched an appeal for $1.7
million to help feed tens of thousands of Iraqi refugees who are continue to
arrive in Syria and increasingly without the resources to sustain
themselves.'
More Iraqi refugees expected in Europe.
16.03.07. AP / The State. The number of Iraqi refugees arriving in Europe is
expected to double to 40,000 in 2007 based on trends from the first two
months of the year, the U.N. refugee agency said Friday
World 'ignoring Iraqi refugees'.
20.03.07. BBC/legitgov. The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) says there has been an
"abject denial" around the world of the humanitarian impact of invading
Iraq. Syria says it is home to 1.2m Iraqi refugees, with up to 800,000 in
Jordan.
Thousands without food and supplies due to failing distribution system.
22.03.07. REFUGEES INTERNATIONAL
Iraqi Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons: A Deepening Humanitarian
Crisis?.
23.03.07. CRS REPORT.
Iraq: Time to Acknowledge and Address the Displacement Crisis.
03.04.07. Kristele Younes, Refugees International /alertnet. 'The
humanitarian and displacement crisis in Iraq is growing in intensity and
gravity. The UN estimates that more than two million Iraqis are now refugees
in neighboring countries and more than 1.9 million have fled for safer areas
within Iraq. Of these internally displaced people (IDPs), more than 730,000
have fled since the Samarra Shrine bombing of February 2006, which
intensified the sectarian violence that is tearing Iraq apart.'
Child Refugees from Iraq Require Targeted Assistance in Host Countries.
09.04.07. Reuters. ' As violence in Iraq continues to add to the largest
refugee crisis in the Middle East in half a century,
World Vision has launched a combined advocacy and relief effort to
assist children and families fleeing to neighboring countries. Some 2
million Iraqis have left their volatile homeland and many are struggling to
cope without access to health care, legal employment or education for their
children in host countries.'
Refugees Speak of Escape from Hell.
11.04.07. Dahr Jamail, IPS / uruknet. 'Refugees from Iraq scattered around
Damascus describe hellish conditions in the country they managed to leave
behind.'
Iraq: New humanitarian crisis looms as more than three million Iraqis
displaced by war.
16.04.07. Amnesty International Press Release.
UN Refugee Agency Turns Spotlight on Iraqis.
17.04.07. Khody Akhavi,, Electronic Iraq. Nearly four million Iraqis have
been displaced in and outside their country since the U.S.-led invasion in
2003, making it the largest exodus of people in the Middle East since the
creation of Israel in 1948. The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, on
Tuesday will convene a two-day conference in Geneva to address Iraq's
deepening humanitarian crisis.
US and UK Bear Special Duty to Aid Refugees.
17.04.07. Statement, Human Rights Watch. Iraq's neighbors are closing off
escape routes to Iraqi asylum seekers, just as the international community
has begun to respond to the 2 million refugees from the war, Human Rights
Watch said in a briefing paper released today. ... The briefing paper
focuses on new restrictive measures taken by Jordan and Egypt to prevent
more refugees from coming. Syria, which is hosting about 1 million Iraqis,
denied visas to Human Rights Watch researchers seeking to document their
situation. Saudi Arabia is building a US$7 billion high-tech barrier on its
border with Iraq to keep Iraqis out, while Kuwait is categorically rejecting
Iraqi asylum seekers.
War Crimes Committed by the United States in Iraq and Mechanisms for
Accountability
10.10.06. Report, Consumers for Peace. This report was prepared by Consumers
for Peace.org with the advice of Karen Parker, noted lawyer in human rights
and humanitarian law. Ms. Parker is President of the San Francisco-based
Association of Humanitarian Lawyers
www.humanlaw.org) and Chief Delegate to the United Nations for the Los
Angeles-based International Educational Development/Humanitarian Law Project
(IED/AHL), an accredited non-governmental organization on the U.N.
Secretary-General’s list.
See also
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article15261.htm
Routine Practices of Torture by US Forces in Iraq: Testimony of Abbas Z.
Abid to the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission
23.02.07. Global Research.ca.
Rape Cases emerge From the Shadows
01.03.07. Dahr Jamail. Reports of the gang-rape of 20-year-old Sabrine al-Janabi
by three policemen has set off new demands for justice from Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki's government.
Iraq: An ever-worsening crisis.
11.04.07. International Red Cross (ICRC) news. In a report issued today in
Geneva, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) expresses alarm
about the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Iraq and calls for urgent
action to better protect civilians against the continuing violence.
FULL ICRC REPORT. IRAQ: CIVILIANS WITHOUT PROTECTION.
Outrage over Imminent Execution of Iraqi Women
02.03.07. Dahr Jamail. Three young women accused of joining the Iraqi
insurgency movement and engaging in "terrorism" have been sentenced to
death, provoking protest from rights organisations fearing that this could
be the start of more executions of women in post-Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
REPORTS
The Human Cost of the War in Iraq: A Mortality Study, 2002-2006
09.10.06. Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University,
Baltimore, Maryland; School of Medicine, Al Mustansiriya University,
Baghdad, Iraq; in cooperation with the Center for International Studies,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts. See also
related Appendix
ACLU Releases Files on Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq
12.04.07. ACLU. Americans Have a Right to Unfiltered Information About the
Human Costs of War, ACLU Says. NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union
today made public hundreds of claims for damages by family members of
civilians killed or injured by Coalition Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The
ACLU received the records in response to a Freedom of Information Act
request it filed in June 2006.
IRAQ: Violence distressing mental state of population.
31.01.07. Irin. Bullets and bombs are killing thousands of civilians every
month in Iraq while the psychological impact of the ongoing violence is
affecting the mental health of millions and is a major cause for concern for
future generations, psychologists say. See Guardian headlines:
here.
ARTICLES
Almost 2,000 bodies taken to Baghdad morgue (July).
09.08.06. Reuters.
U.S. count of Baghdad deaths excludes car bombs, mortar attacks
08.09.06. M Brunswick / Z. Obeid, McClatchy.
4,000 Iraq Police Killed in Past 2 Years
06.10.06. AP / Forbes.
Medics Beg For Help As Iraqis Die Needlessly
20.10.06. J. Laurance, Independent. Medical facts for Iraq.
Another US crime in Ashaqi Photographic evidence
08.12.06. Roads to Iraq, uruknet.
For hanging of Saddam Hussein, see ‘Updates,
Index on US Bases, Baghdad
Unacceptable death toll in Iraq, say Americans
28.02.07. Angus Reid. 77% of respondents believe the number of U.S. military
casualties and Iraqi civilian casualties has been unacceptable.
Occupation killed a family of seven members in Iraq
25.02.07. Roads to Iraq. - Residents in Aana city in Anbar-province reported
that US occupation forces destroyed the Communication and Post Center
building. ... An eyewitness said that US soldiers put explosives in the
building and destroy it, no one injured in the process but part of the city
hospital which is close to the building was damaged.
- Reported on Qudspress, an Iraqi ambulance man, reported that US military
killed a family of seven people with their taxi driver, in their way to
leave Iraq for Jordan. ... The eyewitness Ahmed Khalaf Aljoaani said:
American forces opened fire on the car "GMC" with a family in it, a father,
the mother and five children and the taxi driver in their way to Jordan to
escape the deteriorating situation, all killed. The American forces blocked
the area of the incident, which was on the international highway, near Al-Qaim
city for an hour, re-opening after the removal of the bodies, and prevented
two photo-journalists from photographing the accident.
Another Casualty: Coverage of the Iraq War
24.03.07. Dahr Jamail. 'Iraq is the most dangerous place in the world for
journalists. Along with names and dates, the Brussels Tribunal has listed
the circumstances under which Iraqi media personnel have been killed since
the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003. This extremely credible report
cites 195 as dead. If non-Iraqi media representatives are included, the
figure goes beyond 200. Both figures are well in excess of the media
fatalities suffered in Vietnam or during World War II"
(from
Foreign Policy in Focus ). 'The primary reason why reporting from Iraq
is dangerous for all journalists is the horrific security situation. Iraqi
journalists reporting from the streets are in perpetual danger. If any of
the countless militias does not want a certain story made public, it will
make sure that the journalist has filed his or her last story. Not to
mention the scores of reporter deaths which have been the combined handiwork
of the Iraqi government, occupation forces and/or criminal gangs. . Despite
President Bush’s assertion that life in Iraq is improving, a senior Iraqi
journalist was found dead in the capital on March 3, 2007. On the same day
the body of the managing editor of Baghdad’s al-Safir newspaper, Jamal al-Zubaidi,
was found shot in the head.'
Counting the cost
27.03.07. R. Horton, Guardian. Richard Horton. It's time we held our leaders
to account for the 650,000 Iraqi dead. 'Our collective failure has been to
take our political leaders at their word. This week, the BBC reported that
the government's own scientists advised ministers that the Johns Hopkins
study on Iraq civilian mortality was accurate and reliable. This paper was
published in the Lancet last October. It estimated that 650,000 Iraqi
civilians had died since the American- and British-led invasion in March
2003.'
Fallujah Fears a 'Genocidal Strategy'
30.03.07. Ali al-Fadhily, Dahr Jamail website, Interpress. Iraqis in the
volatile al-Anbar province west of Baghdad are reporting regular killings
carried out by U.S. forces that many believe are part of a 'genocidal'
strategy.
US compensation files for Iraqi, Afghan civilian deaths released under FOIA
12.04.07. The Jurist. A searchable database documenting civilian casualties.
There are 479 files from Iraq and 17 from Afghanistan. 'While some claims
were denied because the incidents arose from enemy action or occurred during
combat situations, other incidents resulted in cash payments. When the
military admits fault, the payments are labeled as "compensation."
"Condolence" payments, which the military offers as expressions of sympathy,
can be awarded without military admission of fault and are capped at $2500.'
Iraq: US Data on Civilian Casualties Raises Serious Concerns
12.04.07. Human Rights Watch. US government documents made public by court
order raise serious concerns about the number of civilian casualties caused
by American soldiers and contractors in Iraq and the standards under which
it pays compensation to Iraqi victims, Human Rights Watch said today. The
records, which document compensation claims made by the families of Iraqis
killed by US troops, were revealed today by the American Civil Liberties
Union (ACLU).
The assassination of two professors from Mosul University
04.07. Al mosul. Another wave of assassination of Academics in Mosul. Dr
Talal Al-Jalili and Dr Jaffer. For further information on academic deaths,
see
The Brussels Tribunal website
See thoughtful article by Joshua Holland,
Violence like that at Virginia Tech is commonplace in Iraq's universities
+
MEANWHILE: THE US/UK ARE ON ANOTHER PLANET
New York dinner raises $18m. for IDF (Friends of the Israeli Defense
Forces). Bizarre and obscene?
One Picture Sits Over Differing Surveys.
26.03.07. Ali al-Fadhily, Inter Press Service. 'The Sunday Times of London
published the results of a survey Mar. 18 carried out by the British firm
Opinion Research Business that claimed that most Iraqis prefer life under
the new government to life under Saddam Hussein.'
Who paid for this “survey”?
The Iraqi resistance only exists to end the occupation.
12.04.07. Haifa Zangana. 'It is important to recognise that the resistance
was born not only of ideological, religious and patriotic convictions, but
also as a response to the reality of the brutal actions of the occupation
and its administration. It is a response to arbitrary break-ins, humiliating
searches, arrests, detention and torture. According to the Red Cross, "the
number of people arrested or interned by the multinational forces has
increased by 40% since early 2006. The number of people held by the Iraqi
authorities has also increased significantly ... Many of the security
detainees are women who have been subjected to abuse and rape and who are
often arrested as a means to force male relatives to confess to crimes they
have not committed. According to the Iraqi MP Mohamed al-Dainey, there are
65 documented cases of women's rape in occupation detention centres in 2006.
Four women currently face execution - the death penalty for women was
outlawed in Iraq from 1965 until 2004 - for allegedly killing security force
members. These are accusations they deny and Amnesty International has
challenged. . There is only one solution to this disaster, and that is for
the US and Britain to accept that the Iraqi resistance is fighting to end
the occupation.’
Sadr's Rising Star to Eclipse Bush's Surge? .
17.04.07. Electronic Iraq writes: "The prospect of Sadr's appeal extending
to a section of theSunni community, with the tacit support of grand
ayatollah Ali Sistani, is the nightmare scenario that the Bush
administration most dreads. Yet it may come to pass." SUPERB MUST READ
ARTICLE by Dilip Hiro. 'This indeed was the case with the demonstration on
April 9 in Najaf. Over a million Iraqis, holding aloft thousands of national
flags, marched, chanting, "Yes, yes, Iraq/No, no, America" and "No, no,
American/Leave, leave occupier." Both the size of the demonstration and its
composition were unprecedented. "There are people here from all different
parties and sects," Hadhim al-Araji, Sadr's representative in Baghdad's
Kadhimiya district, told reporters. "We are all carrying the national flag,
a symbol of unity. And we are all united in calling for the withdrawal of
the Americans."... Crucially, the mammoth demonstration reflected the view
prevalent among Iraqi lawmakers. Last autumn, 170 of them in a 275-member
Parliament, signed a motion, demanding to know the date of a future American
withdrawal.' The demonstrators arrived from all over the country in response
to a call by Muqtada al-Sadr, a radical Shiite cleric, to demand an end to
foreign occupation on the fourth anniversary of the end of Baathist rule in
Baghdad.
Sadr raises pressure for US to withdraw
17.04.07. Damien McElroy, The Telegraph. The United States faced a fresh
challenge to its presence in Iraq yesterday when supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr's
radical Shia Muslim movement quit the Baghdad government to demand a
deadline for withdrawal of its troops.
Video. U.S. soldiers shooting
Iraqi civilians (23.03.07) 2 min.
Video. US soldiers destroyed
civilians houses in Baghdad (25.03.07, Roads to Iraq / uruknet)...
Expat film maker charts Baghdad's dying past.
03.04.07. reuters.
Video. Je m'appelle Baghdad
Video.
US_Soldiers_Run_an_Iraqi_Off_the_Road. It would probably be nice
to check on the guy that you just caused to roll his truck. To see if he's,
you know, dead or something.
Unspeakable Grief and Horror.
Thewe. Photos and stories.
+
The url to Index on Iraq: A Journey in Hell is: http://indexresearch.blogspot.com/2007/04/index-on-iraq-journey-in-hell.html
First published by the BRussells
Tribunal:
http://www.brusselstribunal.org/Meyer/Iraq.htm
A short url is:
http://tinyurl.com/2g6x7d
See articles of Sarah Meyer published by the BRussells Tribunal website: http://www.brusselstribunal.org/Meyer.htm
+
Sarah Meyer
is a researcher living in the UK