Iraqs traumatised children

Tears

Please go and read the story of Marwan Hussein, his wife Abdya and their two kids Hala, 5, and Yehia, 7

"For the past seven months, I've been selling half of our monthly food rations [distributed as aid by the Ministry of Trade to help poor families registered by the government] to raise some money to flee to Syria…”

This is how devastated Iraqis have become, they sell their food to flee Iraq : (

Yesterday I was told that yet another relative, a cousin of mine, have fled Iraq to Syria becouse of death threats. My other cousin (his brother) is totally traumatized, after people on a pickup shot his best friend in front of him. He is now hidden somewhere in Iraq wanting to leave ASAP. My thoughts goes to the friends family too.

My aunt who fled to Syria a year ago is now going back to see if she can get my other aunt Khawla out of Iraq. My aunt Khawla is the mother to my cousins I talked about and she had diabetes and because of the damn sanctions before she could not get enough medication to treat it, which led to her loosing her sight : (

Which western nation in heavens name could she have attacked with that medication?

Bush, Rice and their blood thirsty supporters, no one gave you the right to make Iraq your arena for wars you want to have. Take your stinking war with the troops that are willing to fight it for you out of Iraq to your own cities in the U.S. And let Iraqis pick up the pieces of the broken society as they have managed to do so many times before and come back!

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Conflict Transformation by Peaceful Means

Survey paints a devastating portrait of life in Iraq

A new national survey paints a devastating portrait of life in Iraq: Widespread violence, torn lives, displaced families, emotional damage, collapsing services, an ever-starker sectarian chasm – and a draining away of the underlying optimism that once prevailed.

STRIFE and STRESS – Such conditions create a tremendous emotional burden. Anywhere from 72 to 82 percent of Iraqis report anger about what’s happening in their country, depression, trouble sleeping and difficulty concentrating on their usual activities

– all potential indicators of traumatic stress.

Violence is the cause, its reach vast. Eighty percent of Iraqis report attacks nearby – car bombs, snipers, kidnappings, armed forces fighting each other or abusing civilians. It’s worst by far in the capital, Baghdad, but by no means confined there.

The personal toll is enormous. More than half of Iraqis, 53 percent, have a close friend or a relative who’s been hurt or killed in the current violence.

One in six says someone in their own household has been harmed. Eighty-six percent worry about a loved one being hurt; two-thirds worry deeply. Huge numbers limit their daily activities to minimize risk. Seven in 10 report multiple signs of traumatic stress.

Methodology: The poll was conducted by D3 Systems for the BBC, ABC News, ARD German TV and USA Today. More than 2,000 people were questioned in more than 450 neighbourhoods and villages across all 18 provinces of Iraq between 25 February and 5 March 2007. The margin of error is + or - 2.5%.

- The full (pdf file) can be downloaded here

- Article: Pessimism 'growing among Iraqis'

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Thank you Laith for brining this poll to my attention.

Iraq's growing refugee crisis

Iraq's growing refugee crisis

A special report on the millions of Iraqis fleeing the war in Iraq.

- United Nations High Commission for Refugees

- Swedish Migration and Asylum Policy Ministry

When Home Becomes Hell

As its middle classes flee, Iraq is losing skills, open minds and perhaps the hope of renewal. One family's story.

An estimated 2.3 million Iraqis have fled the country since the 2003 invasion. They represent the largest displacement of people in the region since the Palestinian diaspora nearly a half century ago. About 50,000 people escape Baghdad each month. A staggering 1.7 million are displaced within Iraq, while almost 2 million more have sought refuge in Syria and Jordan, 130,000 in Egypt and 50,000 in Iran. Even Sweden is feeling the effects of this war: last year alone, 9,000 Iraqis applied for asylum there, and 90 percent of those requests were approved.

Just last night I read in a Swedish forum of someone who had just learned of Sweden transporting/exporting weapons to Lebanon. The Lebanese people do not need more weapons; they need dialog with each other to solve their issues. And what Sweden should do is support actions towards that. No but our weapon industry/with the knowledge of political leaders choose to export them weapons to help who ever is going to do the killing to kill more. I can not take it any longer.

I am so fed up with the talk democratic leaders have that our societies are so much for peace. We are NOT, we are a bunch of nations whose leaders chose profits of the weapon industry over human rights, over solving conflicts peacefully. And then when the consequences come and hit us back they have the nerve and blame other people for the result (ohhh it’s the Muslims who hate our freedoms). Sure our freedom to sell weapons to their regimes that kill them and who can blame them.

What is it they want is full scale war so that in a couple of years all Arabs have been killed, all Muslims have been killed and at the same time all Africans have been killed either by starvation or aids, is that it? Is that what our leaders in the democratic world are aiming at? I just don’t get it? We know that if we keep the current development of people that we have today, in about 30 years we need 5 planets to survive. So is the genius idea to kill as many as possible of Muslims, Arabs and Africans? And since it can not be done without outrage they came up with the idea that it’s war on terror and no money for food and aids? I really don’t know? But what the heck is the weapon industry exporting so much weapons to the middle east and we know how close they are with our leaders?

Sweden is now selling weapons like hell to US troops in Iraq too, even thought its against our law (not to sell weapons to countries at war) even though Sweden said the war is illegal. But yet we do it. Then we have some Swedish people who have the nerve to complain about “too many Iraqi refugees” why don’t they instead focus on demolitioning the weapon factories in Sweden that is exporting the weapons to Iraq and making the war there just getting worse and worse. Oh no but then they say that means we’ll have thousands of people being unemployed.

Rejoice Iraqis, Iraq is being destroyed your love ones being killed but be happy at least this terrible war is giving thousands of westerners a job to go to each day to do the weapons that are needed to kill you and destroy Iraq. And rejoice the Lebanese people if you thought the 80s was bad just wait until you see the new modern improved Swedish weapons that will kill you. Remember not to die too fast when you get hit, you must send a card to the people who did the bullet that killed you. You know we are told these days in Sweden by some politicians that we should be proud of our weapon exports so you better be thankful and send us that card.

And the rest of the people who live under dictatorship rejoice you too! Why do you need democratic elections, why do you need to put investments on healthcare and educations in your country, no rejoice that the democratic countries have taken that decision for you by selling weapons to your unelected regime. Smile and be happy since your loss in society developments is of great benefit for us who live in the west!

I am fed up, angry and sad that I can not stop this madness. Ten of thousands of innocent kids die each day because of starvation and no clean water – why is that not seen as an urgent need to fix by leaders who can not stop talking about protecting humans?

There are so many people all over the world who work for conflicts to be solved thru peaceful means and that military funds should go to building healthy functioning societies instead why are we not able to stop this madness....

: (

So what’s new today when I think of Iraq and world politics? I am sad, fed up and angry. Meaning its just as yesterday and the day before that and the day before that and the day before…..

The Gulf Arab region has become a paradise for Western arms manufacturers

Beating ploughshares into swords

The Arab Gulf is arming itself, but why, asks Ayman El-Amir

Gulf Arab states are going on a shopping spree for the purchase of sophisticated Western weaponry at an estimated cost of $60 billion.

A recent report in The New York Times, of which The Daily Telegraph had published another version two months earlier, said the lethal weapons order would include Apache attack helicopters, cruise missiles, Typhoon fighters and tanks, in addition to other war accessories. Saudi Arabia, which already has US-installed and operated Patriot anti- missile batteries, will reportedly spend $50 billion, representing the lion's share of the military package.

The UAE has earmarked almost $8 billion to buy fighter aircraft, missiles and other military materiel.

Other states vying for modern armament are Kuwait and Oman. And money is no problem.

The oil revenues of Middle Eastern producing countries in 2006 is estimated at more than $400 billion, based on an average price of $57 per barrel.

Suddenly, the Gulf Arab region has become a vendor's paradise for Western arms manufacturers. An arms race is accelerating in the region, with incalculable consequences.

The question is: for what purpose?

Second update on efforts to stop the summary execution of three Iraqi women

Statement by Hana Al Bayaty, Ian Douglas, Abdul Ilah Albayaty, Iman Saadoon, Dirk Adriaensens and Ayse Berktay
(2 March 2007)



CALL FOR WORLDWIDE INTENSIFYING MOBILIZATION


Second update on efforts to stop the summary execution of three Iraqi women



Twenty-four hours ago we issued an urgent alert, stating that the defence of human rights in Iraq, as a result of US occupation and its sectarian puppet forces, is practically impossible. But the awareness by thousands of this fact explains the overwhelming mobilization we are witnessing in defence of three Iraqi women facing the gallows.

Individuals, intellectuals, women's organizations, lawyers' associations, human rights groups, trade unions and political movements effectively networked and took initiative worldwide. The popular pressure that has been built from everywhere, via numerous routes, impelled, among others:

· Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Friday 2 March, to place a direct call to Nouri El-Maliki, expressing Turkey's alarm at the proposed execution of Wassan Talib, Zainab Fadhil and Liqa Omar Muhammad
· Ann Clwyd MP, special envoy to war criminal Tony Blair on human rights in Iraq, to write to Iraqi authorities outlining her opposition to the death penalty in all cases and calling for investigations into the circumstances of the trials of the three Iraqi women
· Abdullah Gul, foreign minister of Turkey, to announce that he would raise the issue of executions in Iraq in his 3 March meetings with foreign ministers of the Arab League
· Luisa Morgantini, vice-president of the European Parliament, to remind the Iraqi government that no state has the right to kill and that Wassan, Zainab and Liqa are prisoners of war with protected status under the Geneva Conventions
· Martin Shultz, president of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament, to remind Jalal Talabani that the European Union opposes the death penalty

Today we received information via the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention that the three Iraqi women will not be executed until an appeals court has ruled on their cases. This assurance came from Iraqi authorities. It is not enough. We demand to know the charges on which these three Iraqi women stand convicted. We demand to know the date of their appeal hearings. We demand that a public statement is made. We demand that they be afforded all due protections under international human rights and humanitarian law. If charged with resisting foreign occupation and aggression, we declare this charge illegal.

While Wassan, Zainab and Liqa are no longer anonymous, 20 million other Iraqis face imminent threats in towns and cities where occupation-sponsored death squads continue to operate with impunity and where rape and torture by US and Iraqi puppet forces is endemic. Over one million have been arbitrarily deprived of the right to life and tens of thousands more arbitrarily detained. Backward and sectarian forces have been installed in power and the achievements of the Iraqi people over the past 100 years have been reduced to ashes.

The end of oppression, of summary executions and assassinations, of arbitrary detentions, rape and torture, of mass murder, civil strife and genocide, and the destruction of civilization, culture and history, comes with the end of the occupation.

The occupation of Iraq is no less than the concrete implementation of the ideology driving the so-called war on terror; permanent war, the denial of civil liberties and the exclusion of international law from international relations that prevents the peaceful coexistence and reciprocal advancement of peoples and cultures. The depth of solidarity and defence of human dignity, justice and most basic human rights expressed in the case of these three Iraqi women is proof that humanity refuses this regression.

From Berlin to Baghdad, we salute all those that through public demonstrations, personal moral conviction, or resistance in their given situation, have linked the lives of three Iraqi women -- indeed, all Iraqi women -- to the dignity and resilience of the nation of Iraq under the hammer of a defeated occupation.

As 20 March 2007 -- the fourth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq -- approaches, we hope all stay mobilized to secure the wellbeing of Wassan, Zeinab and Liqa. We demand the liberation of all political prisoners in Iraq.

We also call for worldwide, intensifying mobilization to stop this illegal blood-soaked occupation, struggle to uphold international law by retrieving recognition from the criminal sectarian puppet Iraqi government, recognizing the Iraqi Resistance as the sole representative of the will of the Iraqi people, and demanding the unconditional and immediate withdrawal of all occupation forces.
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The only solution in Iraq is the sovereignty of the Iraqi people.

We stand with millions in defence of justice. We stand with millions in defence of Iraq. Our hearts are Iraqi.


Hana Al Bayaty
Ian Douglas
Abdul Ilah Albayaty
Iman Saadoon
Dirk Adriaensens
Ayse Berktay


* Selected statements and actions against the imminent execution of 3 Iraqi women can be found on: http://www.brusselstribunal.org/HangingActions.htm
* List of endorsers: http://www.brusselstribunal.org/hangingSignatories.htm
* Original statement "Hanging the Womb of Iraq" can be found on: http://www.brusselstribunal.org/hanging.htm

Killing hundreds of thousands Iraqis to get Iraqs oil

New Oil Law Seen as Cover for Privatisation
Emad Mekay

WASHINGTON, Feb 27 (IPS) - The U.S.-backed Iraqi cabinet approved a new oil law Monday that is set to give foreign companies the long-term contracts and safe legal framework they have been waiting for, but which has rattled labour unions and international campaigners who say oil production should remain in the hands of Iraqis.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a close ally of Washington, called the law "another founding stone in state-building."

Yet critics, including Iraqi oil professionals, engineers and technicians in the unions, are instead advocating for technical service contracts, meaning a company would come in and offer services such as building a refinery, laying a pipeline, or offering consultancy services, get their fees and then leave.

"It is a much more equitable relationship because the control of production, development of oil will stay with the Iraqi state," said Jasiewicz.

"That is the model that Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait generally operate. There's no other country in the Middle East with the kind of oil reserves that Iraq has that would consider signing a production-sharing agreement," she said. "It's a form of privatisation and that's why those countries haven't signed these because it's not in their interests."

Its always been the oil.

What was it Bush said last year when talking about Iraq?

“If they control oil resources, then they pull oil off the market in order to run the price up, and they will do so unless we abandon Israel, for example, or unless we abandon allies.”

What did House of Representatives Subcommittee on Africa Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) say about oil?

”African oil should be treated as a priority for U.S. national security post 9-11, and I think that post 9-11 its occurred to all of us that our traditional sources of oil are not as secure as we once thought they were” From the symposium African Oil: A Priority for U.S. National Security and African Development.

What was it Carter said about oil?
State of the Union Address 1980
January 23, 1980

“The crises in Iran and Afghanistan have dramatized a very important lesson: Our excessive dependence on foreign oil is a clear and present danger to our Nation's security.

…the overwhelming dependence of the Western democracies on oil supplies from the Middle East;

Afghanistan is of great strategic importance: It contains more than two-thirds of the world's exportable oil.

The Soviet Union is now attempting to consolidate a strategic position, therefore, that poses a grave threat to the free movement of Middle East oil.

This situation demands careful thought, steady nerves, and resolute action, not only for this year but for many years to come. It demands collective efforts to meet this new threat to security in the Persian Gulf and in Southwest Asia. It demands the participation of all those who rely on oil from the Middle East.”

And in 1991 a World Bank study found that Somalia and Sudan are highest on the list of to become oil production countries. Just incase you wonder why U.S and its allies are in Somalia.



It’s always been the oil.