Red Cross: Coping with violence

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UNHCR sees deepening needs among refugees




by Wafa Amr






Seven years after the start of the Iraq war, the future of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees remains shrouded in uncertainty. While much of the world is losing interest in their fate, UNHCR is warning of deepening needs that will take years to resolve.

Most Iraqi refugees see no immediate solution to their plight, unconvinced it is safe to return home. Although conditions in Iraq have improved over the past two years, the situation remains fragile. In recent months, the number returning has been largely offset by new departures from Iraq.

Those who remain in host countries are not allowed to integrate locally and are in a state of legal limbo. With savings used up, the conditions of Iraqi refugees are deteriorating. If the outflow resumed, host countries facing strained resources and dwindling international financial support could close their doors to Iraqi asylum seekers.

"Seven years after the start of the Iraq conflict in March 2003, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis still are still uncertain about their future and their prospects for return," said Renata Dubini, the head of UNHCR's office in Syria. The agency has registered some 300,000 Iraqi refugees who have approached UNHCR offices in the surrounding countries, while government estimates are far higher.

"Prolonged exile can have a crushing impact on a person's sense of dignity and self-worth. With any savings or resources depleted, many refugees are resorting to negative coping mechanisms in order to survive. Problems like school drop-out, child labour, domestic violence, trafficking and exploitation are on the rise, all of which are difficult to monitor and detect."

UNHCR is seeking US$510 million to fund programmes for Iraqis inside Iraq and in hosting countries this year. The Iraqi refugee population is largest in Syria, with some 250,000 registered with UNHCR. Another 47,000 have been registered with UNHCR in Jordan, while Lebanon hosts 10,000 registered refugees.

"Over the years, we have made considerable progress in terms of providing quality assistance and maintaining the protection space for Iraqis in Syria," said Dubini. "However, vulnerabilities are deepening at a time when the world is losing interest in Iraqi refugees. We count on the continued support of the international community and host governments to care for the hundreds of thousands still in need of our help."

Iraqis fleeing to Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and other states are generally poor and need medical care, education, financial aid and protection. Since states hosting the largest number of Iraqi refugees such as Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon are not signatories to the 1951 Convention that defines the rights and obligations of refugees and host countries, refugees are not granted residency and risk detention, exploitation or deportation.

Because refugees cannot legally work and face recent price rises in rent, food, and fuel in host countries, UNHCR is working on reducing the impact and trying to counter homelessness, child labour, school dropouts and early marriage. The number of refugees with special needs is rising. Financial assistance remains essential for families, especially the most vulnerable.

UNHCR Syria has identified some 85,000 Iraqi refugees with special needs, including 10,549 women at risk. In Jordan, UNHCR assists more than 11,000 Iraqi refugees with specific vulnerabilities. In Lebanon, more than 1,600 Iraqis are especially vulnerable.

UNHCR is running a programme of resettlement for Iraqi refugees who are either unable to ever return home or are too vulnerable to remain in their current host countries. So far UNHCR staff have interviewed and referred for resettlement over 93,000 Iraqis, including 66,000 to the United States. The individual resettlement countries then examine the recommended cases, with more than 40,000 Iraqi refugees already starting new lives in third countries.

For the rest, they wait in the host countries, watching developments at home. Inside Iraq, UNHCR tries to monitor the relatively small number who do return and also hopes to improve conditions to allow some of the 1.7 million Iraqis displaced inside their country since 2003 to go home. UNHCR expanded staffing by 50 per cent in 2009 to 150 throughout Iraq.

Over 2,000 Iraqis are estimated to return to Iraq each month but UNHCR's assessment is that conditions for sustainable, large-scale return of Iraqi refugees in conditions of dignity and safety are not yet in place. UNHCR will help those wishing to return but is not advocating that people go home.

With Iraq at a critical stage of its political development following the national elections earlier in March, and with a planned U.S. troop withdrawal by the end of 2011, UNHCR is anxious that the international community maintain support to displaced Iraqis inside and outside the country. The dwindling media interest in Iraqi refugees is not matched by a decline in the scale of the problem.

By Wafa Amr in Beirut, Lebanon


Posted by Iraq Solidarity UK at 6:32 AM 0 comments Links to this post






UN backs Iraq election results




by Al-Jazeera




The UN Security Council has called on all Iraqi political parties "to respect the certified election results and the choices of the Iraqi people".The body also urged the country's political leaders "to avoid inflammatory rhetoric and actions".

As the Security Council issued its non-binding statement on Wednesday, political manoeuvring intensified following last Friday's release of final election results that gave a coalition led by Iyad Allawi, a secular Shia former prime minister who drew on strong Sunni support, two seats more than a bloc led by Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister.

Al-Maliki has called for a full manual recount and his bloc has submitted legal complaints, but Iraq's election commission dismissed those calls, saying there had been no evidence of serious electoral fraud.

The Security Council congratulated the people and government of Iraq for holding a "successful election" and welcomed Friday's announcement of the provisional results by the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), saying it looked forward to certification by the Iraq's supreme court.

Security Council members noted the findings of international and independent Iraqi observers "who affirmed their confidence in the overall integrity of the election"."The members of the security council look forward to the formation of the new government in a spirit of co-operation and respect for national unity," it said in a statement.

Assemblying coalitions

In Baghdad, both Allawi and al-Maliki are seeking to assemble coalitions to get the 163 seats necessary to secure a majority in parliament and form a government.

Allawi was dealt a blow this week when the Justice and Accountability Commission said six members of his Iraqiya bloc should not have been allowed to stand in the polls.The commission, charged with preventing former members of Saddam Hussein's banned Baath party from returning to public life, said it would appeal to the IHEC to have the six barred from parliament.

Allawi also complained this week that Tehran was "interfering" in the political process to try to block his path by holding talks with all of Iraq's major political groups except his secular Iraqiya bloc.Senior figures from al-Maliki's State of Law Alliance and other major Iraqi blocs have visited the Iranian capital since the polls, but no official from Iraqiya is known to have travelled to Tehran.

Iran's reaction

Iran denied it was meddling in Iraqi politics, with a foreign ministry spokesman telling state radio on Wednesday that efforts by Iraqi parties "to form the next government are an internal matter, and they will obviously do that according to their electoral plans and without taking into account foreign interests".

"Iran does not interfere in this," he said, but added that Tehran was ready to "host Iraqi political movements to help with the formation of the new government as soon as possible".Whether Allawi or al-Maliki gets to be prime minister could hinge on a referendum planned by the movement led by Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia Muslim religious leader.

Al-Sadr's movement emerged from the polls as the most powerful faction in the INA bloc that could help form a coalition government and Friday's referendum is to gauge support levels among its supporters for would-be prime ministers, including al-Maliki and Allawi.

Posted by Iraq Solidarity UK at 6:31 AM 0 comments Links to this post






Shiites begin talks to form coalition




By Duraid Al Baik





Major Shiite groups are in talks to form a bigger coalition ahead of the first meeting of the newly-elected parliament in 10 days.According to reports, talks are under way between the representatives from the State of Law bloc, led by the outgoing prime minister Nouri Al Maliki and the Iraqi National Alliance (INA).

The State of Law bloc, the second largest group with 89 seats, is mainly formed from Dawa Party, while the INA, an alliance of three Shiite groups, is an offshoot of Dawa Party with Ebrahim Al Jaafari, Ammar Al Hakim of the Higher Islamic Council and Moqtada Al Sadr as its leaders.

Aides to incumbent Al Maliki on Monday met with Al Sadr in the Iranian city of Qom to discuss moves to form a coalition government.Al Jaafari, the former leader of Dawa, quit the party some two years ago because of Al Maliki's alleged dictatorial attitude.

As both blocs have strong ties with Iran, Al Jaafari might bow to a request from the Iranian leadership to patch up his differences with Al Maliki. Al Maliki was quoted as saying that he was willing to see the unification of Shiite ranks even if this meant to surrender the prime minister's post.

"Iran has thrown its full weight behind the line of negotiations amongst Shiite groups to ensure its influence in Iraqi politics. It sees the secular Shiite Eyad Allawi, who leads the Iraqiya, as a man who cannot be trusted due to his secular and political background. Iraqiya has a slim lead of two seats over the State of Law but Allawi was subjected to slander because Sunnis with Baathist background voted for him," Dr Ahmad Jalal Hussain, head of the Iraqi Arab Research Centre in Baghdad, has been quoted as saying.

He said the situation is dangerous at the moment and it is not fair to deny Allawi his legitimate right to form a government.Dr Hussain said bending the law to allow the formation of alliances after the election as per the Supreme Court decision was a bad move now. Such alliances will have serious impact on the security of the country, he added.

Posted by Iraq Solidarity UK at 6:31 AM 0 comments Links to this post






Maliki loses election, represses opponents




By John Catalinotto






Contradicting all claims of having held a "fair election" in Iraq, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is using the repressive state apparatus constructed under the U.S. occupation regime to attempt to hold onto power by force. Al-Maliki has targeted four elected representatives of the victorious Al-Iraqiyya list in an attempt to downgrade this party to second place.

Two of the representatives are in hiding. One is in prison. The fourth, a woman, has disappeared from sight, according to a March 28 investigative article in the McClatchy newspapers.

Al-Maliki has said he won’t accept the vote count from the January election. These results were finally made public in late March. Al-Iraqiyya, whose leader is Ayad Allawi, won the most seats, 91, but not a majority of the 325-seat parliament. The "State of Law Coalition," led by al-Maliki, won 89 seats. The National Iraqi Alliance came in third with 70 seats.

During the election campaign, the regime banned 499 candidates for allegedly being linked to the Ba’ath Party, which was the ruling party before the U.S. invasion. All the banned candidates were from secular parties not connected with one or another religious sect.

No one should forget that there are still nearly 100,000 U.S. troops occupying Iraq — and almost the same number of mercenaries, called contractors. The seven-year-long U.S. occupation has led to the death of an estimated 1 million Iraqis and the dislocation of another 5 million, about one-fifth of the country. The occupation has also fomented bitter sectarian fighting among Iraqis.

Workers World consulted on the election with Joachim Guilliard, a German anti-war activist, writer and key organizer of the German Iraq Coordination. Guilliard has contributed to two books about Iraq. He testified in New York at the August 2004 people’s tribunal organized by the International Action Center, which found the U.S. guilty of war crimes for its invasion and occupation of Iraq.

In Guilliard’s opinion: "Many found it surprising that the opposition Al-Iraqiyya List won the most seats in parliament. But this was no proof that the vote was fair. It took place once again under the conditions of a brutal occupation regime that carried out expulsions of candidates, mass imprisonments and the murder of political opponents.

"Al-Iraqiyya won not because of the repression and manipulation of votes, but despite them. Apparently these repressive steps brought a large sector of the enemies of the occupation behind this electoral alliance that had the best outlook for victory" over the current occupation regime.

Explaining the election results, Guilliard wrote: "The Western media like to personalize everything, and so in general they speak of the victory of Ayad Allawi. But above all it was the most nationalist and overwhelmingly secular groups and personalities in the list who were voted in."

Guilliard pointed out that Allawi was once a close U.S. ally and co-responsible for the bloody invasion of the city of Fallujah, but that many Iraqis who oppose the occupation appeared to get behind al-Iraqiyya anyway in order to work toward removing the U.S. troops.

"On his own, the former interim premier and CIA collaborator Allawi would have been hardly more attractive than he was in 2005, when in alliance with the Iraqi Communist Party [which collaborates with the occupation — WW] he was only able to obtain 8.2 percent of the votes," Guilliard added.

The most progressive thing the vote represents, wrote Guilliard in his article in the March 29 issue of Junge Welt, a progressive German daily, is "the clear rejection of a policy that bases itself on religious and confessional differences and a clear vote for a unitary, centrally ruled and independent government. Al-Iraqiyya won votes not only in the majority Sunni provinces, but, for example, also in Baghdad, where the great majority belong to the Shiite confession, but are traditionally overwhelmingly non-religious in their politics."

Guilliard emphasized that "whoever is the new head of government in the next couple of months, the power still lies in the hands of the occupying forces."