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id="search"><form method="get" id="searchform" action="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/"> <div><input type="text" value="" name="s" id="s"/> <input type="submit" id="searchsubmit" value="Search"/> </div> </form> </div> </div> <hr/> <div id="content" class="span-13 append-1"> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-13901"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/11/13/rudaw-in-english-iranian-kurdish-leader-pjak-and-pkk-are-the-same/#respond" title="Comment on Rudaw in English: Iranian Kurdish Leader: PJAK and PKK Are The Same">No Comments</a></span> Posted on November 13th, 2011 by Burhan Aydin</div> <h3><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/11/13/rudaw-in-english-iranian-kurdish-leader-pjak-and-pkk-are-the-same/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Rudaw in English: Iranian Kurdish Leader: PJAK and PKK Are The Same">Rudaw in English: Iranian Kurdish Leader: PJAK and PKK Are The Same</a></h3> <p class="postmetadata">Category: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/category/english-articles/" title="View all posts in English Language Articles" rel="category tag">English Language Articles</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/category/iraq/" title="View all posts in News" rel="category tag">News</a>, Tags: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/barzani/" rel="tag">Barzani</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/border-guards/" rel="tag">border guards</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/iran-vs-pkk/" rel="tag">Iran vs. PKK</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/iraqi-kurdistan/" rel="tag">Iraqi kurdistan</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/kdp/" rel="tag">KDP</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/kurdistan/" rel="tag">Kurdistan</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/kurdistan-democratic-party/" rel="tag">kurdistan democratic party</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/kurds/" rel="tag">kurds</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/middle-east/" rel="tag">Middle East</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/patriotic-union-of-kurdistan/" rel="tag">patriotic union of kurdistan</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/pjak/" rel="tag">PJAK</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/pkk/" rel="tag">PKK</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/puk/" rel="tag">PUK</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/reconciliation/" rel="tag">reconciliation</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/rudaw/" rel="tag">Rudaw</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/turkey-vs-pkk/" rel="tag">Turkey vs. PKK</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/violence/" rel="tag">violence</a></p> <div class="entry" dir="rtl" align="right"> <div style="text-align: left; unicode-bidi: bidi-override; direction: ltr"> <p>In a seminar in Germany last week, Khalid Azizi, leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) rejected a claim by Haji Ahmadi, leader of the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) who had said, “In order to come to an agreement with other parties in Iranian Kurdistan, we are ready to offer anyone a clean slate,”</p> <p>During the seminar that was organized by KDPI’s Germany branch, Azizi said, “In politics a clean slate wouldn’t be given to anyone and we wouldn’t offer it to anyone.”</p> <p>Regarding a possible meeting with the PJAK to discuss the unification of both parties, Azizi said, “If we decide to meet with PJAK we will meet with the PKK instead, because they are the same.”</p> </p></div> <p> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/11/13/rudaw-in-english-iranian-kurdish-leader-pjak-and-pkk-are-the-same/#more-13901" class="more-link">» أقرأ التفاصيل .. | Read the rest of this entry »</a></p> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-13747"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/09/28/analysis-iraqi-shiites-fear-fallout-of-syria-turbulence-alertnet/#respond" title="Comment on ANALYSIS-Iraqi Shi’ites fear fallout of Syria turbulence – AlertNet">No Comments</a></span> Posted on September 28th, 2011 by Ali Ibn Hussayn</div> <h3><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/09/28/analysis-iraqi-shiites-fear-fallout-of-syria-turbulence-alertnet/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to ANALYSIS-Iraqi Shi’ites fear fallout of Syria turbulence – AlertNet">ANALYSIS-Iraqi Shi’ites fear fallout of Syria turbulence – AlertNet</a></h3> <p class="postmetadata">Category: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/category/analysis-briefings-commentary/" title="View all posts in Analysis Briefings Commentary" rel="category tag">Analysis Briefings Commentary</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/category/english-articles/" title="View all posts in English Language Articles" rel="category tag">English Language Articles</a>, Tags: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/analysis/" rel="tag">Analysis</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/anbar/" rel="tag">Anbar</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/armed-groups/" rel="tag">Armed groups</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/badr-organisation/" rel="tag">Badr Organisation</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/bahrain/" rel="tag">Bahrain</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/damascus/" rel="tag">Damascus</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/hizballah/" rel="tag">hizballah</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/iran/" rel="tag">Iran</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/israel/" rel="tag">Israel</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/jordan/" rel="tag">Jordan</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/lebanon/" rel="tag">Lebanon</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/middle-east/" rel="tag">Middle East</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/militia/" rel="tag">Militia</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/militias/" rel="tag">Militias</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/nuri-al-maliki/" rel="tag">Nuri Al-Maliki</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/reuters/" rel="tag">Reuters</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/saddam-hussein/" rel="tag">Saddam Hussein</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/saudi-arabia/" rel="tag">Saudi Arabia</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/sectarian-violence/" rel="tag">sectarian violence</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/security-situation/" rel="tag">security situation</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/situation-in-iraq/" rel="tag">situation in iraq</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/syria/" rel="tag">Syria</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/syrian-unrest-and-protests/" rel="tag">Syrian unrest and protests</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/turkey/" rel="tag">Turkey</a></p> <div class="entry" dir="rtl" align="right"> <div style="text-align: left; unicode-bidi: bidi-override; direction: ltr"> <blockquote> <p>BAGHDAD, Sept 27 (<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/analysis-iraqi-shiites-fear-fallout-of-syria-turbulence" target="_blank" class="external">Reuters</a>) – Iraqi Shi’ites, like their allies in Iran, fret that unrest in Syria could oust President Bashar al-Assad and bring to power hardline Sunnis eager to put their weight behind fellow-Sunnis in Iraq who have lost out since Saddam Hussein’s fall. </p> <p>They fear the turmoil next door could spill into Iraq, reignite sectarian violence and intensify a proxy battle between Iran and Saudi Arabia, which sees itself as the bastion of Sunni Islam and has never come to terms with Shi’ite rule in Baghdad. </p> <p>"If Syria falls, Iraq will work with Iran to influence events in Syria," said a senior Iraqi Shi’ite politician, who asked not to be named. </p> <p>"Change in Syria will cause major problems for Iraq. They (Sunnis) will incite the western (Sunni) part of Iraq." </p> <p>Iraqi Shi’ite militias are unlikely to fight for Assad’s survival, but might respond if Sunnis in Iraq’s western Anbar province were emboldened by the rise of Sunni power in Syria. </p> </blockquote></div> <p> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/09/28/analysis-iraqi-shiites-fear-fallout-of-syria-turbulence-alertnet/#more-13747" class="more-link">» أقرأ التفاصيل .. | Read the rest of this entry »</a></p> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-12961"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/04/06/lack-of-mine-maps-hampers-demining/#respond" title="Comment on Lack of mine maps hampers demining">No Comments</a></span> Posted on April 6th, 2011 by Hussein Al-Bayati</div> <h3><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/04/06/lack-of-mine-maps-hampers-demining/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Lack of mine maps hampers demining">Lack of mine maps hampers demining</a></h3> <p class="postmetadata">Category: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/category/english-articles/" title="View all posts in English Language Articles" rel="category tag">English Language Articles</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/category/features/" title="View all posts in Features" rel="category tag">Features</a>, Tags: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/defence-ministry/" rel="tag">defence ministry</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/demining/" rel="tag">demining</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/economic-development/" rel="tag">Economic development</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/human-rights/" rel="tag">Human Rights</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/irin/" rel="tag">IRIN</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/landmines/" rel="tag">Landmines</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/middle-east/" rel="tag">Middle East</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/political-instability/" rel="tag">political instability</a></p> <div class="entry" dir="rtl" align="right"> <p>BAGHDAD, 6 April 2011 (IRIN) – Lack of detailed mine maps in Iraq and the current political instability have hampered mine-clearance efforts, officials say. </p> <p>“Iraq is one of the most contaminated countries in the world," Deputy Environment Minister Kamal Hussein Latif said. “It has nearly a quarter of the world’s landmines and that has become a heavy legacy hindering economic development and health." </p> <p>Landmines have been laid in Iraq since the 1960s by various governments fighting pro-independence Kurdish rebels in the north; during the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war; and in the years prior to the 2003 US-led invasion. </p> <p>“The hardest challenge we face today is that no maps were left from the previous regime for landmines which were planted randomly – and that makes clearance operations very hard,” Latif told reporters in Baghdad at a news conference to mark International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action on 4 April. </p> <p>Speaking at the same news conference, Daniel Augstburger, chief humanitarian affairs officer at the UN Assistance Mission, said: “Clearance is very slow due to security constraints. The unexploded devices are one of the main principle reasons stopping development in Iraq.” </p> <p>The longer the mines were left in the ground, Augstburger added, the more dangerous they would become to local communities, and the more they would affect agricultural and economic activity. </p> <p>Iraq joined the Ottawa Convention which bans the use of anti-personnel mines in 2008, committing itself not to use, produce, acquire or export landmines. It also committed to clearing all its landmines by 2018. </p> <p>However, Latif said Iraq would not be able to meet that target because of insecurity and the lack of professional deminers. Currently, there are only about 2,000 at the Defence Ministry, and 13 private companies. </p> <p>“If I want to clear all the landmines in the coming 10 years, I need hundreds of specialized companies and 19,000 professional deminers,” he said. </p> <p>According to <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://www.iauiraq.org/documents/1333/Landmine%20Factsheet.pdf" class="external" target="_blank">UN figures</a> Iraq’s contaminated sites cover an estimated 1,730sqkm and affect around 1.6 million people. Landmines and unexploded ordnance killed or injured an average of two Iraqis every week in 2009, of whom 80 percent were boys and young men aged 15-29. Between 48,000 and 68,000 Iraqis have undergone amputations due to landmine and unexploded ordinances. </p> <p>In May or June, Latif said, the government will start a national programme to determine contaminated areas and the exact number of the landmines.</p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=92386" class="external" target="_blank">IRIN Middle East | IRAQ: Lack of mine maps hampers demining | Iraq | Human Rights | Security | Urban Risk</a></p> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-12875"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/03/28/funding-shortfall-hits-plans-for-idps-returnees/#respond" title="Comment on Funding shortfall hits plans for IDPs, returnees">No Comments</a></span> Posted on March 28th, 2011 by Khaled</div> <h3><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/03/28/funding-shortfall-hits-plans-for-idps-returnees/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Funding shortfall hits plans for IDPs, returnees">Funding shortfall hits plans for IDPs, returnees</a></h3> <p class="postmetadata">Category: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/category/english-articles/" title="View all posts in English Language Articles" rel="category tag">English Language Articles</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/category/women/" title="View all posts in Women and Children" rel="category tag">Women and Children</a>, Tags: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/brookings-institution/" rel="tag">Brookings Institution</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/displacement/" rel="tag">displacement</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/economy/" rel="tag">Economy</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/education/" rel="tag">Education</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/health/" rel="tag">Health</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/human-rights/" rel="tag">Human Rights</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/idps-internal-refugees/" rel="tag">IDPs (Internal Refugees)</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/infrastructure/" rel="tag">infrastructure</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/internal-displacement/" rel="tag">internal displacement</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/iom/" rel="tag">IOM</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/iraqi-refugees/" rel="tag">iraqi refugees</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/irin/" rel="tag">IRIN</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/middle-east/" rel="tag">Middle East</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/migration/" rel="tag">migration</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/photos/" rel="tag">Photos</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/refugee-agency/" rel="tag">refugee agency</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/refugee-resettlement/" rel="tag">refugee resettlement</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/refugees/" rel="tag">Refugees</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/refugees-resettlement-of/" rel="tag">Refugees - resettlement of</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/refugees-international/" rel="tag">Refugees International</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/resettlement/" rel="tag">resettlement</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/returnees/" rel="tag">returnees</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/rule-of-law/" rel="tag">Rule of law</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/sectarian-violence/" rel="tag">sectarian violence</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/statistics/" rel="tag">statistics</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/unhcr/" rel="tag">UNHCR</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/who/" rel="tag">WHO</a></p> <div class="entry" dir="rtl" align="right"> <p>BAGHDAD, 28 February 2011 (<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=92060" class="external" target="_blank">IRIN</a>) – Iraqi government plans for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and returnees may not be fully implemented this year because of a funding shortfall, says Deputy Minister for Displacement and Migration Azhar Al-Mousawi. </p> <p> <a title="IDPs_in_northern_Baghdad_receive_aid_from_Red_Crescent_Society_volunteers_file_photo_caption by Gorillas Guides, on Flickr" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://www.flickr.com/photos/gorillasguides/5568216047/" class="external" target="_blank"><img style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 3px 10px 5px 0px" height="262" alt="IDPs_in_northern_Baghdad_receive_aid_from_Red_Crescent_Society_volunteers_file_photo_caption" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038im_/http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5222/5568216047_d9befe0a3e_o.jpg" width="350" align="left"/></a> <p>“We have set [up] a lot of big projects this year, but the ministry – according to the allocated budget – may not be able to implement its commitments,” he told IRIN on 26 February. </p> <p>In January, the government announced plans to tackle internal displacement, and monitor and assist Iraqi refugees abroad. It sought to encourage IDPs to go back to their areas of origin, stay in the areas they have ended up in, or help them move to a new area. </p> <p>The government also established “Return Assistance Centres” in Baghdad, and offered a financial assistance package of US$850 and a six-month rental compensation package for registered IDPs. </p> <p>“We have plans to tackle internal displacement, help the returnees and encourage expatriates [mainly doctors and teachers who fled the violence] to return," Mousawi said. "All these plans need money [but] what we have is not enough." </p> <p>According to the UN Secretary-General’s representative on the rights of IDPs, Walter Kalin, the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/SNAA-8EBLQH?OpenDocument&rc=3&cc=irq" class="external" target="_blank">scale and history of forced displacement</a> in Iraq  has created a complex situation that needs a “comprehensive strategy” to address the immediate humanitarian needs and human rights of displacement-affected communities, and find durable solutions. </p> <p>“Iraq has suffered many waves of internal displacement throughout its recent past as a result of conflict, sectarian violence, and forced population movements associated with policies of the former regime – with an estimated 1.55 million persons remaining in displacement since 2006,” Kalin said in a 16 February report. </p> <p>“This situation is compounded by a marked deterioration of basic infrastructures and services across the country, lack of livelihoods and economic opportunities, continuing insecurity and sectarian divisions, as well as serious deficits in relation to governance, rule of law and the capacity of government structures." </p> <p>According to the Washington-based <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://csis.org/" class="external" target="_blank">Centre for Strategic and International Studies</a>, Iraqi IDPs and refugees are unwilling to return to their places of origin because of continued real or perceived threats of violence: Their homes were either destroyed or occupied by others; and they lacked employment opportunities and access to essential services. </p> <h3>Seeking partners</h3> <p>Mousawi said his ministry, which is mandated to implement government plans for IDPs and returnees, was only allocated the equivalent of US$250 million this year, but needs $416-500 million to fully implement its plans. Iraq’s parliament approved an $82.6 billion budget on 20 February. </p> <p>The ministry, he added, would review its plans and seek partners mainly in the UN. “Our priority is to help displaced people and returnees to meet their needs,” he said. “But returnees will need more to be spent on them than those still displaced because they need health, education and other services." </p> <p>Funding shortfalls have also affected the work of international organizations. In its 2011 Global Appeal, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said its budget for this year in Iraq was about $210.6 million, lamenting a 20-40 percent funding shortfall. </p> <p>“Some returnees and IDPs remain in dire circumstances that require urgent humanitarian interventions,” it said in an appeal earlier this year. </p> <p>(For latest statistics on returnees and IDPs by governorate, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://www.iauiraq.org/documents/1300/Return%20Update%20IRAQ%20JAN%202011.pdf" class="external" target="_blank">see</a>) </p> <p>According to Kalin, over 75 percent of IDPs live in rented accommodation or with host families, while over 20 percent live in irregular settlements, former military camps, tents and public buildings. </p> <p>There are an estimated 1.5 million IDPs across the country, according to Refugees International and the Brookings Institution. Many of these fled their homes after sectarian violence broke out following the 2003 war that toppled Saddam Hussein. </p> <p>(For a recent IOM review of displacement and return in Iraq since 2006, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://www.iauiraq.org/documents/1308/librar.pdf" class="external" target="_blank">see</a>) </p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=92060" class="external" target="_blank">IRIN Middle East | IRAQ: Funding shortfall hits plans for IDPs, returnees | Iraq | Economy | Refugees/IDPs</a></p> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-12873"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/03/28/violence-hits-education/#respond" title="Comment on Violence hits education">No Comments</a></span> Posted on March 28th, 2011 by Khaled</div> <h3><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/03/28/violence-hits-education/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Violence hits education">Violence hits education</a></h3> <p class="postmetadata">Category: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/category/children/" title="View all posts in Children" rel="category tag">Children</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/category/english-articles/" title="View all posts in English Language Articles" rel="category tag">English Language Articles</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/category/features/" title="View all posts in Features" rel="category tag">Features</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/category/women/" title="View all posts in Women and Children" rel="category tag">Women and Children</a>, Tags: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/amil/" rel="tag">Amil</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/armed-conflict/" rel="tag">armed conflict</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/budget/" rel="tag">Budget</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/cairo/" rel="tag">Cairo</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/child-labour/" rel="tag">child labour</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/demonstrations/" rel="tag">Demonstrations</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/displacement/" rel="tag">displacement</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/economic-situation/" rel="tag">economic situation</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/egypt/" rel="tag">Egypt</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/hts/" rel="tag">HTS</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/human-rights/" rel="tag">Human Rights</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/illiteracy/" rel="tag">illiteracy</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/illiteracy-levels/" rel="tag">illiteracy levels</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/interior-ministry/" rel="tag">Interior Ministry</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/iraqi-refugee/" rel="tag">iraqi refugee</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/irin/" rel="tag">IRIN</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/jordan/" rel="tag">Jordan</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/kuwait/" rel="tag">kuwait</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/lebanon/" rel="tag">Lebanon</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/middle-east/" rel="tag">Middle East</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/millennium-development-goals/" rel="tag">millennium development goals</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/photos/" rel="tag">Photos</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/port-said/" rel="tag">Port Said</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/refugee-children/" rel="tag">refugee children</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/rural-areas/" rel="tag">rural areas</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/schoolchildren/" rel="tag">schoolchildren</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/security-situation/" rel="tag">security situation</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/students/" rel="tag">Students</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/sudan/" rel="tag">Sudan</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/syria/" rel="tag">Syria</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/unesco-report/" rel="tag">unesco report</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/violence/" rel="tag">violence</a></p> <div class="entry" dir="rtl" align="right"> <p>NAIROBI, 3 March 2011 (IRIN) – Several Middle Eastern countries such as Iraq and Yemen are unlikely to achieve the education-for-all Millennium Development Goals by 2015 because of insecurity and conflict, according to a new report by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). </p> <p> <a title="20110328_yemen_school_caption by Gorillas Guides, on Flickr" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://www.flickr.com/photos/gorillasguides/5568168739/" class="external" target="_blank"><img style="border-right: silver 1px solid; border-top: silver 1px solid; display: inline; float: left; margin: 3px 10px 5px 0px; border-left: silver 1px solid; border-bottom: silver 1px solid" height="326" alt="20110328_yemen_school_caption" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038im_/http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5063/5568168739_658b6e1305_o.jpg" width="350" align="left"/></a> <p>The education-for-all goals were endorsed by more than 160 countries in 2000. But according to Kevin Watkins, director of <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-international-agenda/efareport/reports/2011-conflict" class="external" target="_blank">UNESCO’s 2011 Global Monitoring Report</a>, children and education are not just getting caught in the cross-fire, they are increasingly the targets of violent conflict. </p> <p>"The failure of governments to protect human rights is causing children deep harm – and taking away their only chance of an education," he said. </p> <p>The UNESCO report, entitled The Hidden Crisis: Armed Conflict and Education, says 35 countries were affected by armed conflict between 1999 and 2008, several in the Middle East. “Children and schools are on the front line of these conflicts, with classrooms, teachers and pupils seen as legitimate targets,” it noted. </p> <h3>Egypt </h3> <p>Recent demonstrations and clashes in Egypt led to the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, but also closed many schools. In mid-February, half-term was extended for two weeks. Schools in only seven of the country’s 29 governorates reopened after the recess, according to sources in Cairo. </p> <p>The Interior Ministry deployed police outside schools to beef up security and encourage a return to school, but thousands of parents still preferred to keep their children at home. </p> <p>“A deteriorating security situation hinders the opening of the schools and this affects the whole educational process,” Fathi al-Sharqawi, a professor of educational psychology at Cairo’s Ain Shams University, told IRIN. “Teachers will have to skip some parts of the curricula after the students go back to their classrooms, which will also affect these students’ learning badly.” </p> <p>Hundreds of parents have complained that their children are attacked by thugs on their way to school, according to human rights groups. The Egyptian Centre for Human Rights, for example, said some parents complain that criminals use weapons to grab money from children. </p> <p>Manal Abdul Aziz, an Egyptian journalist who opted for home-based tuition for her two children, told IRIN in Cairo: “There is total obscurity about the future of this academic year.” The cost of hiring five teachers for her two children (aged 12 and 15) is the equivalent of US$169 a month – a significant sum for most families. </p> <h3>Iraq</h3> <p><strong></strong>Decades of war in Iraq, UN sanctions, poor security and the economic situation have adversely affected education and increased illiteracy levels. According to data produced by the government and UNESCO in September, at least five million of Iraq’s almost 30 million people are illiterate. Of these, 14 percent are school-age children who left school to feed their families, are displaced or have no access to suitable schooling. </p> <p>Ahmed Khalid Jaafar, 14, told IRIN in Baghdad that he left school after his father died in an explosion three years ago, and sought work on the streets to feed his mother and two younger daughters. </p> <p>"I sell gum and my mother works is a seamstress," said Jaafar. "We make 200,000-300,000 dinars (US$160-250) a month. We spend that money on the most important things, mainly food. School is not important now." Jaafar and his family squat in an abandoned government building. </p> <p>The September data show that adult illiteracy in Iraq is now one of the highest in the Arab region. In rural areas, almost 30 percent of the population are unable to read or write. Significant gender disparities exist, with 40 percent of the illiterate being women. </p> <h3>Other countries </h3> <p>Bahrain is on track to achieve the goal of halving illiteracy levels by 2015, but countries like Iraq, Mauritania and Sudan are off track. "The recent experiences of Algeria, Egypt, Kuwait and Yemen show that literacy policy can be effective: all four countries have increased their adult literacy rates by at least 20 percentage points in the past 15-20 years," the UNESCO report said. </p> <p>In Yemen, a reallocation of 10 percent of the military budget to education would put an additional 840,000 children in school. In the north, 220 schools were destroyed, damaged or looted during fighting in 2009 and 2010 between government and rebel forces, according to the report. "In Yemen, many internally displaced children complement family income by begging, smuggling or collecting refuse, and there are concerns that child labour is increasing." </p> <p>In Syria, attendance rates in pre-school programmes varied from less than 4 percent for children in the poorest households, to just above 18 percent for wealthy households. </p> <h3>In harm’s way </h3> <p>According to the report, armed conflict places children directly in harm’s way. Some get killed while others are exploited as soldiers or forced to flee their homes and become refugees. </p> <p>“Children subject to the trauma, insecurity and displacement that come with armed conflict are unlikely to achieve their potential for learning,” it said. All too often, armed groups see the destruction of schools and the targeting of schoolchildren and teachers as a legitimate military strategy. </p> <p>In conflict situations, children fear to go to school, teachers to give classes and parents to send their children to school. According to UNESCO, in such situations, children suffer psychological trauma, as well as loss of parents, siblings and friends. One survey of Iraqi refugee children in Jordan found that 39 percent reported having lost someone close to them, and 43 percent witnessed violence. </p> <p>“Armed conflict remains a major roadblock to human development in many parts of the world, yet its impact on education is widely neglected,” said UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova. “This groundbreaking report documents the scale of this hidden crisis, identifies its root causes and offers solid proposals for change.” </p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=92091" class="external" target="_blank">IRIN Middle East | MIDDLE EAST: Violence hits education | Egypt | Iraq | Lebanon | Oman | OPT | Syria | Yemen | Children | Conflict | Education</a></p> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-12430"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/02/21/%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b9%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%82-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d9%88%d8%a7%d8%b7%d9%86%d9%88%d9%86-%d9%85%d9%86-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b4%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%a6%d8%ad-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%b3%d8%aa%d8%b6%d8%b9%d9%81/#respond" title="Comment on العراق: المواطنون من الشرائح المستضعفة في خطر | Human Rights Watch">No Comments</a></span> Posted on February 21st, 2011 by Um Thalit</div> <h3><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/02/21/%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b9%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%82-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d9%88%d8%a7%d8%b7%d9%86%d9%88%d9%86-%d9%85%d9%86-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b4%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%a6%d8%ad-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%b3%d8%aa%d8%b6%d8%b9%d9%81/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to العراق: المواطنون من الشرائح المستضعفة في خطر | Human Rights Watch">العراق: المواطنون من الشرائح المستضعفة في خطر | Human Rights Watch</a></h3> <p class="postmetadata">Category: <a 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<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/police-state/" rel="tag">Police State</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/political-extremism/" rel="tag">political extremism</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/political-parties/" rel="tag">political parties</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/sectarian-violence/" rel="tag">sectarian violence</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/squatter-settlements/" rel="tag">squatter settlements</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/torture/" rel="tag">Torture</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/tunisia/" rel="tag">Tunisia</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/violence/" rel="tag">violence</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/violence-against-women/" rel="tag">violence against women</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/vulnerable-citizens/" rel="tag">vulnerable citizens</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/womens-rights/" rel="tag">Women's Rights</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/yazidi/" rel="tag">yazidi</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/%d8%a8%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%b3%d9%8a%d8%ad%d9%8a%d9%8a%d9%86/" rel="tag">بالمسيحيين</a></p> <div class="entry" dir="rtl" align="right"> <div dir="rtl" align="right"> <blockquote> <p><strong>النساء والصحفيون والمحتجظون والجماعات المهمشة يواجهون المخاطر بعد 8 سنوات من الغزو</strong></p> <p>بيروت، 21 فبراير/شباط 2011) – قالت هيومن رايتس ووتش في تقرير أصدرته اليوم إن حقوق المواطنين الأكثر استضعافاً وعرضة للخطر، لا سيما النساء والمحتجزين، يتم انتهاكها بشكل متكرر مع الإفلات من العقاب. أجرت هيومن رايتس ووتش بحوثها في سبع مدن في شتى أنحاء العراق أثناء عام 2010 وانتهت إلى أنه مع استمرار العنف والجريمة في العراق، فإن انتهاكات حقوق الإنسان تقع بوفرة.</p> <p>تقرير "<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://www.hrw.org/node/95608" class="external" target="_blank">عند مفترق الطرق: حقوق الإنسان في العراق بعد ثماني سنوات من الغزو بقيادة الولايات المتحدة</a>" الذي جاء في 102 صفحة يدعو الحكومة إلى حماية حقوق الجماعات والفئات المستضعفة وإلى تعديل قانون العقوبات وجميع القوانين الأخرى التي تميز ضد النساء وتخرق الحق في حرية التعبير. ويدعو التقرير أيضاً بغداد إلى فتح تحقيقات نزيهة ومستقلة في جميع مزاعم الإساءات بحق المحتجزين والأقليات والصحفيين.</p> <p>وقال جو ستورك، نائب المدير التنفيذي لقسم الشرق الأوسط وشمال أفريقيا في هيومن رايتس ووتش: "بعد ثماني سنوات من الغزو الأمريكي، فالحياة في العراق تتدهور بالنسبة للنساء والأقليات، بينما الصحفيون والمحتجزون يواجهون انتهاكات حقوقية جسيمة. اليوم يقف العراق على مفترق الطرق – إما أن يتبنى مبادئ إجراءات التقاضي السليمة وحقوق الإنسان، وإلا فهو في خطر التحول إلى دولة بوليسية".</p> <p>الغزو في عام 2003 وما تلاه من فوضى أدى لتكبد المدنيين العراقيين خسائر فادحة. تدهور الوضع الأمني أدى لعودة بعض ممارسات العدالة التقليدية والتطرف السياسي المدفوع بتوجهات دينية، مما كان له أثر سلبي على حقوق النساء، داخل البيت وخارجه، كما تبينت هيومن رايتس ووتش.</p> <p>روجت الميليشيات لأفكار كراهية المرأة واستهدفت النساء والفتيات بالاغتيالات والترهيب لإبعادهن عن المشاركة في الحياة العامة. وبشكل متزايد تتعرض النساء والفتيات للوقوع ضحايا في بيوتهن نفسها، بسبب جملة من التعديات المتصورة للمرأة على شرف الأسرة أو المجتمع. وتنتشر ظاهرة الإتجار بالنساء والفتيات داخل وخارج العراق لأغراض الاستغلال الجنسي.</p> <p>وقال جو ستورك: "تحملت النساء والفتيات العراقيات أكبر الأعباء في هذا النزاع وما تلاه من انعدام للأمان". وتابع: "بالنسبة للنساء العراقيات المتمعات ببعض أعلى مستويات تدابير الحماية الحقوقية والمشاركة الاجتماعية في المنطقة قبل عام 1991، كان ما حدث غصة مريرة في الحلق يصعب تحملها".</p> <p>رغم التحسن الذي طرأ على الحالة الأمنية منذ عام 2008 مما أدى لانخفاض معدلات قتل العاملين بالإعلام، إلا أن الصحافة مهنة خطيرة في العراق، على حد قول هيومن رايتس ووتش. قام متطرفون ومعتدون مجهولون بقتل صحفيين وتفجير مقارهم ومكاتبهم. وتزايد تعرض الصحفيين للمضايقات والترهيب والتهديد والاحتجاز والاعتداءات البنية من قبل قوات الأمن التابعة للمؤسسات الحكومية والأحزاب السياسية. كما يسارع المسؤولون الحكوميون بمقاضاة الصحفيين ومطبوعاتهم إذا كتبوا عنهم موضوعات انتقادية.</p> <p>وقال جو ستورك: "مع مشاهدة ما حدث في شوارع مصر وتونس، على الحكومة العراقية أن تتخذ خطوات ملموسة من أجل حماية حرية التعبير".</p> <p>كما انتهت هيومن رايتس ووتش إلى أن المحققين العراقيين لجأوا بشكل ممنهج إلى الإساءة للمحتجزين، بغض النظر عن طائفتهم، وفي العادة يسيئون إليهم لانتزاع الاعترافات. ورغم معرفة وجود خطر التعذيب الواضح، فإن السلطات الأمريكية أحالت آلاف المحتجزين العراقيين إلى الحبس طرف السلطات العراقية، التي استمرت في ممارسة التعذيب القائم منذ عصر صدام حسين وقوات التحالف من بعده.</p> <p>بينما أصدرت الحكومة قوانين لحماية بعض جماعاتها المُهمشة، وفي بعض الحالات بادرت بفتح برامج مساعدات هامة، فإنها ما زالت تخفق في حماية بعض أضعف الفئات من المواطنين العراقيين، على حد قول هيومن رايتس ووتش. الأشخاص النازحون داخلياً والأقليات وأصحاب الإعاقات من بين الأكثر عرضة للخطر. الكثير من المساعدات الحكومية وبرامج الحماية لا تعمل بكامل طاقتها أو غير كافية لبلوغ أكثر من يحتاجون إليها.</p> <p>وقالت هيومن رايتس ووتش إن هناك أكثر من 1.5 مليون عراقي فروا من أحيائهم السكنية مع تمزيق العنف الطائفي لتجمعاتهم السكنية في عامي 2006 و2007. الآلاف من النازحين داخلياً يعيشون حالياً في بنايات مهجورة استوطنوها، دون توفر الضروريات الأساسية لديهم، مثل المياه النظيفة والكهرباء والصرف الصحي، على حد قول هيومن رايتس ووتش.</p> <p>أما الجماعات المسلحة التي تتبنى الأفكار المتطرفة فقامت بتنفيذ هجمات على الأقليات، أدت إلى ضرر بالغ لحق بجماعات من السكان الأصليين في العراق، وأجبرت الآلاف على الفرار إلى خارج البلاد دون نية للعودة. أخفقت الحكومة أيضاً في وقف الهجمات التي استهدفت الصابئة المندائيين والمسيحيين والأزديين، بالإضافة إلى جماعات أخرى.</p> <p>واكتشفت هيومن رايتس ووتش أن الآلاف ممن بُترت أطرافهم والجرحى خلال سنوات النزاع المسلح وجدوا أنفسهم وقد تحولوا إلى هامش المجتمع، غير قادرين على العثور على عمل، أو الحصول على رعاية طبية ملائمة، أو حتى الحصول على أطراف صناعية جديدة ومقاعد متحركة.</p> <p>وقال جو ستورك: "مستقبل العراق كمجتمع ديمقراطي يعتمد على احترام حقوق الإنسان الأساسية، سوف يستند إلى حد كبير على ما إذا كانت السلطات العراقية ستدافع بالشكل الكافي عن هذه الحقوق" وتابع: "حتى تعمل على تحقيق هذا، على السلطات العراقية تشكيل نظام عدالة جنائية موثوق يفي بالمعايير الدولية الخاصة بالتعذيب وحرية التعبير والعنف ضد المرأة وغيرها من الجماعات المستضعفة في المجتمع العراقي".</p> </blockquote> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/02/21" class="external" target="_blank">العراق: المواطنون من الشرائح المستضعفة في خطر | Human Rights Watch</a></p> </p></div> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-12428"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/02/21/iraq-vulnerable-citizens-at-risk-human-rights-watch/#respond" title="Comment on Iraq: Vulnerable Citizens at Risk | Human Rights Watch">No Comments</a></span> Posted on February 21st, 2011 by Um Thalit</div> <h3><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/02/21/iraq-vulnerable-citizens-at-risk-human-rights-watch/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Iraq: Vulnerable Citizens at Risk | Human Rights Watch">Iraq: Vulnerable Citizens at Risk | Human Rights Watch</a></h3> <p class="postmetadata">Category: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/category/human-rights/" title="View all posts in Human Rights" rel="category tag">Human Rights</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/category/iraq/" title="View all posts in News" rel="category tag">News</a>, Tags: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/amputees/" rel="tag">Amputees</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/armed-conflict/" rel="tag">armed conflict</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/christians/" rel="tag">Christians</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/crime/" rel="tag">Crime</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/detainees/" rel="tag">detainees</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/egypt/" rel="tag">Egypt</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/extremists/" rel="tag">Extremists</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/freedom-of-speech/" rel="tag">freedom of speech</a>, <a 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href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/political-parties/" rel="tag">political parties</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/sectarian-violence/" rel="tag">sectarian violence</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/squatter-settlements/" rel="tag">squatter settlements</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/torture/" rel="tag">Torture</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/tunisia/" rel="tag">Tunisia</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/violence/" rel="tag">violence</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/violence-against-women/" rel="tag">violence against women</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/vulnerable-citizens/" rel="tag">vulnerable citizens</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/womens-rights/" rel="tag">Women's Rights</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/yazidi/" rel="tag">yazidi</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/%d8%a8%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%b3%d9%8a%d8%ad%d9%8a%d9%8a%d9%86/" rel="tag">بالمسيحيين</a></p> <div class="entry" dir="rtl" align="right"> <blockquote><p>The rights of Iraq’s most vulnerable citizens, especially women and detainees, are routinely violated with impunity, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Human Rights Watch conducted research in seven cities across Iraq during 2010 and found that, beyond the country’s continuing violence and crimes, human rights abuses are commonplace.</p> <p> <div style="border-right: black 1px solid; padding-right: 5px; border-top: black 1px solid; padding-left: 5px; float: right; padding-bottom: 5px; margin: 5px 0px 5px 15px; border-left: black 1px solid; width: 300px; padding-top: 5px; border-bottom: black 1px solid"> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2011/02/02/crossroads" class="external" target="_blank">Read the Report</a> <br/>ISBN: 1-56432-736-1</p> <p><strong><font size="3">Get the Report</font></strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/iraq0211W.pdf" class="external" target="_blank">Download this report</a> (PDF, 708.78 KB)</li> <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://www.kintera.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=dhLOK6PGLoF&b=3444291&en=jkLOI1PLKjKTL6OQJ9KMKbMULnKZI8ONJbKVKgP0JuLbG&ProductID=903595" class="external" target="_blank">Purchase this report in print</a></li> </ul></div> <p> The 102-page report, "<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://www.hrw.org/node/95606" class="external" target="_blank">At a Crossroads: Human Rights in Iraq Eight Years After the US-led Invasion</a>," calls on the government to protect the rights of vulnerable groups and to amend its penal code and all other laws that discriminate against women and violate freedom of speech. The report also urges Baghdad to open independent and impartial investigations into all allegations of abuse against detainees, minorities, and journalists.</p> <p>"Eight years after the US invasion, life in Iraq is actually getting worse for women and minorities, while journalists and detainees face significant rights violations," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "Today, Iraq is at a crossroads – either it embraces due process and human rights or it risks reverting to a police state."</p> <p>The 2003 invasion and its resulting chaos have exacted an enormous toll on Iraq’s citizens. The deterioration of security has promoted a return to some traditional justice practices and religiously inflected political extremism, which have had a deleterious effect on women’s rights, both inside and outside the home, Human Rights Watch found.</p> <p>Militias promoting misogynist ideologies have targeted women and girls for assassination, and intimidated them to keep them from participating in public life. Increasingly, women and girls are victimized in their own homes for a variety of perceived transgressions against family or community honor. Trafficking in women and girls in and out of the country for sexual exploitation is widespread.</p> <p>"The women and girls of Iraq have borne the biggest brunt of this conflict and resulting insecurity," Stork said. "For Iraqi women, who enjoyed some of the highest levels of rights protection and social participation in the region before 1991, this has been an enormously bitter pill to swallow."</p> <p>Although improvements in security since 2008 have reduced the murder rate of media workers, journalism is a hazardous occupation in Iraq, Human Rights Watch said. Extremists and unidentified assailants kill journalists and bomb their offices. Increasingly, journalists find themselves harassed, intimidated, threatened, detained, and physically assaulted by security forces attached to government institutions or political parties. Senior politicians are quick to sue journalists and their publications for unflattering articles.</p> <p>"Watching what’s happened in the streets of Egypt and Tunisia, the Iraqi government should take meaningful steps to protect freedom of speech," said Stork.</p> <p>Human Rights Watch also found that Iraqi interrogators routinely abuse detainees, regardless of sect, usually to coerce confessions. Despite knowing there was a clear risk of torture, US authorities transferred thousands of Iraqi detainees to Iraqi custodians, who have continued a tradition of torture that was also the case under Saddam Hussein and coalition forces.</p> <p>While the government has passed laws to protect some of its marginalized communities, and in some cases has instituted significant assistance programs, it is still failing some of its most vulnerable citizens, Human Rights Watch said. Internally displaced persons, minorities, and persons with disabilities are among those at risk. Many of the government’s assistance or protection programs are sub-operational or are insufficient to reach those who need it most.</p> <p>More than 1.5 million Iraqis fled their neighborhoods as sectarian violence tore up their communities in 2006 and 2007. Thousands of internally displaced persons now live in squatter settlements without access to basic necessities such as clean water, electricity, and sanitation, Human Rights Watch said.</p> <p>Armed groups proclaiming intolerant ideologies carry out assaults on minority communities, causing grave harm to Iraq’s indigenous populations and forcing thousands to flee abroad with no plans to return. The government has failed to stop attacks targeting Sabian Mandaeans, Christians, and Yazidis, among other groups.</p> <p>And the thousands of amputees wounded during years of armed conflict find themselves relegated to the margins of society, unable to find work, access adequate medical care, or even to obtain new prostheses and wheelchairs, Human Rights Watch found.</p> <p>"Iraq’s future as a democratic society based on respect for fundamental human rights will in large part depend on whether Iraqi authorities will adequately defend those rights," Stork said. "To do so, Iraqi authorities need to establish a credible criminal justice system meeting international standards with respect to torture, free expression, and violence against women and other vulnerable people in Iraq’s society."</p> </blockquote> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/02/21/iraq-vulnerable-citizens-risk" class="external" target="_blank">Iraq: Vulnerable Citizens at Risk | Human Rights Watch</a></p> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-12195"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/01/13/enforced-disappearances-a-long-term-challenge/#respond" title="Comment on Enforced disappearances – "a long-term challenge"">No Comments</a></span> Posted on January 13th, 2011 by Abdus-Samad</div> <h3><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/01/13/enforced-disappearances-a-long-term-challenge/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Enforced disappearances – "a long-term challenge"">Enforced disappearances – "a long-term challenge"</a></h3> <p class="postmetadata">Category: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/category/english-articles/" title="View all posts in English Language Articles" rel="category tag">English Language Articles</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/category/human-rights/" title="View all posts in Human Rights" rel="category tag">Human Rights</a>, Tags: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/abductions/" rel="tag">abductions</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/amnesty-international/" rel="tag">Amnesty International</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/asma-al-haidari/" rel="tag">Asma Al-Haidari</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/children/" rel="tag">Children</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/detainees/" rel="tag">detainees</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/dirk-adriansens/" rel="tag">Dirk Adriansens</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/disappearances/" rel="tag">disappearances</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/ethnicity/" rel="tag">ethnicity</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/human-rights/" rel="tag">Human Rights</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/idps/" rel="tag">IDPs</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/imcp/" rel="tag">IMCP</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/international-committee-of-the-red-cross/" rel="tag">international committee of the red cross</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/irin/" rel="tag">IRIN</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/kidnapping/" rel="tag">kidnapping</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/kidnappings/" rel="tag">Kidnappings</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/middle-east/" rel="tag">Middle East</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/missing-persons/" rel="tag">missing persons</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/political-instability/" rel="tag">political instability</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/refugee-agency/" rel="tag">refugee agency</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/refugee-population/" rel="tag">refugee population</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/un-human-rights-council/" rel="tag">un human rights council</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/unhcr/" rel="tag">UNHCR</a></p> <div class="entry" dir="rtl" align="right"> <p>MADRID, 13 January 2011 (IRIN) – Asma Al-Haidari, an Amman-based Iraqi human rights analyst and advocate, says the phenomenon of enforced disappearances in Iraq touches the whole population, irrespective of age, gender, ethnicity or religious belief. </p> <p>The number of missing persons in Iraq ranges from 250,000 to over one million, according to the International Commission on Missing Persons (<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://www.ic-mp.org/" class="external" target="_blank">ICMP</a>). </p> <p>The length of time over which enforced disappearances have occurred in Iraq, starting with the Iraq-Iran war (1980-88), render this issue particularly complex, according to International Committee of the Red Cross spokesperson for Iraq Layal Houraniyeh. The issue of enforced disappearances in Iraq represents, according to IMCP, “a major long-term challenge”. </p> <p>Article 2 of the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/disappearance-convention.htm" class="external" target="_blank">International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance</a> defines enforced disappearance as “the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law.” </p> <p>The Convention entered into force on 23 December 2010, 30 days after Iraq became the 20th state to ratify it on 23 November. It provides that “no one shall be subjected to enforced disappearance” and that “no exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification for enforced disappearance.” According to the UN Human Rights Council, “secret detention amounts to an enforced disappearance.” </p> <h3>“No safe place” </h3> <p>Focusing on enforced disappearance in Iraq since 2003, Dirk Adriansens, an expert on Iraq and member of international anti-war group the Brussels Tribunal, gave a presentation at a 9-12 December conference in London organized by the International Committee Against Disappearance (<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://www.icad-int.org/" class="external" target="_blank">ICAD</a>). Citing 2009 surveys by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), he said 20 percent of internally displaced and 5 percent of returnee families reported cases of missing children. </p> <p>Further, UNHCR <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://www.uniraq.org/documents/UNHCR%20Iraq%20Protection%20Monitoring%20%20Jan-Oct%202009.pdf" class="external" target="_blank">published findings</a> in 2009 showing that “many communities reported missing family members – 30 percent of IDPs, 30 percent of IDP returnees, 27 percent of refugee returnees – indicating that they were missing because of kidnappings, abductions and detentions and that they do not know what happened to their missing family members,” he said. </p> <p>Adriansens added in his presentation: “A rough estimate would therefore bring the number of missing persons among the refugee population and the internally displaced after ‘Shock and Awe’ [2003 US-led military operation to invade Iraq] to 260,000, most of them enforced disappearances.” </p> <p>Adriansens went on to say that by extrapolating UNHCR figures to cover the Iraqi population which had not suffered displacement, the total number of missing persons since 2003 “could be more than half a million”. </p> <p>Jordan-based analyst Al-Haidari believes this number is higher, placing it in the range of 800,000 to one million. “There is no safe place in Iraq. People can be disappeared and sent to secret, illegal detention centres anywhere in the country, without the knowledge of the family or the person’s lawyer,” Al-Haidari said. “Many are assassinated and buried in secret. Many others are charged with trumped-up terrorism charges.” </p> <h3>Amnesty International report </h3> <p>A recent <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE14/006/2010/en/c7df062b-5d4c-4820-9f14-a4977f863666/mde140062010en.pdf" class="external" target="_blank">Amnesty International report</a> said “an estimated 30,000 untried detainees are currently being held by the Iraqi authorities, although the exact number is not known as the authorities do not disclose such information.” In addition, there are detainees held at secret facilities, at which torture is common, it said. </p> <p>A further 23,000 previously held without charge or trial by US forces are currently being transferred to the Iraqi authorities or released, though Amnesty International believes “[a state cannot] claim to be treating detainees humanely while knowingly handing them over to torturers, any more than it can knowingly `release’ detainees in a minefield and claim that their safety is no longer its responsibility.”</p> <p>Source:<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=91622" class="external" target="_blank">IRIN Middle East | IRAQ: Enforced disappearances – "a long-term challenge" | Iraq | Governance | Human Rights</a></p> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-12168"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/01/09/%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%ac%d9%8a%d8%b4-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a7%d9%85%d8%b1%d9%8a%d9%83%d9%8a-%d9%8a%d8%b3%d8%a7%d8%b9%d8%af-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%82%d8%a7%d8%b9%d8%af%d8%a9-%d8%b9%d9%84%d9%89-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%ad%d8%b5/#respond" title="Comment on الجيش الامريكي يساعد (القاعدة) على الحصول على أكبر مخزن للأسلحة في العالم">No Comments</a></span> Posted on January 9th, 2011 by Nur Hussein Ghazali</div> <h3><a 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href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/qa-qa/" rel="tag">qa qa</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/qaqaa-ibn-umar/" rel="tag">Qa'qaa ibn Umar</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/qaqaa/" rel="tag">Qaqaa</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/rdx/" rel="tag">RDX</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/security-situation/" rel="tag">security situation</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/special-republican-guard/" rel="tag">special republican guard</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/supergun/" rel="tag">Supergun</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/un-security-council/" rel="tag">un security council</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/yousifiyah/" rel="tag">Yousifiyah</a></p> <div class="entry" dir="rtl" align="right"> <div dir="rtl" align="right"> <p>لندن: يصدر قريباً في لندن كتاب جديد بعنوان "تاريخ العالم منذ 9/11" لمؤلفه دومنيك ستريتفيلد، يتهم فيه المؤلف الجيش الأميركي في العراق بأنه تصرف على نحو غير مسؤول وساعد تنظيم "القاعدة" في الاستحواذ على أكبر مخزن للأسلحة في العالم، ولدى اكتشاف ما حصل جرت محاولات للتغطية على التقصير الأميركي ومنع تسرّب المعلومات عنه إلى وسائل الإعلام. وحصلت صحيفة "الغارديان" على حق نشر أحد فصول الكتاب الجديد </p> <p>الذي يروي فيه المؤلف كيف تمكن تنظيم "القاعدة" من الوصول إلى ترسانة الأسلحة في ربيع 2003، أي بعد أيام من سقوط نظام حكم صدام حسين.تبدأ القصة في قرية صغيرة اسمها اليوسفية تقع جنوب غرب بغداد، حيث فوجئ فلاحان عراقيان، أحدهما يدعى حقي محمد، كانا يعملان في أرضهما بجندي عراقي اقترب منهما فألقى بسلاحه وطلب منهما أن يمنحاه دشداشة فاستبدل بها ملابسه العسكرية ومضى راكضاً بين الحقول. كانت بندقية الجندي وملابسه تحمل علامة "منظومات الأمن العراقي". ويقول المؤلف أن اليوسفية قرية منسية تبعد عن بغداد 25 كيلومتراً ونحو30 دقيقة بالسيارة من مطار بغداد الدولي، ما جعلها صالحة كمخبأ، أو كمكان سري. لذلك في عام 1977، وقع اختيار الرئيس العراقي في حينه أحمد حسن البكر على اليوسفية، حيث أنشأ على بعد 15 كيلو متر منها مصنعاً ومخزناً كبيراً للذخائر. ونقل المؤلف عن خبراء يوغسلافيين عملوا على إنشاء المصنع أنه حمل في الأصل اسم "البكر"، إلى أن جاء صدام حسين إلى الحكم، فغيّر الإسم وأطلق عليه اسم القائد الإسلامي العراقي "القعقاع بن عمرو"، بطل معركة القادسية الثانية ضد الفرس في القرن السادس عشر. فيما نقل عن مفتشي الأسلحة الذين أوفدتهم الأمم المتحدة إلى العراق للتفتيش عن أسلحة الدمار الشامل بأنه "أكبر مخزن أو ترسانة أسلحة رأوها في حياتهم". فالترسانة التي تقوم على مساحة 36 كيلومتراً مربعاً وتحتوي على 1100 بناء وعمل فيها نحو 14 ألف عامل وموظف كانت مدينة قائمة بحد ذاتها ولم تكن بحاجة لأي شيء من الخارج لدرجة أنها كانت تتزود بالكهرباء من محطة خاصة بها لا علاقة لها بالشبكة الوطنية لكهرباء العراق، مما ساعد على بقائها موقعاً سرياً لمدة طويلة. كان صدام سعيداً بوجود هذا المصنع الذي أثبت فائدته عام 1980 لدى اندلاع الحرب مع إيران، ما دفعه لإنشاء مصانع وترسانات أسلحة سرية أخرى شبيهة في الصحراء ليس بعيداً عن اليوسفية. ويروي المؤلف أن صدام أمر خلال الحرب مع إيران باستيراد كميات هائلة من البارود والمواد سريعة الاشتعال والمتفجرة الأخرى من الخارج، حيث وصلت إلى العراق شحنات بمئات الأطنان من هذه المواد من شرق أوروبا وتشيلي. وأضاف أن المفتشين الدوليين الذين زاروا العراق بعد الغزو العراقي للكويت اكتشفوا هذه المواد المتفجرة فقاموا بجمعها وأمروا بوضعها في مخزن خاص تحت الأرض في الناحية الجنوبية الغربية من موقع القعقاع ويقدر وزنها بحوالي 341 طناً. كانت تلك عملية سرية لم تكشف الأمم المتحدة عنها مثلما تستر صدام ذاته عليها لأسبابه الخاصة. فسكان المنطقة لم يعرفوا عن هذا المخزن شيئاً مثلما أنهم لم يكونوا على اطلاع على ما يدور داخل الموقع، سوى أنهم مع مرور الوقت أدركوا أن الموقع عبارة عن ثكنة عسكرية لا أحد منهم يعرف بالضبط ما يجري فيها. في الثاني أو الثالث من أبريل 2003، وصل الجنود الأميركيون إلى القعقاع واحتلوا الموقع من دون مقاومة، إذ أن الجنود العراقيين الذين كانوا في الحراسة هربوا، تماماً مثلما فعل الجندي الذي وصل إلى اليوسفية وطلب الدشداشة من حقي محمد وأخيه. بالطبع عندما فرّ الجنود استيقظ حب الاستطلاع لدى مواطني اليوسفية الذين كانوا خلال السنوات الماضية ممنوعين من دخول "موقع القعقاع"، فبدأوا يتوافدون للتعرف على أسراره. فهدم الأهالي السور المحيط بالموقع من دون أن يعترضهم أحد. وبعد ساعات فقط، كان أكبر مخزن للأسلحة في منطقة الشرق الأوسط مفتوحاً أمام الجمهور والدخول إليه والخروج منه يتم بحرية تامة. حتى الجنود الأميركيين التابعين للفرقة 101 المحمولة جواً التي أقامت معسكراً قريباً لها من القعقاع لم تكن معنية بالتعرف على ما يحتويه الموقع. إذ أن الجنود الأميركيين كانوا منهمكين في ترتيب أمر وصولهم إلى بغداد والاحتفال بالنصر على صدام، ولم يعيروا اهتماماً لما كان مخزوناً بقربهم. وذلك دليل على أن القيادة العليا للجيش الأميركي لم تقدم للجنود معلومات دقيقة عمّا كان يصادفهم على الأرض. كان العالم ما زال مأخوذاً بالنصر السريع الذي حققه الجيشان الأميركي والبريطاني في العراق، حينما بدأت وسائل الإعلام تنقل أخبار الفوضى التي انتشرت في العراق وعمليات السلب والنهب. ونقل المؤلف عن حقي إبراهيم، الذي وصل إلى موقع القعقاع مع أخيه فوق سيارة تجارية رفعا فوقها علماً أبيض، أنه وجد باب الموقع مشرعاً والتقى فيه بالمئات من أبناء اليوسفية. وروى حقي كيف نهب المواطنون محتويات الموقع ولم يتركوا فيه شيئاً ليتحول إلى ما يشبه الخربة، بما في ذلك مخازن الأسلحة، مستعينين بالرافعات التي كانت موجودة في الموقع لسحب الآلات والمحركات أو الأسلحة الثقيلة التي تم نهبها. ولم يقتصر النهب على أهالي اليوسفية، بل انضم إليهم أهالي بلدة أخرى تقع إلى الشمال الشرقي للموقع تدعى محمودية. يقول المؤلف أن "موقع القعقاع" نهب عملياً قبل سقوط صدام بيومين وكانت المنهوبات عرضت للبيع في أسواق المنطقة وجرى تبادلها بين الناس في شكل واسع. غير أن المواطنين الذين لم يتركوا شيئاً ونهبوه، لم يعثروا على المخزن الذي كانت المواد المتفجرة وشديدة الاشتعال مخبأة فيه. ويقول المؤلف أن هذه الحقيقة يعرفها الجميع لأن صحفيين أميركيين وصلا إلى الموقع في 18 أبريل وهما اللذان اكتشفا المخزن، وكتبا تقريراً حول المخزن السري. إذ قام الصحفيان اللذان رافقا وحدة عسكرية أميركية بجولة في الموقع واكتشفا المخزن. بل أن جاك بوتيه، رئيس فريق المفتشين الدوليين عن الأسلحة في العراق زار العراق بعد أسبوعين من سقوط صدام فوجد مخزن المواد المتفجرة مغلقاً فطلب من الجيش الأميركي أن يوفر حماية للمخزن الذي كان ما زال غير مكتشف من جانب الناس. ويروي أهالي اليوسفية والمحمودية أنه في ذلك الوقت المبكر بدأ مقاتلون عرب من جنسيات مختلفة ينتمون الى "القاعدة" يصلون إلى المكان. فهؤلاء المقاتلون هم الذين أبلغوا أهالي المنطقة بأن "القعقاع" يحتوي على ما هو أكثر من الأسلحة التقليدية التي عثروا عليها ونهبوها وبدأوا يبيعونها في الأسواق.</p> </p></div> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-12146"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/01/07/how-the-us-let-al-qaida-get-its-hands-on-an-iraqi-weapons-factory/#comments" title="Comment on How the US let al-Qaida get its hands on an Iraqi weapons factory">1 Comment</a></span> Posted on January 7th, 2011 by Omar Khdhayyir</div> <h3><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/01/07/how-the-us-let-al-qaida-get-its-hands-on-an-iraqi-weapons-factory/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to How the US let al-Qaida get its hands on an Iraqi weapons factory">How the US let al-Qaida get its hands on an Iraqi weapons factory</a></h3> <p class="postmetadata">Category: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/category/english-articles/" title="View all posts in English Language Articles" rel="category tag">English Language Articles</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/category/features/" title="View all posts in Features" rel="category tag">Features</a>, Tags: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/101st-airborne-division/" rel="tag">101st Airborne Division</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/abu-shujaa/" rel="tag">Abu Shujaa</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/ahmed-hassan-al-bakr/" rel="tag">Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/al-qaeda/" rel="tag">Al Qaeda</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/al-qaeda-in-iraq/" rel="tag">al qaeda in iraq</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/american-incompetence/" rel="tag">American incompetence</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/bombs/" rel="tag">bombs</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/briefings/" rel="tag">Briefings</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/c4/" rel="tag">C4</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/dominic-streatfeild/" rel="tag">Dominic Streatfeild</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/guardian/" rel="tag">Guardian</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/guardian-the/" rel="tag">Guardian The</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/haki-mohammed/" rel="tag">Haki Mohammed</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/high-melt-explosive/" rel="tag">High Melt Explosive</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/high-melt-explosive-hmx/" rel="tag">High Melt Explosive (HMX)</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/hmx/" rel="tag">HMX</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/iaea/" rel="tag">IAEA</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/international-atomic-energy-agency/" rel="tag">International Atomic Energy Agency</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/iraqi-islamic-army/" rel="tag">Iraqi Islamic Army</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/jacques-baute/" rel="tag">Jacques Baute</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/manzaumat-al-amin/" rel="tag">Manzaumat al-Amin</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/middle-east/" rel="tag">Middle East</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/petn/" rel="tag">PETN</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/qa-qa/" rel="tag">qa qa</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/qaqaa-ibn-umar/" rel="tag">Qa'qaa ibn Umar</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/qaqaa/" rel="tag">Qaqaa</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/rdx/" rel="tag">RDX</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/security-situation/" rel="tag">security situation</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/special-republican-guard/" rel="tag">special republican guard</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/supergun/" rel="tag">Supergun</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/un-security-council/" rel="tag">un security council</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/yousifiyah/" rel="tag">Yousifiyah</a></p> <div class="entry" dir="rtl" align="right"> <p> <div style="border-right: black 1px solid; padding-right: 5px; border-top: black 1px solid; padding-left: 5px; float: right; padding-bottom: 5px; margin: 5px 0px 5px 15px; border-left: black 1px solid; width: 300px; padding-top: 5px; border-bottom: black 1px solid"> <p>In an exclusive extract from his new book, A History of the World since 9/11, Dominic Streatfeild explains how despite expert warnings, the US let al-Qaida buy an arsenal of deadly weapons – then tried to cover it up</p> <p>Dominic Streatfeild <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/07/iraq-weapons-factory-al-qaida-us-failure?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+theguardian%2Fmedia%2Frss+%28Media%29" target="_blank" class="external">The Guardian</a>, Friday 7 January 2011 </p> </p></div> <p> Haki Mohammed and his brothers were shovelling manure on their farm in Yusifiyah in the spring of 2003 when the soldier arrived. Dishevelled and distressed, the man had run a great distance. "Please," he entreated, "are you true Arabs?"</p> <p>The Iraqis, raised in a culture of obligatory hospitality towards needy strangers, immediately understood the subtext. The man needed help. Even had he not been a soldier (Haki thought he recognised the uniform of a Special Republican Guard), they were honour-bound to offer assistance. "Of course," Haki assured the man. "What is it you need?"</p> <p>The soldier held out his AK-47. "Take it." He indicated the webbing around his waist, stuffed full of charged magazines. "Take them all. I don’t want them. But I need a dishdasha or a robe. Anything that isn’t a uniform." Then the soldier started to undress.</p> <p>The Mohammeds were indeed good Arabs. They fetched a dishdasha and the man slipped it on. Then, without warning, he flung the ammunition and the rifle down and ran off into the desert. Bemused, the Yusifiyans examined his belongings. He wasn’t a Republican Guard at all. His uniform, bereft of rank badges, was that of a rarer outfit: Manzaumat al-Amin, the Iraqi military’s security and protection agency.</p> <p>A small, nondescript town of a few thousand souls 25km south-west of Baghdad, Yusifiyah is known for its rich soil, which enables the production of potatoes famous throughout <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/iraq" class="external" target="_blank">Iraq</a> for their size and flavour. The singer Farouk al-Khatib was born here. But that’s about it. For those uninterested in either potatoes or Iraqi popular music, there’s little of interest: farms criss-crossed by irrigation ditches, a great deal of sand, and not much else.</p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yusufiyah" class="external" target="_blank">Yusifiyah</a>’s obscurity, however, together with its convenient location – less than 30 minutes’ drive from Baghdad airport – make it perfect for certain purposes: hiding things, for example. Things you’d rather no one ever knew about. Secret things.</p> <p>Sure enough, 15km to the south lies a big, big secret. The secret dates back to 1977, when the then-president <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Hassan_al-Bakr" class="external" target="_blank">Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr</a> ordered the construction of a vast munitions plant outside the town. Built by the Yugoslavs, the factory was originally to be named after Bakr himself, until Saddam Hussein seized power in 1979. In a fit of patriotic zeal, the fledgling dictator named it after the Iraqi general Qa’qaa ibn Umar, who in the seventh century inflicted a most glorious massacre on the Persian army in the second battle of Qasidiya: Al Qa’qaa.</p> <p>Weapons inspectors who visited the facility were dumbstruck by the scale of the place. "Huge," comments one senior figure familiar with the site. "The biggest chemical plant I’ve ever seen." Covering an area of 36 square km, containing 1,100 buildings and employing more than 14,000 staff, the site was essentially a secret, self-sufficient city, 10 times the size of New York’s Central Park – in the middle of the desert. It even had its own power station.</p> <p>Saddam was so pleased with the facility that, when the Iran–Iraq war broke out in 1980, he built a number of other weapons factories nearby. Soon, Nahir Yusifiyah, the sparsely populated crescent-shaped region surrounding the town, was teeming with facilities engaged in the manufacture of free-fall aircraft bombs, small arms, ammunition, scud-missiles, as well as nuclear centrifuge development and bio-warfare experiments: all huge, clandestine weapons sites with their own research staff and agendas.</p> <p>From the outside there was little to indicate what was going on in Qa’qaa. Surrounded by tall earthen walls, all that was visible was a series of chimney stacks producing huge plumes of acrid brown smoke. Employees in the facility were not allowed to speak about it; nobody else was allowed in. To Yusifiyans, however, it was obvious the plant made military equipment of some sort: repeated explosions emanated from within the walls when things went wrong, and from the facility’s test ranges when things went right.</p> <p>At the heart of this big, big secret lay further secrets, some so huge they bordered on the preposterous. In the late 80s, the facility was involved in the construction of the largest rifle in the history of the world: a monstrous weapon with a 150m barrel and the ability to shoot a 600kg projectile into space. The Supergun required 10 tonnes of propellant for each shot – doubtless the reason why research was underway at Qa’qaa, where the explosive material was to be made.</p> <p>Unfortunately, even this state-of-the-art facility was not up to the task. At the end of the decade, suppliers were sought for a pair of compounds that the facility was unable to synthesise purely: RDX (the basis for a number of explosives, including C4) and PETN (used in small-calibre ammunition and Semtex). The materials, ordered from eastern Europe via Chile, arrived in shipments of hundreds of tonnes.</p> <p>Then the project stalled. In 1991, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/history/0,,876851,00.html" class="external" target="_blank">following the Iraqi rout in Kuwait</a>, inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) gained access to Qa’qaa, where they found 145 tonnes of pure RDX and PETN. On a whim, one enterprising inspector asked technicians whether they had imported any other explosives of note. Qa’qaa staff exchanged glances and shuffled their feet, before leading him to a series of bunkers containing hundreds of drums of an off-white, crystalline powder. About as highly explosive as high explosive gets, High Melt Explosive (HMX) is used to detonate nuclear warheads. Qa’qaa had nearly 200 tonnes of it. The IAEA moved all the explosives to secure bunkers on the south-west corner of the facility, then closed the doors with tamper-proof seals. And there the 341 tonnes sat for more than a decade.</p> <p>Of course, inhabitants of Yusifiyah and the surrounding towns had no idea about any of this. In Saddam’s time, there were many things one didn’t inquire about. But that was before the curious incident of the soldier, the rifle and the dishdasha.</p> <h4><strong>Looting by the truckload</strong></h4> <p> For Haki and his brothers, Operation Iraqi Freedom had started in the early hours of 3 April 2003, when they were woken by the sound of low-flying aircraft. Moments later, the first American artillery shells zipped overhead, eliminating with pinpoint accuracy the Republican Guard checkpoints and roadblocks around Yusifiyah, in effect neutralising all threat of resistance. <p>By sunrise, American tanks were trundling north up Highway 8 towards Baghdad Airport. Ali, one of Qa’qaa’s senior administrators, recalls the invasion well. "The Americans came in on the second or third of April," he says. "There was no fighting. Most of the soldiers and officers just took off their uniforms and ran away."</p> <p>It took Haki Mohammed next to no time to deduce that the man who showed up on his doorstep had come from the secure compound at Qa’qaa, and an even shorter time to figure that, if the soldiers had left, the site was unguarded. For a quarter of a century, the facility had been off-limits. Here, finally, was an opportunity to find out what had been going on in there.</p> <p>Haki’s neighbours had the same idea. "Lots of people went in," he recalls. "They destroyed the fence and they went in that way . . . There was no army, no guards, nothing." The period between the guards fleeing and the first Yusifiyans breaching the compound was remarkably short. "About an hour," he says. By the afternoon of 3 April, the largest explosives plant in the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middleeast" class="external" target="_blank">Middle East</a> was open to all-comers.</p> <p>A week after the first Yusifiyans breached Qa’qaa’s perimeter fence, the US 101st Airborne Division pitched camp just outside the facility. There appears to have been no briefings about the site. The soldiers’ attention was elsewhere: the 101st was itching to get to Baghdad. As far as the troops were concerned, they were sitting on their behinds while higher-ups attempted to jump the queue, to manoeuvre their own divisions into the capital for a share of the glorious victory. They were missing the show.</p> <p>And what a show it was. On 9 April, the day before the 101st arrived at Qa’qaa, US troops had taken the capital, symbolically pulling down the statue of Saddam Hussein in Firdos Square. The image, broadcast around the world, delighted the commander-in-chief back in Washington. "In the images of falling statues," President Bush later announced, "we have witnessed the arrival of a new era."</p> <p>Unfortunately, by the time the 101st arrived in Baghdad on 11 April, the foundations of the new era were looking distinctly shaky. As the troops settled in to the capital, news began to break that the city was descending into an orgy of lawlessness and looting. Reporters told of mobs roaming the city, stealing everything that wasn’t nailed down.</p> <p>Back in Yusifayah, Haki was unable to contain his curiosity any longer. Many of his neighbours had been into Qa’qaa and had returned with fantastic stories of all the useful bits and pieces lying about. He decided to take a look for himself. On 6 April Haki and his cousins and friends piled into a grey Kia minibus, hung a white flag from the window to placate passing American troops, and made their way to the main gate. Finding it open, they drove in to the compound.</p> <p>Hundreds of Yusifiyans were roaming around inside. They were gutting the place. Some targets were easier than others. Trucks vanished fairly quickly. The first few were simply hotwired and driven away. When locals realised there was no rush, however, they became more brazen, using the stolen trucks to return and carry away further loot. The next day they came back for more. "Lathes, machine tools, electrical generators," says Haki. "They were even taking the iron posts from the buildings." Qa’qaa was assaulted from all sides. From the north-west came the Yusifiyans; from the north-east, the inhabitants of Mahmudiyah.</p> <p>Some of Qa’qaa’s senior staff lived in an executive employees’ compound just west of the town. When the power went out after the Americans passed by, they returned to the complex to fetch an electrical generator. By the time they arrived, two days before the Saddam statue ceremony, Mahmudiyans were operating a market inside the walls, selling and bartering plundered goods. Ali, the site administrator, was flabbergasted at the scale of the operation. "It was astonishing, the way they managed to steal such big pieces of kit. Some of them were using cranes." He shakes his head. "They even took the electrical cables. They dug them up from the ground and took them. The water pipes. Everything."</p> <p>As yet, however, the looters had not discovered Qa’qaa’s real treasure: the vast stockpiles of HMX, PETN and RDX. We know they had not discovered the explosives because of a somewhat fortuitous event. On 18 April, two weeks after the looting began, a pair of American journalists did.</p> <h4><strong>Discovery of the high explosives</strong></h4> <p>Over the course of the month that they had been embedded with the 101st Airborne, reporter Dean Staley and cameraman Joe Caffrey had seen more than their fair share of action. Now, however, they were stuck. At the end of the second week in April, the 101st had established their base a mile south-east of Qa’qaa, from which they serviced Black Hawk helicopters and ferried military bigwigs around. A week later, they were still there. With no obvious route to Baghdad, the journalists’ chances of an exclusive were growing slimmer by the minute. So when, on the morning of 18 April, a sergeant and a warrant officer offered them the opportunity to tag along on a trip outside the camp, they were all ears.</p> <p>"It was a sightsee," recalls Caffrey. "Non-sanctioned. They basically decided on a whim, because they weren’t assigned to fly that day, to check out the base."</p> <p>Within a quarter of an hour, they started finding things. Paved roads. Watchtowers. Perimeter fences. And, within them, munitions of every possible shape and size. There were fat bombs, thin bombs, cartoon-style bombs with big fins and, lying in the hot morning sun, bombs that appeared to be leaking corrosive brown material. Some of them were as big as Volkswagens.</p> <p>Outside one bunker, the soldiers and the journalists stopped. A length of thin steel wire snaked around the lock, the chain and the hinges of the door, secured by a copper disc the size of a coin.</p> <p>Clearly, the wire wasn’t strong enough to keep anyone out. So what was it for? The soldiers wondered aloud whether it wasn’t so thin because it was meant not to be seen, that it was a booby trap. In the end, curiosity prevailed. One of them broke the disc apart and the wire fell away. Nothing happened. They walked in.</p> <p>There were no warheads in this bunker. Only crates of what appeared to be chemicals. And some strange-looking drums. Cautiously, the soldiers opened one. Inside was a clear plastic bag containing coarse powder. Caffrey went in for a look. "It was very flour-like, yellow, bright yellow in colour." Further bunkers also contained the yellow, flour-like substance. In fact, the more the journalists looked, the more they found. Many of the buildings appeared to be filled with it: in one corner there might be 30 crates or boxes, in the other, 60 or 70 barrels. The quantity was staggering. "What is this stuff?" one of the soldiers murmured.</p> <p>For a moment the soldiers and the journalists had the same idea. Had they accidentally discovered Saddam’s WMDs? No one knew. But just in case, Caffrey filmed it all.</p> <p>While Caffrey, Staley and the soldiers were exploring the bunkers outside Yusifiyah, officials at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna were becoming increasingly concerned. Prior to the invasion the agency had told the Americans of the dangers of allowing the security situation to collapse. Two weeks after the start of the war, Jacques Baute, the head of the Iraq nuclear inspection teams, visited the US mission to advise, again, that the weapons sites needed protection. He specifically mentioned Qa’qaa. Just days before the invasion, he told officials, inspectors had inventoried the facility’s HMX, RDX and PETN stores and ensured that the seals were still intact. This kind of materiel, the Frenchman suggested, should be kept out of the hands of looters. There was no reaction.</p> <p>Privately, IAEA officials wondered whether the Americans really understood what they were doing. Qa’qaa had made the propellant for the Nasser 81 artillery rocket programme, itself at the heart of the administration’s case for war. On 3 May, an internal memo at the IAEA warned that, if Qa’qaa was not secured, the result could be "the greatest explosives bonanza in history".</p> <h4><strong>The arrival of al-Qaida</strong></h4> <p> Initially, looters at Qa’qaa had targeted consumer goods such as fridges and air-conditioners. Although munitions had been taken, no one really knew what to do with them. It soon dawned, however, that they might be intrinsically valuable. Weaponry was rapidly emerging as a second currency. <p>"After the invasion, we started seeing these Arabs, these foreign fighters," recalls Haki, "Palestinians, Egyptians, Libyans." Most Yusifiyans were wary of these new arrivals, but a number of local tribes took them in: "Karagol, Jenabies, Rowissat . . ."</p> <p>Yusuf, an emerging leader in the insurgency who belongs to one of these tribes, confirms the story. "We allowed the Arabs into our houses and our farms. We welcomed them properly. Some of them even married our daughters." The fact they were Arab strangers was sufficient to ensure hospitality, but these foreigners had extra pull. They were fedayeen. They were al-Qaida.</p> <p>They also informed the tribes that some of Qa’qaa’s contents were considerably more valuable than rocket launchers and pistols. It wasn’t long before Yusuf finally stumbled upon Qa’qaa’s real treasure. "We found something that we didn’t recognise. It was like a powder. It was stored in specific conditions, in special barrels." Yusuf had no idea what it was, but he thought he might as well take some. Only later would he learn that it was pure, crystalline high explosive.</p> <p>Following the rush to appropriate munitions, Yusifiyans had to figure out where to store their loot. Many hid it in their homes. This soon led to tragedy. Rival groups fired rocket-propelled grenades into each other’s houses, knowing they were full of explosives. Accidents also led to fatalities. One of Yusuf’s barns blew up.</p> <p>After a few such incidents, the powder was decanted into flour sacks, then dispersed and loaded into subterranean potato stores. Portable air-conditioning units were installed to keep it cool. By 8 May 2003, when the Pentagon’s Exploratory Task Force arrived at Qa’qaa to search for WMDs, all of the PETN, RDX and HMX was gone.</p> <p>Yusifiyah became a boomtown. Each potato sack of the explosive formula went for $300 (£194) to $500 (£325). "People from Yusifiyah had never seen a dollar bill. They certainly hadn’t seen a $100 bill," says Haki. "But when [the Arabs] arrived, everyone was talking about tens of thousands of dollars. We started seeing people holding bundles of wads of dollars."</p> <p>In this seedy, lottery-win atmosphere, locals rushed to spend their hard currency, throwing lavish weddings, buying cars, trucks and houses. Some used their share of the cash to travel. The sensible ones didn’t return.</p> <p>Meanwhile, bored with waiting for the Americans to establish security and tired of living without electricity, sewerage, clean water and other basic facilities, Iraqis turned in their droves to jihadist organisations, then attacked coalition troops. More violence meant less reconstruction, which led to more dissatisfaction, more anti-American sentiment and more violence. The insurgency became self-fuelling.</p> <p>Throughout the summer of 2003, the insurgents’ bombing campaign increased. In November, with attacks on coalition forces running at more than 1,000 a month, a classified Defence Intelligence Agency report finally stated the obvious: the vast majority of munitions used in the attacks had been pilfered from weapons sites that coalition troops had failed to protect.</p> <p>In September 2003, a month after the bombing of the UN building in Baghdad (an attack in which munitions from Qa’qaa appear to have been used), Ali, who had worked at Qa’qaa for 14 years, was invited to the Green Zone to confer with the US military. The meeting had been called to discuss how best to get Iraqi industries back on their feet. Ali had other plans.</p> <p>After the conference, he pulled the senior US general to one side and explained that he had come from Qa’qaa and that it had been severely looted. He then handed the general a dossier containing his senior staff’s assessment of the damage. Such was the extent of the looting, the report stated, it had to be assumed that all explosive materiel inside the facility – not just the RDX, PETN and HMX – had gone. The total quantity was staggering.</p> <p>"We told him that we had lost 40,000 tonnes," Ali recalls. "The gunpowder, anything that burned energetically, could be used as an explosive, so you could consider that part of the missing explosives." If the general was concerned, he concealed it well, especially when Ali informed him that among the looted munitions were 1,000 suicide-bomb belts manufactured at Saddam’s orders in February 2003. "There was no reaction. He took the records and didn’t say anything."</p> <h4><strong>Political bombshell</strong></h4> <p> The Iraqi Islamic Army was one of the insurgent groups formed in the wake of the US invasion. Abu Shujaa, one of its founders, sits in an armchair and thinks for a moment. "One of the operations we did was the attack on the al-Amyria police station. This was in October 2003. We received information from our intelligence service that one of the high-profile military generals would be there. We decided to use a car bomb." <p>Shujaa is a hard man to track down. After a month of negotiations in Baghdad, we found him through intermediaries, and intermediaries of intermediaries. Shortly after our interview, he fled Iraq for Syria.</p> <p>"We used two cars: Nissan Patrol 4×4s that had previously belonged to the Iraqi Special Services. We used TNT and the explosives taken from the western bunkers of Qa’qaa. They had been removed and hidden in western Baghdad, near Abu Ghraib. In total, we used about 24kg, which we mixed with the formula [powder from Qa'qaa] to make the explosions more effective. The formula was available through the farmers to the west of al-Radhwania and al-Rashid area [Yusifiyah is in this area]. Most of the explosives had been taken and hidden in flour sacks near the railway tracks."</p> <p>Shujaa’s first car detonated outside the police station at 9.45am on 27 October 2003. Passerby Hamid Abbas was killed, along with his daughters Samar (25) and Doniya (16) and his one-year-old granddaughter. "The other car didn’t explode," continues Shujaa. "The explosives were a bit moist. They had been stored in a place that was too humid. Although the amount that had been taken from Qa’qaa was very large, we were concerned that we would finish it all if we didn’t use it wisely. So after that we decided to mix a little more TNT with the formula, in case it was too humid."</p> <p>IAEA staff in Vienna were livid about the Americans’ failure to contain the explosives. Munitions sites in Iraq had been heavily looted, but the Americans would not allow the IAEA to visit them; it was reliant on secondhand news. When nothing was heard about Qa’qaa, inspectors chased up the interim government directly. What had happened to the sealed RDX, PETN and HMX? Was it safe?</p> <p>A year later, on 10 October 2004, Jacques Baute, the agency finally received a one-page letter from the Iraqi Planning and Following-up Directorate: "The following materials, which have been included in Annex 3 (item 74) registered under IAEA custody, were lost after 9-4-2003, throughout the theft and looting of the governmental installations due to lack of security." The letter contained a table detailing the "lost" materiel: 5.8 tonnes of PETN, 141.233 tonnes of RDX and 194.741 tonnes of HMX. At last, the truth: 341 tonnes of high explosive were missing.</p> <p>The letter created consternation. What was the agency supposed to do with it? The American presidential election was three weeks away. If the IAEA went public with the news, it would look as if the agency – supposedly apolitical – was taking a swipe at the Bush administration. If, on the other hand, it sat on its hands, it would be open to charges of sabotaging the campaign of Bush’s opponent, John Kerry. Potentially, the letter was a political trap.</p> <p>IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei attempted a compromise, contacting the UN security council. The explosives were gone, he told them. There was every chance the news would leak. Perhaps, however, it was possible to keep a lid on it for a while, giving the coalition a chance to try to find some of them before the news broke.</p> <p>The diplomatic approach came to nothing. On 14 October, the agency received a call from CBS’s 60 Minutes in New York. The programme had managed to obtain a copy of the letter. So had the New York Times. Realising the cat was out of the bag, the next day the IAEA officially informed the US-led Multinational Force (MNF) that the explosives were missing. News of the report made it almost immediately to Condoleezza Rice and the president. David Sanger of the Times hastily drafted an article, while travelling with the president on Air Force One in the last days of the election campaign. No date was set for its publication.</p> <p>Then, suddenly, the story leaked. On Thursday 21 October – 13 days before the presidential election – Chris Nelson, the author of a respected Washington political online report, received an anonymous phone call. A huge quantity of high explosives had gone missing, he was told. They had been stolen. They were being used to attack US troops. Nelson did some checking, discovered the story stood up and posted it on the internet that weekend.</p> <p>Sanger, still waiting for the editors of the Times to publish his exclusive, discovered that the story was leaking on Sunday. The article went out the next morning: "Huge Cache of Explosives Vanished from Site in Iraq." Shortly after the newspaper hit the streets, Bush’s chief political strategist Karl Rove swept into the media area of Air Force One and started shouting at Sanger. "Rove came and screamed at me in front of all the other reporters," he says. "Declared that this had been invented by the Kerry campaign." Apparently, the report had hit a nerve.</p> <p>It was at this point that the story of the looting of Qa’qaa got really dirty.</p> <h4><strong>Bush administration cover-up</strong></h4> <p> With the presidential election just eight days away, it now became crucial for the White House to neutralise the story. If voters suspected that American GIs were dead because of sheer official incompetence, they might be tempted to vote the wrong way. Evangelistic certainty and moral clarity were one thing; US soldiers dying needlessly in the sand in a faraway country was quite another. Had the explosives been stolen? Why had they not been protected? Had there not been enough troops? <p>The looting of Qa’qaa raised a whole swathe of issues that the Bush administration was not keen to address. Not this close to an election, anyway. Over the course of the next week, the White House deployed a number of tactics to make it go away. The first tactic was simply to assert the story was untrue. There were different angles of attack. One was that the explosives had not been there in the first place. Various figures were presented to show that the IAEA had got its sums wrong. In conjunction with this argument came a second, more formidable one: that the explosives had been there, but Saddam had moved them prior to the war.</p> <p>The Pentagon brandished satellite photos of heavy trucks at Qa’qaa the day before the US invasion began. To bolster its case, the Pentagon wheeled out Colonel David Perkins, commander of the troops that took the area in April 2003. According to Perkins, it was "highly improbable" themateriel had been stolen after the invasion. "The enemy sneaks a convoy of 10-tonne trucks in," Perkins asked rhetorically, "and loads them up in the dark of night and infiltrates them in your convoy and moves out? That’s kind of a stretch too far."</p> <p>Donald Rumsfeld agreed. "Picture all of the tractor trailers and forklifts and caterpillars it would take," the secretary of defence told Voice of America. "We had total control of the air. We would have seen anything like that."</p> <p>Even if the explosives had been there at the time of the invasion, the administration argued, they had probably been destroyed by US troops. Another officer was wheeled out. Austin Pearson of the 24th Ordnance Company had visited the site on 13 April 2003 and removed 250 tonnes of ordnance, including TNT, detonator cord and white phosphorous rounds. The materiel had later been destroyed. There were photographs of the operation, Pentagon spokesman Larry di Rita told journalists, "which we may provide later".</p> <p>Finally, the administration added another point: even if the materiel had been at Qa’qaa, even if it had been looted, the loss wasn’t significant. Iraq had been awash with munitions at the end of the war. Some 402,000 tonnes of armaments had been destroyed. It was estimated that Iraq’s total holdings were in the region of 650,000 tonnes. Compared with this vast figure, 341 tonnes was a paltry 0.06%. The New York Times was making a mountain out of a molehill.</p> <p>On this issue there was a double deception. Qa’qaa’s administrators had already informed the US, in writing, that the sum total of munitions looted from their facility was not 341 tonnes but 40,000. On this accounting, the missing explosives constituted more than 6% of all explosives in Iraq, a very great deal more than 0.06%, in fact.</p> <p>Further statistical manipulation was afoot, too. While the missing materiel from Qa’qaa was pure high explosive, the 402,000 tonnes destroyed by US forces included some very heavy objects that contained no explosives at all. "[The Pentagon] was trying to compare the weight of the guns and stocks and metal and all of that stuff," says a senior weapons-intelligence analyst. "They were counting tanks and guns and bazookas – metal – as opposed to the raw explosive that can be directly used . . . It’s an absolutely dishonest comparison."</p> <p>On Friday 29 October, Osama bin Laden succeeded where the White House’s spin doctors had failed. The first videotaped message from the al-Qaida leader for more than a year pushed the looted explosives story out of the public eye. Four days later, Bush won a second term in office.</p> <h4><strong>Torture and murder</strong></h4> <p> News of Bush’s glorious second victory left Yusifiyans cold. Haki and his neighbours had other concerns. Top of the list came the recently arrived Arab strangers. For al-Qaida, Yusifiyah was important not only because it was home to Iraq’s largest armaments facilities, but also because it was strategically extremely well positioned. Eventually, the mujahideen fighters settled in the area permanently. For the locals, the situation rapidly became intolerable. Instead of buying explosives, the Arabs simply took them, forcing potato farmers to store the materiel in their underground bunkers, then killing them later. "Those guys started ruling the whole area," says Haki. "They weren’t guests any more." In fear of his life, the farmer fled to Baghdad to become a security guard. <p>In 2004, al-Qaida established a camp inside the Qa’qaa complex itself. "We had a firing range, like a tunnel. It was used to shoot small-calibre bullets," says Ali. "It became a training camp for terrorists."</p> <p>Anyone entering the facility without permission was killed. Al-Qaida spread horror stories about its activities, intimidating locals into collaborating. An execution room was set up with a makeshift gallows. Yusuf was part of the operation. "We used to kill people in terrible ways, torturing them to give al-Qaida more influence." Mutilations, murders and decapitations were filmed and copies were distributed around Yusifiyah to discourage dissent.</p> <p>The violence increased. Anyone suspected of attempting to join the Iraqi military or police was executed. Shias were executed. People with Shia names were executed. People who did anything regarded as Shia-like were executed. When Haki’s uncle was caught smoking a cigarette, al-Qaida broke all his fingers with a hammer. Then they killed him.</p> <p>Soon even Yusuf recognised that things had gone awry. "We realised that al-Qaida hadn’t come to rescue us. They were killing all kinds of people, saying they were atheists and that they idolised statues," he recalls.</p> <p>When Haki returned from Baghdad in 2005, he found the main road into town littered with corpses, bound, tortured and shot. "We hadn’t seen anything like this before in our lives. It was like a horror film."</p> <p>By 2005, commentators were dubbing the Yusifiyah region the "Triangle of Death": the most dangerous sector in all Iraq. Palm-tree plantations were rigged with explosives to bring down low-flying helicopters; soldiers were abducted, tortured and murdered. Bombs went off everywhere.</p> <p>It was, of course, no coincidence that Nahir Yusifiyah was so favoured by insurgents. It was where all the weapons were.</p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/07/iraq-weapons-factory-al-qaida-us-failure?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+theguardian%2Fmedia%2Frss+%28Media%29" class="external" target="_blank">How the US let al-Qaida get its hands on an Iraqi weapons factory | World news | The Guardian</a></p> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="navigation"> <div class="alignleft"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130213213038/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/middle-east/page/2/">« Previous Entries</a></div> <div class="alignright"></div> </div> </div> <div id="sidebar" class="span-10 last"> <div class="span-10" id="tabs"> <ul> <li class="ui-tabs-nav-item"><a href="#featured-articles">Featured Articles</a></li> <li class="ui-tabs-nav-item"><a href="#latest-articles">Latest Articles</a></li> </ul> <div id="featured-articles" class="widget"> <ul> <li><a 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