Iraq Occupation Focuswww.iraqoccupationfocus.org.uk

Iraq Occupation Focus www.iraqoccupationfocus.org.uk

IOF Newsletter No 137

January 9th, 2010

Contents

Military news

Abuse

Daily life

Corporate takeover

Anti-war news

Upcoming events

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Military news

Mass arrests reported in Sunni areas in Iraq

Azzaman reports (January 4th):Iraqi security forces have launched a wide campaign in Sunni Muslim-dominated neighborhoods of Baghdad and towns and cities to the north and west of the capital.

The campaign is said to be the widest by the government in years and has led to an exodus of people to the Kurdish north. The campaign comes as the country gears for national elections in March.

The summary arrests have fuelled anger in these areas and raised fears of popular unrest at a time the government finds it extremely hard to reinstate law and order.

Defense and security allocations to surge in 2010 budget

Azzaman reports (December 30th): There will be a substantial increase in allocations for the ministries of defense and interior in the 2010 budget, Interior Minister Baqer Jaber said.

Abuse

Iraqi prisoners ‘were sexually humiliated by female British soldier’

The Times reports (January 2nd): A female British soldier is accused of sexually humiliating and abusing prisoners in Iraq in a series of claims about British troops in Basra, The Times has learnt.

Five former detainees have made specific allegations against a female interrogator they knew as “Katy”.

The claims are among 14 new cases brought against a secretive British Army interrogation unit. These bring to 40 the total of pending British court cases by former Iraqi detainees.

Sexual abuse was routinely practised by the Joint Forward Intelligence Team (JFIT) between 2003 and 2007, it is claimed, when the unit ran the Divisional Temporary Detention Facility based at the Shaibah Logistics Base near Basra. Among the allegations is at least one case of male rape.

Case study: 'A soldier hit me again and again with a hammer for at least three minutes'

The Independent reports (January 1st): In one of the most disturbing cases Hussain Ghazi Shihab, 35, claims he was badly beaten by soldiers before being handed over to specialist interrogators at Shaibah.

He recalls: "The officer showed me another photograph of a man... [and] insisted that I knew where he lived. I told him I did not know, otherwise I would take him there. The more I told them I couldn't help, the more the officer instructed the soldiers to beat me further. The soldiers were hitting me with their fists, kicking me and bringing their rifle butts down on to my head and body. I was hit hard in the stomach by a soldier who had picked up a hammer.

"The pain was horrendous and I fell forward grabbing my stomach in agony. He hit me again and again with the hammer for at least three minutes on different parts of my body, but mainly concentrating on my stomach... I vomited later when I was in the tank and there was blood in the vomit."

The injuries were so serious he claims members of the Joint Forward Intelligence Team were forced to break off the interrogations so he could receive hospital treatment. In one of the most shocking allegations made against British soldiers, Mr Shihab alleges the interrogators superimposed his head on the photograph of a man sexually abusing a child.

Iraq will help Blackwater victims sue

The Guardian reports (January 3rd): Iraq will help victims of the 2007 shooting of civilians in Baghdad to file a lawsuit in the US against employees of security firm Blackwater, an incident that turned a spotlight on the United States' use of private contractors in war zones.

Last week, a US judge threw out charges against five guards accused of killing 14 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, saying the defendants' constitutional rights had been violated.

Iraq called that decision "unacceptable and unjust" and, as well as supporting a lawsuit brought by Iraqis wounded in the shooting and families of those killed, it will ask the US justice department to review the criminal case, a government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, said.

Blackwater trial: 15 minutes of gunfire which left 17 dead

The Guardian reports (January 1st): When a Blackwater convoy approached Baghdad's fortified green zone just after midday on 16 September, 2007, the hundreds of Iraqi drivers inching through the choking traffic witnessed a familiar scene.

Abdul Wahad Abdul-Kahad remembers grinding to a stop as non-Iraqi guards cleared a path for a second Blackwater convoy. A helicopter hovered overhead.

"It was about noon", he recalled. ''I heard a bursts of fire enter the car in front of me. It caught fire and a lady and her son were killed. I tried to drive away down the wrong side of the road, but they shot at me and hit me in the arm."

"The shooting may have continued for 15 minutes," Abdul-Kahad said. "It's hard to be sure. I was crouched and bleeding in my car for an hour until Iraqi guards came to rescue me. I still haven't recovered from what I went through."

Iraqi doctors demand cancer probe

Al-Jazeera reports (January 3rd): Iraqi doctors believe depleted uranium from US military equipment used in the 2003 invasion is spreading cancer through the population.

They are recording a shocking rise in the number of cancer victims south of Baghdad, they claim. Outraged, they have demanded an investigation be held into the matter. Cancer rates in the province of Babil have risen almost tenfold in just three years. In 2004, 500 cases of cancer were diagnosed there. That figure rose to almost 1,000 two years later. By 2008, the number of cases had increased sevenfold to 7,000.

Many Iraqi doctors say radiation has caused this alarming increase in cancer rates and birth defects among Iraqi children. Over 300 sites across Iraq are said to be contaminated by depleted uranium.

Daily Life

1.2 million Iraqis have fled to Syria, official says

Azzaman reports (December 12th): Nearly 1.2 million Iraqis have fled their country for safety in neighboring Syria, a high-ranking Syrian government official said. The Iraqis fled following the 2003-U.S. invasion and the ensuing upsurge in violence and absence of law and order.

The Iraqis in Syria, despite their dire conditions, prefer to stay rather than return home.

Poor conditions in Iraq drive returned refugees back to Syria

UNHCR report (December 22nd): Omar Salman's* Syrian visa expired two weeks ago. A refugee from neighbouring Iraq, he believes his family's residency permits will not be renewed but says that returning to Iraq is not an option.

The Salmans have already made one attempt to return home. The $150 travel assistance received from UNHCR only covered half of their taxi fare to their parents' house in Abou Ghraib, a city west of Baghdad. Omar got occasional low wage work as a blacksmith, his wife, a Shia, says she was constantly harassed by residents in their majority-Sunni neighbourhood. His children were too afraid of kidnappings to go to school, and he was detained for 45 days after an attack occurred on a vehicle in his area.

"The Iraqi Government had placed huge advertisements around our neighbourhood in Damascus encouraging refugees to return. They promised returnees cash grants and help finding employment. We were destitute in Syria and we hoped the assistance would help us rebuild our lives back home. When we arrived in Iraq, none of that materialised," says Shahla.

Ancient Babylonian city left unattended in Iraq

Azzaman reports (December 14th): Iraq’s Tall Harmal, site of the old Babylonian city of Shadupum, has been left unguarded since the 2003-U.S. invasion of Iraq. The site, in the outskirts of Baghdad, was fenced and seen as one of the country’s most important ancient landmarks prior to the invasion.

This highly significant site was left unattended “because of lack of financial resources,” according to Abdulzahra al-Talaqani, the department’s spokesman. Ordinary people could enter the site and illegal digs have been reported to have taken place there.

Security checks choking and costing Baghdad dearly

AFP reports (December 18th): A million dollars in exhaust fumes pollutes the air of Baghdad daily thanks to traffic jams caused by security checkpoints that have proliferated after the waves of bombings that have hit the city.

Every day, the 1.5 million motorists in Baghdad spend 2.68 million dollars on gasoline. According to one expert, about 40 percent of this, or more than one million dollars, is consumed in traffic snarls.

Resumption of death penalty in Iraq sparks UN concern

UN reports (December 14th): The resumption of the death penalty in Iraq earlier this year is a source of great concern to the United Nations, according to the world body’s latest report covering the human rights situation in the country.

“It is of particular concern that many persons are convicted on the basis of confessions often gathered under duress or torture, while their right not to be compelled to testify against oneself or to confess guilt is often violated,” the report said.

“Until these violations are addressed, the imposition of the death penalty by Iraqi courts will remain arbitrary and contrary to the international human rights standards.”

The number of people receiving capital sentences has risen, with 324 death sentences having been handed down by the High Judicial Council in the first half of 2009.

Iraq to separate boys and girls in schools

Al Sumaria TV reports (December 28th): Strict traditions and social conventions are back in the spotlight in Iraq with the decision of Iraq's Education Ministry to separate boys and girls in Sadr City schools.

The Ministry’s surprising decision spurred mounting debates. The decision to segregate primary school children in Sadr City has been condemned by human rights activists and social researchers.

Can a city awash in guns, grenades and explosives ever be safe?

McClatchy reports (December 30th): Multiple car bombings in August, October and December killed a total of 383 people, wounded more than 1,500 and crippled Iraqi government ministries. They've exposed the weaknesses of U.S.-backed Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki's Shiite Muslim-dominated government just as U.S. combat troops are preparing to withdraw and Iraq is preparing for an early March presidential election.

Iraq's efforts to ensure its own security are hobbled by politics, according to independent analysts and U.S. officials.

Maliki and his ministers, particularly Interior Minister Jawad Bolani, who'd like Maliki's job, have competing political agendas. There are at least five intelligence agencies, loyal to different leaders. Checkpoints are sometimes run by the army, sometimes by various police forces. Agencies hoard information rather than share it, a phenomenon that's not unknown in the U.S.

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