TADHAMUN تـضـامـن

Tadhamun (solidarity) is an Iraqi women organization, standing by Iraqi women's struggle against sectarian politics in Iraq. Fighting for equal citizenship across ethnicities and religions, for human rights, and gender equality.

جمعية تضامن تدعم المساواة في المواطنة بغض النظر عن الأنتماء الأثني أو الديني وتسعى من أجل العدالة الأجتماعية و حماية حقوق الأنسان في العراق

Sunday, February 21, 2010

IOF Newsletter No 140


Iraq Occupation Focus
www.iraqoccupationfocus.org.uk
Newsletter No. 140
February 19th, 2010
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Military news

Civilian deaths anger Iraqis

Al-Jazeera reports (February 13th): US and Iraqi troops have been accused of killing several civilians during a military operation in Iraq's Maysan province, on the border with Iran.
The troops say they were raiding Iranian-backed fighters and weapons smugglers when they came under attack. A gunfight ensued in which lives were lost.
Governor wants apology and compensation from U.S. troops for killing 10 Iraqis
Azzaman reports (February 13th): The Governor of Missan has formally asked U.S. troops for an apology and compensation for the killing of 10 Iraqis in his province. Mohammed al-Sudani described those killed in a joint U.S.-Iraqi operation as “martyrs” and said the victims’ families should be both “morally and materially” compensated.
Sudani said the operation was illegal because “it took place without permission from the local authorities.”
Special forces ‘killed or captured 4,000 in Iraq’
The Times reports (February 13th): British special forces killed or captured almost 4,000 insurgents during six years in Iraq, according to a new book on the elite regiment that its commanding officer tried to stop being published.
Extracts report that the SAS was initially deployed to Iraq to help MI6 find weapons of mass destruction. “It was quickly apparent that this was a blind alley,” according to the book.
Abuse
Mousa inquiry told Colonel condoned hooding
The Guardian reports (February 15th): The commander of the regiment whose soldiers were detaining Baha Mousa, an Iraqi civilian, when he died admitted he had condoned practices banned as inhumane 38 years ago.
Colonel Jorge Mendonca also admitted responsibility as commander of 1st Battalion the Queen's Lancashire Regiment for the death in 2003 of the 26-year-old Basra hotel receptionist in his soldiers' custody.
Gerard Elias QC, the inquiry counsel, referred Mendonca to five techniques – wall-standing, hooding, subjection to noise, deprivation of sleep, and deprivation of food and drink – which were "absolutely forbidden" by the British government in 1972.
Iraqis claiming abuse by British forces
AFP reports (February 5th): Lawyers for scores of Iraqis who claim they were abused by British soldiers called for a public inquiry into how the country's forces have treated detainees during the US-led war.
A law firm representing 66 Iraqis said claims that British troops mistreated prisoners during the Iraq conflict were so numerous and similar that defence officials must hold a single inquiry into Britain's detention policy. British soldiers are accused by the claimants of subjecting Iraqis to rape, sexual humiliation and torture.
"There are so many cases and so many have so much in common - similar allegations at similar facilities, often involving the same people," said lawyer Phil Shiner, from the firm Public Interest Lawyers.
Reuters photographer freed by US military in Iraq
The Guardian reports (February 10th): A Reuters photographer in Iraq has been freed by the US military after 17 months' detention without charge.
Ibrahim Jassam Mohammed, an Iraqi who contributed to Reuters on a freelance basis, was detained in a raid by US and Iraqi forces on his home in Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad, in September 2008 and continued to be held without charge despite widespread protest.
Iraq War Contractor Guilty
WSJ reports (February 18th): A former U.S. Army sergeant became the latest person to plead guilty in a sprawling bribes-for-contracts scheme in Iraq in 2005 and 2006 that has ended the careers of five military officers.
Terry Hall, 44 years old, of Snellville, Ga., pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Birmingham, Ala., to multiple counts of bribery, conspiracy, money-laundering and wire fraud. He agreed to forfeit $15.7 million seized as evidence from offshore accounts, and faces up to 20 years in prison.
Mr. Hall's plea is another milestone in a case that began more than three years ago with the suicide of Army Maj. Gloria Davis in her quarters at Baghdad's Camp Victory. The case has brought guilty pleas from three other majors and one lieutenant colonel, who were accused of conspiring to rig defense contracts worth tens of millions of dollars in Iraq and Kuwait.
Daily Life
Leader Faulted on Using Army in Iraqi Politics
NY Times reports (February 10th): The Iraqi Army’s Fourth Division cordoned off the provincial council building in Tikrit and showed no sign of leaving. It was the latest in a series of actions by the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki that have infuriated his political opponents, while raising doubts about the strength of the country’s laws and democratic institutions.
The political turmoil convulsing Iraq stems not just from suspenseful elections in which Mr. Maliki, a Shiite who has allied with several Sunni politicians, appears to be losing popular support and potentially his chances for re-election. It also stems from an untested separation of powers, opaque back-room agreements and a loose fidelity to the country’s laws, whose interpretation often depends on who is reading them.
“Iraq is like a sick person,” the speaker of Parliament, Ayad al-Samarrai, said at a recent news conference. “All its organs are ailing.”
In just the last week, Mr. Maliki’s government has acted with, at best, disputed legal authority. In Diyala Province, a leading candidate from one of the main blocs challenging Mr. Maliki’s political coalition, known as State of Law, was arrested Sunday night by special forces sent from Baghdad only days after he took part in a recorded debate in which he criticized the security forces.
Slogans on Baghdad checkpoints offer a dream Iraq
AP report (February 17th): The slogans express the country's dream of unity: "Iraq is for everyone." But the reality lies in where they are plastered and spraypainted — on the hundreds of checkpoints that carve up the capital.
Despite a dramatic drop in the number of insurgent attacks, today's Baghdad offers little reassurance for the future. "Things are going from bad to worse with security and services because officials are preoccupied with the election and their own interests," said Ali Mohsen, a Shiite civil servant from eastern Baghdad.
After a series of devastating bombings that hit high-profile targets in the heart of Baghdad since August, authorities added more blast walls and checkpoints to the thousands already in place. Major roads by government offices and other potential targets have been closed.
Some checkpoints have taken a permanent nature, with sleeping areas for soldiers built next to them. One on the southern approaches of Kazimiyah, a Shiite district that's home to a revered shrine and popular food and gold markets, now has a vehicles' search area nearly the size of an Olympic swimming pool.
Bombing of Shiite pilgrimage bodes more Iraqi violence
McClatchy reports (February 5th): Two car bombs killed up to 40 people and wounded at least 140 more during the culmination of the Shiite pilgrimage to the holy city of Karbala, making this year's commemoration the bloodiest since Saddam was toppled. At least 90 people have now been killed in attacks this week aimed at the millions of Shiites who have headed to Karbala to mark Arbaeen.
The bombings sparked anger even among security officers. "This is gross negligence on the part of the security planners," said police captain Nibras Mohammad Ali. "There have been explosions in this area before during the pilgrimage...I think this is a shameful failure in the security plan," said an angry Captain Ali. "The atmosphere now in Karbala is very tense among security personnel and among the citizens."
For sale: Iraq’s smuggled heritage
The National reports (February 16th): Tens of thousands of precious artefacts looted from Iraq are circulating on a clandestine world market, smuggled out of the war-ravaged country and into the hands of private collectors in Europe and the US.
Those objects discovered by authorities, such as the Dubai Customs’ haul that included bronze statues and coins that are more than a millennium old, are just “the tip of the iceberg”, according to Dr Mark Beech, of the Historic Environment Department at the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (Adach).
Report: Many Iraqis who fled remain 'uprooted'
CNN report (February 18th): Violence has dropped in Iraq, but millions of civilians who fled their homes because of warfare in that country remain "uprooted," a refugee-advocate group said in a report.
"Ongoing strife and persecution, occupied and ruined homes and lack of vital services in their communities of origin preclude most from returning home safely," the New York-based International Rescue Committee said in the report, "A Tough Road Home: Uprooted Iraqis in Jordan, Syria and Iraq."
The report was prepared by the organization's Commission on Iraqi Refugees. "Only a tiny fraction of Iraq's displaced have returned home, in spite of reports that would suggest otherwise," the report said. "For the vast majority of those who remain uprooted, the situation is precarious and growing worse, yet aid levels that were inadequate to begin with are dropping off."
Local NGOs welcome cluster bomb ban
IRIN reports (February 18th): Iraqi NGOs working in the field of landmine and unexploded ordnance (UXO) clearance have welcomed the ratification of an international convention banning the use of cluster bombs.
“It is a big victory for humanity,” said Ali Jawad Kati, who heads the Baghdad-based NGO Aysen, which raises awareness about mine risks. “This ratification will protect humanity from being killed by these bombs.”
He said millions of bomblets dispersed by cluster bombs were still scattered across the country as a result of the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 US-led invasion.
In Baghdad 331 areas are affected by cluster bomb debris, mostly from the 2003 war, Kati said.
Daily Life
“Use of mercenaries masks scope of US involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq”
Russia Today reports (February 4th): There has been a massive increase in the funding of US war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and private military contractors are flourishing in its wake, even though their reputations are at an all-time low. Jan Schakowsky believes it is worrying that private firms like Blackwater have an even greater capability to wage wars than America itself.
“Blackwater use certain helicopters that, believe it or not, the US government doesn’t even have. These [private] companies have the capacity that the US government does not have. I think this is a very dangerous trend,” she concluded.
Iraq orders ex-Blackwater contractors out
CNN reports (February 10th): Iraq has ordered former employees of the private military contractor once known as Blackwater to leave the country, its interior minister announced.
Contractors who once worked for Blackwater, now known as Xe, have seven days to leave Iraq, Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani told the state television network al-Iraqiya. The move follows a January declaration by Iraq's government that former Blackwater employees were no longer welcome in the country.
British firms vie for contracts in Iraq’s Basra
Azzaman reports (February 15th): The southern Iraqi Province of Basra has invited 25 British firms to persuade them to bid for contracts and invest in the impoverished region. The British business executives were led by Baroness Emma Nicholson.
Iraq's oil revival could be a gusher for Houston firms
Houston Chronicle reports (February 17th): With Iraq poised to begin the first major overhaul of its energy sector in decades, Houston stands to benefit in a big way from the multibillion dollar effort to redevelop the country's battered oil fields, a project one analyst described as the greatest opportunity in the oil patch today.
A 23-member delegation from the country's oil ministry visited Houston, meeting with officials of engineering and oil field services companies and other businesses likely to play a major role in the reconstruction efforts.


Petition sign and circulate:

Release Iraqi women hostages, victims of terrorism themselves

بعيدا عن الوطن؛ حراك التضامن مع الوطن فنا، شعرا وكتابةً
Away from Home; Memory, Art and women solidarity: you are invited to an evening of poetry and music 22/3/2017 18:30 at P21 Gallery London click here for more details
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Public meeting at The Bolivar Hall, London Sat.14/5/2016 at 15:00 IDPs : Fragmentation of Cultural and National Identity



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Protest the suffering of Iraqi Christians: No to terrorism No to state terrorism.Hands off our minorities. Hands off our people. Shame on the human rights violators on all sides. Assemble 11:30 on 28/7/14 near Parliament Square, near Westminister tube station London. For more past events click here

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Useful links






Halt All Executions! Abolish The Death Penalty!

We women of Tadhamun condemn the persisting practice of arbitrary arrests by the Iraqi security forces. We condemn their arrests of women in lieu of their men folk. These are 'inherited' practices. We are alarmed by credible media reports of the Green Zone government’s intentions of executing hundreds of Iraqi men and women.


For more info click here
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Professor Zaineb Al Bahrani of Columbia University NY speaking at a our meeting on the destruction/damage to historical sites in Iraq

On youtube: Part1
Part 3
Part4
One more video:



Human Rights Watch: No woman is Safe

Disclaimer

Articles published on this site do not necessarily reflect the opinion of WSIUI or its members


المقالات المنشورة على هذا الموقع لا تعكس بالضرورة آراء منظمتنا أو أعضاء منظمتنا


Samarra Minrate built in 852 AD

Samarra Minrate built in 852 AD
Building of 1 500 massive police station !
From the angle of the photo, it is possible to calculate that the complex is being built at E 396388 N 3785995 (UTM Zone 38 North) or Lat. 34.209760° Long. 43.875325°, to the west of the Malwiya (Spiral Minaret), and behind the Spiral Cafe.
While the point itself may not have more than Abbasid houses under the ground, it is adjacent to the palace of Sur Isa, the remains of which can be seen in the photo. While the initial construction might or might not touch the palace, accompanying activities will certainly spread over it.Sur Isa can be identified with the palace of al-Burj, built by the
Abbasid Caliph al-Mutawakkil, probably in 852-3 (Northedge, Historical Topography of Samarra, pp 125-127, 240). The palace is said to have cost 33 million dirhams, and was luxurious. Details are given by al-Shabushti, Kitab al-Diyarat.
Samarra was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO at the end of June. The barracks could easily have been built elsewhere, off the archaeological site.--
Alastair Northedge Professeur d'Art et d'Archeologie Islamiques UFR d'Art et d'Archeologie
Universite de Paris I (Pantheon-Sorbonne) 3, rue Michelet, 75006 Paris
tel. 01 53 73 71 08 telecopie : 01 53 73 71 13 Email :
Alastair.Northedge@univ-paris1.fr ou anorthedge@wanadoo.fr