INDEX RESEARCH

Index Research will focus on a country or an issue which is of particular interest to me. Articles have appeared on http://www.afterdowningstreet.org http://www.albasrah.net http://www.aljazeerah.info http://www.bellaciao.org http://www.brussellstribunal.org http://www.globalresearch.ca http://www.informationclearinghouse.info http://www.mediachannel.org http://www.uruknet.info http://www.williambowles.info and others.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

INDEX ON IRAQ: A JOURNEY IN HELL

by Sarah Meyer
Index Research

Girls look through a fence at a refugee camp in Mosul April 5, 2007.
About 250 families moved from Tal Afar town to camps in Mosul since
last weeks' violence attacks. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled al-Mousuly

"Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate" Dante, Inferno.

1. General
2. Children of Iraq
3. Cities in Iraq
4. Health in Iraq
5. Refugees in Iraq
6. Human Rights in Iraq
7. Death in Iraq
8. Resistance in Iraq
9. Videos

GENERAL

Video. Iraq street scenes before Shock and Awe.

Life in Hell: A Baghdad Diary.
06.08.06. A. Ghosh, Time / Truth Out.

In Baghdad, the American Army Erects Walls Between Communities.
16.08.06. R. Ourdan, le Monde / Truth Out.

THE CHILDREN OF IRAQ

IRAQ: Children living without limbs lack support.
04.02.07. Irin. According to Save the Children, a UK-based NGO, many children were killed or injured in the initial US-led invasion of Iraq in April and March 2003. The NGO said the injured children continue to suffer the effects of the conflict, have become more vulnerable to chronic diseases and lack assistance. … The exact number of children living without limbs in Iraq, as a result of the war and the daily violence countrywide, is not known. However, local NGOs estimate that they must be in the thousands.

"Every explosion, air strike, fighting or targeting in Iraq makes a child injured. In addition, we cannot forget the remaining UXOs [unexploded ordnance] whose victims are mostly children," Khalid Ala'a, spokesman for local NGO Keeping Children Alive (KCA), said. "If you make a summation of all these children, they are going to be thousands and we cannot forget that the number of them killed since April 2003 by diseases, explosions or bullets, has reached 260,000," Ala'a added.

IRAQ: 4.5 million children undernourished.
05.03.07. Reuters / Irin.

60,000 Marriages broken by Iraq, Including Mine.
05.03.07. Stacy Bannerman, Alternet.

Third of Iraqi children now malnourished four years after US invasion.
16.03.07. Caritas Report

70% of Iraqi schoolchildren show symptoms of trauma.
17.04.07. USA Today.

CITIES IN IRAQ

In Baghdad, the American Army Erects Walls Between Communities.
16.08.06. R. Ourdan, le Monde / Truth Out.

Insecurity prevents clean-up of Iraq pollution.
07.02.07. Reuters. "We have identified more than 350 priority polluted areas, which include amounts of hazardous chemicals and depleted uranium," Environment Minister Nermeen Othman said on the sidelines of a major U.N. environment conference in Kenya. Environmentalists and anti-nuclear activists have linked depleted uranium used in U.S. and British munitions to higher Iraqi cancer rates and birth defects after the 1991 war and called for swift clean up campaigns. … polluted "hot spots", like the Khan Dhari petrochemicals site west of Baghdad that was partly burned down by looters during the war in March 2003.

The Locusts
26.02.07. Felicity Arbuthnot, Global Research. Killing Civilization in Mesopotamia. After the illegal invasion, the US military did the unthinkable. They made a camp in the great turquoise memorial to the half million lost souls of the Iran-Iraq warThe locusts in uniform, who have destroyed Iraq, humanity, sustenance, its history, predating the time of Christ and the Prophet Mohammed, are never, it seems, satiated or satisfied. From the early defiling (ongoing) of Mosques, cemeteries (Muslim, Christian, Yazidi ...) even the sacred tributes to the memory of the martyrs are being destroyed and defiled.

Iraq: New Martial Law Powers Threaten Basic Rights
01.03.07. uruknet. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's new security plan for Baghdad grants military commanders sweeping powers to arrest people and restrict their basic freedoms of speech and association, Human Rights Watch said today.

BAGHDAD CHAOS PLAN.
03.03.07. McClatchy. Iraqi government call it (BAGHDAD SECURITY PLAN) and we call it (BAGHDAD CHAOS PLAN) every single member in the security system taking money from the people to be released like for example I have paid in one day 30,000 Iraqi dinars to the traffic police and the peace keeping forces to be forgiven for the mistake that I did, my mistake was that I was driving my car in the street to go to my work in the time that I not suppose to be driving I mean the government have sill! y law obligate me to drive three days a week in the street in Baghdad because the numbers of the car as you know the (odds and even ) numbers my car was odd and I was driving in the even day so can you imagine he took 15,000 Iraqi dinars to him self instead giving me the 30,000 Iraqi dinars penalty recede from the government and the keeping peace forces guy did the same thing at the time that it is non of his responsibility….

Full electricity in Baghdad 6 years off.
03.03.07. Baltimore Sun. ( is that a promise?) Getting full-time electric power turned on in Baghdad, a key wartime goal toward which the United States has spent $4.2 billion dollars, won't be accomplished until the year 2013, U.S. officials said yesterday, in what others called a significant setback for the new U.S. initiatives to quell Iraq's bloody insurgency.

US asks us to pick up litter while city is in ruins, says mayor of Baghdad.
04.03.07. Damien McElroy, Telegraph.

HEALTH IN IRAQ

Four years into the occupation: No health for Iraq.
22.03.07. Dr. Bert De Belder, BRussels Tribunal. Iraq’s health status, four years into the occupation, is nothing short of disastrous. Iraq’s health index has deteriorated to a level not seen since the 1950s, says Joseph Chamie, former director of the United Nation’s Population Division and an Iraq specialist. People’s health status is determined by social, economic and environmental factors much more than by the availability of healthcare. Not surprisingly, all these factor! s have deteriorated in the course of the occupation...

Shortage of safe water risks cholera in Iraq -U.N..
22.03.07. Suleiman al-KhalidiReuters / uruknet. United Nations agencies working in Iraq warned on Thursday a chronic shortage of safe drinking water risks causing more child deaths and an outbreak of waterborne disease such as cholera during the summer.

Thousands without food and supplies due to failing distribution system.
17.04.07. Report, IRIN. "The effectiveness and efficiency of the PDS ... have declined significantly," said the report issued on 10 April by the Washington-based NGO Refugees International (RI), an advocacy group.

REFUGEES OF IRAQ

Iraqis on the Run.
04.02.07. P. Cockburn, Counterpunch / ICHBlog. Iraq is experiencing the biggest exodus in the Middle East since Palestinians were forced to flee in 1948 upon the creation of Israel. "We were forced to leave our house six months ago and since then we have moved more than eight times," said Abu Mustafa, a 56-year-old man from Baghdad. "Sectarian violence has now even reached the displacement camps but we are tired of running away. Sometimes I have asked myself if it is not better to die than to live like a Bedouin all my life."

War in Iraq Propelling A Massive Migration.
04.02.07. Washington Post. As the fourth year of war nears its end, the Middle East's largest refugee crisis since the Palestinian exodus from Israel in 1948 is unfolding in a climate of fear, persecution and tragedy.

Nearly 2 million Iraqis -- about 8 percent of the prewar population -- have embarked on a desperate migration, mostly to Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. The refugees include large numbers of doctors, academics and other professionals vital for Iraq's recovery. Another 1.7 million have been forced to move to safer towns and villages inside Iraq, and as many as 50,000 Iraqis a month flee their homes, the U.N. agency said in January.

The State Department's Rosy Deception on Iraq Refugees.
09.02.07. Electronic iraq. The message from the State Department paints a picture that is filled with the positivity of good works being carried out in the name of America. From Jordan the view is different.

Iraq: The facts on displaced persons and refugees">Iraq: The facts on displaced persons and refugees.
28.02.07. Relief Web. The situation currently facing Iraqi refugees and internally displaced persons has very quickly become one of the most pressing humanitarian crises in the world.

Leaving Iraq: Tales from a new diaspora.
04.03.07. The Star. REFUGEES | Nearly 2 million Iraqis, about 8 per cent of the pre-war population, are fuelling a desperate migration.

UN Plans to Open Iraqi Refugee Office in Jordan.
06.03.07. Democracy Now.

Europe Struggles with Inlfux of Iraqi Refugees.
06.03.07. NPR/ICH. After four years of chaos and violence, nearly two million Iraqis remain outside their country, according to the UN agency for refugees.

Video Report.. Iraq’s growing refugee crisis. Channel 4 News (12.03.07)

No Child Left Behind? Iraqi Edition.
13.03.07. R. Palta, Mother Jones / uruknet. 'few of the estimated 172,000 to 230,000 school-aged Iraq War refugees living Jordan are enrolled in school. Those children, many of whom are from middle class Iraqi families, lack the proper residency status to qualify for public school, and their families lack the finances to enroll their children in private institutions. As a result, over a hundred thousand Iraqi children have been out of school for as many as 4 years now--and that's just counting those in Jordan. '

U.N. seeks $1.7M to feed Iraqi refugees.
15.03.07. AP. 'The World Food Program has launched an appeal for $1.7 million to help feed tens of thousands of Iraqi refugees who are continue to arrive in Syria and increasingly without the resources to sustain themselves.'

More Iraqi refugees expected in Europe.
16.03.07. AP / The State. The number of Iraqi refugees arriving in Europe is expected to double to 40,000 in 2007 based on trends from the first two months of the year, the U.N. refugee agency said Friday

World 'ignoring Iraqi refugees'.
20.03.07. BBC/legitgov. The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) says there has been an "abject denial" around the world of the humanitarian impact of invading Iraq. Syria says it is home to 1.2m Iraqi refugees, with up to 800,000 in Jordan.

Thousands without food and supplies due to failing distribution system.
22.03.07. REFUGEES INTERNATIONAL

Iraqi Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons: A Deepening Humanitarian Crisis?.
23.03.07. CRS REPORT.

Iraq: Time to Acknowledge and Address the Displacement Crisis.
03.04.07. Kristele Younes, Refugees International /alertnet. 'The humanitarian and displacement crisis in Iraq is growing in intensity and gravity. The UN estimates that more than two million Iraqis are now refugees in neighboring countries and more than 1.9 million have fled for safer areas within Iraq. Of these internally displaced people (IDPs), more than 730,000 have fled since the Samarra Shrine bombing of February 2006, which intensified the sectarian violence that is tearing Iraq apart.'

Child Refugees from Iraq Require Targeted Assistance in Host Countries.
09.04.07. Reuters. ' As violence in Iraq continues to add to the largest refugee crisis in the Middle East in half a century, World Vision has launched a combined advocacy and relief effort to assist children and families fleeing to neighboring countries. Some 2 million Iraqis have left their volatile homeland and many are struggling to cope without access to health care, legal employment or education for their children in host countries.'

Refugees Speak of Escape from Hell.
11.04.07. Dahr Jamail, IPS / uruknet. 'Refugees from Iraq scattered around Damascus describe hellish conditions in the country they managed to leave behind.'

Iraq: New humanitarian crisis looms as more than three million Iraqis displaced by war.
16.04.07. Amnesty International Press Release.

UN Refugee Agency Turns Spotlight on Iraqis.
17.04.07. Khody Akhavi,, Electronic Iraq. Nearly four million Iraqis have been displaced in and outside their country since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, making it the largest exodus of people in the Middle East since the creation of Israel in 1948. The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, on Tuesday will convene a two-day conference in Geneva to address Iraq's deepening humanitarian crisis.

US and UK Bear Special Duty to Aid Refugees.
17.04.07. Statement, Human Rights Watch. Iraq's neighbors are closing off escape routes to Iraqi asylum seekers, just as the international community has begun to respond to the 2 million refugees from the war, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper released today. ... The briefing paper focuses on new restrictive measures taken by Jordan and Egypt to prevent more refugees from coming. Syria, which is hosting about 1 million Iraqis, denied visas to Human Rights Watch researchers seeking to document their situation. Saudi Arabia is building a US$7 billion high-tech barrier on its border with Iraq to keep Iraqis out, while Kuwait is categorically rejecting Iraqi asylum seekers.

HUMAN RIGHTS IN IRAQ

War Crimes Committed by the United States in Iraq and Mechanisms for Accountability
10.10.06. Report, Consumers for Peace. This report was prepared by Consumers for Peace.org with the advice of Karen Parker, noted lawyer in human rights and humanitarian law. Ms. Parker is President of the San Francisco-based Association of Humanitarian Lawyers www.humanlaw.org) and Chief Delegate to the United Nations for the Los Angeles-based International Educational Development/Humanitarian Law Project (IED/AHL), an accredited non-governmental organization on the U.N. Secretary-General’s list.
See also http://informationclearinghouse.info/article15261.htm

Routine Practices of Torture by US Forces in Iraq: Testimony of Abbas Z. Abid to the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission
23.02.07. Global Research.ca.

Rape Cases emerge From the Shadows
01.03.07. Dahr Jamail. Reports of the gang-rape of 20-year-old Sabrine al-Janabi by three policemen has set off new demands for justice from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government.

Iraq: An ever-worsening crisis.
11.04.07. International Red Cross (ICRC) news. In a report issued today in Geneva, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) expresses alarm about the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Iraq and calls for urgent action to better protect civilians against the continuing violence.

FULL ICRC REPORT. IRAQ: CIVILIANS WITHOUT PROTECTION.

Outrage over Imminent Execution of Iraqi Women
02.03.07. Dahr Jamail. Three young women accused of joining the Iraqi insurgency movement and engaging in "terrorism" have been sentenced to death, provoking protest from rights organisations fearing that this could be the start of more executions of women in post-Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

DEATH IN IRAQ

REPORTS

The Human Cost of the War in Iraq: A Mortality Study, 2002-2006
09.10.06. Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland; School of Medicine, Al Mustansiriya University, Baghdad, Iraq; in cooperation with the Center for International Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts. See also related Appendix

ACLU Releases Files on Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq
12.04.07. ACLU. Americans Have a Right to Unfiltered Information About the Human Costs of War, ACLU Says. NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union today made public hundreds of claims for damages by family members of civilians killed or injured by Coalition Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The ACLU received the records in response to a Freedom of Information Act request it filed in June 2006.
IRAQ: Violence distressing mental state of population.
31.01.07. Irin. Bullets and bombs are killing thousands of civilians every month in Iraq while the psychological impact of the ongoing violence is affecting the mental health of millions and is a major cause for concern for future generations, psychologists say. See Guardian headlines: here.

ARTICLES

Almost 2,000 bodies taken to Baghdad morgue (July).
09.08.06. Reuters.

U.S. count of Baghdad deaths excludes car bombs, mortar attacks
08.09.06. M Brunswick / Z. Obeid, McClatchy.

4,000 Iraq Police Killed in Past 2 Years
06.10.06. AP / Forbes.

Medics Beg For Help As Iraqis Die Needlessly
20.10.06. J. Laurance, Independent. Medical facts for Iraq.

Another US crime in Ashaqi Photographic evidence
08.12.06. Roads to Iraq, uruknet.

For hanging of Saddam Hussein, see ‘Updates, Index on US Bases, Baghdad

Unacceptable death toll in Iraq, say Americans
28.02.07. Angus Reid. 77% of respondents believe the number of U.S. military casualties and Iraqi civilian casualties has been unacceptable.

Occupation killed a family of seven members in Iraq
25.02.07. Roads to Iraq. - Residents in Aana city in Anbar-province reported that US occupation forces destroyed the Communication and Post Center building. ... An eyewitness said that US soldiers put explosives in the building and destroy it, no one injured in the process but part of the city hospital which is close to the building was damaged.

- Reported on Qudspress, an Iraqi ambulance man, reported that US military killed a family of seven people with their taxi driver, in their way to leave Iraq for Jordan. ... The eyewitness Ahmed Khalaf Aljoaani said: American forces opened fire on the car "GMC" with a family in it, a father, the mother and five children and the taxi driver in their way to Jordan to escape the deteriorating situation, all killed. The American forces blocked the area of the incident, which was on the international highway, near Al-Qaim city for an hour, re-opening after the removal of the bodies, and prevented two photo-journalists from photographing the accident.

Another Casualty: Coverage of the Iraq War
24.03.07. Dahr Jamail. 'Iraq is the most dangerous place in the world for journalists. Along with names and dates, the Brussels Tribunal has listed the circumstances under which Iraqi media personnel have been killed since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003. This extremely credible report cites 195 as dead. If non-Iraqi media representatives are included, the figure goes beyond 200. Both figures are well in excess of the media fatalities suffered in Vietnam or during World War II"

(from Foreign Policy in Focus ). 'The primary reason why reporting from Iraq is dangerous for all journalists is the horrific security situation. Iraqi journalists reporting from the streets are in perpetual danger. If any of the countless militias does not want a certain story made public, it will make sure that the journalist has filed his or her last story. Not to mention the scores of reporter deaths which have been the combined handiwork of the Iraqi government, occupation forces and/or criminal gangs. . Despite President Bush’s assertion that life in Iraq is improving, a senior Iraqi journalist was found dead in the capital on March 3, 2007. On the same day the body of the managing editor of Baghdad’s al-Safir newspaper, Jamal al-Zubaidi, was found shot in the head.'

Counting the cost
27.03.07. R. Horton, Guardian. Richard Horton. It's time we held our leaders to account for the 650,000 Iraqi dead. 'Our collective failure has been to take our political leaders at their word. This week, the BBC reported that the government's own scientists advised ministers that the Johns Hopkins study on Iraq civilian mortality was accurate and reliable. This paper was published in the Lancet last October. It estimated that 650,000 Iraqi civilians had died since the American- and British-led invasion in March 2003.'

Fallujah Fears a 'Genocidal Strategy'
30.03.07. Ali al-Fadhily, Dahr Jamail website, Interpress. Iraqis in the volatile al-Anbar province west of Baghdad are reporting regular killings carried out by U.S. forces that many believe are part of a 'genocidal' strategy.

US compensation files for Iraqi, Afghan civilian deaths released under FOIA
12.04.07. The Jurist. A searchable database documenting civilian casualties. There are 479 files from Iraq and 17 from Afghanistan. 'While some claims were denied because the incidents arose from enemy action or occurred during combat situations, other incidents resulted in cash payments. When the military admits fault, the payments are labeled as "compensation." "Condolence" payments, which the military offers as expressions of sympathy, can be awarded without military admission of fault and are capped at $2500.'

Iraq: US Data on Civilian Casualties Raises Serious Concerns
12.04.07. Human Rights Watch. US government documents made public by court order raise serious concerns about the number of civilian casualties caused by American soldiers and contractors in Iraq and the standards under which it pays compensation to Iraqi victims, Human Rights Watch said today. The records, which document compensation claims made by the families of Iraqis killed by US troops, were revealed today by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

The assassination of two professors from Mosul University
04.07. Al mosul. Another wave of assassination of Academics in Mosul. Dr Talal Al-Jalili and Dr Jaffer. For further information on academic deaths, see The Brussels Tribunal website See thoughtful article by Joshua Holland, Violence like that at Virginia Tech is commonplace in Iraq's universities . The BRussels Tribunal published (19.04.07) a statement, Despite Baghdad "Security" plan: increase in assassinations of Iraqi academics

MEANWHILE: THE US/UK ARE ON ANOTHER PLANET
New York dinner raises $18m. for IDF (Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces). Bizarre and obscene?

One Picture Sits Over Differing Surveys.
26.03.07. Ali al-Fadhily, Inter Press Service. 'The Sunday Times of London published the results of a survey Mar. 18 carried out by the British firm Opinion Research Business that claimed that most Iraqis prefer life under the new government to life under Saddam Hussein.' Who paid for this “survey”?

RESISTANCE IN IRAQ

The Iraqi resistance only exists to end the occupation.
12.04.07. Haifa Zangana. 'It is important to recognise that the resistance was born not only of ideological, religious and patriotic convictions, but also as a response to the reality of the brutal actions of the occupation and its administration. It is a response to arbitrary break-ins, humiliating searches, arrests, detention and torture. According to the Red Cross, "the number of people arrested or interned by the multinational forces has increased by 40% since early 2006. The number of people held by the Iraqi authorities has also increased significantly ... Many of the security detainees are women who have been subjected to abuse and rape and who are often arrested as a means to force male relatives to confess to crimes they have not committed. According to the Iraqi MP Mohamed al-Dainey, there are 65 documented cases of women's rape in occupation detention centres in 2006. Four women currently face execution - the death penalty for women was outlawed in Iraq from 1965 until 2004 - for allegedly killing security force members. These are accusations they deny and Amnesty International has challenged. . There is only one solution to this disaster, and that is for the US and Britain to accept that the Iraqi resistance is fighting to end the occupation.’

Sadr's Rising Star to Eclipse Bush's Surge? .
17.04.07. Electronic Iraq writes: "The prospect of Sadr's appeal extending to a section of the
Sunni community, with the tacit support of grand ayatollah Ali Sistani, is the nightmare scenario that the Bush
administration most dreads. Yet it may come to pass." SUPERB MUST READ ARTICLE by Dilip Hiro. 'This indeed was the case with the demonstration on April 9 in Najaf. Over a million Iraqis, holding aloft thousands of national flags, marched, chanting, "Yes, yes, Iraq/No, no, America" and "No, no, American/Leave, leave occupier." Both the size of the demonstration and its composition were unprecedented. "There are people here from all different parties and sects," Hadhim al-Araji, Sadr's representative in Baghdad's Kadhimiya district, told reporters. "We are all carrying the national flag, a symbol of unity. And we are all united in calling for the withdrawal of the Americans."... Crucially, the mammoth demonstration reflected the view prevalent among Iraqi lawmakers. Last autumn, 170 of them in a 275-member Parliament, signed a motion, demanding to know the date of a future American withdrawal.' The demonstrators arrived from all over the country in response to a call by Muqtada al-Sadr, a radical Shiite cleric, to demand an end to foreign occupation on the fourth anniversary of the end of Baathist rule in Baghdad.

Sadr raises pressure for US to withdraw
17.04.07. Damien McElroy, The Telegraph. The United States faced a fresh challenge to its presence in Iraq yesterday when supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr's radical Shia Muslim movement quit the Baghdad government to demand a deadline for withdrawal of its troops.

VIDEOS

Video. U.S. soldiers shooting Iraqi civilians (23.03.07) 2 min.

Video. US soldiers destroyed civilians houses in Baghdad (25.03.07, Roads to Iraq / uruknet)...

Expat film maker charts Baghdad's dying past.
03.04.07. reuters.

Video. Je m'appelle Baghdad

Video. US_Soldiers_Run_an_Iraqi_Off_the_Road. It would probably be nice to check on the guy that you just caused to roll his truck. To see if he's, you know, dead or something.

Unspeakable Grief and Horror.
Thewe. Photos and stories.

Soldiers Against the War
Thewe. Photos and stories.

Fallujah, Baghdad: Devastated Cities.
Thewe. Photos and stories

More Archive, Circus.
Thewe. Photos and stories.