Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Militants use water to extort 'favours'
Humanitarian
(IRIN) - Many internally displaced persons (IDPs) in camps in Iraq are facing shortages of water, especially clean drinking water, and the situation is being exploited by unscrupulous militants, local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) say. Some displaced families have said militants have been delivering clean water to their camps by truck and demanding money, goods or "favours" in return.
"They [militants] sometimes ask for money knowing we don't have any, and then start to search our tents to see if there is something useful, while armed men stay near the truck with their guns aimed at us," said Omar Lattif, 45, an IDP at Rahman camp on the outskirts of Missan in southern Iraq. "Sometimes they even ask for fun with 'nice girls'," he said, adding that two men in the community had been killed for confronting militants demanding sex for water.
Fatah Ahmed, a spokesman for the Iraq Aid Association (IAA), said they had informed the local authorities of such cases but had not received a response. A joint report released on 30 July by UK-based charity Oxfam and the NGO Coordination Committee in Iraq said around eight million Iraqis were in urgent need of water and sanitation. The report said 70 percent of Iraqis do not have adequate water supplies - up from 50 percent in 2003.
Earlier this month, a report by the world's principal intergovernmental body on migration, the International Organization for Migration, warned that the scale of Iraqi displacement was "fast becoming a regional and ultimately international crisis".
"They [militants] sometimes ask for money knowing we don't have any, and then start to search our tents to see if there is something useful, while armed men stay near the truck with their guns aimed at us," said Omar Lattif, 45, an IDP at Rahman camp on the outskirts of Missan in southern Iraq. "Sometimes they even ask for fun with 'nice girls'," he said, adding that two men in the community had been killed for confronting militants demanding sex for water.
Fatah Ahmed, a spokesman for the Iraq Aid Association (IAA), said they had informed the local authorities of such cases but had not received a response. A joint report released on 30 July by UK-based charity Oxfam and the NGO Coordination Committee in Iraq said around eight million Iraqis were in urgent need of water and sanitation. The report said 70 percent of Iraqis do not have adequate water supplies - up from 50 percent in 2003.
Earlier this month, a report by the world's principal intergovernmental body on migration, the International Organization for Migration, warned that the scale of Iraqi displacement was "fast becoming a regional and ultimately international crisis".
Labels: IDPs, International Organization for Migration, Iraq Aid Association, NGO Coordination Committee in Iraq, NGOs, Oxfam, Rahman camp, water
