Monday, September 03, 2007
Iranian bombing displaces hundreds in Kurdistan
Humanitarian
(AP) -- Iranian troops have been accused of bombing border areas for weeks against suspected positions of the Free Life Party, or PEJAK, a breakaway faction of the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party. Iran says PEJAK -- which seeks autonomy for Kurds in Iran -- launches attacks inside Iran from bases in Iraq.
Shelling of border areas resumed Saturday after a brief lull with Iranian shells hitting the Iraqi side of the border and causing some fires. Associated Press Television News showed white smoke billowing from mountainous areas as well as Kurdish shepherds carrying carcasses of several sheep killed by the shelling.
The Iranian shelling has been criticized by Iraqi officials and Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari warned it could have negative effects on the crucial relations between Iran and Iraq's Shiite-led government. Ari Yashir, a PEJAK member, took a reporter in a tour around several deserted villages and claimed the Iranian attacks only serve to harm civilians. "The bombing is only targeting villages where we have no bases," he said. "After three weeks of Iranian shelling none of our positions was hit and not a single member of our party was wounded."
Most of the people who fled their homes have gathered in an area known as Shewe Hasow, a valley with water springs in the Qandil Mountain area that borders Iran and Turkey. Many of them stay in tents or under covers mostly supplied by the International Committee of the Red Cross. "We are here because the refugees are in need," said ICRC member Patrick Youssef, standing by a truck with canned food and bottled water. "We are helping them with needed stuff because most of them left their homes leaving their things behind."
The Kurdish region's interior minister, Othman Haji Mahmoud, told the Kurdish regional parliament Tuesday that the Iranian shelling led to the displacement of some 450 families in 20 villages adding that several people were wounded in addition to material damages. He said the latest wave of shelling began Aug. 14.
Zebari said in Baghdad Tuesday that the main areas struck are in the northern provinces of Irbil and Sulaimaniyah. Iranian shelling "has been ongoing and unfortunately has become a daily or a routine practice. Recently, we summoned the Iranian ambassador and handed him a note of protest."
"PEJAK sometimes moves in border area, but this does not permit all this continuous, daily and intensive shelling," said Zebari, a Kurd, who noted that Iraq was prepared to hold negotiations with Iran on the disputes over Kurdish rebel groups. "We hope that these attacks will stop immediately."
To some Kurds in the region, they have been living the war for decades, including widespread atrocities blamed on Saddam Hussein's regime in the 1980s. "We are the victims of a continuous struggle. My house was destroyed five times and I rebuilt it. Let this be the sixth time," said Abdullah Wasou Ibrahim, who fled to the refugee camp with 10 family members.
Shelling of border areas resumed Saturday after a brief lull with Iranian shells hitting the Iraqi side of the border and causing some fires. Associated Press Television News showed white smoke billowing from mountainous areas as well as Kurdish shepherds carrying carcasses of several sheep killed by the shelling.
The Iranian shelling has been criticized by Iraqi officials and Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari warned it could have negative effects on the crucial relations between Iran and Iraq's Shiite-led government. Ari Yashir, a PEJAK member, took a reporter in a tour around several deserted villages and claimed the Iranian attacks only serve to harm civilians. "The bombing is only targeting villages where we have no bases," he said. "After three weeks of Iranian shelling none of our positions was hit and not a single member of our party was wounded."
Most of the people who fled their homes have gathered in an area known as Shewe Hasow, a valley with water springs in the Qandil Mountain area that borders Iran and Turkey. Many of them stay in tents or under covers mostly supplied by the International Committee of the Red Cross. "We are here because the refugees are in need," said ICRC member Patrick Youssef, standing by a truck with canned food and bottled water. "We are helping them with needed stuff because most of them left their homes leaving their things behind."
The Kurdish region's interior minister, Othman Haji Mahmoud, told the Kurdish regional parliament Tuesday that the Iranian shelling led to the displacement of some 450 families in 20 villages adding that several people were wounded in addition to material damages. He said the latest wave of shelling began Aug. 14.
Zebari said in Baghdad Tuesday that the main areas struck are in the northern provinces of Irbil and Sulaimaniyah. Iranian shelling "has been ongoing and unfortunately has become a daily or a routine practice. Recently, we summoned the Iranian ambassador and handed him a note of protest."
"PEJAK sometimes moves in border area, but this does not permit all this continuous, daily and intensive shelling," said Zebari, a Kurd, who noted that Iraq was prepared to hold negotiations with Iran on the disputes over Kurdish rebel groups. "We hope that these attacks will stop immediately."
To some Kurds in the region, they have been living the war for decades, including widespread atrocities blamed on Saddam Hussein's regime in the 1980s. "We are the victims of a continuous struggle. My house was destroyed five times and I rebuilt it. Let this be the sixth time," said Abdullah Wasou Ibrahim, who fled to the refugee camp with 10 family members.
Labels: International Committee of the Red Cross, Iran, Pejak, Qandil mountains, Shewe Hasow
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Iraqi refugee crisis - how to help
Humanitarian
Iraqi refugee crisis - how to help:
Iraqi refugee crisis - how to help:
According to The UN High Commissioner on Refugees, in terms of raw numbers, the nearly two-and-a-half million Iraqi refugees displaced because of the war is a bigger crisis than Darfur. It’s also the largest mass migration in the Middles east since the exodus of Palestinians from Israel in 1948. The vast majority of Iraqi refugees have fled to Syria and Jordan, further straining already overstretched infrastructures in two of the region's poorer countries.
The result is inflated housing costs, scarce water resources and crowded public health facilities and schools. Well over a million Iraqis are internally displaced. According to The UN High Commission for Refugees estimates that as many as a third of externally displaced refugees now outside Iraq is Christian. [And it really matters not what religion they may follow. They are in need of help. Call or write your congress person today and tell them to support the Responsibility to Iraqi Refugees Act. Or make a contribution to the International Rescue Committee or Direct Relief International or American Friends Service Committee or International Committee of the Red Cross/Crescent
Very few organizations are working on getting aid to Iraqi refugees, and of those that are, many are too small or too beleaguered to accept individual donations; the Iraqi Red Crescent, for example, has suffered bombings and mass kidnappings, yet its volunteers continue to deliver aid to displaced families inside Iraq. One of the larger relief organizations working with the refugees is the Catholic group Caritas. Caritas helps a few thousand families a year, but "the demand far outstrips the money available to us," says Magy Mahrous, who oversees the project.
You can make a contribution at: International Catholic Migration Commission, Citibank USA, 153 East 53rd Street, 16th floor, New York, NY 10043. To ensure that the money reaches the Iraqi program, write "Iraq-icmc" on your check.
You can make a contribution at: International Catholic Migration Commission, Citibank USA, 153 East 53rd Street, 16th floor, New York, NY 10043. To ensure that the money reaches the Iraqi program, write "Iraq-icmc" on your check.
Labels: Caritas Iraq, Direct Relief International, IDPs, International Committee of the Red Cross, International Rescue Committee, Iraqi Red Crescent Society, Iraqi refugees, Jordan, Syria, UNHCR
Thursday, April 12, 2007
ICRC official says Shafari tortured during detention
Iran, U.S., Iraq
(Al Jazeera, Agencies) - Iranian state television has shown officials from the International Committee of the Red Cross examining an Iranian diplomat who has accused the CIA of torturing him while he was detained in Iraq. Jalal Sharafi was shown in a hospital bed being examined by Peter Stocker from the ICRC and the Iraqi ambassador in footage broadcast on Wednesday.
During the examination, the voice of a doctor could be heard describing how Sharafi - formerly the second-most senior official in Iran's embassy in Baghdad - had been beaten with a cable during his detention. After his visit to the diplomat, Stocker told The Associated Press that he saw wounds on Sharafi's body that "were several weeks old", but said he did not know how the injuries occurred. "I cannot say who did it and where it happened," the ICRC official said. "I can only say that it happened during his detention."
Stocker was accompanied to the hospital by Majid Sheikh, the Iraqi ambassador to Iran. Earlier in the week, Sharafi's Iranian doctors had reported that holes had been drilled into his foot, but the TV images were not clear enough to indicate whether the small, red marks on his foot were indeed holes. Doctors also reported earlier that he had suffered a broken nose, serious injuries to his back, bleeding in his digestive system, and damage to his ears.
None of these injuries has been independently verified, nor were they discernible from the TV footage. Footage released by Iranian TV showed Jalal Sharafi in hospital being examined by doctors. A spokeswoman for the ICRC in Tehran, Katayoun Hosseinnejad, confirmed the visit to Sharafi had taken place and said it had been initiated by the Iranians.
Sharafi was released from Iraq last week and later said that the CIA had questioned him about Iran's relations with Iraq and its assistance to various Iraqi groups. US officials have repeatedly said that Iran provides money and weapons to Shia militias in Iraq. Iran has denied this. On Wednesday the US military put more weapons on display in Baghdad that it said were made in Iran. An army spokesmen said that Iran had trained Iraqi insurgents in the use of roadside bombs as recently as last month.
During the examination, the voice of a doctor could be heard describing how Sharafi - formerly the second-most senior official in Iran's embassy in Baghdad - had been beaten with a cable during his detention. After his visit to the diplomat, Stocker told The Associated Press that he saw wounds on Sharafi's body that "were several weeks old", but said he did not know how the injuries occurred. "I cannot say who did it and where it happened," the ICRC official said. "I can only say that it happened during his detention."
Stocker was accompanied to the hospital by Majid Sheikh, the Iraqi ambassador to Iran. Earlier in the week, Sharafi's Iranian doctors had reported that holes had been drilled into his foot, but the TV images were not clear enough to indicate whether the small, red marks on his foot were indeed holes. Doctors also reported earlier that he had suffered a broken nose, serious injuries to his back, bleeding in his digestive system, and damage to his ears.
None of these injuries has been independently verified, nor were they discernible from the TV footage. Footage released by Iranian TV showed Jalal Sharafi in hospital being examined by doctors. A spokeswoman for the ICRC in Tehran, Katayoun Hosseinnejad, confirmed the visit to Sharafi had taken place and said it had been initiated by the Iranians.
Sharafi was released from Iraq last week and later said that the CIA had questioned him about Iran's relations with Iraq and its assistance to various Iraqi groups. US officials have repeatedly said that Iran provides money and weapons to Shia militias in Iraq. Iran has denied this. On Wednesday the US military put more weapons on display in Baghdad that it said were made in Iran. An army spokesmen said that Iran had trained Iraqi insurgents in the use of roadside bombs as recently as last month.
Labels: CIA, ICRC, International Committee of the Red Cross, Iran, Jalal Sharafi, Peter Stocker, torture
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
ICRC calls for urgent action to protect Iraqi civilians
Humanitarian
(ICRC) – 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. The report entitled "Civilians without protection – The ever-worsening crisis in Iraq" deplores the daily acts of violence such as shootings, bombings, abductions, murders and military operations that directly target Iraqi civilians in clear violation of international humanitarian law and other applicable legal standards.
While it argues that the current crisis directly or indirectly affects all Iraqis, the report focuses on the problems of vulnerable groups such as the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis forced to flee their homes and the families that host them. The report documents the alarming state of Iraqi health-care facilities suffering critical shortages of staff and supplies. Many doctors, nurses and patients no longer dare to go to hospitals and clinics because they are targeted or threatened.
The report also underlines that much of Iraq's vital water, sewage and electricity infrastructure is in a critical condition owing to lack of maintenance and because security constraints have impeded repair work. "The suffering that Iraqi men, women and children are enduring today is unbearable and unacceptable. Their lives and dignity are continuously under threat," said the ICRC's director of operations, Pierre Krähenbühl. "The ICRC calls on all those who can influence the situation on the ground to act now to ensure that the lives of ordinary people are spared and protected. This is an obligation under international humanitarian law for both States and non-State actors."
The full report can be found here: http://www.icrc.org/Web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/iraq-report-110407/$File/Iraq-report-icrc.pdf
Labels: ICRC, International Committee of the Red Cross, Iraqi civilians, Pierre Krähenbühl
Monday, April 09, 2007
Iran warns of consequences if detained Iranians in Iraq are not released
Security, Iran, U.S.
(Reuters) - Iran has warned neighboring Iraq that its failure to secure the release of five Iranians detained there by U.S. forces could impair Tehran's cooperation with Baghdad, a senior official was quoted on Sunday as saying. Washington says the five men, detained in January in northern Iraq, are linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guards and were backing militants. Iran insists they are diplomats, wants them freed and has requested access.
"We are serious about the way we will confront those behind the arrest of the Iranian diplomats in Iraq," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was quoted as saying by the semi-official Fars news agency, seen as close to the Revolutionary Guards. "On Friday I sent a letter to the Iraqi foreign minister and other officials in Iraq and pointed out that their efforts over the release of the diplomats have had no results and I emphasized that if this situation continues we will have problems in taking other steps to help Iraq," he said.
Mottaki's Iraqi counterpart, Hoshiyar Zebari, said he had not received any letter. He insisted his government was working hard to secure the release of the five. "They know very well that the Iraqi government has done, and is doing, its best to try to facilitate their release. We still have not received any confirmation from the Americans that they will release them. "But we hope that this will not be a reason to disturb our bilateral relations," he told Reuters in Baghdad.
"We are serious about the way we will confront those behind the arrest of the Iranian diplomats in Iraq," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was quoted as saying by the semi-official Fars news agency, seen as close to the Revolutionary Guards. "On Friday I sent a letter to the Iraqi foreign minister and other officials in Iraq and pointed out that their efforts over the release of the diplomats have had no results and I emphasized that if this situation continues we will have problems in taking other steps to help Iraq," he said.
Mottaki's Iraqi counterpart, Hoshiyar Zebari, said he had not received any letter. He insisted his government was working hard to secure the release of the five. "They know very well that the Iraqi government has done, and is doing, its best to try to facilitate their release. We still have not received any confirmation from the Americans that they will release them. "But we hope that this will not be a reason to disturb our bilateral relations," he told Reuters in Baghdad.
The families of five Iranians held for three months in US detention in Iraq met an International Committee of the Red Cross representative on Sunday to ask for news about their health, state media said. Foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said earlier that no Iranian official has so far visited the men, who were arrested in northern Iraq in January on accusations of seeking to stir the insurgency. ICRC representatives have seen the detainees twice, and the US has confirmed there were no Iranians among the visiting team.
Labels: Hoshyar Zibari, ICRC, International Committee of the Red Cross, Iranian detainees, Mohammed Ali Hosseini, Revolutionary Guards, U.S.
Friday, April 06, 2007
No Iranians in ICRC delegation that visited Iranian detainees
Iran, U.S.
(AP) - The U.S. military issued a statement Friday clarifying that there were no Iranians in an International Committee of the Red Cross team who had visited five Iranians in American detention after they were arrested three months ago in Irbil. On Wednesday, U.S. military spokesman said Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said that an ICRC delegation had visited the captive Iranians and that one of the group was Iranian.
Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a military spokesman, issued the clarifying statement Friday in an e-mail statement to The Associated Press. "The ICRC committees that visited the five Iranians detained in Irbil on two occasions did not contain an Iranian national. One of the two committees contained an individual who speaks Farsi and lived in Iran, but he is a British citizen by birth," Garver said.
U.S. Embassy spokesman Lou Fintor, meanwhile, said the United States was still considering an Iranian government request to visit the five. Washington has said the five men, who were arrested in Irbil, the capital of the Kurdish semiautonomous region in northern Iraq, were rounded up on suspicion that they were providing aid to militia fighters who are targeting U.S. and Iraqi troops and civilians.
Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a military spokesman, issued the clarifying statement Friday in an e-mail statement to The Associated Press. "The ICRC committees that visited the five Iranians detained in Irbil on two occasions did not contain an Iranian national. One of the two committees contained an individual who speaks Farsi and lived in Iran, but he is a British citizen by birth," Garver said.
U.S. Embassy spokesman Lou Fintor, meanwhile, said the United States was still considering an Iranian government request to visit the five. Washington has said the five men, who were arrested in Irbil, the capital of the Kurdish semiautonomous region in northern Iraq, were rounded up on suspicion that they were providing aid to militia fighters who are targeting U.S. and Iraqi troops and civilians.
Labels: ICRC, International Committee of the Red Cross, Iranians, Irbil
