Tuesday, May 01, 2007
20 per cent drop in civilian deaths in Iraq in April
Security
(Reuters) - Violence in Iraq killed 1,506 civilians in April, nearly a 20 percent drop from the previous month, Iraqi government figures showed on Tuesday. A U.S.-backed security crackdown in Baghdad has helped reduce some violence in the city, such as sectarian death squad killings. But militants, especially al Qaeda, have sought to step up attacks outside the capital.
The figures were compiled by the interior, defense and health ministries and obtained by Reuters. The number of civilians killed in March was 1,861 from 1,645 in February. The Baghdad security plan aims to reduce sectarian violence in the capital and its surrounding areas to give the Shi'ite-led government the chance to make progress on national reconciliation with minority Sunni Arabs.
In April, 130 Iraqi policemen and 63 Iraqi soldiers were killed, the data showed. April has been a bad month for U.S. soldiers in Iraq, with 104 killed, making it one of the deadliest months since the invasion in 2003. The Iraqi data showed nearly 3,000 militants were detained during the month. Civilian casualty numbers are a sensitive issue in Iraq.
The United Nations last week accused Iraq of withholding figures for this year because the government feared the data would be used to paint a "very grim" picture of the country. The criticism was contained in a new U.N. human rights report on Iraq which drew fire from U.S. officials in Baghdad and the Iraqi government. They said it was flawed and contained numerous inaccuracies.
The figures were compiled by the interior, defense and health ministries and obtained by Reuters. The number of civilians killed in March was 1,861 from 1,645 in February. The Baghdad security plan aims to reduce sectarian violence in the capital and its surrounding areas to give the Shi'ite-led government the chance to make progress on national reconciliation with minority Sunni Arabs.
In April, 130 Iraqi policemen and 63 Iraqi soldiers were killed, the data showed. April has been a bad month for U.S. soldiers in Iraq, with 104 killed, making it one of the deadliest months since the invasion in 2003. The Iraqi data showed nearly 3,000 militants were detained during the month. Civilian casualty numbers are a sensitive issue in Iraq.
The United Nations last week accused Iraq of withholding figures for this year because the government feared the data would be used to paint a "very grim" picture of the country. The criticism was contained in a new U.N. human rights report on Iraq which drew fire from U.S. officials in Baghdad and the Iraqi government. They said it was flawed and contained numerous inaccuracies.
Officials from the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) said they were given no official reason why their requests for specific official data had been turned down. In January, UNAMI said 34,452 Iraqi civilians were killed in 2006, figures that were much higher than any statistics issued by the government.
Labels: civilian deaths, Iraq violence, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Interior, UNAMI
Friday, March 23, 2007
Political sectarian factions pressurise defense minister
Politics
The Ministry of Defense is under immense pressure from sectarian factions who want to have a bigger say in its recruiting and operating policies. Defense Minister Abdulqader Jassem said the factions would like to build the ministry on sectarian lines that have divided the Iraqi society. “I am under huge pressure from the main political blocs to revise the ministry’s structure on sectarian lines,” Jassem said. But he said he would resist any attempt to build the army in the light of the country’s sectarian divisions.
According to the sectarian allocations of power introduced shortly after the 2003 U.S. invasion, the minister of defense has to be a Sunni Arab Muslim while the minister of interior should be a Shiite Arab Muslim. “I am an independent personality and will not receive orders from (political) parties,” he said. It is not clear how Jassem, a civilian, will eventually manage to keep his ministry ‘independent’ has he claims.
The minister did not deny that sectarian and ethnic affiliations were a real problem the new armed suffered from. He said the ministry’s various army formations were not functioning in a transparent manner and salaries were being paid to soldiers and officers who were not actually in service. He said corruption was rife in his ministry and was trying hard to combat “this phenomenon”.
According to the sectarian allocations of power introduced shortly after the 2003 U.S. invasion, the minister of defense has to be a Sunni Arab Muslim while the minister of interior should be a Shiite Arab Muslim. “I am an independent personality and will not receive orders from (political) parties,” he said. It is not clear how Jassem, a civilian, will eventually manage to keep his ministry ‘independent’ has he claims.
The minister did not deny that sectarian and ethnic affiliations were a real problem the new armed suffered from. He said the ministry’s various army formations were not functioning in a transparent manner and salaries were being paid to soldiers and officers who were not actually in service. He said corruption was rife in his ministry and was trying hard to combat “this phenomenon”.
COMMENT: Abdulqader Jassem was born in Ramadi and is a Sunni Arab former general in the army of Saddam Hussein. In 2003, he joined the new Iraqi army, serving first as the commander of the operations room and then commander of military operations in western Iraq. Prior to his appointment as Minister on 8 June 2006, he was commander of the infantry commando units. He is not affiliated to any political party but his appointment was strongly backed by the Sunni Arab-led Iraqi Accord Front.COMMENT ENDS.
Labels: Abdulqader Jassem, Ministry of Defense, sectarianism
