Help the children of Baghdad this summer

IraqChild Appeal
www.iraqiassociation.org
Freepost NAT 21599 London W6 9BR

Iraqi Association Charity No. 1101109

Appeal for moral and material support for the children of Baghdad from Dave Anderson MP

IraqChild project is a grassroots initiative to provide emergency and protection for children in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq. It is a non-sectarian project which was developed through a lengthy consultation process with concerned medical personnel in Baghdad and local non-governmental organisations. It also has the backing of British-Iraqis in Britain.

The project is urgently seeking £250,000 to provide emergency medical aid and back its Andalus Medical Clinic in Baghdad. The clinic provides free services to treat injured children and those who have been affected by violence.

The need for help is particularly acute in the sweltering summer heat which is compounded by electricity shortages and the lack of air conditioning.

Children are among the most vulnerable and defenceless of all, and desperately need basic assistance from the international community can provide. Mainly women and children are paying the cost of the violence.

The key activities are: Emergency work. Non-sectarian children's activities. Partnership projects with local NGOs. Children's protection awareness raising. Children's psychological support.

Many thousands of children have been displaced.

In poor districts of Baghdad, thousands of orphans fend for themselves.

Terrorists are using children as decoys for sadistic killings.

One in eight Iraqi children died of disease or violence before reaching their fifth birthday in 2005, according to Save the Children, and Iraq ranked last in the poverty league, because it had made the least progress toward improving child survival rates.

Children in Iraq are suffering from worryingly high levels of malnourishment, according to specialists.

The trauma of violence, kidnappings, murder, and terrorist bombings requires immediate world attention.

Poverty and insecurity are the main causes of children's deteriorating diets.

Violence and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people are making it very difficult for monthly food rations to reach those families that need them most.

The project aims to provide help and assistance to children in Iraq, regardless of their religious, gender, political, ethnic or political backgrounds.

What a donation could do

£22 Can buy a child's clothing pack

£48 Can treat a child for diarrhoea and ear infection

£60 Can pay for a qualified nurse to care for 10 children every week

£75 Can provide meals to 20 orphaned children every week

£120 Can pay for Soccer team's kits of 12 children in one district

£170 Can pay for a child's treatment for a month

£250 Can buy ten boxes of feeding milk that contains all nutrients
necessary for the treatment of severely malnourished children

£650 Can pay for a medical doctor a month, to visit 10 families with
children every week

£1580 Can maintain running a children's clinic for a month to serve 8
children every day

"My mother tells me that I have to stop going outside, because on my
way to hospital I lost my left leg during a shooting incident. But it
is hard for me, knowing that I will never be able to play like other
children" Saif said.

The project will be managed by the British registered charity Iraqi Association. The evaluation for this programme will be tight. The management will evaluate with benchmarks established at the outset and opinion surveys as well as monitoring and statistics coupled with progress against agreed targets.

Please consider making a donation and alerting others to the importance of this credible and vital appeal.

Yours sincerely

Dave Anderson MP

Measuring Meaningful Progress in Iraq

Dr. Yasser Alaskary of the Iraqi Prospect Organisation examines how things have changed in the last year and how to measure improvements in security.

The White House interim progress report on Iraq, released last week, and the Congressman who are clambering to abandon Iraq before next year’s US Presidential elections next year, failed to recognize a major shift taking place in Iraqi society – something rigid benchmarks and news headlines cannot capture.

The Golden Dome mosque in Samarra, one of the most revered shrines by Shia Muslims, was bombed in February last year and ignited sectarian violence in and around Baghdad that by the end of 2006 had spiralled the country to the brink of civil war. The shrine was bombed once again last month. How the country reacted this time around provides a much deeper and more meaningful indication of which way Iraq is heading.

Last year’s bombing exposed an Iraqi government ill-prepared, a population bitterly divided by sect and creed, and too many political leaders who either supported the ensuing violence or at the very least were silent about it. When the shrine was bombed last year, Ibrahim Jafari's government failed to react and sectarian tit-for-tat violence escalated dramatically month-on-month. This time around, Maliki had learnt the lessons of last year. An immediate curfew was imposed in Baghdad and Basra, extra check points were erected to patrol potential flash-points, additional security was posted around Sunni mosques, and he visited the shrine the same day to see the damage for himself. More importantly, public reaction was palpably different this time. Iraqi Sunni television stations, such as al-Baghdadiya, quickly condemned the attack, which stood in contrast to last year's deafening silence. Even the extremist Sunni group, the Association of Muslim Scholars, condemned the attack in their own special way (they blamed the US and Iraqi government).

The bombing failed to evoke the same response in Iraqis. Sectarian violence has not escalated, quite the opposite in Iraq. The early signs are that there has been a definite shift on the ground in people's attitude - a fact still yet to filter up into the Iraqi parliament, which continues to be stalled. Iraqis saw where sectarian conflict got them last year and they are not keen to go further back down that path again.

The steady successes in the Anbar province, where Sunni tribes have sided with the government against the insurgents and terrorists, underscore the shift in attitudes taking place in Iraq. It is this gradual acceptance of the country’s new democratic system by its various factions which will ultimately bring about stability. The fear is that a partisan Washington, in the run-up to a presidential election next year, will be short-sighted, ignore the developing changes and demand early disengagement from Iraq.

This article was brought to you by the Iraqi Prospect Organisation, an Iraq-based network of young men and women promoting democratic values

Dave Aaronovitch tackles the troops out argument

See Dave Aaronovitch article in the Times, which examines a recent editorial in the New York Times. He says: But what could readers make of there being not one single word in the editorial about what Iraqis themselves wanted the US to do? Not one. Iraqi democrats were depicted merely as being people to be airlifted out of the green zone when the Saigon moment arrived. The calls from Iraqi politicians, local leaders in Anbar, the Kurds and many other groups for the Americans to stay on for the time being were not even referred to. That is true unilateralism.

Basra unions on the march

See here for details of trade union action in Basra.

Ann Clwyd on security situation in Iraq

Ann Clwyd comments on Iraqi Prime Minister’s security assessment – she says: "I am astonished to hear this. It seems like a big dose of over-optimism. And they do not chime at all with what I have seen myself or with my conversation with the deputy prime minister just last night. He said that we should not withdraw our forces, and if we did so then al-Qaeda would be a greater threat, not only to Iraq but to the wider region too. Al-Maliki is right to say that some progress has been made, but there needs to be far more."

There are no easy options left in Iraq, only painful ones.

Iraq Commission Report

Here is the full report of the Iraq Commission to which LFIQ gave evidence. The executive summary is below.

There are no easy options left in Iraq, only painful ones.

The UK has a legal and moral responsibility to Iraq. Under Resolution 1483 and subsequent UN resolutions, the British hold shared responsibility in international law for what happened during and after the invasion of Iraq.

Whilst much has been achieved by the coalition in ending the regime of a brutal dictator and the holding of elections, it is now clear that the initial, over ambitious vision of the coalition can no longer be achieved in Iraq. The UK government needs, therefore to redefine its objectives. In the words of Sir Jeremy Greenstock, the former British Special Representative in Iraq, “We thought we were going to achieve something good, that has not happened. It’s actually time for change. It is time to do something about it.”

It is the view of the Commission that the UK government’s aims for Iraq should now be to:

• Preserve and underpin the territorial integrity of the Iraqi state.

• Support a strongly federal internal structure for the Iraqi state, as envisaged, but not yet implemented, under the present constitution.

• Promote the constructive engagement of Iraq’s neighbours in the achievement of the above aims, and support any initiative aimed at stabilising the region.

• Prevent Iraq being a base for al Qaeda attacks within Iraq and beyond its borders.

The UK should also work with the international community actively to urgently promote a wider Middle East settlement, centred on a resolution of the Israel Palestine conflict, which provides the best context in which a long term resolution to Iraq’s problems can be secured.

These aims form the necessary political framework within which all the subsequent recommendations in this report are anchored.

If there was one view that was given in evidence to the commission time and again it was that ultimately: only Iraqis can make Iraq better – but they need help.

Therefore, the task for the commission was how the UK should best discharge its responsibilities, commensurate with British interests and enable the Iraqis to better control their own destiny.

After hearing testimony from a wide range of witnesses: Iraqis within and outside Iraq; British diplomats and politicians; humanitarian and international organisations; and others the Commission has put forward the following recommendations:

• The UK should promote an urgent international political effort, under UN Security Council auspices and involving Iraq’s neighbours, to provide international treaty protection for Iraq’s territorial integrity and provide support for the building up of a strongly federal internal structure for the Iraqi state
based on the current constitution. In parallel a high level new UN envoy should be appointed to facilitate internal political reconciliation.

• The UK should refocus its military activity, progressively ceasing offensive military operations and bringing to completion its programme of training and building the capacity of the Iraqi security forces. As Iraqi forces complete their training, and are demonstrably capable, they will assume responsibility for security. This handover should not be dependent on the prevailing security situation.

• The UK should, with the International Compact with Iraq, develop an economic roadmap for Iraq, with a strong emphasis on the liberalisation of the Iraqi economy and the creation of small and medium sized enterprises so that as the security situation improves on the ground, the economic benefits of peace can take root as soon as possible.

• The UK should give full support to the UNHCR to develop and implement a strategy that addresses the humanitarian and security consequences of the two million refugees from Iraq, the one million refugees expected over the next year, and the two million Iraqis displaced within Iraq. These people represent an
emerging humanitarian tragedy and a longer term strategic security risk for the entire region.

The Commission recognises that these recommendations are in some cases at variance with positions hitherto taken by the US Administration. Nonetheless, we believe that the British Government should make clear both privately to the US and publicly that it believes that this course of action both reflects British and wider interests and is the most likely to reduce the violence and offer Iraqis a more stable future.

Iraqi President Talabani addresses the Socialist International

He concludes, as follows – words that should be heeded on the left.

Gary Kent
LFIQ

1. Combating terrorism that has become a danger on us all and an international plague.

2. Informing your parties and your people of the real situation in Iraq and explaining the positive aspects as well as the negative ones without concentrating on the latter one alone.

3. Encouraging the socialist-led governments to write-off their debts to Iraq, so that they become an example for other governments to follow.

4. Encouraging companies and business people to invest in Iraq starting from the safer areas and then throughout Iraq.

5. Providing moral and media support for the united, democratic and federal Iraq.

6. Sending fact-finding delegations to Iraq in order to give us your comradely feedback.

7. Asking the states in the region to stop interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq, respect its national independence and sovereignty and also its national unity; this in addition to stopping the facilitation and financial help for the terrorists.

Geneva, 29-30 June 2007

Speech by President of the Republic of Iraq, H. E. Jalal Talabani

Comrades and dear friends,

I warmly salute you and wish success for your meeting.

We come to you from the new federal and democratic Iraq. An Iraq that
afforded the widest range of democratic freedoms for its people on the ruins of a criminal dictatorship that committed many crimes against the people and betrayed the homeland.

It left behind mass graves with hundreds of thousands of innocent people buried alive. It left us a destroyed economy, a destroyed country with over hundreds of thousands of millions of dollars.

For over 35 years of dictatorship, all ethnicities and sects of our people have suffered from the various wars that the dictatorship waged - on the people of Kurdistan in the north and the Arab people of the south, the war on neighbouring Iran, and sisterly peaceful Kuwait.

These wars have brought to our people the calamities of destruction; the killing of hundreds of thousands and the displacement of millions from the homeland. It wasted vast amounts of the country's wealth and destroyed all of the villages and districts of Kurdistan; it dried the Marsh Arabs in the south; it eradicated millions of date palms and it halted our national agriculture and industry.

When our people rose to exercise their freedoms and to face the challenge of rebuilding and renewal, they were confronted with the unfair Security Council Resolution 1483 that was passed by all of its members, including the Arab vote in the council.

This resolution imposed occupation and its harsh repercussions and deprived our people form exercising their right to rule and to build their parliamentary, political and military institutions.

But our people, who long for freedom and the right to self determination, continued their struggle until they convinced the imposed occupation and the UN to form the Governing Council that comprised representatives of Islamic, nationalist and democratic forces and also the Kurdish people.

Then they managed to hold three elections for a parliament and for the ratification of a permanent constitution and also the election of the three presidencies; the presidency of the republic, the parliament and the council of ministers. The elections also produced a national unity government that has representatives of the four parliamentary blocs.

We also started to regain our national sovereignty and our diplomatic relations with the world. But the security task including the rebuilding of the armed forces and combating terrorism, which is a joint responsibility of the Iraqi government and International coalition, remained unfinished. We are striving to return this
responsibility to the hands of the freely-elected Iraqi government.

We consider this return a prime condition for the rebuilding of our forces in a way that imposes security and law and defeats the terrorist gangs of al-Qaida, which is waging a war of annihilation against all segments of Iraqi society.

They consider the Shi'a majority as blasphemous, the second ethnicity, the Kurds, as traitors and consider the Sunni Arabs who refuse to obey their orders as infidels who deserve death.

Despite the confrontation of this criminal gang by the Sunni Arab citizens and their tribes in their areas, and also the successes of our new armed forces by inflicting heavy defeats on them, they are still conducting a policy of blindly killing innocent civilians.

They kill labourers, students, Christian and Muslim clergymen. This resulted in creating troubles that led to the migration of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis to Jordan and Syria and the expulsion of tens of thousands to the safety of Iraqi Kurdistan.

Dear comrades,

Since its liberation from dictatorship, Iraq is coming under an external invasion of terrorists from all parts of the Arab world, from the Maghreb, Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria by exploiting the laxness of the governments that oppose a federal and democratic Iraq and also through benefiting from the generous financial backing of organizations that pretend to promote Islam in these countries.

Iraq has now become an arena for the conniving of most of these governments against our people. And the reasons are clear:

1. The fear of the establishment of the young Iraqi democracy which might inspire the people of the Middle East to ask for the democracy that they are deprived of. It will also inspire the oppressed ethnicities to rise and call for their rights.

2. The animosity of some of these governments to the Shi'a of Iraq.

3. The animosity of some of the other ones to the Kurds, who gained in the new Iraq their national rights such as federalism and a safe and prosperous region.

4. Some governments' animosity to and fear of the establishment of a stable, democratic, united and independent Iraq, which will lead to a big change in the unjust balances and equations of power that are prevalent in the region.

This terrorist gang tried to create an ethnic and sectarian conflict in Iraq, but it failed miserably in creating an ethnic conflict. The Arab-Kurdish relations became stronger and the Arab people in Baghdad and Salah-al-Din welcomed the Kurdish units of the Iraqi army.

Many units of the republican guards have provided peace and security in the Sunni Arab areas of Baghdad.

In so far as the sectarian conflict is concerned, it was combated by the conscious clergymen of the Sunnis and also the wise Shi'a Marji'yah (source of religious emulation) under the leadership of the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

The Shi'a and Sunni clergymen have formed an alliance to avert the sectarian sedition that caused the killing of innocent civilians from one sect in revenge for killings from the other.

All of this has prevented sectarian sedition and the good people of Shi'a and Sunnis are heading towards strengthening their unity and unifying their ranks to strengthen national unity and fight terrorism.

Esteemed friends,

Despite the mistakes, shortcomings and not achieving total victory over terrorism, we have achieved many successes in the political, cultural, reconstruction and economical and other fields.

In the political field, our government under the leadership of Dr Nuri al-Maliki has headed towards national reconciliation with important steps such as putting forward a programme and organising meetings for the forces of civil society and the tribes; and also contacting armed groups that are against terrorism and are willing to contribute in the democratic process.

There has also been a recent agreement between the presidency of the republic and the presidency of the council of ministers to form a joint leadership in accordance with the constitution which states that the executive comprises the presidency of the republic and the presidency of the Council of Ministers.

This would solve the complaint of sidelining the representatives of the Sunni Arabs from exercising a leadership role in taking part in the decision-making process and in supervising the affairs of the state and in facing the challenges together and exercising the responsibilities in accordance with everyone's constitutional specialities.

We hope to reach an agreement with the armed Iraqi opposition; to pass the oil and De-Bathification laws in a way that assures everyone that oil's wealth is the property of all the people of Iraq and it will be distributed in accordance with the population and the need for reconstruction in the various Iraqi governorates.

In the cultural field, education has returned to schools starting from primary ones and all the way to universities - the number of which has increased. In the Iraqi Kurdistan region, there are five universities - two are under construction.

Newspapers and magazines are being printed in large numbers. Cultural and scientific clubs have increased. Many cultural gatherings and conferences are held. The new democracy has provided an atmosphere of freedom and activity in the cultural field.

The secure areas of Iraq are undergoing a vast reconstruction move. Economic life has prospered as a result of liberating the economy from the control of the state.

The private sector is active in many fields. Salaries of millions have increased by 100-200 times. Many factories have returned to production and the government is trying to reactivate the other ones as well.

Dear comrades and friends,

We hope that Socialist International helps us through these difficult times and problems that we face. We expect your help and that of your governments in:

1. Combating terrorism that has become a danger on us all and an international plague.

2. Informing your parties and your people of the real situation in Iraq and explaining the positive aspects as well as the negative ones without concentrating on the latter one alone.

3. Encouraging the socialist-led governments to write-off their debts to Iraq, so that they become an example for other governments to follow.

4. Encouraging companies and business people to invest in Iraq starting from the safer areas and then throughout Iraq.

5. Providing moral and media support for the united, democratic and federal Iraq.

6. Sending fact-finding delegations to Iraq in order to give us your comradely feedback.

7. Asking the states in the region to stop interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq, respect its national independence and sovereignty and also its national unity; this in addition to stopping the facilitation and financial help for the terrorists.

Thank you for your attention.

Iraqi Association slams bombers in Britain

Iraqi Association expresses its condemnation of terrorist attack at Glasgow Airport and the attempted car bomb in London. Terrorism cannot be tolerated in any shape or form and Islam totally forbids this evil act.

“In Baghdad, our people are suffering from the daily terrorist attacks, and mostly women and children are paying the cost.” Said Jabbar Hasan of Iraqi Association in London.

On behalf of the Iraqi Community we condemn the terrorist attack at Glasgow Airport and the attempted car bomb in London. We should not allow terrorists to divide and rule our diverse communities. Together we can defeat sadistic murderers.

Notes to Editors:
1. Iraqi Association assists people to integrate in the United Kingdom.
2. Every year Iraqi Association deals with more than 10,000 cases.
3. We operate IraqChild Appeal, a project which protects Iraqi children in Baghdad those who have been affected by war and violence. You can donate online using our secure website www.iraqiassociation.org

Iraq the Model assesses the Surge

Omar says that the results so far have been astounding, and please allow me to say that I am proud of the change in attitude many of my fellow Iraqis are showing.

A view of daily life in Baghdad

See this moving description of daily life in Baghdad. Hat tip to Harry Barnes