May 08, 2008

Iraqi refugees

The future looks dismal for an estimated 2.5 million Iraqi refugees who are now scattered throughout the Arab world, Europe and Australia. The UN's refugee agency just released its May 2008 update on Iraq's refugee crisis, and the situation is grim. More Iraqis need food assistance, health care, cash handouts and education, according to the UN agency's survey of the vast Iraqi refugee community in the Syrian capital of Damascus.

Among the most disturbing findings in the latest UN report:

The UN and Syrian government estimate the Iraqi population in Syria to be between 1 and 1.5 million people. The UN has registered only 194,273.

About 157,000 Iraqis missed out on food rations because the main distribution site was dismantled April 29 after the Syrian government reclaimed the land for other purposes.

Latest survey results show that 4 percent of Iraqi refugees in Syria planned to return to Iraq, 89.5 were not planning to return to Iraq, 6.5 percent did not know if they were returning to Iraq, and 27 percent knew people who had returned to Iraq.

Of the refugees registered since 2007, more than 22,000 are victims of torture/violence, more than 28,000 have an important medical condition and more than 4,000 are women at risk.

Of all the refugees registered to date, 56.5 percent are Sunni, 20.2 percent are Shiite and 16 percent are Christian.

Fewer than 25 percent of Iraqi refugee children are enrolled in school

The UN refugee agency is protecting 50 Iraqi women in Douma Prison and six Iraqi girls (ages 12 to 17) in the Juvenile and Rehabilitation Center. The majority of the girls and women are survivors of sexual gender-based violence, including rape and forced prostitution.

In 2007, the UN submitted 7,852 Iraqi refugees for resettlement in other countries. Only 833 refugees were resettled.

May 07, 2008

Back in Cairo

Apologies for the long absence. I've just returned to Egypt and will start posting again tomorrow.

Thank you!

April 24, 2008

On leave

Greetings, everybody. Apologies for the lag between posts. Since I last wrote, I've left Baghdad, spent a couple of days in Cairo and now I'm in the United States for a week or so. I'll try to keep the blog updated, but the next week might have only sporadic postings.

Meanwhile, I'll be in Mama Amrika, happy to accept your story ideas, news tips, blog items, etc. Back in the first week of May, inshallah.

Thanks!

Hannah

April 18, 2008

In praise of stringers

Please take a moment to study the photo to the left.

It was taken in the aftermath of yesterday's bombing in a speck of a village called Albu Mohammed, in the Diyala province northeast of Baghdad. The families were waiting in line for the gravedigger, who had a busy day with up to 60 people killed in the blast.

If any old picture is worth a thousand words, this one must be worth at least a million. This image, one moment frozen in time, encapsulates the heartbreak of Iraq. Apologies because it's so small, but this blog platform can't support larger images.

Still, you can see that the woman in black in the foreground is not wailing or beating her head in grief. She appears stricken and silent. There's a barefoot little girl in the background. The woman standing solemnly near the truck has her eyes closed, as if in prayer. The young boy in the camouflage vest and scarf is carrying a gun; he looks like a miniature mujahid. The men in the scene appear unsure of what to do -- one just gazes at the scene with his arms crossed while the other offers an embrace. Do they feel ashamed, emasculated because there is nothing they can do to stop the slaughter of their relatives? And look at the top of the photo, toward the desert. There's an Iraqi soldier, gun cradled to his chest, unable to do much more than watch. What crime did they commit to deserve this, these villagers from a place so remote we couldn't find it on any of our maps?

Other photos came in from the bombing scene last night, much bloodier images with someone's hand here, someone's foot there. But it was this image that mesmerized me. I wish I could tell you about the brave and intrepid photographer who drove 70 perilous kilometers to the village so we could bring these pictures to you.

But I can't tell you about him. I can't even tell you his name. He's already spent 17 days in captivity after militants from al Qaida in Iraq caught him with a camera. Unlike Western colleagues who've been kidnapped for even a few hours, his abduction never made the news. And still he continues to report.

Our Diyala correspondent is one of several "stringers" hired by our bureau chief Leila Fadel and dispatched to every corner of Iraq. Stringers are local journalists who don't work in the main Baghdad bureau and, while some are on retainer, they mainly work on a story-by-story basis. Most do not want their names attached to their work for fear of retaliation. Exceptions are the excellent stringer in Kurdistan or the fearless young stringer in Najaf, places that are relatively calm.

But from the violent southern Shiite city of Basra to the bloody Sunni triangle north of Baghdad, we get our news from men who call themselves nicknames such as Abu Iraq, which is Arabic for "father of Iraq." They visit morgues, dodge militias and insurgents, count body parts at bombing scenes, attend tedious political meetings and then call in their notes by phone, or send them via email if they can make it to an Internet cafe.

Our core Iraqi staff members in the Baghdad bureau are peerless in their institutional knowledge, their compassion for ordinary Iraqis and their contacts with every group that matters. But we would not be able to bring you news from outlying provinces without the cadre of stringers, our own militia of courageous Iraqis who know words and images can be just as powerful as guns.

April 17, 2008

Dust and news

Baghdad is swathed in a cloud of dust today as the sandstorm season begins. The entire capital is an eerie orange color, with fine particles of sand that leave everybody feeling icky and grainy. At times, the roaring winds even drown out the perpetual hum of electrical generators and the booms of roadside bombs.

On my way to an interview this morning, I saw an endearing scene at a checkpoint. An Iraqi soldier who was inspecting cars held a box of tissues in one hand and his gun in the other. After making sure drivers weren't suicide bombers, he handed out tissues for them to blow their noses and wipe the orange grime from their faces. He got surprised smiles and thank yous in return.

Such a storm makes it hard to breathe, much less pound the streets reporting, so I'm holed up indoors for the rest of the day, dousing my eyes with Visine and sorting through press releases and regional headlines. Here's some of the more notable items:

Tehran police chief arrested in sex scandal
Wire services and Iranian media are following up on the arrest last month of Tehran Police Chief Gen. Reza Zarei, who was in charge of fighting vice in the Iranian capital. Authorities wouldn't elaborate on reasons for the detention of Tehran's top cop, but Iranian media are reporting that he was busted in a raid on an underground brothel, where he was reportedly caught with six nude women. The AP reports that Zarei was in charge of a program to clean cities from corruption and in recent months had reported arrests of young men and women for illicit relationships or not respecting Iran's mandatory Islamic dress code. The report goes on to note that young Iranians have been jailed and flogged for offenses such as dancing together at birthday parties. Full AP story is here.

Yemeni judge dissolves marriage of 8-year-old girl
A Yemeni judge has ruled in favor of an 8-year-old girl who, over the apparent objections of her parents, contacted authorities to get out of a forced marriage to a 30-year-old man. The girl's lawyer was reported as saying the girl -- whose case has grabbed regional headlines for the past week -- is just one of thousands of minors who've been forced into early marriages in impoverished Yemen. The girl told reporters Wednesday that her husband, identified as Faiz Ali Thamer, repeatedly beat her and had sex with her during their two-month marriage. The judge dissolved the marriage, ruling that the girl had not reached puberty.

Kuwaitis charged over mourning for Hezbollah militant
Seven Shiite Muslims from Kuwait are expected to stand trial in connection with a letter they sent to Lebanese and Iranian TV stations in which they expressed sympathy for the death of Hezbollah militant Imad Mughniyeh, who was killed in a car bombing in Damascus two months ago. Wire services are reporting that the seven Kuwaitis were charged with "spreading false news about the situation in the country." An attorney for the men was quoted as saying his clients deny involvement in the statement. Shiites make up about 30 percent of this mostly Sunni nation of 1 million.

ETC.
-- The Guardian newspaper published this profile of Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman. The Angry Arab blogger criticized it as "glowing." Suleiman's name is included on the short list of possible successors to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who's been in power since 1981.

-- A release from the Council on American-Islamic Relations reprinted a story from a Texas student newspaper about an increase in the number of Muslim women participating in the Olympics. No figures were given, but this article timed to the 2004 Olympics says a record 50 or more Muslim women participated in those Games. That was also the first year women from Afghanistan competed; Egypt fielded 15 female athletes that year. I'd be interested in seeing the numbers for Beijing. Anyone know where I can find them?