New Iraq blogs

I've started two new blogs related to projects I'm working on. One is an initiative to evacuate the Palestinian community from Baghdad and the other is a campaign against rip-off privatisation of Iraq's oil fields.

Public Meeting on Iraq in Parliament

I'm speaking at a Public Meeting on Iraq in the UK Parliament next Tuesday (23rd Jan, 6-7.30pm, Committee Room 16). It's been organised by Iraq Occupation Focus to brief MPs prior to an adjournment debate on Iraq in the House of Commons on the following day. The others on the panel are Haifa Zangana (an Iraqi writer), Greg Muttitt (author of 'Crude Designs: The Rip-off of Iraq's Oil') and Glen Rangwala (co-author of 'Iraq in Fragments: The Occupation and Its Legacy').

Interviews from Iraq

Brian has posted up some excellent interviews on his blog with some of my closest friends from Iraq. Merky talks about his detention in Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca, Majed talks about his first experiences after the war, and Sami of Muslim Peacemaker Teams relates the amazing story of a brave Sunni who died rescuing drowning Shias after a bridge collapse.

Palestinians with no where to flee

Human Rights Watch has just published a report No Where to Flee: The Perilous Situation of Palestinians in Iraq. Through Christian Peacemaker Teams I've had close contact with many Palestinians in Iraq and know those who are in hiding in Baghdad, stuck in border refugee camps and a very few who have made it safely out of Iraq.

The end of Iraqi Democracy

Within the next 12 months there is likely to be a bloody Coup de-tat by senior officers in the Iraqi Army and those close to them. It will entail killing of a large number of the leaders in the current (many of whom are aquiantances or friends) and certainly the murder of Ayatollah Sistani and others in the religious leadership. This is the view of some of the most experienced Iraq analysts I know working in Baghdad at the moment. They can even point out the most likely coup leaders. The only thing which is required is for (a) the sectarian violence to get even worse, which its fairly certain and (b) for the US to give a tacit nod of approval. This is beginning to look like their only exit strategy. It will spell the end of for Wolfowitz's supposed dream of a democratic Iraq and more importantly the hopes of the Iraqi people for self-determination. But if it can bring an end to the sectarianism and insecurity than maybe they'll accept a coup with open arms. This is all deeply depressing. Hundreds of Thousands will have been killed, millions impoverished and made refugees and the country's infrastructure devestated - all leading up to a new Saddam. Maybe this won't happen. But some experts seem to be predicting it and quietly hoping for it as well.

Iraqis in South Africa

So I'm rushing around South Africa with 10 Iraqis. We flew in from Dubai on Sunday night and in 5 days are going Joburg > Cape Town > Joburg > Durban > Cape Town > Joburg! We met today with Archbishop Desmond Tutu who still has the humility and childlike humour I remember from back in 1994 when I heard him talk at St.Aldates Church in Oxford, although he is visibly frailer. We're meeting with President Mbeki tomorrow but unfortunately Mandela is off on holiday so we won't be seeing him.

The purpose of the delegation is to share some of South Africa's experiences as an extremely diverse state (with 11 official languages!) which has sucessfully transitioned from represive minority rule. Given that I was still a kid and not politically engaged when Apartheid ended it's been a revelation learning just how risky the transition was and that the country only just avoided a civil war that could have been as bloody as Iraq's (Even so, as I heard today from Dave Stewart, De Klerk's Chief of Staff in the early 90s, 22,000 people were killed in the decade running up to Mandela's election). Learning about South Africa's journey may give the Iraqis some hope along with ideas and inspiration to work for reconciliation. At the same time most of the people we've met have admitted the differences, South Africa for example was able to transition on its own timescale without interference from foreign troops and neighbouring countries, a luxury Iraq has been denied.

Here's an interview with Fink Haysom (my boss, to my right on the photo) about the delegation. And here's another.

Remember Fallujah

Today marks an ignoble aniversary. On 8 November 2004 the US military, with approval and support from Britain, began the systematic destruction of a city of 200,000 people in an operation originally and appropriately codenamed "Thanksgiving Massacre". When I visited 5 months later the 1000+ bodies had been buried and the blood had been washed away, but the devastation remained.

Reading that 60% of the buildings had been seriously damaged is one thing, looking around a once populous neighbourhood and seeing only rubble in all directions is something else entirely. The people of Fallujah were promised large amounts of compensation and reconstruction but my friends at Christian Peacemaker Teams who visited a few days ago testify that a year on the situation remain dire.

http://www.rememberfallujah.org/... and Ramadi, Hit, Mosul, Qaim, Tal Afar, Haditha...

The first rains in Baghdad

There is a distant rumble and it is not a bomb
the rhythmic beat is not small arms fire
it is thunder and the first rains
to wash away blood and dust
an Iftar for the earth after a six months fast
drink deep
this year we need
new life
urgently

Refugees again - Palestinians flee Iraq

Before sunrise on Tuesday, 20 Palestinians (including 8 children, a 77 grandmother and two disabled men) piled into a delapitated bus in Baghdad and travelled the perilous Anbar road past Ramadi and Rutba (risking attack from Americans, terrorists, Iraqi security forces and criminal gangs) to the Syrian border town of Al-Waleed. They were accompanied by 3 friends from Christian Peacemaker Teams and an Iraqi peace activist from Najaf, part of the sister group Muslim Peacemaker Teams.

Everyone in Iraq is suffering these days, but the Palestinian community, most of whom have been born here (their families having fled Palestine in 1948), are among the lowest of the low. They do not have Iraqi citizenship and have to extend their residency permits (a complex process) every single month. Because Saddam exploited the Palestinian cause to try and gain prominence in the Arab world, Palestinians are often (incorrectly) viewed as having supported and benefited from his regime and as a result are persecuted. In fact Saddam did very little for the 23,000 Palestinians in Iraq. In addition, as a result of fears of foreign jihadists, any non-Iraqi Arabs are view with suspicion. There is no evidence that any of the Palestinian community in Iraq has been involved in terrorist activities, but none the less they are frequently harrassed and detained. Things have got so bad that Iraqi security forces have been turning up at the Palestinian ghetto in Baladiat (Baghdad) almost every evening. This is the reason that Palestinians are beginning to take the ultimate step of leaving their homes once again in search of a genuine place of refugee.

One of the Palestinians said: "By our action we want to make the UN aware of our situation and to be registered as refugees with UNRWA which provides assistance to Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza and other Arab nations but not in Iraq." I've been doing my best to alert people in the UN to the situation, and they are taking it seriously, however the decision on permitting them to enter Syria rest with the government.

For updates see the CPT_Iraq Yahoo Group. Their plight has been covered in the Canadian Globe and Mail (although this article exaggerates the support Palestinians recieved from the former regime).

Ramadan Kareem

So, for the first time, I'm actually out in the Middle East during Ramadan. Shia Muslims begin fasting today, while their Sunni cousins began yesterday (the lag is a result of slightly different methodologies in judging the beginning of the lunar month). I began fasting yesterday with the Sunnis and intend to carry on through to the end of the Shia period, so as to be in equal solidarity with both sects. I'm currently just doing the solids component of the fast between dawn and dusk and am drinking water through the day (I'm ill at the moment and getting dehydrated in this climate didn't seem wise), but may cut out water as well when I'm feeling better.

One of the things I appreciate about Ramadan, like so many aspects of Islamic devotion, is that it provides a connection with the natural world in an age when many of us live in cities and spend almost all of our waking hours indoors chained to a computer. In an age when few of us have time or inclination to study the sky, ever Muslim around the world pays careful attention to the phases of the moon, as the physical sighting of the new moon heralds the start of fasting. In an age when we often sleep in late in our environmentally-sealed houses and stay up late burning trillions of watts of electric light, those observing Ramadan wake up before sun rise for their first meal and know to the minute ever day when the sun sets behind the horizon - the time for iftar, the breaking of the fast. In an age of snack food and instant gratification, it is phenomenal seeing a whole nation choosing not to pass anything through their lips during the hours of daylight.

On Monday, unconnected to Ramadan, there was an eclipse of the sun. Even though it was not visible here in Iraq, all my observant Muslim friends were aware it was happening and made additional prayers at that time, in recognition of the majesty of the created universe. I am usually total ignorant of my geographical orientation, but Muslims must know this in order to be able to pray facing Mecca (in my office it seems that this about a 40 degree angle facing into the left hand corner).

To mark the beginning of Ramadan I emailed everyone in the office and invited them to meet at midday for an interfaith prayer meeting to intercede for the victims of the conflict and pray for peace in Iraq. I was amazed that about 20 people showed up and we had a wonderful time of prayer. I distributed news clippings of recent incidents and invited people to pray about them. By and large Islamic prayer - at least in group settings - is litugical, and therefore I think most of those present were unfamiliar with this model of group intercession, none the less they seemed to get the hang of it. Prayers were a mixture of english and arabic, and one lady began weeping as she called for God's mercy for the children of Iraq.

I started the meeting by reading the famous prayer of St.Francis "Lord make me an instrument of your peace..." and then recalling that Iraq is a holy land of prophets and martyrs, that the Tigris river flowing a few feet away from us (sadly hidden behind concrete blast walls) used to run through the Garden of Eden, and it was along this river that Ibrahim lead his family on the first ever pilgrimage in response to God's call. I received a wonderful email from one of the Iraqis present who wrote: "When you said your prayer at the beginning, I thought of my dearest friend who was assassinated few months ago, and ... and I said this prayer is for him, the words were so moving made me feel so near to GOD."

Back in Baghdad

Hi folks. Sorry for not blogging for ages - if its any consolation I haven't been calling my mum so often, and I'm afraid you guys are second in line... but I'll try to be more a more faithful blogaspondant in the future.

I've actually had three gorgeous, though hectic, weeks in the US & UK meeting my habibti's family and introducing mine to her. I was a few hundred miles north of New Orleans when the Hurricane hit, and my heart goes out to all those who have suffered. How strange that a large section of the Southern US has, as many have noted, been transformed into a situation of chaos reminiscent in some ways of Iraq.

On the course of my travels I was fortunate enough to attend the inaugural conference of the International Association of Contemporary Iraqi Studies (IACIS) and met many old friends and was impressed by the contributions of new faces. I presented a paper on the role of the IMF in Iraq (some of my Iraq colleagues in Jubilee Iraq will be attending the IMF Autumn meetings next week to argue the case of economic justice and self-determination) and read out a friend's paper on US involvement in the Constitutional process (as he was unable to attend himself). This created quite a minor diplomatic incident as it was reported by the media and made its way to the US Embassy in Iraq, who were not best pleased.

I left Iraq on the 17th August, by which time the Constitution was scheduled to have been completed, and learnt on my return that it was still up in the air... and even now its still not confirmed. We expect that tomorrow it will be formally agreed in the National Assembly (although of course significant segments of the population are unsatisfied with the drafting process) and then the printing and distributing of 5 million copies with begin in haste. The referendum is exactly 4 weeks away, and unfortunately almost any outcome in it is likely to be divisive. For this reason I'm working to support Iraqi initiatives towards reconciliation.

In the few days I've been here hundreds of Iraqis have died in bombs, not to mention assassinations and random shootings by Coalition soldiers. About a year ago I would have been able to list off the dates and circumstances of every major bomb and, whenever a new one went off, I'd be up on my roof looking for the smoke and desperately calling all my friends living near the area of the explosion. But these days I've got to admit I hardly notice the blasts, sometime a dozen a day, which are now a kind of routine background city noise like ambulance sirens. I'm surreally insulated from it all.

If any of you are coming out here this year, do get in touch, and I'm always willing to be of whatever small help I can to any organisations or individuals doing positive things for Iraq.

Consitutional guessing game

So we're sitting here in Baghdad on tender hooks waiting to see if a Constitution will be approved today. So far I get a different view from everyone I speak to. Apparently there is going to be a leadership meeting in about 30 mins to decide on whether to ammend the Transitional Administrative Law to get a week's extension. The Americans are furious of course and twisting arms to get it signed and sealed today. It's hard to know what's best. On the one hand if there's a week's extension they might be in the same situation next week but without the spur of an almost sacred deadline (to some). However if a text is pushed through today with major objections, including probably much of the Sunni Arab community, then that could generate big problems down the line. A third option is that everyone, including Sunni Arabs, will sign up to a text, which will form the basis of the referendum and elections, but with some of the outstanding elements being on a provisional basis. I'd always argued that there should have been an extension of a month or two made back on the 1 August, since then there would have been time to plan for more input from the Iraqi public, something which a rolling extension process does not really make possible, being geared just to the delibarations of the politicians. Anyway, it's anyones guess what will happen. In any case we'll probably know by about 4pm Iraqi time what the decision is.

Iraqi joke

If it wasn't so incredibly serious I would say the constitutional drafting process is a complete joke, particularly now that the US Ambassador has bullied the Iraqis from taking the one month extension that most wanted. But it wouldn't be diplomatic of me too say too much, so I'll give you a joke that has been circulating in Iraq:

A Brit, an American and an Iraqi died in a carbomb and went to Hell. As they sat around talking about their situation, they began to think about their homelands, the Devil mentioned that they'd just got inter-dimensional dialing hooked up and suggested that they call home, but they'd have to pay.

The Brit said "I really miss England, and I need to call and find out how the cricket is going." So he called and talked for about 5 minutes and asked the Devil "So Satan, old chap, how much do I owe you for the phone call?" The devil replied wickedly "Five million pounds"... "Five million pounds!!!" exclaimed the Brit, but he handed over his credit card and went to sit back on his chair.

The American was soo jelalous, he starts screaming: "me too, I wanna call the US and, I wanna hear what's happening in the NFL." So he called and talked really quickly for about 2 minutes, and then he said: "Well, Devil, how many bucks is it." and the devil goes "For you habibi, just ten million dollars."... "f$&k, Ten million dollars!!!!!!" he cursed, but he handed over his credit card and went to sit back on his chair.

Finally the Iraqi gets to call home and, being Iraqi, he talked and talked for about twenty hours. Finally he finished and said "So how much is it?" And the devil says "One dollar". "Only one dollar?!" the Brit and American exclaim together. "Yes" replies the devil, "From Hell to Hell, it's a local call."

Expanded Kurdistan claim

A few days ago the Kurds unveiled an expanded Kurdish region which they want enshrined as an appendix to the new constitution. As I understand it the claim represents not simply areas which currently have a majority Kurdish population, but areas which they believe did so at some point in the past 50-100 years.

I'm afraid I only have this low resolution photo of the map which is confusing as it changes the boundaries of the existing Kurdish governorates while adding in new regions. I've drawn in a red line which roughly represents the current boundary of the existing Kurdistan Regional Government region (Dohuk - the top brown region, Erbil - the central green region and Sulimaniya - the brown region on the right).

Working from top left to bottom right: A chunk of Nineveh governorate has been added to Dohuk (the brown area below the red line, and another large section of Nineveh is coloured as a new (mid-green) goverorate including Sinjar and part of Mosul, I think just skirting the large Turkoman city Tel Afar. The whole of Tam'im governorate (with Kirkuk at the centre) has been included with parts of Diyala, Salahadin and Sulymania added to produce the large dark green region. A large slice of Diyala along the border has been marked as a sixth region (light green) and finally a chunk of Wasit (including the towns of Badra and Jassan) is the seventh and smallest region in the expanded Kurdistan. In all this would represent a doubling of the Kurdish region and include areas which currently have majority arab, chaldo-assyrian and turkoman populations.

For some background, here is a Google image search for maps of Kurdistan. Some of the most ambitious mark out a region reaching to the Meditaranian, Black Sea, Caspian Sea and the Gulf. Edinburgh University has an interesting linguistic map which matches reasonably well with the most detailed map on kurdistania.com. There are excellent summary maps on Globalsecurity.org showing past claims and autonomous regions and a rough guide to the Kurdish percentage of the population in different areas on Globalsecurity.org.

P.S. In case you haven't heard the good news, Khalid Jarrar is now free, after 10 days of interrogation. Sadly he had to shave his beautiful beard which seems to have been the main reason for his arrest. He'll promises he'll write about his ordeal shortly.

Free Khalid!

Ashkur-allah! Thank you for everyone who prayed for Khalid. We heard the good news this morning that he is safe, albeit in a mukhaberat (secret police) cell. He was picked up from university on tuesday as he arrived there to collect his final exam results. We don't know why he's been taken exactly, perhaps for what he writes against the occupation on his blog. Whatever the reason, I am sure it is unjustified and if he is not release swiftly then his friends and family will launch a campaign for his freedom.

Missing in Baghdad

Please could you urgently pray for a freind, K, who vanished in Baghdad yestarday. We were due to meet today and he was going to bring a supply of chocolate he had bought for me in Jordan. His family have searched hospitals and morques, thankfully without result. The most likely explanation is that he has been detained by one of the many branches of the US army, Iraqi Police, Iraq National Guard, Iraqi Special Forces etc. We are in the process of checking with all of these to see if they are holding him, something which may take some time as they generally have poor and uncoordinated records of detainees. Please pray for his safety wherever he is, and that he can be returned to his family soon.

Marla film

So it seems that Paramount is planning a film about my friend Marla Ruzicka's life. I find the idea that millions will see her story at the cinema quite surreal (and reliving the horrible day of her death will be really painful). But then Marla's life was surreal in the extreme, and perhaps this could be a great memoral for her, particularly if it stimulates real international action for the ordinary people who are victims of conflict in Iraq and worldwide. Her family support the project which is encouraging.

Addicted to Iraq

Apologies to friends/readers for not posting for a while. I've had a hectic month, a week in Basra for a trade union conference against privatisation, a week back in Palestine supporting people being terrorised by settlers and the apartheid wall, a few days back in the UK (sadly for a funeral)... and now, of course, I'm on my way back to Iraq!

I'm afraid I'm hooked on this bleeding, welcoming, disastrous, cultured, impoverished, wealthy, hopeless, hopeful country. I'm sure my family would prefer it if I took up a safer and more socially acceptable addiction like crack cocaine, but I'm afraid I'm already suffering from withdrawal having been away for only 3 weeks.

I can't say too much about what I'm doing this time, as I need to keep a low profile and don't want to endanger the people I'm working with. But I'd appreciate all your prayers that I can find ways to usefully support and empower Iraqis doing positive things and contribute in small ways to promoting genuine self-determination, ending the occupation and restoring a healthy economy.

I helped organised a 2 week Fast for Economic Justice in Iraq, which is happening right now in Geneva in the run up to the final meeting of the UNCC, the body which awards war reparations against Iraq. It was opened on Thursday by Hans von Sponek, the courageous former UN Humanitarian Coordinator who resigned in 2000 to protest the sanctions regime.

Shia peacemakers help in Fallujah

Yestarday something wonderful happened. At a time when Iraqis are being increasingly polarised along religious and ethnic lines, a courageous group of people stood against this. In its first public action the recently formed Muslim Peacemaker Team (MPT) arranged for a group of 15 Shia from Najaf, Kerbala and Baghdad - including 3 women - to visit Fallujah and show solidarity with its vilified Sunni inhabitants. Only two members of the team had visited Fallujah before (I was with them on this exploratory trip in March, another trip 10 days ago including accompanying in medicial aid from the Jarrar family). The flyer which MPT distruibuted explained: "We are among our brothers and sisters in the city of Fallujah to demonstrate our solidarity with you. Our action today is symbolic but... God willing, this project will be . . . the beginning of many projects that will show the world that we are truly one people."

MPT donned orange jump suits and yellow helmets (provided by the city's department of public works) and worked alongside Fallujans to clear streets of rubble and rubbish left over from the US assualt last November. Many passersby and children were excited by the activity and joined in enthusiastically.

Later the MPT members joined in Friday prayers at the Furqan mosque. Earlier they had discussed among themselves whether they should pray in the Sunni or Shia style (which involves a slightly different positioning of the arms and the use of a clay cylinder to rest one's forehead on during prostration). Their conclusion was to use their traditional style because, they said, we are not pretending to be Sunnis, rather we are Shia Iraqis praying alongside our Sunni Iraqi brothers and sisters. Sheikh Abdul Hameed Al-Jumaily presented everyone with inscribed Qu'rans and the Fallujans treated MPT to a generous lunch and they shared an afternoon of fellowship together.

More photos from the trip should be posted here shortly. I am overjoyed that the project went so well and I wish I could have been there myself. I should explain that the project was envisage, organised and paid for by Muslim Peacemaker Team. We merely helped make the connection between Kerbala and Fallujah and went along for the ride.

Media may contact MPT for more information: Sami Rasouli (Najaf) +964-7801-003326, rasouli264@gmail.com and Hussain al-Ibrahemy (Kerbala) +964 7801-076862

"The British don't care about us"

I watched the first depressing few hours of UK election results with some fellow Iraqi refugees here in Jordan, who have fled here following death threats. We cried as we watched the British people endorsing the Blair regime, despite the devestation it has wrought in Iraq. The only real controversy in the last few weeks, and generally in our media, has been whether Blair lied to the British people about Iraq. But the real issue is the 100,000+ Iraqis who have been killed, and many more injured and traumatised, over the last two years. This demands a radical change in policy and a dramatic increase in aid so that Iraqis have genuine freedom and reconstruction. When I was in Basra a few weeks ago I saw the infrastructure still in chaos, the hospital poorly stocked, the university still lacking most of the looted equipment. People told me again and again that although the British were committing few direct human rights abuses, they have broken all their promises of rebuilding even the little corner of Southern Iraq they have been alotted.

"The British people don't really care about us," said one of my friends. "Sure, 2 million people turned out in Hyde Park on 15 Feb 2003, but they only stood there for a few hours and then went back to their comfortable homes feeling self-righteous. If they really cared they would have all sat down outside Parliament and refused to move until Blair committed not to invade. If they really cared then they would have been loudly challenging the government for the last two years. If they really cared they would have visited Iraq to stand alongside us. If they really cared then the smallest thing they could have done was vote Blair out, but they wouldn't even do this."