IRAQ CRISIS: Weekly round-up Number 42 for 27 December -2 January
Key Humanitarian Developments:
Humanitarian events in Iraq this past week started with the UN transfer of US $2.6 billion in surplus funds from the wound down "Oil-for-Food" programme to the Development Fund for Iraq on 1 January. This was the fourth such transfer since the Security Council called for the action in May when it adopted resolution 1483.
The first transfer of $1 billion was made two days after the resolution was passed. As Oil-for-Food contracts were reviewed and prioritised, a second billion was transferred in October and a third in November. The programme was handed over to the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) at the end of November 2003 and the transfer came after outstanding contracts were completed and letters of credit issued, a UN statement said.
Once all UN agencies and programmes that participated in the Oil-for-Food programme have reported their 2003 expenditures, the UN will officially close its books on the scheme for 2003 and present its financial statement to the UN Board of Auditors. At that time a further transfer of funds will be made to the Development Fund for Iraq, which is also under the direction of the CPA.
In other developments, the date for a meeting between Adnan Pachachi, President of the Iraqi Governing Council and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has been set in January to discuss the future role of the UN in the country, a UN spokesman said earlier this week.
The meeting is likely to take place on the morning of 19 January, according to spokesman Fred Eckhard. Pachachi is expected to be accompanied by Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, the rotating President of the Governing Council for December, and Massoud Barzani of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the person expected to take the Presidency for February.
"We are in regular contact with the United States mission to the United Nations regarding possible participation by members of the [US-led] Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), but we have nothing definite to announce at this time," Eckhard added.
As insecurity continues to prevail, members of the UN Security Council condemned repeated attacks in Iraq on foreign and Iraqi nationals and international and Coalition personnel, including those on 27 December 2003 against Bulgarian, Thai and other international personnel, in which 19 people were killed and 200 injured.
"Members of the Security Council express their deepest sympathy and condolences to the peoples and authorities concerned and to all the victims of the attacks and their families. Members of the Security Council urge all States to fully cooperate in the efforts to find and bring to justice the perpetrators, organisers and sponsors of these attacks," a UN statement said.
CONTENTS:
IRAQ: First eco-friendly village established in the north
IRAQ: Kurdish NGOs in expanding role in mine clearance
IRAQ: Water problems persist in northeastern town
IRAQ: Women's group fights for rights in the north
IRAQ: NGOs working on development projects in rural areas
IRAQ: First eco-friendly village established in the north
Haji Rasul Fakhir Muhammad sits in a pile of straw taking a break from building his house. But the straw he leans against is not just for comfort - it is the building material for his home. At the age of 74, he has seen his house and his village of Kandal in northern Iraq destroyed by the regime three times in 30 years. But now he is part of a revolutionary experiment in northern Iraq in the framework of which Kandal is being rebuilt as an environmentally friendly village, using natural materials. Until now Haji Rasul, like the other 70 Kurdish families in Kandal, an hour’s drive from Arbil, thought straw was something just to feed animals in winter. Thanks to some lateral thinking by the US-based NGO Counterpart International and US $320,000 funding from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the common farming product is being used to make 52 houses for people who had been displaced from Kandal for years but have returned since the end of this year’s war.
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IRAQ: Kurdish NGOs in expanding role in mine clearance
Kurdish NGOs are taking up a greater role in mine clearance in northern Iraq, a task traditionally carried out by international groups. After years of fighting between the Kurdish north and the regime of Saddam Hussein, as well as intra-Kurdish conflict and problems with neighbouring countries, the area is one of the most heavily mined in the Middle East. Some estimates put the number of mines and units of unexploded ordnance (UXOs) as high as 10 million. The Tiroj Demining Organisation (TDO), based in the northern city of Dahuk was established in October 2002. Its acting executive director, Sirwan Isma'il, told IRIN that it now had 11 teams working on mine marking and clearance, with 400 staff in the field and nearly 80 at its office. It was set up with funding from the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) through the Oil-for-Food Programme, and has worked closely with international mine-clearance agencies, particularly whenever it needs specialised equipment and skills. Sirwan said conflicts such as the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war and struggles between the two main Kurdish parties in the 1990s had left the region saturated with mines. "We wish they were only on the borders, but they are all over Dahuk [Governorate]," he said.
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IRAQ: Water problems persist in northeastern town
It looks as if a packet of aspirin has been dissolved in it. Then a teaspoon of mud has been stirred in. But, as it goes, this is as good as water gets in the northeastern town of Khanaqin. The water has come out of a at the town’s water directorate, but few of the staff would be prepared to drink it. The department's senior technical adviser, Abd al-Karim Ibrahim Isma'il, told IRIN that the cloudy water in the glass in front of him had actually been through the town’s treatment plant. But a dilapidated network of pipes meant that by the time it got to the tap at his office and most houses in Khanaqin, it had been affected by seepage of contaminated water and even sewage. The water treatment plant in Khanaqin is currently running at 50 percent of its capacity. Abd al-Karim, who joined the department in 1990, said the problems had always been the same. But now there was hope that the residents of the mainly Kurdish town might soon be able to drink water that would not make them sick. That help had come by way of the American NGO Mercy Corps (MC), which is implementing a major water and sanitation project in Khanaqin.
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IRAQ: Women's group fights for rights in the north
The opening of a new women's and children's hospital in Arbil, northern Iraq, is the latest victory for the region's main women's group. The Kurdistan Women's Union (KWU) has more than 52,000 members throughout Iraq and positions in the Kurdish government. General Secretary Shirin Ahmadi told IRIN in Arbil that whereas women still faced many problems, their situation was improving rapidly. "Men in the Middle East don't have an open mind - their minds are locked. But the situation of Kurdish women is much better than in the south and centre of Iraq. Year by year things are improving and we are trying to provide information to help this," she said. The hospital is the first to be established by the KWU and the first completely free facility in the city. It includes dental, eye and maternity treatment, as well as psychological help for women who have seen and suffered so much in the past. There will also be social workers to help women deal with the many problems they face in life other than medical concerns.
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IRAQ: NGOs working on development projects in rural areas
While much of the humanitarian aid is focused on the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, which still suffers occasional power cuts and shortages in health care, and some aspects of life are returning to normal, some villages around the city remain in dire need of emergency assistance. In Hayy Tariq, one of the most impoverished villages north of Baghdad, electricity is being supplied for only two hours a day. "Right now, NGOs in Iraq are still continuing to work for emergency needs," the head of a German NGO, Architects for People in Need (APN), Alexander Christof, told IRIN. "Maybe it will take 10 to 15 years and tens of billions of dollars to rehabilitate the basic services in Iraq. Almost 60 per cent of people who live in the villages and rural areas have no access to safe drinking water or health services," he said. Hayy Tariq has never had a clinic, and those who can afford it are forced to travel for miles to get medical assistance, and even for them it is sometimes reached too late. "We never had a clinic before here in this village during the former regime," Dr Aminah al-Dhahabi, a physician working at a temporary clinic set up by APN, told IRIN in Hayy Tariq.
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