IRAQ CRISIS: Weekly round-up Number 91 for 4-10 December

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

Key Humanitarian Developments

Iraq's election preparations continued this week depsite ongoing attacks by insurgents, with an escalation in violence over the weekend killing at least 68 Iraqis.

On Monday interim President Ghazi al-Yawar reaffirmed his support for the planned 30 January election date, the BBC reported. Speaking ahead of talks with the US President George W. Bush, Yawar said any delay would prolong Iraqis' agony and increase resentment inside the country.

The president's comments also came one day after meetings between UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative in Iraq, Ashraf Qazi, and top officials, with discussions focusing on security matters ahead of the polls.

On Thursday, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said that more than 5,000 candidates had already registered for the elections from 241 parties.

Among those registered is a broad-based coalition of Iraq's majority Shia community. Representatives of the community announced on Thursday a coalition of 22 parties that would run in the elections.

The coalition, backed by leading Shia cleric Ayatollah Ali Sistani, presented a list of 228 candidates under the United Iraqi Alliance banner, the BBC reported. Shias make up about 60 percent of the population but they have never enjoyed significant political power in Iraq. Under Saddam Hussein, the country was dominated by Sunni Muslims.

Last Wednesday, Iraq's two main Kurdish parties agreed to form a single candidate list.

The minority Sunni community has not presented a list of candidates. Sunni clerics from the Association of Muslim Scholars have urged Sunnis to boycott the election in protest against the US-led attack on the city of Fallujah. There are fears that the vote will be disrupted by the largely Sunni insurgency in Iraq.

There are currently 19 UN electoral staff in the country but this is set to rise to 25, UN spokesman Eckhard said. Eckhard reiterated that it was up to the Iraqi authorities, not the UN, to decide whether to hold elections in the current security environment or not.

But the top US commander in Iraq, General John Abizaid, has expressed concern about the Iraqi forces ability to cope with security in the run-up to elections. Speaking at a regional conference on Gulf security in Bahrain, he called on Iraq's neighbours - in particular, Syria and Iran - to do more to curb the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq, the BBC reported on Monday.

"It's very important for everybody to realise that the stability of Iraq is as dependent on its neighbours as it is on the people inside Iraq," he was quoted as saying. He also said he was disappointed that the Iraqi army was still developing too slowly to cope with the security situation.

However, media reports this week suggested that Iraq may modify plans to give people more time to vote. Responding to remarks made this week by interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi in a Swiss newspaper that voting could be spread over two or three weeks, the Independent Electoral Commission said it would consider such a proposal if the government were to make it formally, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

The interior ministry, which with the US-led Coalition faces a massive task to provide security at thousands of polling stations on January 30, also endorsed Allawi's idea, saying voting over several days could reduce vulnerable lines in the streets, the news agency reported.

Leaders among the Sunni Arab minority, which dominated Iraq under Saddam Hussein, have said violence by insurgents bent on wrecking the poll will make it impossible to campaign and vote in Sunni areas. They have called for a delay or even a boycott.

A massive US assault on the Sunni city of Fallujah, launched a month ago, was aimed at breaking the rebels before the election. While it killed up to 1,600 of them and deprived them of a major base, attacks continue on a daily basis, Reuters reported. Killings were also reported this week in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, and Samarra, north of the capital.

Also this week, Iraq received US $145 million for reconstruction and development from the World Bank Trust Fund. The World Bank signed the ageeement on Monday with representatives of the interim Iraqi government, it said in a statement.

Financed by the World Bank's Iraq Trust Fund, $90 million will be channelled to emergency projects in health, water supply and sanitation, and reconstruction in urban centres. The remaining $55 million will be used to strengthen the financial and private sectors, of which $40 million will finance the building of a modern telecommunications network across the country.

The proposed Emergency Baghdad Water and Sanitation Project ($65 million) will help restore basic water supply and sanitation services in Baghdad through reconstruction and upgrading existing networks and treatment facilities.

"With the launch of the three emergency projects today, the majority of donors' fund administered by the World Bank will be spent - all of them in high-impact sectors catering to the Iraqi people's day to day needs," Joseph Saba, World Bank Country Director for Iraq, said.

To date, international donors have pledged approximately $400 million in the Iraq Trust Fund - the World Bank arm of the Joint UN-World Bank International Reconstruction Fund Facility for Iraq - to finance a programme of emergency projects and technical assistance based on an interim strategy.

CONTENTS:

IRAQ: NGO prepares to publish major survey of Kurdish women
IRAQ: Interview with Minister of Displacement and Migration
JORDAN: Iranian Kurds leave no man's land for Sweden
YEMEN: Water awareness campaign launched
IRAQ: Interview with Secretary-General of Ministry of Defence
IRAQ: Demand for more housing in Khanaqin
IRAQ: Iraqi Red Crescent seeks permission to return to Fallujah
YEMEN: Special report on support for mine victims
IRAQ: Focus on getting children back to school
IRAQ: Newspapers, Kurdish-prison style
IRAQ: Fertility clinic needs equipment to keep up with demand
IRAQ: Event to highlight violence and terrorism against women

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