MIDDLE EAST: Weekly round-up Number 26 for 10-16 June 2005

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

Key Humanitarian Developments in Iraq

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said earlier this week that security in Iraq had not improved statistically since Saddam Hussein's fall in 2003, the BBC reported.

Rumsfeld said foreign insurgents had crossed Iraq's "porous" borders from Iran, Syria and other places.

However, he added that Iraqi security forces were being boosted and was confident the ongoing insurgency would be stopped. His comments come at a time when incidents of violence show no sign of abating.

“More than 900 people, mostly Iraqis, have died in insurgent attacks across the country since the government of Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafaari took office six weeks ago,” the BBC report added.

Meanwhile, Australian hostage Douglas Wood was rescued after being held for six weeks in Iraq, the international media reported on Wednesday. The 63-year-old engineer was abducted in April and was released in a raid by Iraqi military and backed by US forces.

His captors had demanded that Australia pull its 1,400 troops out of Iraq.

But Canberra said it would not bow down to terrorist threats and had no plans to withdraw its soldiers from the country.

A French journalist who was held hostage for five months was also released on 11 June along with her Iraqi guide. Florence Aubenas said she was kept blindfolded in a basement cell and was beaten. Her guide, Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi, was reunited with his family in Baghdad.

The identity of the kidnappers in both cases remains unknown.
As the political process continues, the UN Secretary-General's
Special Representative for Iraq, Ashraf Qazi, met Prime Minister Jaafari on Tuesday to discuss the new constitution.

“Qazi has been holding wide-ranging talks in Iraq in recent days about the ongoing political process and the risk of political fragmentation as the country heads towards the 15 August deadline for drafting its final constitution,” a UN statement said.

Qazi also briefed the Prime Minister on preparations made by the UN Assistance Mission to Iraq (UNAMI) for the upcoming Brussels international conference on Iraq.

The US and European Union (EU) will co-host the event on 22 June, which will serve as a forum for the new Iraqi transitional government to present its priorities for the period leading up to the next round of elections in late 2005.

In a sign of growing tension in the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk, Reuters reported Arab officials as saying that more than 250 Arabs and dozens of Turkmen people had been arrested in raids by US and Iraqi forces. The report added that the detainees were sent to prisons in northern Iraq.

There has been increasing tension in the city after Kurds thrown out by Saddam, as part of the Arabisation programme, returned to reclaim homes and land given to Arabs by the former leader.

The report added that Kurdish police denied arrests were made on ethnic grounds but confirmed that some people arrested had been sent to Kurdish prisons.

"We have documents and information confirming that around 250 people are detained in Kurdish prisons in Arbil and Sulaimaniyah," Obeidi told Reuters in the city.

CONTENTS:

IRAQ: Journalists call for greater freedom
IRAQ: NGO calls for greater facilitation for aid work
IRAQ: Internet exam results aid transparency
IRAQ: New radio station for women goes on the air
IRAQ: Increase in TB cases worrying, doctors say
SYRIA: Focus on HIV/AIDS
YEMEN: Polio vaccination “highly successful,” say the health ministry
EGYPT: Focus on pro-democracy movement in referendum aftermath
JORDAN: NGO’s reaffirm commitment to Iraq

[ENDS]