MIDDLE EAST: Weekly round-up Number 42 for 30-September-7 October 2005

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

Key Humanitarian Developments in Iraq

Relief workers reported that nearly 2,000 families had fled from their homes in the Anbar Governorate (province) of western Iraq following the launch of two separate US military offensives against Islamic insurgents.

They said over 900 families fled the town of al-Qaim and neigbhouring villages in the Euphrates river valley near the Syrian border following the launch of a US military operation there on October 1. It ended a week later.

Relief workers estimated that a further 1,000 families had fled from Haditha, a town 150 km further downstream following the launch of a second and much larger US offensive there on 4 October.

Officials in hospitals in both al-Qaim and Haditha reported dozens of civilian casualties in the fighting. Eyewitnesses in both towns reported that many people had been caught in the crossfire as they tried to flee their homes.

US military officials said both military operations were aimed at seizing control of areas controlled by Islamic insurgents ahead of a referendum on 15 October to approve Iraq’s new constitution.

The constitution, which was drafted by a 55-member committee representing all of Iraq’s ethnic and religious groups, is opposed by most Sunnis Muslims.

Sunnis constitute the majority provide the backbone of support for most insurgent groups operating in Iraq and constitute the majority of the population in Anbar province, where the latest fighting has been concentrated.

The Iraq Red Crescent Society said it sent a relief convoy to the al-Qaim area on 5 October, with tents, blankets, food and medical supplies for civilian victims of the fighting and was planning to send a similar convoy with emergency supplies to Haditha.

All 15 of the Sunni representatives on the committee that drafted Iraq’s new constitution voted against the final draft which was adopted on 28 August.

Since then, Sunni political, religious and community leaders have overwhelmingly rejected the new charter, which creates a federal state in Iraq and gives more power to the Kurds in the north and the majority Shia population in the south.

However, as Iraqis scrutinized five million copies of the new constitution, which were sent out to voters’ homes, the Sunni community remained divided over whether to boycott the referendum or participate and vote ‘no.’

A meeting of Sunni leaders at a Baghdad mosque to debate the issue broke up on 8 October, without agreeing which course of action their followers should take.

Sunnis account for about 15 to 20 percent of Iraq’s 26 million people, but they could theoretically defeat the referendum by voting massively against it in the three northern and western provinces where they constitute a majority of the local population.

Under the terms of the referendum law, the new constitution will be rejected if two thirds of the electorate in at least three of Iraq’s 18 provinces vote against it.

Political violence continued unabated during the run-up to the election with the media reporting several deaths daily as a result of bombings and assassinations by the insurgents and US attacks against the rebels and Amr Moussa, the Secretary General of the Arab League warned that “civil war could erupt at any moment.”

Human Rights Watch meanwhile issued a report which condemned the repeated insurgent attacks on civilian targets as “war crimes.”

The New York-based human rights organization admitted that the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 had led directly to the emergence of rebel groups fighting foreign occupation, but said that public figures who sympathised with the insurgency, both inside Iraq and beyond, to speak out openly against its targeting of Iraqi civilians.

CONTENTS:

IRAQ: Iraq gears up for vote on new constitution opposed by Sunnis
IRAQ: Insurgent attacks on civilians are war crimes, rights group says
IRAQ: More civilians flee al-Qaim as US offensive continues
IRAQ: Thousands flee US military onslaught on Haditha
IRAQ: Government committee will talk to community leaders in hot spots
EGYPT: Presidential election was a false start in democratisation, Crisis Group says
EGYPT: Government promotes increased used of iodised salt
LEBANON: Palestinian refugees complain they are second class citizens
YEMEN: WHO says polio under control as new cases reach 471

[ENDS]