MIDDLE EAST: Weekly round-up Number 43 for 7-16 October 2005

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

Key humanitarian developments in Iraq

Iraqis turned out in large numbers and relatively peaceful conditions to vote on a new constitution designed to usher in an era of peace and democracy.

Officials of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq (IECI) estimated on 16 October that 69 percent of Iraq’s 15.5 million registered voters had turned out to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the new constitution in the 15 October referendum.

That was a dramatic improvement on the 58 percent turnout in last January’s parliamentary election, which was largely boycotted by Iraq’s large Sunni Arab minority.

Those who voted in the referendum defied calls for a boycott by many leaders of the Sunni Arab community, which is largely hostile to the new charter, and threats by Islamist insurgents to attack polling stations.

However, following parliament’s approval of last minute changes to the text of the draft on 12 October, the proposed new constitution won the support of the Iraqi Islamic Party, one of the largest political groups representing Sunni Arabs.

IECI officials said there had been a higher than expected turnout in two of the three provinces of Iraq where Sunnis form the majority of the population: Salaheddin and Nineveh.

However, there was a relatively low turnout in the Sunni-dominated western province of Anbar, where US forces launched two pre-referendum offensives against Islamist insurgents in early October.

The level of violence on polling day was much lower than during January’s parliamentary election.

Only four people were reported killed in insurgent attacks across the country, compared to more than 40 during the previous poll.

IECI officials and international observers said it would probably take several days for the full results of the referendum to emerge

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health has warned that drug abuse is rising steadily among men and women of all ages in Iraq, especially in the capital Baghdad and in the south of the country.

Officials at the Ministry of Interior blame an increasing influx of hard drugs smuggled in from abroad for the rise in consumption. They also say the escalating rebellion by Islamic insurgents has led the government to focus on security issues instead of combating crime.

Many consumers of heroin and cocaine say they have been traumatised by the increasing cycle of political violence in Iraq as Islamic insurgents step up their fight against the US-led coalition which invaded the country in 2003 to depose former president Saddam Hussein.

Business is booming as heroin from Afghanistan filters easily through the porous frontier with neighbouring Iran and cocaine trickles in from Turkey.

The street price of a gramme of heroin has jumped from US $15 before the US-led invasion two years ago to between $20 and $25 today. And there is no shortage of consumers.

According to Kamel Ali, director of the Ministry of Health’s drug control programme,. the number of registered addicts in suburban Baghdad has more than doubled over the past year, rising to over 7,000 from 3,000 in 2004.

In Kerbala, meanwhile, the number of registered addicts has tripled, he said. The city now has 1,200 known drug users, up from 400 a year ago.


CONTENTS:

IRAQ: High turnout in largely peaceful referendum on new constitution
IRAQ: Late ammendments to constitution woo Sunni support
IRAQ: Traumatised young Iraqis turn increasingly to hard drugs
LEBANON: Keep quiet if you have AIDS or you will become an outcast
SYRIA: Interior minister commits suicide, official news agency says
SYRIA: Educated expatriates resist the call to come home
EGYPT: Scraping a living in the City of the Dead

[ENDS]