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كشفت منظمة حمورابي لحقوق الانسان العراقية ان العام 2010 كان الأسوأ على ابناء الجالية المسيحية في العراق، وان استمرار الاستهداف المباشر لهم زاد من هجرتهم لخارج العراق.
ووصف وليم وردا رئيس المنظمة الأرقام التي تم إحصاءها خلال العام الماضي بالمخيفة كونها كانت أسوء مما سُجل في الاعوام الأسبق، نظراً لاستهداف المسحيين بكافة مسمياتهم، وفي كافة أرجاء البلاد خاصة بغداد والموصل.
واضاف انه وخلال عام واحد تعرض 92 مسيحي للاغتيال وأصيب 280 آخرين، بالإضافة لتفجير كنيستين في بغداد واختطاف فتاتين في بغداد والموصل، فضلاً عن تلقي عشرات رسائل التهديد بالتصفية.
واكد وردا ان هذه الاحداث أجبرت اكثر من 1800 عائلة مسيحية على النزوح لمناطق مختلفة من سهل نينوى وتوقف اكثر من 1700 طالب عن الدراسة و300 موظف دولة.

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NAIROBI, 3 March 2011 (IRIN) – Several Middle Eastern countries such as Iraq and Yemen are unlikely to achieve the education-for-all Millennium Development Goals by 2015 because of insecurity and conflict, according to a new report by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The education-for-all goals were endorsed by more than 160 countries in 2000. But according to Kevin Watkins, director of UNESCO’s 2011 Global Monitoring Report, children and education are not just getting caught in the cross-fire, they are increasingly the targets of violent conflict.

"The failure of governments to protect human rights is causing children deep harm – and taking away their only chance of an education," he said.

The UNESCO report, entitled The Hidden Crisis: Armed Conflict and Education, says 35 countries were affected by armed conflict between 1999 and 2008, several in the Middle East. “Children and schools are on the front line of these conflicts, with classrooms, teachers and pupils seen as legitimate targets,” it noted.

Egypt

Recent demonstrations and clashes in Egypt led to the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, but also closed many schools. In mid-February, half-term was extended for two weeks. Schools in only seven of the country’s 29 governorates reopened after the recess, according to sources in Cairo.

The Interior Ministry deployed police outside schools to beef up security and encourage a return to school, but thousands of parents still preferred to keep their children at home.

“A deteriorating security situation hinders the opening of the schools and this affects the whole educational process,” Fathi al-Sharqawi, a professor of educational psychology at Cairo’s Ain Shams University, told IRIN. “Teachers will have to skip some parts of the curricula after the students go back to their classrooms, which will also affect these students’ learning badly.”

Hundreds of parents have complained that their children are attacked by thugs on their way to school, according to human rights groups. The Egyptian Centre for Human Rights, for example, said some parents complain that criminals use weapons to grab money from children.

Manal Abdul Aziz, an Egyptian journalist who opted for home-based tuition for her two children, told IRIN in Cairo: “There is total obscurity about the future of this academic year.” The cost of hiring five teachers for her two children (aged 12 and 15) is the equivalent of US$169 a month – a significant sum for most families.

Iraq

Decades of war in Iraq, UN sanctions, poor security and the economic situation have adversely affected education and increased illiteracy levels. According to data produced by the government and UNESCO in September, at least five million of Iraq’s almost 30 million people are illiterate. Of these, 14 percent are school-age children who left school to feed their families, are displaced or have no access to suitable schooling.

Ahmed Khalid Jaafar, 14, told IRIN in Baghdad that he left school after his father died in an explosion three years ago, and sought work on the streets to feed his mother and two younger daughters.

"I sell gum and my mother works is a seamstress," said Jaafar. "We make 200,000-300,000 dinars (US$160-250) a month. We spend that money on the most important things, mainly food. School is not important now." Jaafar and his family squat in an abandoned government building.

The September data show that adult illiteracy in Iraq is now one of the highest in the Arab region. In rural areas, almost 30 percent of the population are unable to read or write. Significant gender disparities exist, with 40 percent of the illiterate being women.

Other countries

Bahrain is on track to achieve the goal of halving illiteracy levels by 2015, but countries like Iraq, Mauritania and Sudan are off track. "The recent experiences of Algeria, Egypt, Kuwait and Yemen show that literacy policy can be effective: all four countries have increased their adult literacy rates by at least 20 percentage points in the past 15-20 years," the UNESCO report said.

In Yemen, a reallocation of 10 percent of the military budget to education would put an additional 840,000 children in school. In the north, 220 schools were destroyed, damaged or looted during fighting in 2009 and 2010 between government and rebel forces, according to the report. "In Yemen, many internally displaced children complement family income by begging, smuggling or collecting refuse, and there are concerns that child labour is increasing."

In Syria, attendance rates in pre-school programmes varied from less than 4 percent for children in the poorest households, to just above 18 percent for wealthy households.

In harm’s way

According to the report, armed conflict places children directly in harm’s way. Some get killed while others are exploited as soldiers or forced to flee their homes and become refugees.

“Children subject to the trauma, insecurity and displacement that come with armed conflict are unlikely to achieve their potential for learning,” it said. All too often, armed groups see the destruction of schools and the targeting of schoolchildren and teachers as a legitimate military strategy.

In conflict situations, children fear to go to school, teachers to give classes and parents to send their children to school. According to UNESCO, in such situations, children suffer psychological trauma, as well as loss of parents, siblings and friends. One survey of Iraqi refugee children in Jordan found that 39 percent reported having lost someone close to them, and 43 percent witnessed violence.

“Armed conflict remains a major roadblock to human development in many parts of the world, yet its impact on education is widely neglected,” said UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova. “This groundbreaking report documents the scale of this hidden crisis, identifies its root causes and offers solid proposals for change.”

IRIN Middle East | MIDDLE EAST: Violence hits education | Egypt | Iraq | Lebanon | Oman | OPT | Syria | Yemen | Children | Conflict | Education

After the series of anti-Christian attacks, Iraq will mark Christmas again under tight security. No functions will be held on Christmas Eve, nor decorations or ceremonies. A community enduring suffering and losses is preparing to experience the message of hope brought by Jesus to earth because, for Iraqi Christians, Christmas is always a time of joy as well as martyrdom. Mgr Louis Sako, Chaldean archbishop of Kirkuk, bears witness.

Baghdad (AsiaNews) – Midnight Christmas Mass has been cancelled in Baghdad, Mosul and Kirkuk as a consequence of the never-ending assassinations of Christians and the attack against Our Lady of Perpetual Help Cathedral on 31 October, which killed 57 people. For security reasons, churches will not be decorated. Masses will be sombre and held during the day.

A sense of sadness and mourning prevails among Christians. There is much concern for the future of young people. For the past two months, they have been unable to go to university. The same is true for many families that fled north who now must plan a future without any concrete bases.

No one expects anything from the government as far as protecting Christians. Political leaders are too caught up in setting up a new administration.

Security is slightly better in Kirkuk than in the capital, but here too abductions and threats occur. For this reason, we have decided for the first time since the war began not to celebrate Midnight Mass. We shall simply not have any feast, period. Santa Claus will not be coming for the children; there will be no official ceremony with the authorities proffering their best wishes.

For the past six weeks, we have not celebrated Mass because of a lack of security, except late in the morning and Saturday afternoons. For now, we have also stopped teaching the catechism.

We do not have the right to put people’s lives in danger. All our parish churches have security guards, but when worshippers step outside the church and into the street, they become an easy target.

Yet, despite everything, we shall pray for peace this Christmas and help the poor families of Kirkuk and Sulaymaniyah. So far, 106 families have arrived from Baghdad and Mosul.

In my homily, I am going to focus on such problems, on the clashes and on people’s fears but also on the fact that Christmas brings a message of hope. Of course, heaven and earth are two different realities. The Massacre of the Innocents followed Christmas. Thus, for us in Iraq, Christmas is a time of hope and joy as well as pain and martyrdom.

Peace is a goal that people of good will should make happen. If we Christians want to be Christian and welcome Christmas and its message, we must be peacemakers, and build harmony among our Iraqi brothers and sisters.

Source: IRAQ A Christmas of mourning for Iraq’s Christians – Asia News

Hundreds of Iraqi Christians families have fled their hometowns in search for security.

Anti-Christian violence has escalated recently with several cities turning into bloody scenes in which innocent Christians have been killed or injured.

The attacks have in the past few days targeted Christian property with several houses blown up in both Baghdad and Mosul.

The fleeing Christians leave behind homes, furniture, jobs, professions, careers as well churches and monasteries some of which are more than 1000 years old.

The government has promised to help but the aid is peanuts. It offers every fleeing family 500,000 Iraqi dinars (about $400). The sum can hardly cover one-month rent in the relatively quiet Kurdish north, for instance.

More than 500 families, fleeing mainly cities such as Baghdad, Mosul and Kirkuk, are on the move.

Iraqi Internet news web sites with a focus on the plight of Iraqi Christians, among them the prominent ankawa.com, have shown pictures and footage of Iraqi Christians fleeing their areas to safer towns and villages in the north.

Many of the families are among low-income groups and cannot afford to rent flats or houses. They are temporarily housed in churches and schools.

The Kurdish regional government has promised to help, but it is extremely hard for any authority in a developing region such as northern Iraq to deal with the an influx of hundreds of families.

Christians in some cities like Mosul are reported to be terrified. Despite the hardship, some families have decided to stay put as they find it too painful to abandon hometowns where family roots date back to the birth of Christianity.

There are no exact numbers on how many Christians remain in Iraq, but their population has dwindled and many fear that the country is on its way to lose its once vibrant, intelligent and hard-working Christian minority forever.

Source: Hundreds of Christian families on the move in Iraq By Leon Barkho Azzaman in English

BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Assa’ad and Omran are almost the same age of eighteen. They share a cell at the Juveniles’ prison in Baghdad, away from their families that live in Dawrah, south of the capital. Both boys joined armed groups and participated in bloody acts of violence in 2006. What distinguishes them is that they are members in opposing groups that kill based on identity.

Prison may be the best destiny for the two boys. Hundreds of their peers were killed in battles or were blown to pieces in suicide bombings for which they were recruited by armed organizations.

Asa’ad Husam Eddin prefers to stay in jail so that he does not become subject to a tribal judgment that condemns him to death for participating in four members of one family. During his childhood, Asa’ad was known by the name “Al-‘Allas”, a term in Iraqi dialect describing children recruited as informers for armed groups. Among his duties was to select a target and monitors its movements so that the armed group could abduct and execute him.

According to his confessions, Asa’ad was active in monitoring people in his neighborhood, and informing Al-Qa’eda elements about their moves, in return for $200 per person.

Omran Abbas has a similar record, except that he used to work for the opposing group. He is spending a sentence of 15 years in jail after being convicted of committing acts of violence in Abu Dsheir area, one street from Al-Daourah. Residents of the two areas belong to two different confessions. Abbas was fourteen when he joined armed groups opposing Al-Qa’eda. He participated in acts of violence during the peak of confessional violence in 2006. Shortly before that, his father was kidnapped by Al-Qa’eda, and was later found beheaded in the ‘no-man’s-land” separating the two “fighting” areas.

As an act of revenge for a lost relative, or to follow in someone’s footsteps, many boys whom we met at the Juvenile Prison, such as Nathem Jabbar, Mahdi Hassan and Sa’doun, and hundreds of others, fell victim to the phenomenon of recruiting children by armed groups that emerged after the battles of the spring and summer of 2004 in Al-Fallujah and Al-Najaf.

A number of armed groups emerged in Iraq after those brutal battles, and spread between Sunni and Shi’ite affiliations. Most of these organizations, however, participated in battles over time, but the major part ended after the spring of 2008.
The most dangerous organization, which continued practicing violence with a steady methodology, was Al-Qa’eda that concentrated its operations after 2003 in Al-Anbar region. It then managed to control a number of cities and governorates such as Salaheddin, Ninewa, South Kirkuk, South Baghdad and North Babel.

The phenomenon of recruiting children by Al-Qa’eda developed form training them in monitoring, collection of information and transferring messages among combatants, to planting explosive devices and participating in killings, to carrying out suicide bombings, in the peak of sectarian violence between 2006 and 2007.

Suicide, Revenge and Kidnap

Before that, recruiting children in suicide bombings was rare and rather erratic. The first operation was carried out by a child of ten years in the fall of 2005, targeting the chief of Kirkuk police (250 kilometers north of Baghdad). After about two months, two children carried out two suicide bombings against the American forces in Al-Fallujah, Al-Anbar province (110 kilometers northwest of the capital, and Al-Huwijeh of the Kirkuk governorate. In the summer of 2008, a child of ten years, disguised as a peddler, followed one of the most prominent leaders of Al-Sahwah in Tarmiyyeh area, Sheikh Emad Jassem, for three consecutive days, after which he succeeded in detonating himself near the Sheikh, whose leg was amputated as a result of the explosion. In the same year, a girl of thirteen carried out a suicide bombing in Ba’quba, the central city of Deyala governorate (57 kilometers east of Baghdad) resulting in the death of a number of Al-Sahwah followers.

The military leader who investigated that operation, as well as a number of child suicide bombings in Deyala, points out that most operations carried out by children are “revengeful” in nature and mostly take place in areas where Al-Qa’eda influence has subsided in favor of Al-Sahwah.

The Media official in Al-Anbar police headquarters, however, sees that “some suicide bombings were not vengeful in nature. The last of these operations were carried out by two children, one of whom had been sedated and the other was mentally unstable.”  The two children were fit with explosive belts and sent to checkpoints. However, a mistake in the timing of the explosive belts enabled the security forces to dismantle them, according to the media official. He further explains that “fitting explosive belts around children’s bodies is a tactic used by Al-Qa’eda over the past years.”  Another method used was to send closed explosive packages by hand with children, and to detonate them from a distance the minute the children are in close proximity to security forces or when they board civilian cars or arrive in markets.”

The father of the mentally deranged suicide bomber child says that his son Ghazi was kidnapped from in front of the family house in Al-Khaldiyyah area of Al-Anbar, a former stronghold of Al-Qa’eda. His fate was unknown until he was found near the checkpoint with an explosive belt around his waist. Ghazi’s father is now very worried because his younger son was also kidnapped at the beginning of last October, and might be used in the same manner unless he pays the ransom the kidnappers demand.

Dirgham, a mongoloid child was booby-trapped by elements from Al-Qa’eda after he was tempted to buy sweets from a shop near a security center where elements from the police force shop during their break. The child was killed, and with him a number of policemen and shoppers. Despite this, the child’s father refuses to criticize Al-Qa’eda in fear that they might return one day.

Fathers Fear Children

Fear from Al-Qa’eda’s revenge is not restricted to Dirgham’s father, but extends to many people with whom this report-writer talked. They refrained from telling their experiences with the process their children were recruited.

A high-ranking officer from Al-Anbar says that sleeping Al-Qa’eda cells become active during certain periods, then go back to sleep, which indicates that risking the exposure of details may not be liked by the organization, and may mean paying with lives. This officer tells the story of three children who burnt their father to death.  The father was a moderate religious man. They placed him between old rubber tires and set them on fire, simply because he criticized Al-Qa’eda.

We asked one of the fathers if he had made any effort to prevent his children from joining Al-Qa’eda. He answered: “I lived for years hesitating to take any step such as this, afraid that they may kill me if I went too far.”Although the son left Iraq to a neighboring country after the defeats Al-Qa’eda received, the father continues to be careful that the son may one day return.

Faris Al-Obeidi summarizes children’s motives in joining armed groups in two words: “poverty” and “revenge.”

An official in research at the Juveniles’ Prison, however, believes that “unemployment and family disintegration” are the main reasons, in addition to some sort of “ideological thought” that prevails at home, as the first incubator that attracts children to the circle of violence. Iraq is “eligible for its children to pursue violence, because it lived for decades in a state of conflict and continuous wars.”

Fawwaz Ibrahim, the social researcher relates this phenomenon to the period preceding 2003; the date of the American invasion of Baghdad. Years before that date, “children, named ‘Saddam’s Cubs’ participated in operations of killing and cutting hands and tongues in many areas. Militarization of children was part of the militarization of society which the last century witnessed.”  At that time, “Al-Tala’e organization, which was part of the Ba’ath party used to recruit children in groups affiliated with the authority, to monitor the neighbor, street, the school and even the home, reporting periodically about anybody suspected of opposing the regime.”

The researcher connects between the practices of the followers of Al-Tala’e and the specialty of most recruited children in reporting to armed organizations about all details going on in their vicinity.

He is joined in this rhetoric the researcher Al-Obaidi: “For a person to be a hero in an ideological army is something like a dream that children have when living in a society dominated by violence.”  Hence, Al-Obaidi sees that “recruitment will not be difficult in a society where children boast about flaunting their power, that starts with carrying plastic toy weapons and forming groups to launch imaginary attacks from one street to another, declaring allegiance to armed groups that have a strong grip on areas, attending their events and military parades.”

Going Along with the Party in Power

Ali Al-Massoudi, the activist specializing in armed groups’ thought has documented a number of the features of children joining armed groups. He sees that recruitment depends basically on “the recruited child’s environment”. In most cases, the child gets carried away with the prevailing beliefs prevailing in his home, street and neighborhood where he lives. Al-Massoudi divides this phenomenon into four levels: Information collection or monitoring (less than ten years), carrying firearms, participating in guard duties and checkpoints (13 – 18 years) and getting involved in violent operations such as kidnapping, killing and participating in street fights (15 – 18 years). The more dangerous level, according to Al-Massoudi, is carrying out suicide operations, normally connected to Al-Qa’eda organization.

The first level prevails in “areas that are closed ideologically, especially during the period of confessional violence when armed groups enjoyed the sympathy of the area residents.”  Children grouping t crossroads were active in informing armed men about the arrival of American troops, preparing to detonate explosives near them.

One specialist at the Ministry of Interior says that recruiting children is not restricted to one armed group and not the other, “despite variation in the level of their concentration.”  This specialist saw for himself large numbers of children carrying arms at the “Jund El-Sama’a (Soldiers of Heaven) camp in the Zarka area, 13 kilometers north east of the holy city of Al-Najaf, holy to Shi’ite Muslims (160 kilometers south of Baghdad), during confrontations that took place between them and Iraqi forces in early 2007. But he believes that the more dangerous organization for children is Al-Qa’eda, which established organizations specializing in enticing children under soft names like “birds of heaven, youth of heaven and cubs of heaven.”

The expert mentioned that the “Birds of Heaven” organization, which was active in Al-Anbar and Deyala when Al-Qa’eda controlled them was for the “children of the leadership and elements of Al-Qa’eda in Iraq.”  The Cubs and Children of heaven organizations were used to “lure children with certain specifications that qualify them to indulge in battles and carry out suicide bombings.”

Camps for Brainwashing

After a raid in November of 2006 on a ‘hideout’ for Al-Qa’eda north of Baghdad, the American forces discovered an electronic storage device that had information on children’s sleeping cells, in addition to details regarding recruiting them and training them for armed operations.

The Director of Operations at the Ministry of Interior Colonel Abdul Kareem Khalaf asserts that Al-Qa’eda organization is “the major party that depended on child recruitment from poor families, and those who were subjected to intellectual changes towards extremism through religious training courses organized in mosques without censorship.”

The most important areas where Al-Qa’eda trained children on armed operations is Al-Mukhaiseh remote area, which falls within the Humrain hills band in Deyala governorate, according to Colonel Khalaf. “Hundreds of children from both genders were exposed to brainwashing and continuous training under the supervision of experts from Al-Qa’eda, some of whom arrived from outside Iraq for this purpose.”

According to Colonel Khalaf, recruitment did not target poor families and those transformed to extremism only. There were remnants from those who were known as Saddam’s Cubs. These form a large group that entered continuous training camps until 2003.

The most dangerous children who were involved in armed operations and the most vicious were the children and brothers of activists in Al-Qa’eda. All these, according to Colonel Khalaf, were trained in areas with winding roads and orchards with thick trees and vegetation that are difficult to access, in addition to the remote areas extending deep into the desert.

Child training camps spread in areas under the control of Al-Qa’eda for years. There are camps in Deyala, Al-Anbar and Al-Mada’en south of Baghdad, in addition to border areas adjacent to Syria in the west and Iran in the east.

A New Generation of Al-Qa’eda

One of the former Al-Qa’eda theorists told the report writer at a detention center run by the Ministry of Interior that recruiting children “is carried out

A New Generation of Al-Qa’eda

One of Al-Qa’eda’s former theoreticians tells the report writer from his Interior Ministry prison cell that the recruitment of children is “done under the direct supervision of Al-Qa’eda leaderships.”  The first step begins by “encouraging the children to take Quran memorization classes,” especially those who have specific characteristics, such a good build and excessive obedience.  Hikmat adds:  “We take into consideration the family they belong to, whether it is known for radicalism or not.  Then we join them to groups older of age to nourish them intellectually in preparation for giving them assignments, like moving cash and publications for the organization’s members.”  After that, “they are assigned to transport explosive devices and sometimes planting them in certain areas, then we put them in armed operations that sometimes require them to engage in direct confrontations.”

One of the dissents of Al-Qa’eda gives an expanded description of the stages of building the children’s networks by specialists in Al-Qa’eda who succeeded in brainwashing the brains of a large number of children whose fathers or brothers had been killed.  Abul Waleed is a nickname that a man in his late forties gave himself who previously worked with Al-Qa’eda, then moved to Al-Sahwah forces before he ultimately abandoned both and secluded himself in a house he rented in a area on the outreaches of southern Baghdad.  Abul Waleed says:  “The first cells specializing in child recruitment launched after the battles of 2004 south of the capital city and included nearly 100 children who were carefully selected to ensure that they fulfill dangerous duties, foremost suicide bombings.”

Abul Waleed summarizes Al-Qa’eda’s strategy for recruiting this youth by saying that children are registered in religious classes that focus on “Quranic verses and sayings by the Prophet that encourage fighting the enemies, the infidels and the renegades.”  After that, says Abul Waleed, they are shown videos of suicide operations previously executed by the organization’s members in Iraq and Afghanistan against foreign forces.  Experts seek to convince the youth that they can do this to preserve the faith and that they will be heroes of Islam and remembered by future generations.  This thought in particular “was the obsession that the experts use to influence the thoughts of most of the youth and ensures that the spirit of bravery and courage is raised within them.”

The majority of those selected for the child recruitment cells, Abul Waleed discloses, are the offspring of Al-Qa’eda members or who known for their hard-line tendencies at an early age.  Some “begin the recruitment stage with enthusiasm but soon try to backtrack, and therefore Al-Qa’eda is forced to make them continue by threatening to tell their parents or the authorities about their participation in the training or threaten to kill them or liquidate their families if they change their minds.”

The most dangerous, says Abul Waleed, are “those that have lost their parents at the hands of the American or Iraqi forces or even as a result of internal strife.”  These “do not need much effort to be encouraged to execute combat and even suicide operations.  It is enough to concentrate on the idea that they will be avenging their murdered family if they execute suicide operations.”

Child recruitment serves four purposes:

• Ensuring that there are new combatant generation that expand the presence of the organization, increase its power and assault and make up for the deficit of combatants, which the organization suffered from after losing the areas near Syria to Al-Sahwah forces and the security forces.
• Taking advantage of children’s easy movement and that the security authorities do not pay attention to them or doubt them when they cross check points.
• Maintaining the momentum of suicide operations that kill more people and give the organization attention in the media, thus increasing the terror it spreads.
• Bring in more combatants by promoting the idea that children are braver than men who failed to join Al-Qa’eda to fight for the sake of God.

Abul Waleed states here that the leader of Al-Qa’eda in Iraq, Abu Mos’ab Al-Zarqawi, who was killed in American air raid in mid 2006, addressed an audio message chastising the men who did not join the organization after a woman executed a suicide operation in Deyala (see link 2).

The Young Instead of the Old

A high level security source in Al-Anbar province adds a fifth reason that he says he had seen up close and personal.  The majority of children’s suicide attacks were directed at Al-Sahwah men, which means that Al-Qa’eda wanted to terrorize the Al-Sahwah men and tell them they are “killed at the hands of their children.”

Researcher Faris Al-Obeidi confirms what Abul Waleed says and adds that Al-Qa’eda did not keep the recruitment of children secret, but rather promoted them and featured trainings on websites and YouTube.

Al-Obeidi refers to a videotape of children between 10-12 years of age wearing black clothes and covering their faces with masks as Al-Qa’eda members do, and training on weapons, make-belief kidnapping, breaking into a house after climbing its walls.  The videotape was shown extensively (see link 3) after Al-Qa’eda lost much of its popularity in its home environment, believes Al-Obeidi, and after the process of recruiting local combatants became difficult and bringing in foreign combatants even more difficult because of the control of the Iraqi forces on most of the border line with Syria.

The sheikh and speaker of one of the mosques in the city of Ramadi in the center of Al-Anbar province pointed to a “jurisprudence dispute about the dividing line between childhood and manhood”, and believed that “this dispute helped Al-Qa’eda penetrate into the minds of targeted people and facilitated the consideration of children’s recruitment as a legitimate matter.”

The sheikh, who is considered one of the leading moderate men of religion in Al-Ramadi city, reminded that Islam “banned the use of children and women in the execution of any acts that anger God and their recruitment for the purpose of executing suicide actions that lead to the killing of innocent people, whether civilians or even policemen, and it is prohibited.”

While religious scholars agree that Jihad is a duty of every Muslim, but it is “within conditions specified in the Islamic Sharia Law, most important of which that it must be based on wrong jurisprudence, such as rendering another an apostate or deciding that he has violated religion because he disagreed on jurisprudence issues, as Al-Qa’eda does and which has rendered everyone an apostate, including the followers of the Sunni sects that do not support it.”

The sheikh expresses regret that hard-line ideas calling for killing are spreading mostly in the rigid tribal communities, where the level of education is low and the culture of violence is prolific, unlike the moderate environment that is considered strongholds for moderate men of religion who cannot guarantee the security of their lives if they propose their ideas outside of this environment.

The word “Jihad” captivated the young boy, Yaser Thanoun, and encouraged him to work with Al-Qa’eda.  His elder brother was killed in Al-Fallujah battles in 2004.  Yaser completely believes that resisting the occupation is a duty for every Muslim, and says:  “I did not join Al-Qa’eda in search of money, as some of my friends have.”  He settled for an income of 70,000 to 100,000 Dinars (around $80) to cover his expenses after blowing up every explosive or carrying out a combat operation against the government forces.  After the death of his combatant brother, Yaser had to join the organization on a full time basis and left his work as a smith that was providing for his family.  “The money was not my objective, but rather the Jihad against the occupiers,” says Yaser, who was captured after he engaged in battle against Iraqi police personnel in Fallujah in 2008.

The situation is different for Nuseir.  His belief in the necessity of Jihad was not the thing that pushed him to join the armed groups.  His friends were the ones that convinced him to take part in the armed operations with them under the command of Al-Qa’eda.

Nuseir’s father spoke proudly with a tone of sadness of his son.  After Nuseir trained to use weapons and launch rockets, his father says, “he participated in the bombing of American forces in Al-Mazra’a area in the east of Fallujah, then the joint check point at the city’s entrance.”  After that, Nuseir joined the armed factions in battle in the city, and was arrested in 2007 and was transported to Boca prison.  He remained in prison for one year and a half until he was released under the general pardon.  He was soon killed by an unknown group when he was walking in the city.

The bereaved father refuses to talk about his son’s movements after he got out of prison.  Yet he confirms that “he received threats from groups that the opponents of the group he belonged to,” in an indication that he was back with his initial group.

The mourning father criticizes “the government for releasing so many of the prisoners before they were able to reform them and convince them to abandon the violence.”  He demands the government to monitor “the mosques which have become in their majority lairs that attract the youth.”

The responsibility of the family

Senior Secretary General of the Interior Ministry, Adnan Al-Asadi, however, accuses the children’s families of being the first to bring harm to them because they left them unobserved.

Al-Asadi says:  “The boys who got involved in armed groups found the easy money and social influence an earning worth the risk by working with Al-Qa’eda members.”  Al-Asadi however believes, and according to the results of investigations with a large number of the “Birds of Heaven” children and “the boys of heaven”, that the number of suicide operations executed by children is “small” compared to other types of operations such as “monitoring and logistical support for the militants.”

The idea of killing, believes Al-Asadi, “is no longer receiving response from the children, especially after the decline of the influence of Al-Qa’eda’s and the armed groups that have lost their strongholds in Al-Anbar, Deyala, Salaheddin, Ninawa and areas south of Baghdad.”

Researcher Faris Al-Obeidi believes that rehabilitating hundreds of children who engaged in militant work requires “a great deal of social and government effort and this is difficult to achieve in view of the economic, security and political instability in Iraq.”

In the final outcome, these are part of a mobile social system, and if they do not have a sound environment to help them integrate in their societies, “they will definitely go back to the armed groups that had provided them with a sense of belonging.”

Juvenile rehabilitation plans currently adopted are not convincing to the prison director, who complains that the building cannot accommodate “the large number of juveniles, given that the current building is a temporary alternative for the original prison that was overtaken by refugees refusing so far to leave it despite all official attempts.”

The juvenile prison building is similar to an elementary school.  It is nothing more than a yard surrounded by four prison cells and a few small rooms for the guards, as well as a caravan for the prison director to do his job.

The research unit chief in prison that the lack of entertainment facilities and training workshops have not helped the prison staff to lower the number of medical cases that usually accompany imprisonment, such as the depression that many prisoners suffer from because they feel neglected by their own families.

The research chief believes that terrorism prisoners are inherently “good” people, but have been exploited and taken advantage of because of their difficult life conditions.

A field study by a researcher in the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs indicates that family disintegration is responsible for half of the reasons that lead children’s integration in registered organizations.

Field study shows the reasons behind children joining armed groups.

“Family disintegration was the cause that led to the recruitment of 47% of child prisoners into armed groups.”  The researcher attributes this to their residing outside the family home with relatives or friends or in workplaces.  The study found that 63% of those convicted of terrorism have engaged in armed work under influence of friends.

The study, which was based on a sample of 80 prisoners convicted of terrorism according to Article 4, indicates that murder represents 56% of the types of crimes committed by children, while 18% of the sample planted and exploded explosive devices, and 15% executed kidnappings.

The low educational level was prevalent among the sample.  Half of them did not pass elementary education, and 55% of the sample justified their engagement in armed operation with their belief in the resistance.  Meanwhile, political convictions and affiliations were the cause of 28% joining the armed groups.

More than half of the children convicted of terrorism according to Article 4 and are imprisoned in the juvenile prison were sentence to more than ten years.  These are “major” sentences, believes the researcher who criticizes the fact the judges rely on Law number 111 for 1996, which places terrorism crimes under the definition of crimes, stipulating sentences to be five or more years.

Indications however show that the rate of children’s engagement in armed groups receded a great deal in the past two years because of improving security conditions in many areas that were previously considered “hot zones.”

This improvement, according to researcher Faris Al-Obeidi, “led to economic movement in the country, which in turn contributed to the movement of the majority of youth towards profitable professions and abandoning armed organizations where the work has become dangerous with the increase of the power of security forces.  Moreover, the ideas on which the armed groups were based “receded in a major way and do not have a standing except with religious hard-liners.”

Interior Minister Jawad Al-Bolani confirms that Al-Qa’eda’s influence in Iraq was “broken and it has lost control over its old strongholds, which put it in a critical situation that prevents from continuing to recruit children in the manner it has been doing in past years.”  The stage of recruiting children, Al-Bolani says, “is over now, and although there are a few sleeper cells, the intelligence efforts will continue to pursue them and eliminate them in the end, sooner or later.”

Researchers Al-Obeidi, Fawwaz Ibrahim, and Al-Massoudi, along with the research chief at the juvenile prison and the researcher in the Labor Ministry, believe that the receding phenomenon of child recruitment is not the end of the story, and that intelligence efforts, no matter how strong it is, will not be able to eliminate this phenomenon completely.  There is always a chance for it to come back if rehabilitation plans that can fortify children and protect them against extremist thinking, which continues to look for an opportunity to prevail once again in Iraq, are not implemented.

Children indulging in Iraqi violence to the level of suicide : Aswat Al Iraq

The persistent lack of security is hampering efforts to provide essential services for civilians. The ICRC is doing its utmost to help meet the most pressing needs. This is an update on these and other ICRC 30-11-2010 Operational Update ICRC activities carried out in Iraq in September and October.

Despite improvements in the security situation achieved over the years in many parts of Iraq, ongoing violence continues to claim the lives of hundreds of men, women and children every month, and to have a serious impact on the lives of many more.

Over the past year, the lives of many Iraqi civilians have not changed for the better. Civilians continue to carry the heaviest burden amid the widespread violence. They are still the main victims of the indiscriminate attacks and mass explosions that have taken place in cities such as Baghdad, Ninewa, Diyala, Anbar, Najaf, Kerbala and Basra, and that have left, on average, hundreds of people wounded or dead each month this year.

"Indiscriminate attacks against civilians inflict tremendous suffering. They are clearly unacceptable. They are contrary to international humanitarian law and to the most basic principles of humanity," said Magne Barth, head of the ICRC delegation in Iraq. "Civilians must be protected against violence, as must be medical personnel and facilities".

The humanitarian situation in Iraq remains serious. Iraqis are filled with anxiety and uncertainty about what the future holds. Vulnerable people, such as women heading households, disabled people and detainees, continue to depend to some extent on outside help to meet basic needs.

The persistent lack of security and wanton violence have had a considerable effect on the feasibility of providing essential services for the population. The ICRC is doing its utmost to help meet the most pressing needs, especially in rural areas and in the places hardest hit by the conflict and other violence. ICRC activities aim primarily at ensuring that people have access to adequate health, water and sanitation services, and at helping the destitute and other needy people.

Visits to detainees held under Iraqi, Kurdistan Regional Government and USF-I authority remain a priority for the ICRC. "Ensuring that detainees are treated humanely and are held in conditions that respect their dignity has been our constant concern since we started working in Iraq 30 years ago," said Mr Barth.

The ICRC continues to speak out about the plight of conflict victims in Iraq. It does so in dialogue with as many parties as possible that can influence the situation on the ground. Its aim is to bring about greater respect for civilians and detainees, and to ensure that unimpeded access is granted for humanitarian action to help the people in greatest need throughout the country.

"The role of the ICRC, as an impartial humanitarian organization, is crucial to efforts to protect civilians from harm and to ensure that detainees are properly treated and held in decent conditions," said Mr Barth.

In September and October 2010, in response to the unstable and often changing security environment, the ICRC made further adjustments to its working procedures so that it could continue to provide services to those who need them most.

Bringing aid to vulnerable people

The ICRC has maintained its support for people facing special difficulties earning a living and supporting their families, such as women heading households and people with disabilities. In September and October:

• hygiene kits and food parcels were provided for more than 5,600 people in the governorate of Mosul;
• emergency aid was provided for more than 170 displaced people in Sulaimaniya governorate;
• 95 grants were made in Kirkuk, Ninewa, Dohuk, Sulaimaniya and Erbil governorates to enable disabled people to start small businesses and regain economic self-sufficiency. Around 700 disabled people have received such aid since 2008;
• the livestock of 731 needy farmers in the Kifri district of Diyala governorate were vaccinated;
• around 950 metric tonnes of wheat seed were delivered to some 3,800 farmers in the governorates of Diyala, Anbar, Salahadin, Baghdad and Babil to help them restore their food production;
• 50 kilometres of irrigation canals serving over 7,000 people were cleaned and renovated in the Khalis and Kifri districts of Diyala governorate;
• 600 sheep and 38 metric tonnes of fodder were distributed to 200 farmers in the Baaj district of Ninewa governorate.

Assisting hospitals and physical rehabilitation centres

In some rural and conflict-prone areas, health-care services are still struggling to meet the needs of the civilian population. The ICRC continues to help renovate the premises of health-care facilities and train staff. Limb-fitting and physical rehabilitation services are provided by the ICRC to help disabled people reintegrate into the community. In September and October:

• 10 doctors and 28 nurses successfully took part in a course intended to strengthen emergency services given in Al Sadr Teaching Hospital in Najaf;
• 273 new patients were fitted with prostheses and 1,148 new patients with orthoses at 10 ICRC-supported centres throughout Iraq.

Providing clean water and sanitation

Access to clean water remains difficult in much of Iraq. ICRC engineers continue to repair and upgrade water, electrical and sanitary facilities, especially in places where violence remains a concern and in rural areas, to improve the quality of services provided in communities and health-care facilities. In September and October, these activities included:

Emergency assistance:

The ICRC delivered water by truck:

● in Zharawa district, Sadr City, Husseinia and Maamal to 6,384 internally displaced people;
● to the 385-bed Al Imam Ali General Hospital;
● to the 400-bed Al Kindy General Hospital in Baghdad, which was struggling to cope with summer water shortages.

Support for health-care facilities:

The ICRC completed work upgrading:
● Tarmiyah General Hospital, which serves between 250 and 300 outpatients daily, in Baghdad governorate;
● Tamour primary health-care centre, which serves 50 patients per day, in Kirkuk governorate.

Water supply in hospitals:

• The ICRC completed the installation of drinking-water purification units in Baquba General Hospital, Muqdadiya General Hospital, Baladrooz General Hospital and Al Zahraa Maternity Hospital, with an overall capacity of 600 beds, in Diyala governorate.

Drinking-water supply:

• Five main projects benefiting around 725,000 people were completed throughout the country.

Visiting detainees

ICRC delegates visit detainees in order to monitor the conditions in which they are being held and the treatment they receive. In all cases, the ICRC shares its findings and recommendations confidentially with the detaining authorities, with the aim of obtaining improvements where necessary.

In September and October, the ICRC visited detainees held by the correctional service of the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Defence and various Kurdish Regional Government authorities in places of detention in Basra, Thi Qar/Nasiriya, Baghdad, Babil, Kirkuk, Erbil, Dohuk and Sulaimaniya governorates.

In some of these places, to help the detaining authority improve conditions of detention, the ICRC gave detainees mattresses, blankets and recreational items such as books and games.

The ICRC makes a special effort to restore and maintain ties between detainees and their families. In September and October, over 1,000 Red Cross messages were exchanged between detainees and their families in Iraq and abroad. The ICRC also responded to around 800 enquiries from families seeking information on detained relatives. In addition, it issued 249 certificates of detention to former detainees. The ICRC facilitated the voluntary repatriation of two released detainees, and issued two travel documents to refugees to enable them to resettle abroad.

Clarifying what happened to missing people

In its role as a neutral intermediary, the ICRC continues to chair the mechanisms set up to address the cases of people who went missing in connection with the 1990-1991 Gulf War. At the 67th session of the Technical Sub-Committee of the Tripartite Commission, held on 28 September in Kuwait, the members of the sub-committee reaffirmed their commitment to accounting for people who went missing in connection with the war. At the sub-committee’s next meeting, which will take place in Kuwait in November, preparations will be made for a joint field mission to the south of Iraq to check on suspected burial sites.

On 27 and 28 October, representatives of Iran and Iraq held a high-level meeting in Geneva under ICRC auspices with the aim of determining what happened to people missing in connection with the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War. The meeting was the first of its kind following the signature in October 2008 of a memorandum of understanding between Iran, Iraq and the ICRC aimed at expediting the search for information on people previously registered as, or presumed to be, prisoners of war and on others who have gone missing, and at identifying mortal remains.

Relieving the suffering of the families of missing persons by clarifying what happened to their loved ones is one of the ICRC’s priorities. The ICRC continues to provide the Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights and Baghdad’s Medical-Legal Institute with the technical support they require to exchange information and build up their capacity in the area of forensics.

Promoting international humanitarian law

Reminding parties to a conflict of their obligation to protect civilians is a fundamental part of the ICRC’s work. The organization also endeavours to promote international humanitarian law within civil society. In this framework, it organizes presentations for various audiences, which include military personnel, prison staff, students and professors.

In September and October, information sessions on international humanitarian law were organized for members of the Iraqi Army, the Peshmerga forces and Assayesh security forces. In October, a "train-the-trainers" course was organized for 14 members of the Iraqi Centre for Military Values and Professional Leadership Development. One member of the Iraqi armed forces attended an advanced course on international humanitarian law at the International Institute of Humanitarian Law in San Remo, Italy, and another attended a workshop on rules of engagement, also held in Italy.

Iraq: civilians still suffering undue hardship

One of Saddam Hussein’s greatest acts of ecological destruction – the draining of the Mesopotamian marshes – has been reversed as birds and rivers return to the region

Saddam Hussein’s draining of the Mesopotamian marshes of Iraq – recorded as the Garden of Eden in the Bible – was one of the most infamous outrages of his regime, leaving a vast area of once-teeming river delta a dry, salt-encrusted desert, emptied of insects, birds and the people who lived on them.

But nearly two decades later the area is buzzing and twittering with life again after local people and a new breed of Iraqi conservationists have restored much of what was once the world’s third largest wetland to some of its former glory.

The story of this once almost impossible restoration is told in an exhibition of photographs that has opened in the UK. They show the huge expanses of reeds and open water – now at least half the size of the Florida Everglades – where plants, insects and fish have returned, creating a vast feeding area for migrating and breeding birds, including the majestic Sacred Ibis, the endemic Basrah Reed Warbler and the Iraq Babbler, along with most of the world’s population of Marbled Teal ducks, bee-eaters and many more.

"We call them stop-over sites, refuelling sites," said Richard Porter, Middle East advisor for the conservation group Birdlife International, who has helped train biologists and other experts for the local Birdlife partner Nature Iraq. "They are as important as the breeding and over-wintering grounds for species; if you have got to make a journey from central Africa to norther Europe and Asia, and you’ve got nothing to feed on, you’re stuffed."

The Mesopotamian marshes originally made up an area more than three times the size of Norfolk, where the exhibition is showing, in Holt. It sprawled across thousands of square kilometres of floodplain where the Euphrates and Tigris rivers divided into a network of tributaries meandering and pulsating south to the Arabian sea. They were home to more than 80 bird species, otters and long-fingered bats, and hundreds of thousands of Marsh Arabs who grew rice and dates, raised water buffalo, fished and built boats and homes from reeds.

In the early 1990s, this way of life came to an abrupt end when Hussein ordered the marshes to be drained to punish the local population for an uprising after his failed invasion of Kuwait, a problem exacerbated by the continued construction of dams upstream.

He ordered the area to be hemmed in by constructing around 4,000km of earthen walls that towered up to 7m above the unbroken flat landscape. The wetlands retreated to as little as 5-10% of their original size, according to a 2001 United Nations Environment Agency report.

After Hussein was toppled by American forces in 2003, Azzam Alwash returned from his adopted home in the US to the area, where he had lived for part of his childhood, and learned to hunt ducks with his father while they inspected the irrigation ditches. Alwash found the local people who had stayed had already begun to break up the walls with shovels or earth diggers, and they have continued to do so. They have destroyed up to 98% of the embankments, he told the Guardian, "not because they are tree-huggers or bird-lovers, but because it’s a source of economic income to them, because they can harvest reeds and sell them. They can fish and feed a family or sell them to earn extra income."

Alwash, a civil engineer, set up Nature Iraq and has organised training for graduates who help with monitoring work. "We take guards with us with Kalashnikovs, but the most difficult part is the road between [the capital] Baghdad to the marsh," said Alwash. "Once I’m inside the marshes it’s relatively safe."

About half the original marshland has been restored – even more had been reinstated, but there was a setback last year because of a drought. Nature Iraq has now drawn up a plan to cope with the diminishing water flows from dams upstream in Turkey by channelling irrigation water back into the rivers and building a barrage to retain meltwater from the mountains and create a "mechanical flood" of water to replicate the important pulses of freshwater that wash through the marshlands every spring.

Alwash and his team are also trying to tackle the problem of local poaching, although he has great sympathy with those who have few alternative sources of income, and hopes the opening of a new oil industry will help create jobs.

"We have done some work in trying to educate the locals," he added. "We say: ‘Go out and hunt but take less; make $10 today – you don’t have to make $20, and make $10 tomorrow’. We just keep at it. You can’t give up."

• The exhibition runs until July 25 at Birdscapes Gallery in Glandford, Norfolk

Paradise found: Water and life return to Iraq’s ‘Garden of Eden’ | Environment | The Guardian

Laurent Saugy spent two years in Iraq coordinating the ICRC’s work in behalf of detainees and other categories of people protected by international humanitarian law. He replies to questions about the challenges faced by the ICRC in this part of its humanitarian activities.

Where does the ICRC visit detainees in Iraq?

Let me say first of all that visiting detainees is one of the ICRC’s priorities in Iraq. Ensuring that detainees and prisoners of war are treated humanely and are held in acceptable conditions has been a constant concern for the ICRC ever since it started working in the country, in 1980.

Currently, more than 30,000 detainees, held all over the country by three distinct authorities – the federal government, the Kurdistan Regional Government, and the United States Forces – Iraq (USF-I, the successor to the Multi-National Force – Iraq, or MNF-I) – are visited regularly by ICRC expatriate staff.

We first visited a place of detention run by the current Iraqi government in October 2007, when we went to Fort Suse, near Sulaymaniya. Gradually, we have been able to go to other places. Since 2008, the ICRC has visited 25,000 people held in 35 places of detention under Iraq’s justice, defence and interior ministries, and its labour and social affairs ministry.

In the Kurdistan Region, where visits started in 1992, the ICRC visits 3,000 detainees each year in more than 30 places of detention.

Our organization also continues to visit around 3,000 people currently in US custody at Camp Cropper, near Baghdad’s airport.

What are the main challenges you are facing? Do you have access to all places of detention in the country?

Although the Iraqi authorities generally welcome visits by the ICRC in places of detention, we have not yet been able to visit detainees everywhere in the country.

One reason is the security environment. ICRC delegates cannot travel everywhere. It should not be forgotten that there is still an armed conflict under way, in a country that is struggling to deal with the legacy of decades of conflict. Some areas remain dangerous – in Mosul, Salahidin and Diyala, for example, ICRC delegates have not yet been able to visit detainees.

Another reason is that, despite declarations that have been made, the ICRC has not in fact always been able to visit all detainees in all places. Right now, as we speak, the ICRC is still waiting for a response to its requests to visit more places of detention. As in many other contexts where it works, the detainees most in need of protection are often the ones that are most difficult to reach. The situation is just as frustrating, if not more so, for the hundreds of families seeking information about their relatives.

An overall agreement formally granting the ICRC access to all places of detention throughout the country has yet to receive final approval. We are confident that this will happen in the near future, since the issue has now reached the level of the Council of Ministers.

What are the main challenges you are facing? Do you have access to all places of detention in the country?

Although the Iraqi authorities generally welcome visits by the ICRC in places of detention, we have not yet been able to visit detainees everywhere in the country.

One reason is the security environment. ICRC delegates cannot travel everywhere. It should not be forgotten that there is still an armed conflict under way, in a country that is struggling to deal with the legacy of decades of conflict. Some areas remain dangerous – in Mosul, Salahidin and Diyala, for example, ICRC delegates have not yet been able to visit detainees.

Another reason is that, despite declarations that have been made, the ICRC has not in fact always been able to visit all detainees in all places. Right now, as we speak, the ICRC is still waiting for a response to its requests to visit more places of detention. As in many other contexts where it works, the detainees most in need of protection are often the ones that are most difficult to reach. The situation is just as frustrating, if not more so, for the hundreds of families seeking information about their relatives.

An overall agreement formally granting the ICRC access to all places of detention throughout the country has yet to receive final approval. We are confident that this will happen in the near future, since the issue has now reached the level of the Council of Ministers.

What impact has the ICRC’s work had on the lives of detainees in Iraq? What has the ICRC achieved by visiting detainees?

Detainees often view the ICRC as a "gate to the outside world." We are the ones who can bring reassuring news from their loved ones, and who can carry a message back to the families. This is done in full transparency: the detaining authorities check the messages, which are allowed to contain nothing but family news. More than 400,000 of these "Red Cross messages" have been exchanged between detainees and their families in Iraq since 2003.

For detainees, a visit by ICRC staff is also an opportunity to speak privately with someone who will truly listen to what they have to say. The ICRC holds private interviews with detainees to gather information about the treatment they receive and the conditions in which they are being held. On the basis of this information, gathered from as many detainees as possible, and of observations made by its own staff, it shares findings and recommendations with the authorities.

The fact that the ICRC does not publicize its findings by no means indicates that it is satisfied with the conditions in any given place of detention, or that it is inactive. The ICRC uses confidentiality as a tool to make absolutely clear the exclusively humanitarian – and completely neutral – nature of its work: doing so is essential to its continued access to detainees. The ICRC believes that the best way to prevent or halt ill-treatment, and to ensure decent conditions of detention, is by maintaining unrestricted access to detainees and urging the detaining authorities to make any necessary improvements.

Families and communities also suffer when one of their members is held in detention, which breaks ties, keeps parents apart from their children, and often results in families being left without a breadwinner.

The ICRC provided financial support enabling the families of nearly 30,000 people held in Camp Bucca, a prison camp in Iraq run by the US military, to visit their detained relatives until the facility closed in September 2009.

Families often turn to the ICRC when seeking information on their detained relatives. To help them, we have been running, for many years now, a telephone helpline system enabling them to request information on the whereabouts of missing and possibly detained relatives. From 2007 to April 2010, the ICRC helpline received 187,000 phone calls.

Foreign prisoners, far from their countries and families, are particularly vulnerable not only during the period of their detention but also after their release. The ICRC can often facilitate their repatriation. In the past seven years, the ICRC has helped repatriate more than 300 ex-detainees.

Has the ICRC’s work resulted in any improvements? What can the ICRC do to help improve detention conditions?

Our visits frequently lead to improvements in the way prisons are run, in particular when local authorities understand what we are trying to do. ICRC visits can only be expected to have a significant impact when the detaining authorities, both within the prisons themselves and in the upper echelons of government, understand the spirit of our work, see us as a partner and are willing to consider our recommendations as being in their own interest.

Sometimes, it may not seem possible to reconcile security imperatives with humanitarian concerns. But I believe there is no real obstacle to doing so. It is not only detainees but also the detaining authorities who can benefit from the ICRC’s humanitarian services. In Iraq, for example, the ICRC plays a constructive role in the system of interministerial coordination. Although it cannot have a seat on interministerial committees, it advises and shares information on what it observes in prisons. The ICRC voices the concerns of detainees and their families, and shares its own findings, to promote improvements. Protecting the health of the detainee population, for example, requires that various ministries (health, justice, etc.) coordinate their efforts, which may be enhanced by the advice and information the ICRC can provide. The measures taken to promote better health among detainees are important not only for the individuals concerned but also for the entire country’s health system, which cannot stop at the prison gates.

Nor can basic guarantees of due process and the rule of law stop at prison gates: people deprived of their freedom must not be deprived of their rights. And the gates must open in a timely manner for those who have served their sentences.

Another important thing we do to improve living conditions for detainees is to build and repair water systems and other facilities. On the basis of assessments carried out with the Iraqi authorities in 12 places of detention since the beginning of the year, we will launch new projects in detention facilities located in several governorates.

What are the main concerns and rationales prompting ICRC visits to Iraqi places of detention?

We know from experience that detainees are among the most vulnerable people in conflict situations, simply because attending to their needs is not considered a priority.

The treatment they receive and the conditions in which they are held result from a complex range of factors, the most important of which is applicable law. It is essential that laws be adhered to at all stages of detention – by those who have direct control over detainees, but also by the entire system.

During its visits, the ICRC also addresses basic issues of due process. For instance, if it appears that detainees do not have systematic access to a defence lawyer, the ICRC will raise the issue in its recommendations.

How do the authorities react to the ICRC’s recommendations?

The reactions vary greatly from person to person and from area to area. The role of the ICRC is not yet understood by all. While some may view the ICRC’s activities as interference, others realize that they benefit from ICRC visits, which can, for example, ease tensions inside a prison.

Some ICRC recommendations take time to be implemented. The ICRC is patient, however, and committed to a long-term humanitarian effort in Iraq. We are encouraged that some prison directors do implement ICRC recommendations whenever they can. The rapid turnover of prison officials makes it difficult, however, to build trust and develop a long-lasting working relationship between them and ICRC delegates.

Iraq: helping detainees and their families