Iraqi International Initiative on refugees
المبادرة العراقية الدولية للاجئين

بشور بحث مع منسقة مبادرة اللاجئين العراقيين
مشروع قرار دولي بتخصيص نسبة من موارد العراق لمساعدة اللاجئين
هل يجوز ان تكون رسوم الاقامة للعراقيين مرتفعة الى حد كبير، فيما اخرون يجري اعفاءهم

استقبل السيد معن بشور المنسق العام لتجمع اللجان والروابط الشعبية ومنسق الحملة الاهلية لنصرة فلسطين والعراق الانسة هناء البياتي منسقة “المبادرة العراقية الدولية للاجئين العراقيين” التي انطلقت من اجل العمل على مساعدة ملايين اللاجئين العراقيين داخل العراق وخارجه على تخطي الصعوبات الكبرى التي يواجهونها على مختلف المستويات بانتظار عودتهم الى عراق مستقل آمن خالٍ من الاحتلال وجرائمه. وقد حضر المقابلة د. ناصر حيدر مقرر الحملة الاهلية. البياتي عرضت لمشروع من اجل اصدار قرار يصدره مجلس الامن الدولي ينص على تخصيص نسبة من موارد الدولة العراقية من اجل مساعدة اللاجئين العراقيين في عدد من الدول المضيفة لا سيما في سوريا والاردن خصوصاً انه لا يجوز تحميل الدول المضيفة اعباء نتائج الاحتلال والعدوان الامريكي وتداعياتهما على الشعب العراقي، وقد وقع على هذا الاقتراح اكثر من 1100 شخصية عراقية وعربية وعالمية ذات تأثير في مجتمعاتها. البياتي اشارت ايضا الى ان عمل “المبادرة” يركز على المستويات القانونية خصوصاً مع المحكمة الدولية في بروكسل، وعلى المستويات الانسانية مع هيئات حقوق الانسان والمنظمات الاقليمية والدولية، بالاضافة الى المستوى السياسي حيث يجري التعاون مع ناشطين داعمين للشعب العراقي. بشور بحث مع البياتي في المسائل المتصلة بتوفير اقامة مستقرة ومؤقته للاجئين العراقيين في الدول المضيفة في اطار احترام القانون الدولي والمواثيق الدولية، فيما استغرب بشور ان تكون رسوم الاقامة السنوية للعراقيين في لبنان مرتفعة فيما مواطنو دول اخرى يعفون تقريباً من هذه الرسوم، فيما المطلوب هو العكس تماماً في اطار مراعاة الاوضاع الصعبة التي يعاني منها اللاجئون العراقيين خصوصاً ان العراق طالما فتح ارضه وامكاناته امام الاشقاء العرب على مدى عقود طويلة. كما جرى التطرق الى اقدام بعض الدول الغربية على اتخاذ اجراءات قاسية بحق اعداد واسعة من اللاجئين العراقيين في بلادها بما فيها تسفيرهم غير القانوني واعادتهم الى بلادهم وعدم تقدير الظروف التي يمكن ان يواجهوها في حال العودة. 9/4/2008

We join our voices to the appeal of M. Hani Suliman — attorney of Sheikh Mazhar Abdul Karim Al Khabit — to demand his immediate liberation by the Lebanese authorities.

Sheikh Al Kharbit is an Iraqi refugee and has been granted a Political Refugee certificate by the UNHCR. He has the right to be free and protected by international laws and agreements.

We call upon all institutions, organizations and associations concerned with refugees and human rights to raise their voices and wage a campaign for his liberation and ensure he is granted a safe political asylum in an Arab, Muslim or International capital.

Hana Al Bayaty, The Iraqi International Initiative on refugees — coordinator
hanaalbayaty@3iii.org
www.3iii.org

The Lawyer Hany Soliman: Sheikh Mazhar Al-Kharbit is on a hunger strike & his condition is critical.

A decree was issued to disclaim the delivery decree of Sheikh Al-Kharbit to the American Occupation Authorities, but the Sheikh remains under custody in spite of having been declared a Political Refugee by the United Nations.

Lawyer Hany Soliman — President of the committee of Human Rights & Public Liberties and attorney of Skeikh Mazhar Abdul-Karim Al-Kharbit has delivered the following statement during the Arab National Forum:

A few weeks ago the Lebanese Authorities (greetings to them) disclaimed the delivery decree to the American Occupation Authorities of high profile Iraqi personality and one of the most prominent Sheikhs of Al-Anbar Province: Sheikh Mazhar Al-Kharbit. Since, he remains kept in custody without any legal argument and even though The High Commission of Refugees of the United Nations has provided him a Political Refugee Certificate.

Despite the promise made by Sheikh Kharbit to leave Lebanon in order to save the Lebanese authorities from any embarrassment in front of the well known pressures, it seems these pressures succeeded after all in keeping him prisoner without any reasons.

This matter, and especially in front of the difficulties of procedures & acts taken against him without any reason as well, pushed Sheikh Kharbit to start a hunger strike a few days ago. He was transferred to the Intensive Care due to the complications of his health condition. These difficulties were accompanied by a campaign of defamation launched by the American Media & broadcasted by some Arab Media, to ruin his reputation & his political attitude without being given any chance to clarify his situation or deny these allegations.

Therefore, due to the serious human condition of the Sheikh and due to the complete absence of any legal reason or argument for his detention, we are asking the concerned authorities to set him free at once. We are applying to all the establishments concerned with Human Rights & involved in supporting the Iraqi people to act on all levels, in order to save Sheikh Al-Kharbit, release him and provide him a safe asylum in a secured Arab, Muslim or International capital.

In this context, we are calling upon Arab Kings, Presidents, Princes or Heads of States for an urgent move & for making contacts with the Lebanese Authorities in order to provide him a secure reception in any Arab Capital.

The catastrophe of Sheikh Kharbit is representative of the catastrophe of all free Iraqi men, who are, on the one side, tracked down by the Occupation Authorities, and on the other, left alone by the Arab & Muslim Leaders who have given up their duties towards them & are denying them their most basic rights.

14th of April 2008.

المحامي هاني سليمان: مظهر الخربيط مضرب عن الطعام وحالته الصحية خطرة – صدر مرسوم استرداد مرسوم التسليم لسلطات الاحتلال لكن الخربيط ما زال محتجزاً رغم ان الامم المتحده تعتبره لاجئاً سياسياً.

ادلى المحامي هاني سليمان رئيس لجنة حقوق الانسان والحريات العامة في المنتدى القومي العربي وكيل الشيخ مظهر عبد الكريم الخربيط بما يلي:
منذ ان تراجعت قبل اسابيع السلطات اللبنانية مشكورة واستردت مرسوم تسليم الشخصية العراقية المعروفة واحد ابرز مشايخ الانبار الشيخ مظهر عبد الكريم الخربيط الى سلطات الاحتلال الامريكي، ما زال الخربيط قيد الاعتقال دون اي سند قانوني، علما ان مفوضية اللاجئين في الامم المتحدة منحته شهادة تفيد انه لاجئ سياسي.
ورغم تعهد السيد الخربيط بالسفر خارج لبنان لكي لا يتسبب باحراج السلطات اللبنانية امام الضغوط المعروفة، فان هذه الضغوط نجحت، على ما يبدو، في ابقائه سجيناً رغم عدم وجود اي مبرر لذلك.
ولقد دفع هذا الامر بالسيد الخربيط الى اعلان الاضراب عن الطعام منذ عدة ايام، خصوصاً مع اشتداد الاجراءات المتخذة بحقه دون مبرر ايضاً، مما ادى الى نقله الى العناية الفائقة حيث يواجه ظروفاً صحية بالغة الصعوبة رافقتها حملة تشويه لصورته وموقفه السياسي قامت بها اجهزة اعلام امريكية وتناقلتها وسائل اعلام عربية دون ان تتاح له فرصة توضيح موقفه الواضح من هذه الافتراءات.
اننا ازاء الوضع الانساني الخطير للسيد الخربيط، وازاء انتفاء اي مبرر قانوني لاستمرار الاعتقال، ندعو الجهات المختصة الى الافراج الفوري عنه، كما ندعو كل المرجعيات والهيئات المعنية بحقوق الانسان والمهتمة بمناصرة الشعب العراقي الى التحرك على كل المستويات من اجل انقاذ الخربيط والافراج عنه وتأمين ملاذ آمن له في عاصمة عربية او اسلامية او دولية. وفي هذا الاطار نتوجه الى الملوك والرؤساء والامراء العرب بنداء عاجل للتحرك والاتصال بالسلطات اللبنانية من اجل توفير استقبال له في اية عاصمة عربية. ان محنة الخربيط تلخص اليوم محنة كل العراقيين الاحرار الذين تلاحقهم سلطات الاحتلال من جهة، فيما يتنصل المسؤولون العرب والمسلمون من ابسط واجباتهم تجاه.

14/4/2008

Urgent appeal from Iraqi Diplomats Association to:

- International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

- All legal and humanitarian institutions worldwide, governmental and non-governmental.

- The International public opinion.

The Iraqi sectarian Government established under the US occupation is about to agree with the occupying power to transfer all Iraqi prisoners of war (POW) and detainees held in the Baghdad International Airport prison from US authority to its authority. This information was confirmed by the American airport prison authority who informed the defense lawyers of Iraqi POW that beginning with 31 March 2008 it will relinquish the responsibility of their safety during their visits to the prison .This means that the handover is imminent, and a new carnage is about to take place, similar to that when president Saddam Hussein and his comrades were handed over to the same sectarian Government and its Militias.

The International public opinion witnessed the mockery of law of the illegal Iraqi High Criminal Court .In addition to its illegal status, the court lacks the minimum conditions for fair trial .This illegal Court was established mainly to revenge Iraqi legitimate leadership and to propagate the sectarianism and ethnic cleansing in Iraq . Iraqi POW and detainees could also face summary execution and dropped in the streets of Baghdad as (unidentified tortured and killed bodies).

The ICRC has a permanent mandate to take impartial action to uphold International Humanitarian Law , supervise its implementation, denounce its violations ,and endeavors to stop these violations .The ICRC is well aware that United Nations Security Council Resolution 1546(2004), which pretended the end of US occupation of Iraq , was a flagrant violation of the International Law. Iraq is still under the rule of the occupying power. Thus, the rules of the International Humanitarian Law are still applicable to the Iraqi POW and detainees in US detention centers. Article 118 of Third Geneva Convention of 1949 stipulates that (Prisoners of war shall be released and repatriated without delay after the cessation of active hostilities.). The US declared the end of its military operations in Iraq the first of May 2003. Furthermore, the US did not announce any judicial prosecution on Iraqi PWO during their detention, which could justify the continuation of their detention.

The transfer of Iraqi POW to the Iraqi Government and its Militias to try them for (crimes) in carrying out their official duties before the US invasion is illegal too. Art 99. of Third Geneva Convention of 1949 stipulates that ( No prisoner of war may be tried or sentenced for an act which is not forbidden by the law of the Detaining Power or by international law, in force at the time the said act was committed).

We call upon the ICRC to shoulder its responsibilities under the International Law, and use all means permissible by the International Law to grant the release of all Iraqi POW’s and detainees and grant their safety.
We call upon all legal and humanitarian institutions worldwide, governmental and non-governmental, to act now to prevent the looming carnage of Iraqi POW by the sectarian illegal Iraqi Government and its Militias.
We call upon all states and the United Nations to speak up immediately and work for the release of Iraqi POW.

We call upon the UN Security Council to affirm the legal basis governing international relations and in particular the fundamental norms of international humanitarian law. US occupation of Iraq should end and Iraqi POW should by release immediately.

Iraqi Diplomats Association
Baghdad-Iraq- 26 Jan.2008.

Some 4.7 million Iraqi citizens — one fifth of the population — have been forcibly displaced, within and outside their country, by the US occupation and the policies of the sectarian governments it installed since the illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003. It is a human catastrophe, a national tragedy, and a destabilising factor for the region. This exodus has been labelled “the fastest growing humanitarian crisis on the planet”, unprecedented in size since the 1948 Nakba that uprooted at least one million Palestinians from their land.

While propaganda boasts about some 25,000 returnees, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the primary international agency responsible for refugees, warned last month that conditions for the safe return of Iraqis were not met on the ground and that the few who returned in November 2007 did not do so — contrary to what the so-called government in Iraq pretends — because of security improvements in Iraq, but rather because their means of survival are deteriorating gravely elsewhere. Among the main reasons leading some to return are harsh new restrictions on residency permits in hosting countries, denials of access to schooling and higher education for their children, and the depletion of emergency savings. Many returnees found that others were occupying their homes in Iraq, forcing them to look yet again for shelter. The government in Iraq finally acknowledged that it could not sustain massive return were it to take place.

The 4.7 million Iraqi refugees who fled for their lives, uprooted from their homes by the disproportionate force used by the occupation and campaigns of ethnic cleansing carried out by militias affiliated to its sectarian governments, are living testimony to the inhuman — and anti- human rights — American invasion and occupation of Iraq. At least 1.5 million Iraqis have been brutally murdered, thousands disappeared or detained, hundreds of thousands widowed. The modern Iraqi educated middle class, vital now and in the future to run the state, the economy, and build Iraqi culture, has been decimated. Following systematic assassinations, imprisonment, military raids and sieges, threats and discrimination, most of what remained of that class left the country. The absence of this middle class has resulted in the breakdown of all public services for the entirety of Iraqi society. No propaganda can call the occupation a success while so many people are suffering its consequences.

Of the 4.7 million displaced, four fifths are women and children. All have inadequate or non- existent access to security, food, shelter, education, sanitation, health, and basic necessities such as water and electricity. In addition to the brain drain that Iraq suffered since the start of the occupation, whether through systematic killings or displacement, refugee children are currently losing their universal right to education in being unable to attend schools. It is an individual tragedy for refugees and a disaster for the future of Iraq. UNHCR is dramatically under-financed to meet the needs of these millions displaced. It has made repeated pleas for enhanced international donations to support its basic functioning and the fulfilment of its humanitarian mission.

While Iraqi refugees cannot safely return home, they cannot wait until violence ends in Iraq for their needs to be met. The key hosting countries bearing the millions of displaced Iraqis are home already to large refugee populations and are developing economies. With their own citizens suffering unemployment, Iraqi refugees are denied work permits and permanent residency. In addition, these key hosting states are not signatories to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, and therefore not bound by its principles — even in instances denying the customary international legal obligation of non-refoulement (prohibition on the expulsion of refugees to an area where they may face persecution). As a consequence, Iraqis are denied status, considered tourists with no recognised passport or residence, and left economically and socially vulnerable. All indicators of social desperation are present while reports of increasing resort to degrading means of survival keep arising.

According to international humanitarian and human rights law, the international community, the occupying powers, and the government in Iraq are legally bound to support and protect Iraqi refugees. Neither the occupation with the governments it has installed nor individual states and the international community have met their legal and moral obligations towards displaced Iraqis or the countries hosting them. Iraqi refugees are temporarily displaced Iraqi citizens who have a full right to live in dignity, the right to benefit from national resources, and the right to return to their homes. They are protected persons under The Hague Regulations and the Geneva Conventions, as well as several instruments of international law that relate to refugees.

IRAQI INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVE ON REFUGEES: On 25 November 2007, the Iraqi International Initiative on refugees ( www.3iii.org ) issued a proposal to support, protect and defend refugees and their rights as Iraqi citizens by changing the financing system of responsible agencies and hosting countries. The proposal asks the UN Security Council to pass a resolution requiring that the Iraqi state allocate part of the revenue from Iraqi oil — in proportion with the number of Iraqi citizens temporarily displaced — for Iraqi refugees in hosting countries.

Such a resolution is urgently needed, legally justified and politically appropriate. It is the only efficient way for the country of origin and the international community to fulfil their legal and moral obligations towards both Iraqi refugees and hosting countries while preserving the rights of refugees and their dignity as Iraqi citizens. Further, such a resolution is not only justified but respecting of existing jurisprudence on state responsibility and refugee protection, while in accordance with the primary mission of the UN to preserve international peace and security, protect civilian populations and enhance human civilisation. No legal objection can be raised against this proposal. Moreover, an example of redistributing national resources equitably by means of a UN Security Council resolution exists in the case of Iraq.

In 1991, Turkey shut its borders to the flow of refugees coming mainly from northern Iraq, refusing to apply the principle of non- refoulement. As a consequence, the UN Security Council, realising this principle wasn’t sufficient to protect the refugee population, instituted new practices in refugee protection. Article 8b of UN Security Council Resolution 986 of 1995 obliged the Iraqi state to allocate part of Iraqi national resources to the population not under the authority of the Iraqi government (the three northern governorates). This resolution was passed on humanitarian grounds, in order “to ensure equitable distribution of humanitarian relief to all segments of Iraqi society”, including to Iraqi citizens who were residing in the three northern governorates that were not administratively supervised by the central government. Current Iraqi refugees are in the same situation of being outside the supervision of the central government governing Iraq.

UN Security Council resolutions 1314 and 1325 further emphasised the tendency in international jurisprudence on the protection of refugee populations to insist on the responsibility of states to assist civilians, including refugees and the displaced. This tendency is further reflected in UNHCR appeals and the final declaration of the World Summit in 2005. Resolutions 986, 1314 and 1325 created a legal precedent that obliges and allows the UNSC to draft and pass a resolution now requiring the allocation of a proportionate part of Iraqi oil revenues to current Iraqi refugees, so as to protect their human rights and in the knowledge that Iraqi oil is the property of all Iraqis, inside or outside Iraq, as established by UNSC Resolution 986.

UNDERCUTTING THE LOGIC OF VIOLENCE: As well as establishing the duty to protect, international jurisprudence on refugees often places emphasis on helping the country of origin to eradicate the causes of violence that displaces the population. The proposal of the Iraqi International Initiative on refugees adheres to this logic too. US policy towards Iraq, since 1991, has been to destroy its political, military and economic capacities in an attempt to divide it into three or more entities in order to seize its natural resources. The ethnic cleansing currently taking place under the orchestration of the US occupation is intrinsically linked to the latter’s attempt to control Iraq’s resources by promoting and manipulating sectarian identities.

From the first day of the occupation the US supported sectarian forces, themselves sufficiently weak, illegitimate and conflicted that they are unable to create a functioning state, therefore requiring the never-ending help, presence, protection and direction of the US itself. The so- called political process in which these forces participate is only tolerated so long as it oversees and ensures the dismantlement of the unified and sovereign Iraqi state, its institutions and infrastructure; dismembers Iraqi society and its social fabric along sectarian and confessional lines; and helps the occupation in repressing the national popular resistance of the Iraqi people. This strategy was pursued throughout the occupation as a means to destroy Iraq both as a state and as a nation, to subjugate its people into surrendering their national resources to US corporations and interests.

Yet despite 15 years of continuous attempts to subjugate Iraq and its people, whether through economic sanctions, war of aggression or occupation, US policy failed. By 2006, the occupation opted to delegate to the various sectarian forces and militias it had promoted the task of forcibly uprooting the local resilient population, thereafter seizing their resources. The political process and the ethnic cleansing it perpetrates is but an instrumentalised power struggle among various sectarian factions competing for the political and/or economic rewards granted by the occupation for depriving the Iraqi people of their sovereignty by displacing them and achieving local control over areas and attendant resources.

Whole areas have been purged of resident minorities by one militia or another, effectively changing the demographic make-up of entire regions and neighbourhoods, especially in Baghdad, while keeping one of the collaborating militia in control in any given locale, over the people and its resources. Though sectarianism starts with attacking minorities and the weak, it soon spreads to all components of society, as each can be, somewhere, a majority or a minority. The occupation itself changes its affiliations as it doesn’t need to consider itself permanently bound to the respective agendas of each faction and defends only its own interest. This criminal strategy ensures a never-ending cycle of violence that can only be stopped by the end of its root cause: the US occupation. By now, all Iraqis have been affected — all sections of Iraqi society have been forced to flee.

While the occupation uses forcible displacement as a means of blackmail to, alternately, terrorise the population, destabilise hosting countries and plunder Iraq’s wealth, a UNSC resolution requiring the Iraqi state allocate the proportionate and legitimate share of Iraqi national wealth to Iraqi refugees would effectively deny the occupation its goals and deprive its sectarian forces of the benefits of displacing the population for economic or political gains. It would render the entire tactic of forcible displacement obsolete, as its victims would be guaranteed their share of national revenue by law as well as right.

THE OBLIGATION TO ACT: The UN Security Council, as the highest UN body, has the political, legal and moral duty and authority to act to protect the millions of displaced Iraqis. Following 13 years of disastrous UN-imposed sanctions that according to two former UN assistant secretary-generals satisfied the definition of genocide under international law, the UN Security Council failed to act to protect the state and people of Iraq, or condemn and censure those responsible for launching an illegal war of aggression against a member state of the United Nations. Its silence on the horrendous human and material cost paid by Iraqis since the illegal 2003 US invasion is not only shameful but also criminal.

A UNSC resolution on Iraqi refugees would end the complicity of the UN in this crime, expose the occupation’s illegality and hypocrisy, as well as the barbaric and inhuman nature of the policies the US has been pursuing in Iraq since its illegal invasion in 2003. If we are to re- establish a peaceful international order, US imperialism must be constrained. It promotes sectarianism everywhere. It then uses the plight of those made refugees by sectarian violence as a political tool to blackmail and destabilise both countries of origin and hosting countries. Finally, it uses refugees as a justification for “humanitarian” intervention, regardless of state sovereignty, while obscuring the massive humanitarian crises it generates by its own sectarian policies.

As shown by UNHCR figures, most displaced Iraqis refuse to be treated as refugees. They consider being granted status and resettled a de facto victory for the occupation and its policies of pushing the population out of Iraq and depriving it of its national rights. All Iraqis know the occupation’s plans have failed completely and cannot be recovered. As Iraqi citizens, they know they are sovereign over the resources of Iraq, now and in the future. Further, they are conscious collectively of the dramatic situation of their Palestinian sisters and brothers who, despite having been guaranteed the unalienable right of return by UN Resolution 194, have been denied return for nearly 60 years. While their right is being bargained by some and used as political blackmail by others, they are forced to live in camps and from international charity. Iraqis refuse to lose their rights in Iraq, or accept the humiliation of having to beg while they are sovereign over one of the most resource-rich countries in the world. They hope Iraq will be liberated soon, allowing them to return home safely.

Finally, a UNSC resolution as described would protect and defend the Iraqi people’s rights while defending universal human values. It would enhance the permanent sovereignty of the Iraqi people over their national resources, thereby derailing the primary goals of aggressive imperialist states of forcing smaller states’ economies, their population and resources, into submission by military means. This would be a victory for humanity worldwide while upholding the endangered superiority of law and the duty to protect human life above private or exclusive state, corporate and individual interests.

While protecting the sovereign rights of Iraq and its people, now and in the future, a UNSC resolution as described would condemn the feudal plague of sectarianism, binding the future and destiny of Iraqi citizens together as members of the same state and nation, benefiting equally from the distribution of its national resources. Unfortunately for the occupation, while there are religious and cultural differences among Iraqi refugees, all are Iraqi citizens with protected rights, and all are bound to each other by the past, present and future of their nation as well as their common situation and destiny. By considering and treating all as equal citizens of a unified state free from all forms of discrimination, whether ethnic, confessional or of gender, a UNSC resolution as described would pave the way for a sane basis for healing Iraq’s wounds as a nation, also upholding the concept of citizenship — the basis of any modern state — against the occupation’s current tribal, sectarian and feudal concept of identity. It would be a preventive action against the politics of divide and rule and the use of ethnic cleansing as a political instrument to control the common riches of a people.

The UNSC should draft and pass a resolution as described if it wants to rehabilitate itself from its consistent failure to uphold its own legal charter, protect the people of Iraq and state of Iraq, as well as international peace and stability. Such a resolution defends the principle of equality before law, the permanent sovereignty of people over their national resources, and the unalienable right of refugees to return to their homes, thereby giving the UNSC opportunity to break away from its perpetual double standards in the implementation of international justice.

Iraqis have paid a price that leaves one wordless in defending human life and values. Humanity should feel responsible for protecting these people in their heroic struggle for national liberation and take immediate steps to defend their rights and their sovereignty.

• The writer is coordinator of the Iraqi International Initiative on refugees (www.3iii.org).

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Al-Ahram Weekly Online : Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/879/focus.htm

Sono più di quattro milioni gli iracheni costretti ad abbandonare le loro case, circa 2 milioni sono sfollati all’interno dell’Iraq, altrettanti profughi nei paesi vicini: Siria, Giordania e Libano. Come abbiamo raccontato su questo giornale, la situazione dei profughi è drammatica, anche perché nei paesi ospitanti gli iracheni non sono riconosciuti formalmente come «rifugiati» e quindi la loro situazione è estremamente precaria. Soprattutto non hanno il permesso di lavorare e quindi di guadagnarsi da vivere. Alla fine di novembre il premier iracheno al Maliki aveva offerto circa 800 dollari (un milione di dinari) ai profughi che rientravano nel paese. Peccato che contemporaneamente annunciava anche dal 1 gennaio 2008 la riduzione delle razioni alimentari distribuite alla popolazione bisognosa.
L’obiettivo del premier era quello di dimostrare che la sicurezza in Iraq è migliorata, come sostengono gli americani, e quindi si può tornare a vivere a Baghdad. Sono stati in pochi a credere alle parole del premier (25.000 secondo la Mezzaluna rossa irachena) e la maggior parte degli iracheni rientrati lo hanno fatto perché non avevano più mezzi per sopravvivere. Anche se al loro rientro molti, non trovando più la casa (distrutta o occupata, sono finiti tra gli sfollati.
Tra i profughi in Siria abbiamo incontrato anche molti iracheni che non si rassegnano ad essere trattati come un “pezzenti” da chi distribuisce loro aiuti alimentari di pessima qualità e rivendicano il diritto a godere dei proventi del petrolio del loro paese. Proprio per recepire questa richiesta è stato promosso un appello a livello internazione, già firmato da diverse personalità.
«Gli Iracheni sfollati e rifugiati non possono attendere fino al loro ritorno al luogo d’origine per vedere soddisfatti i propri bisogni primari. La comunità internazionale ha l’obbligo morale di agire subito. La Risoluzione del Consiglio di sicurezza Onu 986 del 1995 ha stabilito che tutti gli iracheni devono godere dei profitti del petrolio iracheno. In quanto cittadini iracheni, i rifugiati iracheni hanno eguali diritti in relazione al godimento della ricchezza irachena.
Chiediamo a tutti i governi, le agenzie e le organizzazioni delle Nazioni unite, facciamo appello alle leggi, ai diritti umani e alle associazioni umanitarie, nonché a tutte le persone consapevoli, affinché lavorino insieme per assicurare che il Consiglio di Sicurezza dell’Onu adotti e applichi questa proposta, lo Stato iracheno deve obbligatoriamente stanziare una parte dei profitti del petrolio per i rifugiati iracheni.
Chiediamo che gli Stati in modo particolare quelli coinvolti nell’invasione illegale e nella distruzione dell’Iraq adempiano ai propri obblighi e facciano fronte alle proprie responsabilità e forniscano i fondi necessari per la missione dell’Unhcr volta a proteggere i profughi iracheni.
Facciamo appello a tutti affinché si raccolgano fondi e si prendano tutte quelle misure necessarie a fornire un aiuto diretto ai rifugiati iracheni e alle organizzazioni che li stanno aiutando.
In Iraq l’umanità sta soffrendo. Abbiamo la responsabilità morale di salvarla. Unisciti a noi.
Iniziativa Internazionale Irachena a favore dei rifugiati iracheni. Per adesioni e informazioni: www.3iii.org

Nord Sud XXI and the Arab Jurists Union welcome the report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and thank her for the continued commitment to contributing to the protection of human rights around the world. We would, however, like to draw attention to concerns that we hope will be highlighted in the High Commissioner’s activities during the coming months and which we noted appear to have received perhaps inadequate attention in the last few months despite the serious nature of the human rights violations.

Iraq is the most serious human rights disaster in the world. Through a combination of use of massive military force, foreign occupation, and domestic neglect more than 1,000,000 Iraqis have been killed, an estimated almost 3,000,000 Iraqis have been internally displaced and an estimated 20% of the Iraqis — more than 4 million — cannot live in their country. At the same time the Human Rights Council refuses to discuss the human rights situation in Iraq and we note that it is not discussed in your recent report. This is extremely unfortunate. As if crying out in pain at this astounding neglect, Iraqi refugees themselves have launched an initiative — the Iraqi International Initiative on refugees — calling upon the United Nations to provide a significant proportion of the resources acquired through the sale of Iraqi oil to Iraqi refugees. There already exist two Iraqi Trust Funds administered respectively by the UN Development Group and the World Bank. These funds should prioritize support to Iraqi refugees and the countries that host these refugees. We hope that the High Commissioner and every member of the Council will support this initiative to ensure that Iraqi oil money is spent on all Iraqis, especially Iraqi refugees.

More than sixty years ago the violation of Palestinians’ human rights began. This makes Palestine the longest standing human rights tragedy with which the Office of the High Commissioner and the United Nations human rights mechanisms have ever confronted. These violations started even before states pledged their allegiance to the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and they are continuing. Little effective action has been taken to ensure the protection of the human rights of Palestinians. We hope that the Office of the High Commissioner and the Human Rights Council will prioritize making an effective contribution to protecting the human rights of Palestinians. We hope that these efforts will include effective steps to encourage Palestinian unity as a show of real solidarity with the Palestinian people. Both the Office of the High Commissioner’s and the Council’s own effectiveness and efficacy is challenged by the failure to ensure the human rights of Palestinians. We hope that ending this unfortunate and unprecedented shortcoming of our human rights mechanisms will be a priority for the Office of the High Commissioner in the coming months.

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World Against War Conference – Dec 1 2007

World Against War Conference – Dec 1 2007

Thank you – Chairperson,
Ladies and gentlemen, anti-war and pacifist friends – good evening
It is good to be here. It has been a long day. I hope your hearts and minds are still open for business!

Given the urgency, and the humanitarian calamity it represents, I wish to use my 10 minutes to draw your attention to the terrible plight of today’s Iraqi refugees – outside the country, and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) – within.

This tragic human dislocation has been created by the active violation of the UN Charter and other aspects of international law. This violation was demonstrated by the American terrorism of Shock and Awe, and the invasion of sovereignty, culture, destruction of civilian infrastructure. Irreparable damage to society and fundamental human rights have ensued.. This outrageous unprovoked Act of Aggression – brought to Iraq yet again the horrors of war. Bush and Blair’s pre-emptive strike has led to the deaths of many hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. See the report of the Lancet and John Hopkins.

During the occupation, the atrocities of the US/UK have become only too well known – such as cluster bombing, block busters, use of depleted uranium and M85. Some 250,000 US “heroes”, inclusive of over 100,000 private sector hired guns – have maimed and killed civilians. “Collateral damage” is the obscene term used in Washington. This illegal war has brought on the terrible violence of legitimate resistance. US propaganda and Washington intentions have set in motion the horrors of sectarian strife. The American and British intention to crush Iraq, its people and any “threat” they supposedly posed – has been tragically accomplished.

The consequences are many – and as always in the modern history of Iraq – the people have paid the price with their lives, and their wellbeing. Imperialism, power, and greed in respect of oil and the ambition for a strategic military location – central to the Region – has destroyed Iraq as many of us knew it. But of course – the spirit of the Iraqi people is indestructible. They cannot be broken. They will resist, they will recover and they will overcome the catastrophes of recent years.

Over and above massive loss of civilian life, IS THE TRAGIC CONSEQUENCE OF REFUGEES. It is estimated some 4.7 million children, women and men have been forced from their homes and have fled – some displaced within and some outside Iraq. That means that more that 20 per cent of the entire population have been brutally uprooted by the violence of this War of Aggression – a war crime for which the US/UK, along with others, must be held responsible.

And I am advised that some 2/3 of those driven out, displaced and impoverished thereby are women – just as in sanctions – it is the women and their children that pay the highest price. We are hearing of “survival prostitution”. We know of suffering, deprivation and indignities that women face under the terrible circumstances of being homeless – being refugees whilst struggling to keep families alive and intact..

And we cannot forget those Iraqi refugees and IDPs created by thirteen years of genocidal UN sanctions – sanctions targeting the children of Iraq, set in motion and maintained by the US/UK-driven Security Council – with deadly consequences.

Despite the loud silence in Washington and London – some UNHCR work for assisting the refugees of Iraq is ongoing. It is too little. It lacks publicity. It lacks resources. It lacks adequate recognition and support by those responsible in the US and UK for this human calamity.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees is appealing for increased bilateral aid and “humanitarian visas”, the latter for neighbouring countries such as Syria and further-a- field. In the case of Syria, some 1.5 million refugees are creating great pressure – thus the reluctance to issue additional visas. Financing is desperately needed for housing and other refugee needs.

Regarding IDPs – the internally displaced – UNHCR reports over 800,000 in Iraqi Kurdistan close to the Turkish border. The current instability on that border is creating new problems for such people, leading to further displacement. UNHCR reports that some 2.3 million Iraqis are displaced throughout the country. Of these – more than 1 million were displaced prior to 2003.- during the UN sanctions period. Another 190,000 were displaced between 2003-05 and more than 1 million since the first American bombing of Samarra in February 2006.

UNHCR estimates that in addition to more than 1.5 million in Syria – some 500 – 700,000 Iraqis have fled to Jordan. Some families are receiving small allowances of $100-200 per month, but many are suffering badly as private funds run out – housing is too expensive, school is unaffordable if available at all, unemployment prevails, and medical and even food requirements cannot be met adequately.

As recently as 23 November, UNHCR Geneva – noting the reports of limited returns
home by a few refugees – says it is ready to assist but does not believe it is timely to organise and promote returns until secure conditions are in place. Meantime, as one would expect of Iraqi parents, many want to get home so their children can go back to school before the end of the first term!

In respect of IDPS, UNHCR notes an increase in the past few months – making for a total estimate by the Red Cross/Red Crescent some 2.4 million. This may be due to desperation, unending violence and closed borders, and tragically the continuation of “ethnic cleansing” – a sadly familiar form of violence which the occupying forces together with the Government have failed to halt.

It is a picture of human tragedy. Perhaps the more so on account of the wealth of Iraq, the innocence of its people swept up in a war not of their making, and the great potential for human wellbeing that resides in its soil. The chaos, the killing, the atrocities set in motion, the irreparable damage was brought about when the UN Security Council froze into legislative inertia, and thereby facilitated corruption of the word and spirit of the Charter. That failure enabled US terrorism, invasion and military occupation in violation of sovereignty and many international legal safeguards. Yet another example of UN double standards – the Permanent Five consider themselves above the law .

Some of you will be aware, that an important initiative has recently come from a new group – known as “The Iraqi International Initiative for Refugees” – working out of the Region. My contact and the Coordinator – and yours, when I shut up – is in Cairo – Ms Hana Al Bayati – who was deeply involved in a round of international tribunals – culminating in Istanbul 2005 to prosecute Bush, Blair and others charged with war crimes. See the website of the Brussels Tribunal.

The terms of reference, the plan of action, the goals of this Initiative can be found on its new website : www.3iii.org .. set up last Monday – 26th November.

In brief – the Initiative recognizes that the refugees and internally displaced of Iraq, be they outside the country, or within – as citizens of Iraq – have a right to access national financial resources from oil revenue. And I believe this international Conference in London today needs to provide active support. As a group, as representatives of others and as individuals – there is a role for each one of us.

The Website www.3iii.org reminds us that the international community and the present Government in Baghdad have legal obligations to support and protect refugees and internally displaced adequately. See the terms of reference of the UNHCR. Iraqi refugees are no different to others, and have equal rights under international provisions including the Declaration of Human Rights – dignity, right of return, family, employment, security – the right to life … as do we all.

The Initiative argues that the Security Council has an obligation to demand of the international community and the Baghdad Government that Iraqi oil revenue funding be provided now through appropriate agencies and hosting Governments. It demands that such assistance also be provided for return and resettlement as conditions of security and infrastructure allow. The website WWW.3iii.org provides more information and contains a petition you may wish to sign – and that might be a good starting point.

Just as Iraq has and continues to pay billions of dollars in reparations through the UN for damage in Kuwait – it is clear that similar, although much greater reparations, are due to the people of Iraq. Thus in addition to Iraq’s own revenues for refugees, I propose for consideration by this Conference that the Security Council be urged by the member states of the General Assembly to endorse a Resolution requiring the payment of an immediate advance on such REPARATIONS. I speak of the reparations that the US, UK and others involved in the War of Aggression on Iraq must be forced to pay.

It is difficult to determine the size, but reparations from the US and others would seem to require some 2-3 trillion Euros. We of the EU, UK, US, Australia, Canada and other wealthy collaborators – aggressive nations all – cannot be excused. Reparations are a must. The same UN that failed to stop Bush and Blair, now has an obligation to determine the amount of reparations, how and when payments begin.. We cannot bring back the Iraqi lives we have taken, but we can support reconstruction and the return of refugees and IDPs, and the rebuilding of millions of shattered lives.

The website www.3iii.org on the Iraqi Refugee crisis can speak for itself. However, I suspect like me – you are deeply concerned about the many crises of the Region – we can not forget the occupation of Palestine, or the threats to Iran, or the violence continuing in Afghanistan, and real uncertainties elsewhere – but we need to respond to the human catastrophe of some 4.7 million Iraqi refugees and IDPs urgently.

I appreciate this opportunity to speak. I have focused on Iraqi refugees grateful that other speakers have touched on issues I would otherwise have addressed. I refer to the abolition, or at least reform of the UN Security Council – to have the South properly represented in rotating but permanent seats: suspension of the US and UK from the Council pending prosecution of the leadership that undertook invasion and occupation: and the mandatory payment of reparations to Iraq by the US, UK and other collaborators – which I have mentioned.

I would call for an international investigation of US atrocities, torture, murder of civilians, CIA renditions, use of gun slingers acting outside of any law, arbitrary imprisonment of thousands, use of Depleted Uranium, cluster bombing and genocidal destruction of certain towns such as Fallujah.

And believe we must demand the immediate withdrawal of all “enemy combatants” – be they American, British or from any other source: the creation of conditions for election of a representative Government free of outside interference: abolition of a Constitution illegally drafted by the US under military occupation : and encourage free and proper Iraqi decision making on such as privatization, oil revenues, the presence of US military bases.

To close, let me say we need to assist our Iraqi friends find the shortest possible route to the restoration of national sovereignty. We need to demand an end to all forms of foreign interference. And we need to recognize – that the people of Iraq alone can best determine what is to be the future for their country, and in what manner that future is to be pursued, and obtained.

Thank you.

Denis J. Halliday