Fatih Abdulsalam / Azzaman & Jawad Ghanim / Azzaman – 2008-07-18 22:53:26
http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news2008-07-18kurd.htm
How Cheap Is Iraqi Blood!
Fatih Abdulsalam / Azzaman
(July 18, 2008) — Five years ago, international media weighed Iraqi blood drop by drop. Every drop that was shed was newsworthy and occupied their highlights.
That was with the start of the US invasion of 2003.
But as the invasion which the occupiers — the US and the UK — sold to us as ‘liberation’ turned into one of the most devastating and destructive military campaigns in man’s history, Iraqi blood started flowing in buckles, then barrels, then streams and then rivers.
It was too much for the media to accommodate. It became commonplace and in media terms no longer newsworthy despite the lakes and oceans that began forming as the streams and rivers started discharging their blood.
Iraqi deaths are no longer important. Their numbers attract no more attention. If the deaths are too many, then a subtitle will do the job.
Iraqis are being killed, injured and maimed in droves on a daily basis. But still that is not enough reason for the media to care.
Someone killed anywhere else –Israel, Pakistan, India, Lebanon, you name it — gets more attention than the daily flood of Iraqi blood.
Today Iraqi deaths have no place to be buried like millions of Iraqi refugees who have nowhere to go with almost all countries shutting their doors in their face.
There is even no one to collect the body parts of Iraqis as they are torn to pieces during US military operations or car bombings. A respected burial is a dream in Iraq today.
Ancient Iraqis were the first among world nations to compose epics mourning their dead. Today there is no one to accept condolences. The difference between life and death has disappeared in US-occupied Iraq.
Official counts of Iraqi deaths, if they exist, are there for political reasons. In fact there is no authority in Iraq to count Iraqi deaths.
Even the US, the ‘beacon’ of democracy and human rights, says it keeps no records of Iraqis it kills. How cheap!
Iraq has been bleeding profusely since the US invasion.
The US and the authorities it sponsors have been fuelling this bloodshed through their words and deeds.
Whatever they say or do leads to more bloodshed.
Their announcement of fresh military operations means more bloodshed. Their decision to redeploy troops means more bloodshed. The transfer of security to Iraqi authorities means more bloodshed. The decision to send more troops means more bloodshed. The decision to scale back the troops also means more bloodshed.
But as Iraqi blood flows, the occupiers, their stooges and the lackeys of other foreign powers must understand that they will soon begin bleeding as profusely as their victims.
Iraqis now have nothing else to lose. On the road to avenge their blood, it will be time for the others to bleed.
Let no one think that Iraqi blood is so cheap.
One Out of Five Iraqis Is a Refugee, UN Says
> Jawad Ghanim / Azzaman
(July 9, 2008) — An international conference on the plight of Iraqis displaced in the years since the US invasion says there is little hope at the end of the tunnel for millions of Iraqi refugees.
The conference organized by the Ministry of Immigration and attended by U.N. Refugee Agency estimated that about five million Iraqis are now refugees out of a population of more than 25 million.
Conference experts said more than 1 million Iraqis had fled the country in the four decades of the rule of former leader Saddam Hussein and his Baath party.
But the exodus surged in the violent years that followed the US invasion of 2003.
Some experts described Iraq as “a nation on the move” with millions of Iraqis relocated by force.
They spoke of armies of internally displaced Iraqis — refugees in their own country — and highlighted the plight of millions who opted to leave to neighboring states.
The return of relative calm to violent areas like Baghdad for example was good news, the experts said.
But they added the government was doing almost nothing to help those willing to return.
When families escape a neighborhood, their property is not protected.
Many of those returning find their houses occupied by other families or turned into offices or barracks by rival militias.
A government decision calling on the security forces to compel individuals and political factions to evacuate property not belonging to them remains ink on paper.
The conferees found that despite public claims to the contrary the government has failed to honor commitments to help Iraqi refugees inside and outside Iraq.
The government had allocated nearly $2 billion for refugees but experts charged there was no sign that the money had reached the beneficiaries.
One Out of fFve Iraqis Is a Refugee, UN Says
Jawad Ghanim / Azzaman
(July 9, 2008) — An international conference on the plight of Iraqis displaced in the years since the US invasion says there is little hope at the end of the tunnel for millions of Iraqi refugees.
The conference organized by the Ministry of Immigration and attended by U.N. Refugee Agency estimated that about five million Iraqis are now refugees out of a population of more than 25 million.
Conference experts said more than 1 million Iraqis had fled the country in the four decades of the rule of former leader Saddam Hussein and his Baath party.
But the exodus surged in the violent years that followed the US invasion of 2003.
Some experts described Iraq as “a nation on the move” with millions of Iraqis relocated by force.
They spoke of armies of internally displaced Iraqis — refugees in their own country — and highlighted the plight of millions who opted to leave to neighboring states.
The return of relative calm to violent areas like Baghdad for example was good news, the experts said.
But they added the government was doing almost nothing to help those willing to return.
When families escape a neighborhood, their property is not protected.
Many of those returning find their houses occupied by other families or turned into offices or barracks by rival militias.
A government decision calling on the security forces to compel individuals and political factions to evacuate property not belonging to them remains ink on paper.
The conferees found that despite public claims to the contrary the government has failed to honor commitments to help Iraqi refugees inside and outside Iraq.
The government had allocated nearly $2 billion for refugees but experts charged there was no sign that the money had reached the beneficiaries.
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