News & Analysis Some Palestinian refugees in Iraq to get special IDs
Report, IRIN (Aug 28, 2008)
The Iraqi government has launched a registration process for
Palestinian refugees who arrived between 1948 and 1967 -- and their
descendants -- to help ensure they benefit from government aid
programs. Those registered will be issued with ID cards which identify
them as refugees, the Ministry of Displacement and Migration said on 26
August.
Opinion/Editorial A Hidden Agenda for an Endless Stay
Hasan Abu Nimah, Electronic Iraq (Aug 27, 2008)
There were reports last week of an agreement between Iraq and the
United States on how to regulate the status of foreign - mainly
American - forces in Iraq following the termination of the UN mandate
they were retrospectively given after invading the country in 2003. The reports proved to be inaccurate. There are still serious points of disagreement between the two sides.
News & Analysis Members of "Awakening Group" say Sunni's have been unfairly targeted by Iraqi security forces
Ahmed Ali and Dahr Jamail, Inter Press Service (Aug 26, 2008)
Ahmed Ali and Dahr Jamail report that "a military operation said to target al-Qaeda has ended
up targeting Sunni Muslims instead, creating new sectarian tensions. A
U.S.-backed security operation launched last month has only targeted
cities with majority Sunni populations such as Buhriz, Tahreer, Qatoon,
Mafraq, and Hay in Diyala province, north of Baghdad. The operation has
drawn more than 50,000 Iraqi soldiers."
War Every Day (eIraq Blog) After 5 years of war, Iraqis desperate for water
Jeff Severns Guntzel, Electronic Iraq (Aug 25, 2008)
Nearly a billion liters of raw sewage is dumped into Baghdad waterways
each day -- enough to fill 370 Olympic-sized pool, that's according to
a Reuter's report published today. It's an incredible story--and one rarely reported and one with tremendous public health consequences. The report tells of families living on the top floors of apartment
buildings--their morning ritual is to carry jugs to a communal tap at
street level and haul the day's water back up the stairs.
News & Analysis The Past Destroyed: Five Years Later
Chalmers Johnson, TomDispatch.com (Aug 25, 2008)
In the five years since the initial looting and pillaging of the Iraqi capital, thieves have stolen at least 32,000 items from some 12,000 archaeological sites across Iraq with no interference whatsoever from the occupying power. No funds have been appropriated by the American or Iraqi governments to protect the most valuable and vulnerable historical sites on Earth, even though experience has shown that just a daily helicopter overflight usually scares off looters. In 2006, the World Monuments Fund took the unprecedented step of putting the entire country of Iraq on its list of the most endangered sites.
Opinion/Editorial Change the Iraqis Can Believe In? Why Obama-Biden Could Mean More of the Same (Or Maybe Something Worse)
Reidar Visser, Historiae (Aug 25, 2008)
During Obama's recent trip to the Middle East, he revealed an extremely
dated way of thinking about Iraq, more or less reiterating the Iraq
cosmology of those Bush administration officials that have been in
charge since 2003. During a press conference in Amman on 22 July
following a visit to Anbar where meetings with "Sunni tribal leaders"
were high on the agenda, this tendency could be seen very clearly, with
Obama consistently portraying the principal dynamic of Iraqi politics
as a struggle between Shiites and Sunnis.
Aid & Development Iraqi refugee children head back to packed public schools in Jordan
Ziad Ayad, UNHCR (Aug 25, 2008)
Tens of thousands of children who have enrolled in Jordan's public
education system since King Abdullah II opened it up a year ago to all
Iraqi students, regardless of their legal status. With the encouragement of the UN refugee agency and its partners, many
Iraqi children have been leaving costly private institutions and
joining public schools - like the one in Amman's Marka district that
Laila attends. It is essential, says UNHCR, that all refugees
continue to receive an education, which was not possible for the
neediest before the king's decree.
