May ICFTU bulletin on Iraq

Regional Conference on
“The Challenges of Privatization and Social Protection Policy in Iraq -
A Trade Union Perspective”
April 2-4, 2006
Jerusalem Hotel
Amman-Jordan
Final Report
The ICFTU organized a Regional Conference on "The Challenges of Privatization and Social Protection Policy
in Iraq - A Trade Union Perspective" on April 2-4, 2006 in Amman/Jordan. The conference was attended by the
following representatives from the Iraqi workers federations and organizations:
1. GFIW
2. FWCUI
3. IKWSU
4. KGWSU
5. Basra Oil Federation
Representatives of the following international federations/organizations also attended the conference:
1. ITF
2. TUC
3. International Solidarity Center
4. Platform London, a British NGO

- The participants were honored by the presence of Brother Mazen Al-Ma'ayta, President of the GFJTU,
who welcomed the participants to Amman and voiced his hope that the Iraqi people and workers would live in
stability, peace and growth. Brother Al-Ma'ayta paid tribute to the ICFTU solidarity with all the Arab workers
in general and the Iraqi workers in particular.
- Various presentation and country reports were made during the workshop by the following speakers:
1. Representative of the ICFTU/Brussels
2. Representative of the ITF
3. Representative of the TUC
4. Representative of the Solidarity Center
5. Representative of Platform London, a British NGO
- The participants found all the presentations valuable and useful as they were based on academic,
practical and legal bases.
- The proposed opinions and ideas were discussed and shared by all the participants who benefited from
the country papers and reports presented during the workshop. Opinions, ideas, expertise and experiences were
exchanged among the participants. The papers presented were very relevant to the main theme of the workshop.
- After the discussions and exchange of opinions, the participants came up with the following major
recommendations:
First: The Recommendations to the Iraqi Government (Iraqi Stakeholders):
1. To issue, as soon as possible, the draft labor code which had been discussed as a new labor law for the
coming period; To integrate all amendments, opinions and recommendations of trade union federation
representatives and other participants in the ICFTU workshop and the discussions conducted with the Iraqi
Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs; To publish the draft law in the media for one month for the purpose of
enriching this draft and the need to involve workers' representatives;
2. To draft a pension and social security law that serves all workers and unifies all salaries, wages, and
minimum and maximum pension for employees and workers;
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3. To conduct dialogue with the Iraqi trade unions before any privatization or restructuring process in any
public department, institution or company;
4. To reject any privatization or "Production-Sharing Agreement" in the oil sector, on the ground that
there is no justification for this to happen;
5. To reject any privatization of the fundamental public utilities, such as health, education, electricity, and
water;
6. To widen the scope of the employment and vocational training offices to include the young workers
throughout Iraq; To coordinate with the other ministries, especially the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs to
fill the vacancies by the registered names in the employment offices;
7. To increase the scope of the social security coverage to cover from one worker at the workplace and to
cover all workers under the Pension and Social Security Law;
8. To support and promote the rations card elements because this card is considered the fundamental
source of living for the Iraqi citizen;
9. To implement the principles of transparency and justice in establishing the salaries of those covered by
the social safety net; To use a database; To eliminate red-tape (bureaucracy); To use computers at work;
10. To adopt a national development strategy that creates, among other priorities, decent job opportunities
that respect human dignity and contribute to combating unemployment and poverty;
11. To respect and implement the international and Arab fundamental labor standards ratified by Iraq, and
activate Collective Bargaining;
12. To respect trade union rights and freedoms, not to violate them through intervention in the internal
affairs of trade union and workers organizations, and to abolish Directive No. 150/1987 which transforms
workers into employees, taking into consideration the rights and gains they have acquired;
13. To abolish Directive No. 8750 issued on August 8, 2005 which empowers the government to confiscate
the movable and immovable assets and balances because these assets and balances are trade union money and
the government has no right to freeze them;
14. To reinstate the deducted money of the workers' social security contributions from the Ministry of
Finance and to invest this money in economic ventures that would benefit workers and citizens;
Second: The Recommendations in terms of the International Financial Institutions:
1. The participants demand the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to seek consultations
with workers' representatives in any project they intend to implement in Iraq. The workers will not accept any
decision that would cause harm to the workers and society;
2. The participants request the World Bank to provide funding for industrial development projects that
can generate decent job opportunities to absorb unemployment according to the market needs;
3. The participants urge the World Bank not to privatize the social security system in Iraq due to the
serious negative impact of such a step on the current and future status of the workers in Iraq; and to work in
consultation with the ILO to implement the contents of the ILO Standards and Conventions in this regard;
Third: The Role of the Regional and International Trade Union Organizations:
1. To increase their solidarity, training, and rehabilitation through the cooperation of these organizations
with the Iraqi workers and people;
2. To make the Iraqi trade union voice heard in the international, financial, organizations in order to
integrate the social dimension in their policies and hence maintain the workers' rights;
3. To involve workers' representatives in setting programs and monitoring their implementation in the
development and reconstruction process in Iraq;
ICFTU IRAQ NEWSLETTER (2) 2/05/2006
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4. The participants demand the ICFTU to intervene with the WTO in order not to liberalize the
fundamental sectors such as health, education, water and electricity;
In the end, the participants expressed their gratitude and appreciation to the organizers and all those who
worked for the success of this workshop and hoped to participate in similar activities in the future.
The Participants
Amman, April 4, 2006
3. ICFTU Protest: Interference in union affairs
Ibrahim Jaafari
Prime Minister
Office of the Prime Minister
Bagdad
Iraq
By fax: c/o Iraqi Embassy in Brussels:
02/374.76.15
TUR/FW 18 April 2006
Dear Prime Minister,
Interference in union affairs
The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), which represents more than 155
million workers through its 236 affiliates in 154 countries and territories, strongly protests against the
interference by your country's Supreme National Commission for Debaathification (SNCD) in the
internal affairs of the Baghdad-based Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU).
In a letter to the IFTU dated 8 March 2006, the SNCD orders the IFTU to "implement the Governing
Council's decision No. 3 [regarding] the formation of the preparatory committees and the election
candidates". Attached to the letter was a summary of what the Governing Council's decision consisted
of, including a number of rules for the composition of the IFTU's preparatory Committee and the way
it should, in the SNCD's view, organise trade union elections.
Furthermore, on 23 March 2006, the SNCD sent the IFTU a list with five names of persons that "have
no right to occupy any leadership position in any federation, society, association or union in Iraq".
Mr. Prime Minister, the ICFTU strongly objects against this inordinate interference in the designation
of the leadership of the IFTU. Dictating to a union how to organise its leadership elections, and whom
not to include in it, is a blatant violation of International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 87 on
Freedom of Association. Although Iraq did not ratify this convention, it has an obligation as an ILO
member to respect the principles enshrined in it. I therefore strongly urge you to ensure that the IFTU
benefits of complete freedom in organising its trade union elections and designating its trade union
leadership. Finally, I urge you to ratify ILO Convention 87 on the right to freedom of association.
Yours sincerely,
General Secretary
ICFTU IRAQ NEWSLETTER (2) 2/05/2006
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II. TRADE UNION NEWS
General Union of Oil Employees in Basra
• The ICFTU was informed that the Iraqi government again froze the bank accounts of the
Basra Oil Union, despite an earlier resolution of decree 8750. Union representatives have
stated that the frozen money includes some financial support received from different
international organizations, and hence has nothing to do with governmental money. The Basra
Oil Union fears that the impact of this government action on their union’s activities will be
significant and are asking for support from the ICFTU and the international trade union
organizations.
Kurdistan General Workers Syndicate Union - KGWSU (Erbil-based)
• The KGWSU sent out a memo on the occasion of world women’s day on March 8th,
congratulating the women worldwide and in Kurdistan. KGWSU’s president, Mr Hangaw
Abdullah Khan, praised and thanked the Kurdish women for their suffering and their fight for
democracy and equal rights.
General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW)1
• GFIW Statement on the Death of Iraqi Trade Union Leader, Torki al-Lihabi
The Iraqi labour movement mourns with sadness the death of trade union leader, brother Torki al-
Lihabi, President of the Transport and Communication Workers’ Union (TCWU) who has been killed
in a road traffic accident in Baghdad on the evening of 20 March 2006.
Our late working class hero was instrumental in the formation of the Iraqi Federation Trade Unions
(IFTU) and the creation of his own union, the TCWU after the fall of Saddam's dictatorship. He
played a significant role in the re-birth of Iraq’s independent trade unions by working closely with the
global labour movement. His union was the first to affiliate to the International Transport Workers’
Federation (ITF).
The Iraqi Workers' Federation (IWF), while mourning our departed comrade and acknowledging the
grave loss to his family and our movement, pledges that we shall continue with determination to build
independent, democratic and free Iraqi trade unions.
Long live the working class.
IWF Executive Committee
• ITF’s tribute to Torki al-Lihabi
Tribute to Iraqi trade union leader
1, Please note that there are currently two English translations for the same federation! The GFIW (General
Federation of Iraqi Workers) is regularly called the IWF (Iraqi Workers’ Federation). From a linguistic
perspective, GFIW would be the better translation of the federation’s Arabic name “Al-Ittihad al Aam Li-‘Umal
al Iraq”.
ICFTU IRAQ NEWSLETTER (2) 2/05/2006
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24 March 2006
The ITF has paid tribute to Torky Al Lihabi, an Iraqi trade union leader who died on 20 March in a
road accident in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
Torky Al Lihabi was President of the Transport and Communications Workers’ Union in Iraq and the
founder of the new transport union in the newly unified General Federation of Iraqi Workers. His was
the first Iraqi trade union to join the ITF. A long-standing fighter for trade union freedoms in Iraq, he
was jailed for many years under Sadam Hussein’s regime. He was also detained by the American
forces in the period following the invasion of Iraq.
Commenting on the news of Al Lihabi’s passing, ITF General Secretary David Cockroft said: “His
death will be a severe loss to those concerned with trade union rights in Iraq and around the world.”
• Continued Violation to the Iraqi Workers Rights - Press Statement Issued by
General Federation of Iraq Workers
Within the series of violating the union rights and freedoms in Iraq, the terrorists attacked a number of
unionists over the period from mid March to mid April. Such attacks varied between kidnapping and
assassination. The terrorists benefited from the state of disarray in the Country and wreaked their
wrath upon the workers and their union organization because they realize the significant role of thee
workers in rebuilding the new Iraq. On 6th April 2006, they kidnapped the unionist Hajem Kate'
Jabbarah (the vice-president of the Agriculture and Food Trade Union – Baghdad Branch, and he was
released on 9th April after he was severely tortured by the kidnappers. Before that, unionist Amer
Eifan, the member of the union committee at the Concrete Factory at Abu Ghraib, unionist Najm
Muhsen Al-Maksousi, the secretary of the union committee at the Ministry of Irrigation/Agriculture
and Food Trade Union, and unionist Nathem Muhsen Aswad, the union committee head at the
Construction and Wood Trade Union, Baghdad Branch were kidnapped, and the fate of the latest is
unknown. The terrorists also put a bomb in the car of Mr. Saleh Jeyyad (the vice-chairman of the
union committee at Transportation Trade Union/ Federation of Basra Trade Unions) where Mr.
Jeyyad's car was exploded and he had some injuries. In addition, the terrorists assassinated a number
of Construction Sector in Baghdad, Nineveh, Basra and Deyala.
On another hand, the government authorities still violate the workers' rights and their union
organization by implementing the decision No. 150 for the year 1987 which bans the union
organization in the public sector and limits it to the private sector, and decree No. 8750 issued by the
Iraqi Council of Ministries which lays hand on the properties of the federations, unions and vocational
associations, and by activating and enforcing these decisions and decrees where the Transportation
Minister advisor issued instructions on the 18th of last March to all Ministry departments not to
cooperate with all trade unions and to send policemen to the arrest the unionists as the case was with
Mr. Nathem Radi the president of Basra Ports Trade Union, and Mr. Zaki Abdul A'ali Zibari , the
secretary-general of Basra Ports Trade Union, and threatened the union office members to quit the
union work and close the union headquarter merely because Basra Ports Trade Union claimed the
workers' rights at the ports sector. In addition, Kufah Police Department arrested the committee
members of Kufah Transportation Union (Transportation Union in Najaf – Federation of Najaf Trade
Unions) on 7th March 2006 and released them against a bail on 9th of the same month.
We don't forget the savage assault of the administrative apparatuses in Babylon Governorate against
the Federation of Babylon Trade Unions and sending policemen for more than once to close down the
federation quarter and confiscate the workers' properties. Such actions is a flagrant intervention in
the affairs of the workers federations and unions and an implementation of the apparatuses policy
which aims to find organizations controlled by the government orders.
In addition to the orders and the procedures of some ministries not to cooperate with the union
organization and to close down the quarters of the union committees to eradicate the democratic
ICFTU IRAQ NEWSLETTER (2) 2/05/2006
10
method and depend on the decisions and decrees issued by the previous dictator regime. Also, decree
No. 8750 issued by the Council of Ministers didn't cancel or dissolve the federations, unions and
cooperatives working in Iraq, which relied in its legitimacy on their rules, election conferences and
bylaws, and most of them were formed after the collapse of the previous regime.
The violation of the union rights and freedoms in Iraq violates the international covenants and
agreements on the union rights and freedoms, and the government should respect these covenants and
implement them, and provide protection to the unionists, and should not oppress or arrest them
because of their union work.
The General Federation of Iraq Workers struggles for an independent democratic union movement,
contributes in the productivity process, strongly stands against the administrative and financial
corruption, and stabilizes the democratic method in our new Iraq.
Executive Office
General Federation of Iraq Workers
18th April 2006
Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq (FWCUI)
• Memo on the killing of workers by terrorist and sectarian violence (Aptil 22nd
2006)
Employees of the Baghdad Municipality killed by terrorists. Workers from the electricity sector,
building industry etc attacked and partially killed during ethno-religious tensions. The FWCUI
demands more security provisions for the workers.
• Memo about a symposium organized by the FWCUI
Symposium about privatization policies of the IFIs held in the General Company for Mechanic
Industries in Alexandria – Iraq on March 23rd. Main topics:
􀃆 IFI policies in Iraq and the privatization project
􀃆 Challenges for the workers and the international labor movement
• Solidarity letter to the workers and students of France
The massive protest that swept France against the anti worker decree recently came to prove the
vitality and depth of radicalism in the labor movement in France where the radical left and workers
are the spear head of the labor and libertarian movement in the world. The march of hundreds of
thousands in Paris streets is the scream of the French workers and the world against the exploitation
and anti workers policies.
In addition the participation of the students confirms the unity and integration of the mass with the
labor movement. This movement coincided with Paris Commune who commemorate the heroic acts of
Paris workers and establishment of the first labor government in the history
The workers in Iraq who watch proudly their colleagues in France, consider their victory as an Iraqi
victory as they face the plans and agendas of the US led invasion. The invasion that brought
reactionary and right wing groups to power crumbled the society and drove it to a potential sectarian
conflict.
We solute the French workers and students
Long live labor movement
ICFTU IRAQ NEWSLETTER (2) 2/05/2006
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Long live Freedom and equality
Federation of worker councils and unions in Iraq
www.uuiraq.org
March 2006
• Memo on the arrest of Kurdish workers
The FWCUI informs about the arrest of activists Salih alias Usta Hussein and Zimnako Aziz, who
were arrested by the Kurdish authorities together with other workers after they organized a
demonstration (Halabja remembrance) in Suleimaniya. The FWCUI asks the international trade unions
and humanitarian organizations to put pressure on the authorities to free the activists.
III. INTERVIEW WITH EX-NEOCON FRANCIS FUKUYAMA
Interview with Ex-Neocon Francis Fukuyama (BY SPIEGEL ONLINE)
FRANCIS FUKUYAMA
Francis Fukuyama has considered himself a neo- conservative for much of his academic career. He
became famous in 1993 with the publishing of "The End of History and the Last Man." Now, though,
he is turning his back on the neo- conservative agenda largely because of the Iraq war and the fervent
support on the behalf of many neo- conservatives for that war. His new book, "America at the
Crossroads: Democracy, Power, and the Neoconservative Legacy," looks at where the Bush
Administration and the neo- conservatives went wrong in Iraq.
"A Model Democracy Is not Emerging in Iraq"
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Your new book, "America at the Crossroads: Democracy, Power, and the
Neoconservative Legacy," is a rejection of the political views you have held throughout your academic
career. What happened?
Fukuyama: Iraq happened. The process of distancing myself from neo-conservatism happened four
years ago really. I had decided the war wasn't a good idea some time in 2002 as we were approaching
the invasion of Iraq.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Why? After all, one of the neo-conservative pillars is a profound belief in
democracy and the spread of democracy.
Fukuyama: I was partly unsure whether the United States could handle the transition to a democratic
government in Iraq. But the biggest problem I had was that the people pushing for the intervention
lacked self-knowledge about the US. When I look back over the 20th century history of American
interventions, particularly those in the Caribbean and Latin America, the consistent problem we've had
is being unable to stick it out. Before the Iraq war, it was clear that if we were going to do Iraq
properly, we would need a minimum commitment of five to 10 years. It was evident from the
beginning that the Bush administration wasn't preparing the American people for that kind of a
mission. In fact, it was obvious the Bush people were trying to do Iraq on the cheap. They thought
they could get in and out in less than a year.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Where did this belief come from? Was it naivete, hubris or just plain ignorance?
ICFTU IRAQ NEWSLETTER (2) 2/05/2006
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Fukuyama: A lot of the neo-conservatives drew the wrong lessons from the end of the Cold War and
the collapse of communism. They generalized from that event that all totalitarian regimes are basically
hollow at the core and if you give them a little push from the outside, they're going to collapse. Prior to
the fall of the Berlin Wall, most people thought that communism would be around for a long time. In
fact, it disappeared within seven or eight months in 1989. That skewed the thinking about the nature of
dictatorships and neo-conservatives made a wrong analogy between Eastern Europe and what would
happen in the Middle East.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: So it was an invasion based on misinformation and misinterpretation?
Fukuyama: Yes.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: There were, of course, a number of justifications offered by the Bush
administration for invading Iraq. Spreading democracy was one element, but so were fear of weapons
of mass destruction and fear of terrorism. How much neo-conservatism went into the final decision to
invade?
Fukuyama: The invasion of Iraq was not based primarily on the desire to democratize Iraq. The US
was sincerely worried about weapons of mass destruction. The Bush administration also asserted a
terrorist link -- though I think that was much less honest than the belief in WMDs. The political
constitution of the Middle East was the third of three motivations for undertaking the war.
[…]
Read the full interview at:
Source: SPIEGEL ONLINE - March 22, 2006, 03:55 PM
URL: http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,407315,00.html
IV. ANOTHER ICG REPORT ON IRAQ PUBLISHED
The Next Iraqi War? Sectarianism and Civil Conflict
Amman/Baghdad/Brussels, 27 February 2006: Iraqis and the international community
must act urgently to prevent an all-out civil war that would tear the country apart.
“The Next Iraqi War? Sectarianism and Civil Conflict” the latest report from the International Crisis
Group, says efforts to hold Iraq together are on the verge of collapse. It analyses a polarisation that
was not inevitable and prescribes how to stop the downward slide and put Iraq on track to unity,
compromise and reconciliation.
As the result of escalating sectarian violence and rhetoric over the past year, Sunni-Shiite tensions
evident since the removal of Saddam’s regime have become deep rifts. Brutal efforts of some
insurgents to exploit post-war-free-for-all and jumpstart civil war have been met with revenge acts.
The 22 February attack on the al-Askariya shrine in Samara and subsequent reprisals are just the latest
and most spectacular examples.
“There is still time to forge a genuine national compact and promote a national identity but
institutional restraints that so far have prevented a break-up are fast eroding”, says Robert Malley,
Crisis Group’s Middle East and North Africa Program Director. “The main burden is on Iraq’s leaders
but they need all the help and pressure the U.S. and others can muster”.
To reverse the trend, the winners of the December 2005 elections must establish a government of
genuine national unity with popular credibility and give Sunni Arab leaders more than just token roles;
the government must make every effort to restore a sense of national identity and address Iraqis’ top
ICFTU IRAQ NEWSLETTER (2) 2/05/2006
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concerns – personal safety and access to basic amenities. And it must begin to disband the sectarian
militias.
Substantive changes must also be made to the constitution. What has become the blueprint for Iraq’s
dissolution must become an inclusive document that protects all communities’ fundamental interests.
The U.S., neighbours, Europeans and others must push to convince Iraqi leaders to revise key articles
on federalism and oil distribution.
“It’s now up to Iraq’s religious authorities to urge their followers to remain calm in the face of
provocations, and to political leaders to lower their dangerously inflammatory rhetoric, lest a lowintensity
conflict turn into a full-scale sectarian war and the country disintegrate”, says Joost
Hiltermann, Crisis Group’s Middle East Project Director.
*Read the full Crisis Group report on our website: http://www.crisisgroup.org
V. ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS
1. World Bank mulls return to Iraq
The World Bank is considering returning staff to Iraq, almost three years after it
withdrew from the country.
Paul Wolfowitz, World Bank president, said it was looking at whether it was feasible to have
personnel on the ground to oversee its activities there. The organisation pulled out in August 2003
after the UN's head office was bombed, and has been running its Iraqi operations out of neighbouring
Jordan. It has offered Iraq $500m (£281m) in loans, its first support since 1973.
'Difficult environment'
The funds - requested by the Iraqi authorities - are designed to help accelerate existing projects to
rebuild Iraq's shattered infrastructure. A World Bank administered trust is already supporting schemes
to train civil servants, rebuild schools, print textbooks, improve health care and provide access to clean
water. The trust has $400m at its disposal for supporting Iraq's most urgent infrastructural needs.
However, this has proved increasingly difficult amid escalating levels of violence and squabbles over
the formation of a new government, still unresolved after December's elections. Corruption concerns
have also undermined some development efforts.
Staff safety
The World Bank said it would only allow staff to return to Iraq if it could guarantee their safety. "One
of the things we are looking at is whether we would be more effective if we had a presence in Iraq,"
Mr Wolfowitz said. "It is a difficult environment to operate in so the disbursement rate is pretty low."
As a former US deputy defence secretary, Mr Wolfowitz was a key architect of the US-led invasion of
Iraq in 2003. His appointment as head of the global development body in 2004 was highly
controversial.
Source: Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/business/4918258.stm
Published: 2006/04/18 10:36:20 GMT
© BBC MMVI
ICFTU IRAQ NEWSLETTER (2) 2/05/2006
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2. Iraq conflict thwarts PM Jaafari
By Roger Hardy
BBC Middle East analyst
The step which ended months of political deadlock in Iraq was the announcement by the
interim Prime Minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, that his political future should be decided
by the Shia alliance which had nominated him for the job.
He had previously insisted he would not stand down.
Mr Jaafari's misfortune was that he was prime minister at a time when Iraq began its descent into bitter
sectarian conflict.
It is debatable whether any Iraqi leader could have solved the country's most pressing problems.
But it did not help that Mr Jaafari - a softly-spoken former medical doctor in his late 50s - came across
as weak and ineffectual, a well-intentioned intellectual rather than a man of decisive leadership.
Growing criticism
[…]
After Saddam Hussein's fall, Mr Jaafari returned home, helping the Daawa become one of the three
dominant elements in a loose Shia alliance.
After being appointed prime minister last year, however, he came under increasing criticism for failing
to curb the violence and increasing sectarianism, or to improve basic services for ordinary Iraqis.
At the end, his stubborn refusal - right up to the last minute - to stand down alienated his remaining
allies, and it was reportedly only after the intervention of the most senior Shia cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-
Sistani, that he finally relinquished his post.
Source: Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/4932692.stm
Published: 2006/04/21 20:34:25 GMT
© BBC MMVI
3. Cautious optimism for new Iraqi PM
The appointment of Shia politician Jawad Maliki to form a new Iraqi government has largely been
welcomed by newspapers in the region. Several Iraqi papers express relief that the months of political
deadlock has finally been broken and call for a government of national unity to be formed swiftly.
But some papers are unimpressed by the "quota system" used to select Mr Maliki, the president and
the parliament speaker. And one Saudi paper fears that the sectarian divisions are too wide for any
government to resolve.
[…]
Source: Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/4938458.stm
Published: 2006/04/24 12:45:18 GMT
© BBC MMVI
ICFTU IRAQ NEWSLETTER (2) 2/05/2006
15
4. Iraqi PM reverts to first name Nuri
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - As Iraqi Prime Minister- designate Jawad al-Maliki sets about naming a
cabinet to battle the country's woes, one of his first tasks is to rename himself.
After adopting the first name Jawad to hide his identity and protect his family when he fled Saddam
Hussein's regime to Syria in 1979, Maliki now plans to revert to his real name, Nuri.
"The name 'Jawad' was a necessary measure during a specific period to protect his relatives from the
dictatorship's regime, but now he wishes to be known by his real name," an official in Maliki's office
said.
Maliki, asked by President Jalal Talabani last Saturday to become premier and form a government of
national unity, must choose a cabinet and submit the names to parliament for approval within four
weeks.
Source: Reuters
5. Jawad al-Maliki: A novice, but outspoken
By Sabrina Tavernise The New York Times
SUNDAY, APRIL 23, 2006
BAGHDAD Jawad al-Maliki, the Shiite politician selected Saturday to be Iraq's first permanent prime
minister, is decisive and direct and known for speaking his mind, but has little experience in
governing, Iraqi political leaders said.
Maliki, 55, appeared stiff and nervous before television cameras as he spoke for the first time after his
nomination by Shiite political parties on Saturday morning. […] He appeared to choose his words to
allay fears that he would be too Shiite for the job.
[…]
Maliki has not held a formal role in the Iraqi government since the American invasion, but his lack of
experience in the executive branch might be one of his biggest strengths, some colleagues said. Jaafari,
who agreed to step aside this week, was distasteful to Kurdish and Sunni parties precisely because of
his political track record, which they saw as poor.
[…]
He comes from a middle-class Shiite family in the south of Iraq.
Born in 1950, he grew up in Hindiay, between Karbala and Hilla. Maliki earned a master's degree in
Arabic language and literature in northern Iraq.
He worked in the Education Department in Hilla, according to accounts in Iraqi newspapers, before
fleeing the country in 1979. He spent 23 years in exile from Hussein's rule, mostly in Syria.
Maliki had been broadly considered one of the harder line Shiite politicians, a worldview shaped
during those years of exile, when he ran the Damascus branch of the Dawa party, a religious Shiite
party.
Since crossing back into Iraq secretly in late 2002, not long before the American invasion, he has
played a prominent role in the independent de-Baathification committee, showing himself as an
uncompromising proponent of policies that took members of the Baath Party out of public jobs and
alienated many Sunni Arabs.
[…]
ICFTU IRAQ NEWSLETTER (2) 2/05/2006
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Perhaps as a measure of how little he is known, he is alternatively described as a hard-liner and as a
man able to compromise. He was one of the main drafters of the country's Constitution last year, and it
was during that time that he forged relationships with Kurdish parties.
"People could reach a modus operandi with him where they couldn't with Jaafari," said one political
adviser who is close to the Shiite bloc. "He's more rational."
Still, some Iraqis expressed reservations that his hard-line reputation and direct approach might
alienate others at the political negotiating table. An Iraqi politician who used to worked closely with
Maliki said he is "inflexible, sticks to his own viewpoints, and is very bold in expressing them," and
that character trait, he said, will eventually get him into trouble with the Kurdish and Sunni parties.
Maliki has been chairman of the Security Committee of the National Assembly, and speaker of the
Shiite bloc, known as the United Iraqi Alliance.
One independent Shiite woman politician said she had experienced difficulties with Maliki because
she was a woman. Shatha al-Musawi said Maliki had refused to include her and three other Shiite
women in a committee that was negotiating over the prime minister's post.
"The incident along with my history of work with him in the National Assembly gave me this
impression that he thinks women are not qualified enough for this kind of job," she said.
Source: IHT / NYT, April 24th
VI. VARIOUS
1. Arab League Plans to Open Office in Iraq
By SALAH NASRAWI, Associated Press Writer Sat Mar 4, 6:56 PM ET
CAIRO, Egypt - The Arab League will open offices in Iraq for the first time since the 2003 U.S.-led
invasion, part of its efforts to help reconcile the country's Sunni Arab, Shiite and Kurdish
communities, the league's chief said Saturday.
The United States has been seeking greater Arab involvement in Iraq, hoping to give legitimacy to the
current government. But Arab nations were long reluctant, fearing participation would be seen as
condoning the U.S. invasion, which many of them opposed.
[…]
But last year, the league made efforts to get involved. Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa
visited Iraq, then the league hosted a reconciliation conference in Cairo in November between Iraq's
Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish leaders.
[…]
The league is planning to sponsor a second reconciliation conference, this one in Baghdad, in June.
The league representation office is expected to be opened by the time of the conference and will be
headed by the Moroccan diplomat Mukhtar Lamani, Arab diplomats said.
[…]
Source: SALAH NASRAWI, Associated Press Writer Sat Mar 4, 6:56 PM ET
ICFTU IRAQ NEWSLETTER (2) 2/05/2006
17
2. UN damns 'illegal' Iraq detention
The UN's human rights official in Iraq has said the Iraqi authorities are illegally holding
thousands of people.
Gianni Magazzeni said that of the 15,000 people held under Iraqi control, little more than half were
under the jurisdiction of the justice ministry.
This is the only body with the right to detain suspects for more than 72 hours.
[…]
DETENTION FACTS
29,565 people detained in Iraq
8,300 held legally by the Iraqi justice ministry
14,222 held by coalition forces
6,000 held by Iraqi interior ministry
460 are held by Iraqi defence ministry
More than 14,000 people are also being held by US-led coalition forces in Iraq.
Mr Magazzeni said the UN believed that number was far too high and he urged the US military
authorities to either charge or release them.
[…]
'Torture and execution'
He said the UN still did not have access to prisoners being held in unidentified coalition prisons, and
called for them to be released or handed over to Iraqi authorities to be charged.
"We want them to speed up this process," Mr Magazzeni said. He added that the UN was "very
concerned about ongoing violations" of human rights in Iraq.
"Torture and summary executions happen every day," Mr Magazzeni said.
[…]
Source: Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/4932206.stm
Published: 2006/04/21 17:49:26 GMT
© BBC MMVI
3. Beyond Abu Ghraib: detention and torture in Iraq (BY AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL)
"I have lost a year and a half of my life"
43-year-old former security detainee and father of three daughters following his release in
September 2005; he alleged that he was ill-treated while held in US detention in Iraq.
Introduction
Nearly three years after United States (US) and allied forces invaded Iraq and toppled the government
of Saddam Hussain, the human rights situation in the country remains dire. The deployment of US-led
forces in Iraq and the armed response that engendered has resulted in thousands of deaths of civilians
and widespread abuses amid the ongoing conflict.
ICFTU IRAQ NEWSLETTER (2) 2/05/2006
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As Amnesty International has reported elsewhere(1), many of the abuses occurring today are
committed by armed groups opposed to the US-led Multinational Force (MNF) and the Iraqi
government that it underpins. Armed groups continue to wage an uncompromising war marked by
their disregard for civilian lives and the basic rules of international humanitarian law. They commit
suicide and other bomb attacks which either target civilians or while aimed at military objectives are
disproportionate in terms of causing civilian casualties, and they abduct and hold victims hostage,
threatening and often taking their lives. Amnesty International condemns these abuses, some of which
are so egregious as to constitute crimes against humanity, in addition to war crimes, and continues to
call on Iraq’s armed groups to cease such activities and abide by basic requirements of international
humanitarian law.
In this report, Amnesty International focuses on another part of the equation, specifically its concerns
about human rights abuses for which the US-led MNF is directly responsible and those which are
increasingly being committed by Iraqi security forces. The record of these forces, including US forces
and their United Kingdom (UK) allies, is an unpalatable one. Despite the pre-war rhetoric and postinvasion
justifications of US and UK political leaders, and their obligations under international law,
from the outset the occupying forces attached insufficient weight to human rights considerations. This
remains the position even if the violations by the MNF that are the subject of this report do not have
the same graphic, shock quality as the images that emerged in April 2004 and February 2006 showing
inmates being tortured and humiliated by US guards at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison and Iraqi youth
being beaten by UK troops after they were apprehended during a riot. The same failure to ensure due
process that prevailed then, however, and facilitated - perhaps even encouraged such abuses – is
evidenced today by the continuing detentions without charge or trial of thousands of people in Iraq
who are classified by the MNF as "security internees".
To read the full report, visit www.amnesty.org
Sunday, Apr. 23, 2006
4. Stolen Away
As criminal gangs run amuck in Iraq, hundreds of girls have gone missing. Are they
being sold for sex?
By BRIAN BENNETT/BAGHDAD
The man on the phone with the 14-year-old Iraqi girl called himself Sa'ad. He was calling long
distance from Dubai and telling her wonderful things about the place. He was also about to buy her.
Safah, the teenager, was well aware of the impending transaction. In the weeks after she was
kidnapped and imprisoned in a dark house in Baghdad's middle-class Karada district, Safah heard her
captors haggling with Sa'ad over her price. It was finally settled at $10,000. Staring at a floor strewn
with empty whiskey bottles, the orphan listened as Sa'ad described the life awaiting her: a beautiful
home, expensive clothes, parties with pop stars. Why, she'd be joining two other very happy teenage
Iraqi girls living with Sa'ad in his harem. Safah knew that she was running out of time. A fake passport
with her photo and assumed name had already been forged for her. But even if she escaped, she had no
family who would take her in. She was even likely to end up in prison. What was she to do?
Safah is part of a seldom-discussed aspect of the epidemic of kidnappings in Iraq: sex trafficking. No
one knows how many young women have been kidnapped and sold since the fall of Saddam Hussein
in 2003. The Organization for Women's Freedom in Iraq, based in Baghdad, estimates from anecdotal
evidence that more than 2,000 Iraqi women have gone missing in that period. A Western official in
Baghdad who monitors the status of women in Iraq thinks that figure may be inflated but admits that
sex trafficking, virtually nonexistent under Saddam, has become a serious issue. The collapse of law
and order and the absence of a stable government have allowed criminal gangs, alongside terrorists, to
ICFTU IRAQ NEWSLETTER (2) 2/05/2006
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run amuck. Meanwhile, some aid workers say, bureaucrats in the ministries have either paralyzed with
red tape or frozen the assets of charities that might have provided refuge for these girls. As a result,
sex trafficking has been allowed to fester unchecked.
"It is a problem, definitely," says the official, who has heard specific reports from Iraqi aid workers
about girls being kidnapped and sold to brothels. "Unfortunately, the security situation doesn't allow
us to follow up on this." The U.S. State Department's June 2005 trafficking report says the extent of
the problem in Iraq is "difficult to appropriately gauge" but cites an unknown number of Iraqi women
and girls being sent to Yemen, Syria, Jordan and Persian Gulf countries for sexual exploitation.
Statistics are further made murky by tribal tradition. Families are usually so shamed by the
disappearance of a daughter that they do not report kidnappings. And the resulting stigma of
compromised chastity is such that even if the girl should resurface, she may never be taken back by
her relations.
A visit to the Khadamiyah Women's Prison in the northern part of Baghdad immediately produces
several tales of abduction and abandonment. A stunning 18-year-old nicknamed Amna, her black hair
pulled back in a ponytail, says she was taken from an orphanage by an armed gang just after the U.S.
invasion and sent to brothels in Samarra, al-Qaim on the border with Syria, and Mosul in the north
before she was taken back to Baghdad, drugged with pills, dressed in a suicide belt and sent to bomb a
cleric's office in Khadamiyah, where she turned herself in to the police. A judge gave her a seven-year
jail sentence "for her sake" to protect her from the gang, according to the prison director.
Two other girls, Asmah, 14, and Shadah, 15, were taken all the way to the United Arab Emirates
before they could escape their kidnappers and report them to a Dubai police station. The sisters were
then sent back to Iraq but, like many other girls who have escaped their kidnappers and buyers, were
sent to prison because they carried fake passports. There, they wait for the bureaucracy to sort out their
innocence. What happened to the gang that took them? The sisters hear rumors that the men paid their
way out of jail and are back on the streets. "I don't know what to do if the prison administration
decides to release me," says Asmah, pushing back her gray head scarf to adjust her black hair. "We
have no one to protect us."
Women's advocates are trying to set up halfway houses for kidnap survivors. The locations are secret
to keep the women safe from both trafficking gangs trying to cover their tracks and outraged relatives
who may try to kill the women to restore their clans' reputation. But the new Iraqi government has set
up several bureaucratic roadblocks. Even organizations that do not receive government money have to
secure permission from four ministries and the Baghdad city council for every shelter they hope to
operate. Wringing her hands in exasperation, activist Yanar Mohammed says, "They want to close our
women's shelter and deny our ability to open more."
That means that for girls like Safah, there are few havens left in Baghdad. In 2003, after Safah's father
died, her grandmother took her to House of Children No. 2 orphanage in Adhamiya without the
knowledge of most of her family. At the orphanage, she was befriended by an affable nurse who spent
hours chatting up Safah, a fresh-faced girl whose fingers are still pudgy with baby fat. The nurse's
modest hijab framed a sweet face that made Safah feel that the nurse was a good, spiritual woman, one
she could trust. The nurse convinced Safah that she could be killed over the shame her disappearance
had brought to her family. The nurse offered to adopt her. But official channels would have taken too
long, so the nurse told Safah to hold her lower-right abdomen, scream and writhe on the carpet of the
orphanage director's office, pretending to have appendicitis and requiring emergency medical
assistance. Once at the hospital, the nurse whisked Safah into a waiting car.
The next three weeks were the worst in Safah's life. "I was tortured and beaten and insulted a lot in
that house," Safah says. She wouldn't provide many details about what happened in the whiskeysoaked
den in Karada. But she says that when it became apparent to her that she was about to be sold
to Sa'ad, the man on the phone from Dubai, she became desperate. She passed word of her
confinement to a neighborhood boy, who reported it to the local police station. Officers raided the
place and arrested the nurse. Bureaucratic red tape somehow kept Safah and the nurse in the same
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prison for six months before Safah was finally released back into the custody of the orphanage a
month ago.
At the orphanage, nestled behind a 10-ft. wall on the breezy banks of the Tigris, Safah can take
computer classes, practice sewing and paint portraits of the family she wishes she had. But she doesn't
feel as safe as she used to there. A social worker tells her that the nurse wasn't at the Khadamiyah
Women's Prison during her last visit. Suddenly Safah rushes out of the room, crying and beating her
head with her hands in the hallway. "If she is released," says Safah, her eyes darting back and forth in
a panic, "I'm not staying here." But deep down she knows she has nowhere else to go.
With reporting by Yousif Basil/ Baghdad, Assad Majeed/ Baghdad
Source: Time Magazine, April 23rd