Coalition to Stop Deportations to Iraq public meeting

NO DEPORTATIONS TO IRAQ!

DEFEND REFUGEE RIGHTS FOR KURDS AND IRAQIS

STOP BRITISH GOVERNMENT POLICY OF DEPORTATIONS OF ASYLUM SEEKERS TO IRAQI KURDISTAN!

SOLIDARITY WITH OTHERS RESISTING DEPORTATION TO DANGEROUS COUNTRIES

PUBLIC MEETING
MONDAY 26 MARCH 2007
7 TO 9PM

HOUSE OF COMMONS
Westminster SW1
Committee Room 10

Speakers: John McDonnell MP; Jean Lambert MEP; Dashty Jamal, International Federation of Iraqi Refugees & CSDIRAQ; Tim Finch, Refugee Council; Arun Kundnani, Institute of Race Relations; Emma Ginn, NCADC; Kurdish Asylum seeker who was detained; Asylum Support Appeals Project; Campaign to Stop Deportations to DR Congo (invited)

Come and hear the above speakers and take part in a discussion on:


· Why Iraq including Kurdistan is not safe
· How rejected asylum seekers are still made destitute
· What can be done to help 1.7 million Iraqis displaced within Iraq and more than 1.7 million fled to neighbouring countries
· Why the Home Office still removes people to dangerous places like Iraqi Kurdistan and Democratic Republic of Congo
· What we can do to stop the Home Office’s removal policy

For further information, please contact Sarah Parker on 0208 809 0633 or email sarahp107@hotmail.com or Dashty Jamal on 07856032991 or d.jamal@ntlworld.com

www.csdiraq.com

Donations urgently needed to support the work of CSDIraq: please send cheques made payable to Coalition to Stop Deportations to Iraq to PO Box 1575 Ilford 1GI 3BZ. National trade union affiliations £100.

Iraqi women's rights activist threatened

Houzan Mahmoud, a leading activist in the Organisation of Women's Freedom in Iraq, has received a death threat from Islamist groups who want to smash any hope of women's rights.

The death threat, delivered via e-mail, read, "With the permission of Great God, we will kill you either in Iraq or in London by the middle of March, because you are campaigning against Islam. You should be sent to God for punishment." Houzan Mahmoud, who is currently based in London, is originally from Iraqi Kurdistan, where she recently led a campaign against the imposition of Islamic Sharia law in the proposed constitution.


Ms. Mahmoud, aged 34, is an outspoken Iraqi feminist, secularist, journalist, and human rights activist. She has resolved to persist in her work, despite being targeted by Ansar al-Islam. In a letter to MADRE on February 27, Ms. Mahmoud stated, "I will continue doing what I am doing now, going around the world cultivating support for women in Iraq and Kurdistan as well as exposing the violence and gender apartheid that Islamists are imposing on millions of women in the region."

Originally from MADRE

'Hands off Iraqi oil' teach-in

'HANDS OFF IRAQI OIL' TEACH-IN
11am-5pm, Saturday 24 March 2007

Union Chapel, Compton Ave, London N1 2XD
Tube: Highbury and Islington
Map: http://tinyurl.com/22y2lc

With:
* Greg Muttitt from PLATFORM (author 'Crude Designs: The rip-off of Iraq's
oil wealth')
* Ewa Jasiewicz from Naftana (UK Support Committee for the General Union of
Oil Employees)

Supported by: Iraq Occupation Focus, Jubilee Iraq, Naftana, Platform, Voices
UK and War on Want.


For the Iraqi people war and occupation has led to hundreds of thousands of
deaths, relentless insecurity and crippling poverty. But for foreign oil
companies the desperate situation in Iraq is a chance to take control of
Iraq's oil and make massive profits at the expense of its people.

A new law that would transfer control of most of Iraq's oil production from
the public sector to multinational oil companies through long-term contracts
of up to 20 or 30 years, now looks set to be rubber-stamped by Iraq's
Parliament in the next few months. Whilst the US and British governments,
the IMF and the big multinational oil companies have all been active in
shaping the new law - which will tie the hands of future governments,
depriving them of democratic control over the country's main natural
resource - the Iraqi public and Iraqi civil society have been excluded from
the process.

Join us on 24th March to:

* find out more about the new law, the companies involved, and the US and UK
Governments' roles in this smash and grab law

* make plans to take action to stop British companies from joining the race
to carve up Iraq's oil wealth.

For more information about the campaign visit www.HandsOffIraqiOil.org.

Iraq union leader injured in bomb attack

Khalil Ibrahim Al-Mashhadani, Vice-President of the GFIW (General Federation of Iraqi Workers) as well as General Secretary of the Arab Federation of Building and Wood Workers, was injured in a bomb attack on Wednesday Jan 31st. Prior to the founding of the GFIW with the merger of the former GFTU, IFTU and GFITU, Khalil held the position of President of the former GFTU.

For more information on the attack, read the story on the website of the International Trade Union Confederation, or, for news on recent anti-union terrorism in Iraq, read this article on the TUC site.

Anti-deportations newsletter ECHOES

The Coalition to Stop Deportations to Iraq has brought out the first edition of its newsletter.

Click here to download the PDF>

Unions condemn carve-up of oil resources

Five Iraqi trade union federations have condemned federal oil law negotiations for being too corporation-friendly.

The leaders of the five federations meeting in Amman released a statement Thursday urging a pause in negotiations over a law to govern Iraq's 115 billion barrels of oil reserves, the third largest in the world.

Negotiations in some form have been ongoing since the invasion of Iraq, officially and earnestly since earlier this year. News reports and comments from those familiar with the talks say privatization of some form is a major component of a draft law.

This was confirmed last week by Iraq's U.N. Ambassador Hamid Al Bayati, who told UPI the intention is to allow foreign companies to invest in all sectors, including oil. The handling of control over oil to foreign companies, whose aim is to make big profits at the expense of the Iraqi people, and to rob the national wealth, according to long-term, unfair contracts, that undermine the sovereignty of the state and the dignity of the Iraqi people is a red line not to be crossed, the unions said in a joint statement.

They also shot at the context of negotiations, which happen behind closed doors and won't be made public until the Parliament votes, according to a release from the social and environmental issues group Platform.

"This law has a lot of problems", said Hasan Juma'a, president of the Federation of Oil Unions. "It was prepared without consulting Iraqi experts, Iraqi civil society or trade unions. We reject this draft and demand more time to debate the law.Iraq's oil law is seen as a major hurdle and step for the country."

Kurds and some Shiite factions favor more regional control than the Sunnis and other Shiites want, a major stalling factor in the talks.

But oil revenue makes up nearly all of Iraq's budget, money that could go towards improving the oil sector specifically and security in the country as a whole, along with other reconstruction.

Federation of Workers' Councils and Unions bulletin

The 9th issue of the FWCUI news bulletin - November-December 2006

1. Zakho - Iraqi Kurdistan: Workers from Zakho reported discrimination against Arab workers from the centre and the south by paying them less than Kurdish and foreign workers. It is well known that there is a migration to Zakho and the rest of Kurdistani cities because of lack of work and security in the center and south of Iraq.

2. Suleimaniyah, Thursday 16-11-2006: 1800 citizens protest in Raba Rin neighbourhood of Suleimaniyah because the authorities did not distribute fuel (cooking gas tubes), the cost of which has risen 23,000 dinars for each tube(almost 16US$). After the people showed their determination to gather and protest, the fuel was distributed at a cost of 5,000 dinars per tube.

3. Baghdad, mid November 2006: The number of hairdressers killed by militias in the Al Amil and Al Bayaa neighbourhoods has reached 132. This figure was reported by
members of the services’ union residing in those areas.

4. Rise in abduction of workers from their workplaces: a considerable increase in the abductions of workers from their workplaces took place in November and December, especially in the Al Waziriyah district of Baghdad where a large number of factories and companies are located. The recent month saw a large number of kidnappings and killings of workers.

5. Tuesday 5-12-2006, Baghdad, preparatory meeting for general workers’ conference: a meeting of unions and workers’ federations’ leaders took place in the FWCUI Headquarters. The meeting tackled the main issues concerning the workers’ movement in Iraq and the necessity and possibility of holding a general conference for most leading unionists of Iraq in order to discuss the basic issues confronting society, such as the sectarian violence and standing up against the current divisions in the workers’ movement.

Partnership project delivers fire engines to Iraq

Two fire engines have been successfully delivered to firefighters in Iraq and Kurdistan thanks to a partnership between the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), Perkins Engines Company and the Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service.

A team of FBU officials undertook the humanitarian trip, after securing support from Perkins and Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service.

The team started from Peterborough in Cambridgeshire, and from there the two engines were driven across ten different countries and covered a total of nearly 5000 kilometres.

Travelling via the channel tunnel the vehicles were handed over to officials of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers in Du Hok in Kurdistan. From there the fire engines were taken on to Irbil in Kurdistan and Baghdad in Iraq.

Adrian Clarke regional official of the FBU for the East of England said:
“In my experience this was a unique partnership led by a trade union and supported by both a public service and a private industry company to deliver humanitarian help to another part of the world. Fire fighters in Iraq face probably the most dangerous working conditions of any firefighters anywhere in the world at present.”

Previous visits by FBU officials delivering much needed fire kit to firefighters in Iraq had highlighted the desperate need for fire engines and equipment to carry out their duties.

Following consultations between the FBU and Chief Fire Officer Tom Carroll of the Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service an agreement was reached for the FBU to purchase two appliances that had finished their operational service in Cambridgeshire and were due for disposal.

Before travel the Fire and Rescue Service’s vehicle maintenance department serviced both fire engines. Firefighters also helped ready the engines for the trip as well as helping with supplying equipment to go on them. This ensured that the Iraqi and Kurdistan firefighters had a basic firefighting and rescue capacity when they were delivered.

Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service’s Chief Fire Officer Tom Carroll said: “We were only too pleased to be able to support the FBU with their venture. It is good to know that kit and fire engines that have served us well in Cambridgeshire for a number of years and come to the end of their useful life for us, can help our firefighter colleagues in Iraq and Kurdistan provide a better service for their communities.”

As one of the vehicles was powered by a Perkins diesel engine the FBU decided to contact Perkins Engines in Peterborough and request its help. Perkins responded immediately providing support both financially and logistically. Along with a financial donation Perkins supplied a basket of service parts for the engines. The company also gave the team a list of distributors in every country which the vehicles would travel through and instructed these distributors to support any requests for assistance.

The engines proved to be extremely reliable with the only vehicle breakdowns being electrical faults.

Marion King, marketing communications manager at Perkins Engines said: “We were delighted to be able to support such a worthwhile humanitarian project.

“After meeting Adrian Clarke, who explained the background to the trip, we immediately agreed it was something Perkins wanted to support. Our sponsorship committee decided to assist with the cost of the trip but we also wanted to help ensure the vehicles made it to their final destination.

“We spoke to our distributors throughout Europe and the Middle East and they all agreed to provide assistance to the team throughout their trip.

“We were delighted to hear both vehicles had been delivered safely and that the Perkins engine had performed extremely well throughout the journey.”
Mr Clarke added: “The FBU has long been supporting our fellow firefighters in Iraq and without the help of these partners this project would not have happened. Both Perkins Engines and Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service should be congratulated on their support of this life saving project and they should be proud that they employ people who not only talk the talk on diversity issues but that they are also prepared to walk the walk with their individual actions. The fact is that these fire appliances that served the communities of Cambridgeshire are now carrying on what they were designed to do and are helping to save lives once again”.

UN report: life getting tougher for Iraq's nurses

Nissrin Muhammad, 36, sees death every day and worries how her children would survive if she were killed.


The only means this widowed mother-of-five has to support her family is to continue working in the dangerous and deteriorating conditions of a public hospital in the capital, Baghdad.

Nissrin works 13 hours a day to feed her children. Spending her days tending to sick and bullet-ridden bodies, she is increasingly worried that the day will come when she will be the one lying on the operating table.

“I love to help people. I graduated in nursing with the aim of helping to save lives but in the past two years, we are losing more [lives] than improving health conditions,” Nissrin said. “I am stressed and sometimes I go into an empty room behind the hospital’s cafeteria to cry and alleviate the tension that I am living under.”

Iraq is suffering a dearth of nurses. Those who could afford to have already fled to neighbouring countries. Those with working husbands stay at home, afraid of the escalating violence. But the rest must soldier on in their fight against fear and poverty.

“They are our main support. Without their work, doctors cannot do their job because nurses are the ones who maintain the lives of patients after the medical diagnosis. Losing their work means losing lives,” said Dr Yehia al-Mawin, senior official at the Ministry of Health’s strategy department. He added that women represent 80 percent of all nurses.

More than 160 nurses have been murdered since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and more than 400 wounded, according to al-Mawin. In addition, he said thousands had fled the country or were forced to leave their work after receiving threats from insurgents and militia fighters.

Meagre salary

Nissrin said she feels like a warrior herself. With a salary of US $150 a month, she struggles to make ends meet.

“Our salary [nurses’] was always one of the worst in the country but families used to give us extra money when we delivered their children, or when patients had successful operations or treatments. But today, even this extra benefit has disappeared,” Nissrin told IRIN.

“People are getting poorer and cannot afford to [give nurses money]. Often, the [patients’] family does not have money even to buy medicines,” she said.

On the one day off she has each week, she goes in search of food to buy. Most of the shops in her neighbourhood are closed because of ongoing sectarian violence, so she has to walk to another district, and take more risks in the process, to get food. With her meagre salary, she said a typical meal might be some rice, beans and a carrot.

Meat was too expensive, she said, and she had stopped eating it anyway because it reminded her of dead bodies. “After what I see in the hospital with the victims of attacks, it is hard to imagine eating something like that,” she said.

Nissrin starts work at 7am. At lunchtime, she takes a two-hour break to pick her sons up from school, warm up some food for them and then go back to the hospital.

“I prepare the food every night after I return from hospital at 10pm. I check if the children did their homework, clean the house and sleep like a rock,” she said.

If her children fall ill, Nissrin asks a neighbour to help look after them. Once, when they were particularly sick, she asked her boss if she could take time off to tend to them. “He just said that two lives were not more important than the hundreds that come into the hospital on a daily basis in need of my services,” she said.

Weak and disheartened

When she feels weak and disheartened, she pulls out a photo of her children and reminds herself why she endures what she does. She dreams of a day when nurses will be respected and appreciated for what they do. “Sometimes I feel indignation that even with millions of people depending on our work, they still see us as a lowly profession and treat us badly,” she said.

With more than 150 patients to look after on a typical day, Nissrin has the additional burden of having to accept physical and verbal abuse from angry patients, or their friends and relatives, demanding immediate treatment. This sometimes amounts to punches in the face or worse.

“In the most recent incident, a husband of a patient broke a glass over my head because his wife urinated and I was late changing her. I tried to explain that 50 injured patients had just arrived in the hospital and we were just three [nurses] helping the doctors. He told me that I was useless and beat me,” Nessrin said.

Education International union condemns attacks on teachers

"Teachers should be guaranteed a safe and secure working environment," says EI in a letter addressed to the President of Iraq, Jalal Talabani, on 16 November.

Since February this year, 180 teachers have been killed and up to 100 have been kidnapped.

The dramatic escalation of violence against education institutions and teachers has prompted an exodus of academics and teachers as well as sharp decrease in school attendance. Currently, only 30 percent of Iraq’s 3.5 million students are currently attending classes compared with 75 percent in the previous school year.

EI General Secretary, Fred van Leeuwen, urges the Iraqi government to support educational institutions and teachers, and give them the resources to promote peace and tolerance through education.

Below is the content of EI's letter in English:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr Jalal Talabani
President
Convention Centre (Qasr al-Ma’aridh)
Baghdad
Republic of Iraq

Brussels, 16 November 2006

Mr President,

Education International, the global union federation of teachers representing over 30 million members in 169 countries, is very concerned by the continued killings and abductions of Iraqi academics and teachers.

Hundreds of academics have been killed in Iraq since March 2003. The Iraqi Minister of Education has stated that 296 members of education staff were killed in 2005 alone. According to the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs, 180 teachers have been killed since February 2006 and up to 100 have been kidnapped. Over 3250 teachers have fled Iraq.

Not only do abductions of teachers constitute serious violations of the right to live and work in a secure environment, but of the right to life itself. Education International does not only refer to the recent mass kidnapping in the Ministry of Higher Education’s scientific research directorate. Abduction and murder ravage families and put at stake the future of Iraq. The killings of teachers and closures of schools punishes the young people and does not give a message of optimism and hope.

Education has a major contribution to make to the future of the country and the current violence prompts an exodus of teachers. The resulting massive brain drain of teachers is a catastrophe which affects the reconstruction and nation-building process significantly, and will continue to do so for years to come.
The violence against teachers also contributes to a dramatic decrease in school attendance rates. According to recent statistics from the Ministry of Education, only 30 percent of Iraq’s 3.5 million students are currently attending classes. This compares to approximately 75 percent of students attending classes in the previous school year.

Educational institutions and teachers should be supported and given the resources to promote peace and tolerance through education, rather than being targets of violence.

Education International therefore urges your Government to ensure a safe and secure environment for lecturers, teachers and students. Education International will contact the United Nations Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions to request that the matter be investigated.

Education International sincerely trusts that this message is one your Government can support.

Sincerely yours,

Fred van Leeuwen
General Secretary

cc:
Iraqi Ministries of Defence, Interior and Higher Education
Speaker of Iraq's parliament: Hajim al-Hassani
Kurdistan Teachers Union, KTU
UNCHR Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions