Current News in Context
April 13, 2007
AFSC Symposium on Iraqi Refugees
Building on a Tradition of Reconciliation
19 May 2007
Friends Center - Philadelphia
1:00 PM - 7:00 PM
"The displacement of Iraqis from Iraq is now the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world." (Refugee International, 12/2006)
An invitation to Friends and others concerned about the Iraqi refugee crisis. Gathered together we will learn more about the humanitarian and political dimensions, ways the global community is responding, and develop ideas for education and advocacy in our US communities.
Presenters:
Kristele Younes, Refugees International
Ra'ed Jarrar, Iraq Program Consultant, AFSC
Noah Merrill, ElectronicIraq, former AFSC staff
Zahra Hamid Sultan, Amman, Jordan
Workshop Presenters:
Rick McDowell and Mary Trotochaud, AFSC Iraq Country Rep's (2003-2005)
Aura Kanegis, Legislative Director AFSC Washington DC
Leila Barclay, Middle East Peacebuilding Committee
Noah Merrill, Ra'ed Jarrar
Symposium Program:
1:00 Registration
1:15 Opening
Opening and Welcome - Peter Lems, AFSC Iraq Program
Music/Reflection with Slideshow of Iraqi portraits
1:30 Presentations:
Overview of the Iraqi Displacement: Facts and Figures
Kristele Younes
Witness to the Suffering: Documenting the Refugee Experience
Noah Merrill
Political Dynamics of Iraqi Displacement
Ra'ed Jarrar
Experiencing Displacement: Iraqi Testimonies
Zahra Hamid Sultan
3:00 Question and Answers
3:30 Break
4:00 - 5:30 Workshops
Beyond Advocacy and Education to Direct Aid
Noah Merrill
Iraq 101: The Land, the People, the Culture, a Workshop for Youth
Leila Barclay
Roots of the Iraqi/Iraqi Conflict: Religious or Political?
Ra'ed Jarrar
Bringing the Message to Congress, Advocacy ABC's
Aura Kanegis
Making the Refugee Crisis Visible: Tools on How to Educate Others
Rick McDowell and Mary Trotochaud
5:30 - 6:00 Closing
6:00 - 7:00 Reception
Registration: $20 | Student and Seniors $10
*****************
Speaker Background
*****************
Zahra Hamid Sultan is a trained social worker and Iraqi refugee living and working in Amman, Jordan. In recent years, she has been instrumental in making connections between internationals and members of the growing Iraqi refugee communities in Amman. In this capacity she has worked with BBC TV, Human Rights Watch and numerous independent journalists and NGO's. She regularly participates in civil society efforts within Jordan intended to highlight the needs and concerns of Iraqi refugees.
Kristele Younes was Refugee International's lead person in preparing their new report on the plight of Iraqi refugees in Jordan and Syria, see www.refugeesinternational.org. She recently appeared on CSPAN as a result of her testimony to a Congressional committee looking at the US' failure to provide visas for Iraqis fleeing the violence. She joined Refugees International in February of 2006 after working as a Legal Officer with the Coalition for the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Noah Merrill recently returned from six weeks of intensive work in Jordan among Iraqi refugees displaced as a result of the ongoing Iraq crisis. During this time, he conducted more than 40 in-depth formal interviews with Iraqi families, and met informally with many more. Merrill participated in frequent consultations with staff of international humanitarian organizations, UN staff, and representatives of Iraqi civil society and political groups.
Raed Jarrar is a political analyst and activist currently based in Washington DC. He was born in Baghdad and spent most of his life in Iraq. After the 2003 invasion, Raed Jarrar was the country director of CIVIC Worldwide, the only door-to-door casualty survey in post war Iraq. He also established an NGO called "Emaar" that carried out work in Baghdad and the nine cities of the south in coordinating with local authorities, community leaders and other NGOs. Emaar implemented hundreds of community-based projects around the country on an extremely low budget.
December 20, 2006
IRAQ: A Calendar of Peacemaking and Peacebuilding Campaigns
I want to share with you a calendar of events and campaigns we will focus on for Winter/Spring 2007.
Not One More Death | Not One More Dollar - 3,000th US casualty in Iraq
Location: Nationwide
Date: (December/January)
Tools & Resources: AFSC Vigil System and the NOMD | NOMD Letter to Congress
Message: Remove Troops and Bases | End War Funding | Rebuild | Never Again
Action: Vigils and Advocacy Campaign
Contact: Peter Lems
Web: Wage Peace Campaign
Not One More Death | Not One More Dollar
(English)
(Spanish)
Event/Campaign: Friends For Peace
Location: Worldwide
Launch: Mid-January
End: April 15 (Tax Day) or 1 May (Mission Accomplished)
Tools and Resources: Interactive Web Page
Message: Remove Troops and Bases | End War Funding | Rebuild | Never Again
Action: Showing the human face of peace through portraits holding peace messages
Contact: Peter Lems
Web: Forthcoming
Event/Campaign: UFPJ March on Washington & Lobby Day
Location: Washington DC
Date: March Saturday 27 January | Lobby Day Monday January 29
Message: A Mandate for Peace - Bring the Troops Home Now | Focus Congress
Action: March, lobby training, lobby day
Contact: Allison Budschalow & Peter Lems
Web: United for Peace and Justice
Event/Campaign: Iraq War Funding - Reconstruction not Occupation
Location: Nationwide
Date: (Late January/February)
Tools and Resources: Letters' and Calls to Congress
Message: Remove Troops and Bases | End War Funding | Rebuild | Never Again
Action: Turning in the Names of the NOMD | NOMD Letter
Contact: Peter Lems
Web: Wage Peace Campaign
Dreams and Nightmares: A Memorial to Life and Death in Iraq
Location: US Regions to be Determined
Date: On-going through U.S. Social Forum in Atlanta (June/July 2007)
Tools & Resources: Iraq 101
Message: Remove Troops and Bases | End War Funding | Rebuild | Never Again
Action: Nationwide tour to hold elected official accountable and promote alternatives
Contact: Peter Lems
Web: Dreams and Nightmares
Event/Campaign: International No Bases Conference
Location: Quito and Manta, Ecuador
Date: March 6 - 10, 2007
Tools and Resources: Movement Building & '10 Reasons Why Bases are Bad'
Attending: Peacebuilding Unit | US Regional Staff | International Programs
Contact: Allison Budschalow
Web: No Bases
Event/Campaign: Christian Peace Witness for Iraq
Location: Washington DC & Regionally Coordinated Events
Date: 16 March, 2007
Tools and Resources:
Message: End the Occupation | Rebuild Iraq | No to Torture
Action: Worship at the National Cathedral | Candlelight Procession to the White House | Late Night prayer vigil | Witness for peace in Iraq
Contact: Peter Lems
Web: Forthcoming
Event/Campaign: Declaration of Peace
Location: Nationwide
Date: 16/21 March
Tools and Resources: Iraq 101 and Alternatives
Message: End the funding | Comprehensive Plan for Peace
Contact: Peter Lems
Web: Declaration of Peace
Event/Campaign: 40th Anniversary of MLK's 'Riverside' Speech
Location: Nationwide
Date: 4 April 2007
Message: Racism | Militarism | Poverty
Contact: Angie Berryman
Event/Campaign: United for Peace and Justice National Assembly
Late May or June 2007
Location: To be announced
Contact: Allison Budschalow
Event/Campaign: U.S. Social Forum
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Date: 27 June - 1 July 2007
Tools and Resources: Movement Building
Audience: Peace and Justice movements from around the US - all US domestic programming of the AFSC
Attending: Peacebuilding Unit and US Regions
Contact: Allison Budschalow | Darryl Jordan
Web: United States Social Forum
Event/Campaign: Cost of War Project - Highlighting domestic needs
Location: New Hampshire and Iowa
Date: Summer 2007 | Winter 2008
Tools and Resources: Human Cost of War (National Priorities Project)
Action: Bird-dogging and educational effort for 2008 elections
Contact: Devon Davidson
Web: Forthcoming
December 19, 2006
Christian Peace Witness for Iraq
Join thousands of Christian lay people and clergy to voice your support for creating real security and peace in Iraq. Worship together, vigil together. Join with others to stand in nonviolent witness at the White House and in our local communities to proclaim that war is not the answer.
Friday, March 16th, 2007
Let us express together our commitment to life!
Washington, D.C.
Worship at the National Cathedral
Candlelight Procession to the White House
Late Night prayer vigil and witness for peace in Iraq
*****
Christian Peace Witness for Iraq
March 16, 2007
Your Community and Washington DC
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
We invite you to join thousands in a "Christian Peace Witness for Iraq." As followers of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, our faith compels us to make our voice heard—to repent of our complicity with the invasion and occupation of Iraq and to renew our commitment to peacemaking. We ask you to join us in praying for peace, studying the scriptures, learning nonviolence, lighting candles of hope, and gathering together for an ecumenical public witness on March 16, 2007, the fourth anniversary of the war in Iraq. We stand in solidarity with sisters and brothers in other faith traditions and ask their prayers and support for our witness.
Just as Jesus wept over Jerusalem because it did not know the things that make for peace, we weep over Washington, D.C., because of the tremendous human suffering and loss of life that have resulted from our government's policies toward Iraq. We are convinced that peace in Iraq cannot be won militarily. It is time to bring the troops home and to support a comprehensive peace process there.
We believe, with Martin Luther King, Jr., that "the ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. ...Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. ... The chain reaction of evil—hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars—must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation."
Peace Witness Focus
1. End the U.S. Occupation. Like Isaiah, we are called to raise our prophetic voice, saying that security cannot be achieved through military domination of one people over another. We call on one another to find genuine security in God, who insists that we build just relationships with all people. We call on the President and Congress to bring our troops home from Iraq, to remove our military bases and to stop threatening Iran and other nations.
2. Support Our Troops. Like Jesus, who healed the sick and preached good news to the poor, we are called to be a pastoral presence to our country. We call on one another to care for soldiers and their families who give so much of themselves in times of conflict. We call on the President and Congress to provide generous support for veterans and active-duty soldiers and their families as they seek to rebuild their lives.
3. Rebuild Iraq. Like Paul, we are called to love our neighbors as ourselves and to care even for our enemies. The lives of our sisters and brothers in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, and across the Middle East have been turned upside down by the war. We call on one another to financially support relief efforts in Iraq through our denominations. We call on the President and Congress to lead the way in funding international reconstruction of Iraq and providing humanitarian aid for shattered Iraqi families, for our experience in other conflicts has taught us that such assistance is the most effective path to real security for all people around the world.
4. Say NO to Torture. Like the disciple who learned to put away the sword, we are called to treat others as we want to be treated. We call on one another to learn and practice the discipline of active nonviolence: to resist violence and injustice and to construct the culture of peace and reconciliation that we all desire. We insist that our government treat all enemy combatants humanely and take decisive action to ensure that torture is banned by all agencies of the United States government.
5. Say YES to Justice. Like Mary, who praised God for lifting up the lowly and filling the hungry with good things, we long for a world free from hunger, homelessness, environmental destruction, injustice, and oppression. We call on one another to do justice and show mercy to make our vision plain. We call on the President and Congress to create a federal budget that puts priority on meeting basic human needs instead of on making war. Let us together begin to fashion a just peace dividend that is both renewable and lasting.
Preparation
We invite you to join in a Christian witness against the war in Iraq, taking at least one of these forms:
* praying daily for the end of the war and occupation
* studying the Bible and its implications for U.S. foreign policy
* learning about and practicing active nonviolence
* fasting toward grounding our security in God
* forming groups for prayer, study and action
* inviting your neighbors to join in public witness against the war
* lighting candles in the windows of your home and house of worship
* participating in a weekly peace witness in your town Center
Public Witness, March 16, 2007
These preparations will culminate in public Christian witnesses for peace on March 16 in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere. We will share in an evening ecumenical worship service at the Washington National Cathedral, a candlelight procession to the White House, and a latenight peace vigil, during which some participants may engage in "divine obedience" (civil disobedience) and risk possible arrest. We invite you to come to Washington, D.C. or to join similar public witness events in your community. We will provide resources for this invitation on our website christianpeacewitness.org. We invite you to register your participation on the website.
We believe that until the Christian community is willing to take risks for peace, to put its words into action, to publicly witness that the war in Iraq is wrong, more people will die, more violence will shatter more lives, and we will all be less secure. Let us commit to the fullness of the Gospel vision of justice, peace, inclusive community and wholeness. Let us choose life that we and our children and the people of Iraq may live!
Scriptural references: Luke 19:41-42, Isaiah 31, Luke 7:22, Galatians 5:13-15; Romans 12:19-21, Matthew 26:51-52, Matthew 7:12, Deuteronomy 30:19, Luke 1:46-55, Micah 6:8
Partners
American Friends Service Committee * Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America * Catholic Peace Fellowship * Christian Alliance for Progress * Disciples Peace Fellowship * Episcopal Peace Fellowship * Every Church a Peace Church * Kairos: A Time to Speak * A Time to Act * Kirkridge Retreat & Study Center * Leadership Conference of Women Religious * Lutheran Peace Fellowship * Methodist Federation for Social Action * Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns * Mennonite Church USA Peace and Justice Support Network * No2Torture * On Earth Peace * Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service * Pax Christi USA * Pentecostal Charismatic Peace Fellowship * Presbyterian Peace Fellowship * Sojourners/Call to Renewal * United Church of Christ (Justice and Witness Ministries).
For more information and resources - to be launched soon: www.christianpeacewitness.org
November 03, 2006
The Situation Is Not Serious: It Is Desperate (NCCI)
The editorial from the October humanitarian update reminds us the situation is not serious, it is desperate.
NGO Coordination Committee in Iraq: Monthy Report October
If you are a regular observer of the Iraq disaster, you are certainly aware, through the many reports that have been sent out these last weeks, that the humanitarian situation in Iraq is serious.
You may not have time to read everything that is published on Iraq. You even may think that most of these reports are published now to undermine the US election, and in some cases this may be true.
Nevertheless, today we would like to raise your awareness about the situation of Iraqis. The situation is not serious: it is desperate. There is a huge humanitarian crisis and the situation may worsen.
Let us give you some figures:
- More than 12 million people (47% of the Iraqi population) were highly dependent
of the food distribution (so-called PDS) according to a WFP study released in May
2006. If you apply this percentage to the European Union population, it would mean
230 million people. Amongst this Iraq figure, 4 millions are food insecure, meaning
“they are in dire need of different types of humanitarian assistance, including food,
despite the support they are receiving”. This report covers 2005, and now in 2006 the
situation is worsening. How many are food insecure today?
- 1.6 million of Internally Displaced People (UNHCR). IDPs are people who moved
from one area to another within their country, generally with nothing. Worldwide, they are considered amongst the most vulnerable. It represents more than 5% of the Iraqi population. If you apply this percentage to the EU population, it would mean 24 million IDPs.
- At least 3 million refugees abroad. In Syria and Jordan alone, there would be 1.5
million persons (UNHCR). It means another 5% of the population. The number is
certainly higher as UNHCR can only count those who inform them about their presence
and that request support. According to some reports, there would be also many Iraqis in Egypt, Iran and Gulf countries. Thousands are also seeking refuge in Europe, North
America, etc. Including IDPs, almost 20% of the population is not living at home
anymore. If you apply this percentage to the EU population, it would mean 98 million.
- 655,000 deaths since 2003 (Lancet, October 2006). The death rate has dramatically
increased over the last few months. It represents 1.5% of the Iraqi population. If you apply this percentage to the EU population, it would mean 7.3 million deaths. Some analysts challenge this figure, but even reducing it by one third would still be too high, isn’t it?
Obviously, such figures do not give any indication of the very high psychological pressures and stress that the population faces inside Iraq, the lack of water, of medicine, and the lack of access to medical premises and doctors, the lack of human rights, etc.
For instance, conclusions that reporting from the Anbar governorate by an INGO on the field must shock everyone who would read them:
- During combat between insurgents and the MNF-I, civilians are the most vulnerable and under serious risk. Being displaced is the least that can happen to them, since their houses are often destroyed and hundreds of innocents are killed by mistake or just because the fighting parties appear only interested in eliminating one another.
- Insurgents conduct some looting activities, including the PDS rations, setting up check points on arbitrary basis and targeting civilians, humanitarian workers and governmental offices.
- Anbar roads and highways are full of MNF-I, ISF, police, looters, insurgents, gangsters and kidnappers. Local people take serious risks whenever they need to move from a place to another.
- Both insurgents and MNF-I became more aggressive towards civilians: the first party is using the civilians as human-shields (in mosques, schools, hospitals and HCs) while the second is attacking any suspicious target, including many innocent civilians, without proper and systematic check (sometimes it takes the form of taking the revenge from the insurgents by harming the civilians). Civilians are also mistreated by insurgents because of religious, political and ethnic reasons and by the MNF-I during evictions, searching and frisking. Because of these reasons, the number of casualties among civilian is increasing in Anbar.
- Mediation is highly needed in the current tensions between Shiia and Sunni communities, at the same time, between different branches of the same tribe or different tribes, in order to stop the escalation of the violence or at least to reduce its degree. Unfortunately politicians and political parties are not perceived by people as trustful or neutral. The gap between politicians and population became wider and needs to be filled soon; such gap can be filled 'temporarily' by religious and tribal leaders.
We are calling on regular basis all groups and organisations involved in Iraq to work on a global strategy enabling to find a path to peace and to support Iraqi vulnerable on an effective manner.
Today, we want also to call those that are not involved in Iraq yet (or anymore) to reconsider their position according to the terrific reality.
As Human beings, how can we tolerate a humanitarian crisis on the scale, where people do even not have the right to live?
-----------------------------
SALAM
NCCI Team
October 23, 2006
1.6 million Iraqis have Fled their Country Since the War
Patrick Cockburn attaches stories to the number of Iraqi refugees - internal and external. For sheer number, he draws an analogy to the expulsion of Palestinians in the 1940s.
"Out of the population of 26 million, 1.6 million Iraqis have fled the country and a further 1.5 million are displaced within Iraq, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. In Jordan alone there are 500,000 Iraqi refugees and a further 450,000 in Syria. In Syria alone they are arriving at the rate of 40,000 a month."
The Exodus: 1.6m Iraqis have fled their country since the war
By Patrick Cockburn,
The Independent, 23 October 2006
It is one of the largest long-term population movements in the Middle East since Israel expelled Palestinians in the 1940s. Few of the Iraqis taking flight now show any desire to return to their homes. The numbers compelled to take to the roads have risen dramatically this year with 365,000 new refugees since the bombing of the Shia shrine in Samara in February.
Rich and poor, both are vulnerable. "I'll need more than five bodyguards if I am to live in Baghdad," said one political leader who has left Iraq. "The police came to my antiques shop and drove me around Baghdad," said an antique dealer from the formerly well-off district of Mansur. "They wanted money or they'd charge me with illegal traffic in antiques. I gave them $5,000 in cash, closed my shop and went with my brother to Jordan the same night. I haven't been back."
One well-established consultant doctor escaped his kidnappers in Baghdad and fled to the Kurdish capital of Arbil where he reopened his surgery. Bakers, often Shias, have been frequently targeted. Some now make bread with a Kalashnikov rifle propped against the wall beside them. Many have left Sunni districts in some of which it has become difficult to buy bread.
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