[Onthebarricades] IRAQ - protests and everyday life, Sept-Oct 07

[Andy]

*  Hundreds protest draft oil law
*  Shiites protest assassination of Sistani aides
*  Neighbours protest separation fence between Baghdad Shiites, Sunnis
*  Baghdad revealed as bank robbery capital of the world
*  Baghdad civilians turn to TV to escape violence
*  Karbala radio station defies tradition
*  Kurds self-immolate, suffer honour killings in spate of burnings
*  Iraqis untouched by US "surge"

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/07/16/2574/

Published on Monday, July 16, 2007 by Agence France Presse
Hundreds of Iraqis Protest Draft Oil Law
About 300 oil industry workers gathered in Iraq's main oil port of Basra on 
Monday to protest a draft law that they said would allow foreigners to 
pillage the country's wealth."
To compensate for the military and political failure of the US 
administration in Iraq, this administration is trying to control the country's 
wealth," the organisers said in a statement distributed to reporters.
"If this is endorsed by the parliament it would abolish sovereignty and hand 
over the wealth of this generation and the generations to come as a gift to 
the occupier," the statement said.
The protesters, employees of the Oil Pipelines Company, wore black surgical 
masks over their faces and carried banners and black coffins with the word 
"freedom" written on the sides.
At issue is a clause in the draft hydrocarbon law allowing for 
production-sharing agreements with foreign oil companies, which many Iraqis 
see as a throwback to an earlier era of colonial exploitation.
"This law, in fact destroys the achievements of the Iraqi masses and 
especially the Law number 80 of 1961 and the nationalisation of 1973," the 
statement said.
The law from 1961, part of a bundle of socialist reforms issued by 
then-Prime Minister Abdul Karim Qassim, sharply limited foreign involvement 
in the oil sector.
US officials see the passing of the draft hydrocarbon law - aimed at 
equitably distributing Iraq's oil proceeds - as a crucial benchmark of the 
country's political process and a key component of national reconciliation.
© 2007 Agence France Presse

http://www.newspress.com/Top/Article/article.jsp?Section=WORLD&ID=565090329167266710
Shiite cleric's followers protest after assassinations of 2 aides in 
southern Iraq
KATARINA KRATOVAC, Associated Press Writer

September 21, 2007 3:58 AM
BAGHDAD (AP) - Two aides to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani were killed in 
shootings within hours, prompting his Basra followers to boycott Friday 
sermons in protest amid fears that an internal Shiite power struggle was 
increasingly targeting Iraq's top Shiite cleric.
A top aide to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, meanwhile, conceded it may 
prove difficult for the Iraqi government to expel Western security 
contractors despite outrage that followed the killings of civilians in a 
shooting involving Blackwater USA contractors protecting State Department 
personnel.
The aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation into 
Sunday's incident was ongoing, said a way out of the Blackwater crisis could 
be the payment of compensation to victims' families and an agreement from 
all sides on a new set of ground rules for their operations in Iraq.
An Interior Ministry spokesman, Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, said Friday 
that a report had concluded that Blackwater guards opened fire from four 
positions on a square in western Baghdad after a vehicle near their convoy 
failed to stop.
Iraqi witnesses and officials have offered several conflicting versions of 
events and it was not clear how the Interior Ministry report would affect a 
joint U.S.-Iraqi investigation.
Al-Sistani's followers in Basra, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad, refused to 
attend Friday sermons in their mosques, denouncing the latest assassinations 
of the cleric's associates, an aide said.
Al-Sistani's representative in the Diwaniyah province, Ahmed al-Barqaawi, 
was gunned down while driving home to the city of Diwaniyah, about 80 miles 
south of Baghdad, police officials said.
Hours earlier, one of the cleric's representatives in the Basra area, Amjad 
al-Janabi, was killed along with his driver in a shooting west of the 
southern city, police said.
The deaths bring to at least five the number of al-Sistani aides slain since 
early August but it remains unclear if the killings reflect internal Shiite 
disputes or are the work of Sunni insurgents opposed to the vast influence 
enjoyed by al-Sistani over Iraq's Shiites and politics since Saddam 
Hussein's 2003 ouster.
Al-Sistani's office in the holy city of Najaf declined to comment on the 
latest slayings. Basra Gov. Mohammed al-Waili called on the government to 
step up measures to protect clerics.
Rival Shiite groups clashed violently in August in another Shiite holy city, 
Karbala, during a religious festival that left at least 52 people dead.
Tensions have also increased in Baghdad, where the shooting incident Sunday 
involving Blackwater USA security guards which Iraqi officials said left at 
least 11 people dead in Nisoor Square in western Baghdad, infuriated many 
Iraqis.
American and Iraqi officials announced a joint committee to probe the widely 
differing versions of the incident.
Khalaf said the Interior Ministry report found that the security guards 
opened fire first on Iraqis who were driving in their cars.
The report, Khalaf said, recommended annulling a legal provision that gives 
immunity to foreign security companies operating in Iraq. It also 
recommended Blackwater pay compensations to the victims' families and that 
all foreign security companies be replaced by Iraqi security companies.
According to Khalaf, a car bomb detonated around noon Sunday near al-Rahman 
mosque in Mansour, a mile north of Nisoor Square. ''Minutes later, two 
mortar rounds landed nearby Nisoor square and they (Blackwater) thought that 
they were under attack,'' Khalaf said.
''They started shooting randomly from four positions in the square, killing 
11 civilians and injuring 12 others. The first one who was killed was a 
driver who failed to stop and then his wife,'' Khalaf said, adding his 
opinion about the foreign security guards: ''They always lose their cool and 
have their fingers on the trigger.''
Separately, authorities in the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq 
called for the release of an Iranian detained by U.S. forces Thursday in 
Sulaimaniyah.
The U.S. military said he was smuggling in roadside bombs as a member of the 
elite Iranian paramilitary Quds Force, which is accused by the United States 
of arming and training Shiite militias in Iraq.
But a statement by the Kurdish government said the Iranian was part of an 
Iranian delegation of economists and businessmen, with an ''official 
invitation.'' A spokesman, Fuad Hussein, said the detention was 
''illegitimate.''
The U.S. detentions of Iranians is a sensitive subject for Iraqi officials 
trying to balance the interests of their rival U.S. backers and Iran, 
powerful allies of the Shiite-led government.
Kurdish authorities also were irked by the January arrest of five Iranians 
during a U.S. raid in the northern city of Irbil.
U.S. authorities have said the five included the operations chief and other 
members of the Quds force. Iran has insisted the five were diplomats in Iraq 
with permission of the government.
The arrest could further strain Washington-Tehran relations, already taxed 
by earlier detention of each other's citizens, as well as U.S. accusations 
over Iranian involvement in Iraq's violence and Iran's disputed nuclear 
program.
Iran has denied allegations that it is stoking the violence.
---
Associated Press writers Sinan Salaheddin and Hamid Ahmed contributed to 
this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070912/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrestwall

Baghdad neighbours protest over dividing wall
by Ali Yussef Wed Sep 12, 7:43 AM ET
BAGHDAD (AFP) - Hundreds of Shiites and Sunnis marched on Wednesday in 
protest at the building by US troops of a tall concrete wall separating 
their northwest Baghdad neighbourhoods, an AFP photographer said.

The protesters complained that the wall would promote sectarianism and 
demanded its removal.
Residents said that US forces last week began building the two-kilometre 
(1.25 mile) wall along the border of the mainly Shiite al-Shuala and 
adjoining Sunni-majority al-Ghazaliyah neighbourhoods without consulting 
them.
The demonstrators -- tribal leaders, clerics and local residents -- marched 
from one neighbourhood to the other carrying banners reading "No to the 
dividing wall" and "The wall is US terrorism."
The protesters demanded in a statement that the government intervene to halt 
the wall and ensure that the section already completed is demolished.
"The wall is in accordance with Al-Qaeda's plans," the statement said, 
adding that the barrier was being built to "separate family from family."
"The wall is dividing small neighbourhoods and will lead to the partitioning 
of Iraq," said Hassan al-Taii, a leader of the large Taii Sunni tribe.
He demanded that the Baghdad government destroy the wall and act against 
those "planting division and sectarianism among Iraqis."
Since early this year, US and Iraqi forces have been erecting walls around 
or between some Baghdad neighbourhoods in what their commanders call a 
"concrete caterpillar" designed to protect residents from sectarian 
violence.
In April the military came under flak when it began constructing a ring of 
six-tonne (14,000 pounds) concrete blocks around the Sunni Adhamiyah 
neighbourhood to prevent it from being mortared from the nearby Shiite 
areas.
Many Iraqis argue that the barricades will only heighten tensions between 
Sunnis and Shiites by segregating the once mixed city.
During Wednesday's protest, demonstrators carried Iarqi flags and chanted, 
"No, no to terrorism", and "Yes, yes to unity."
"This wall does not provide security and stability," said Shiite cleric 
Abdul Baqir al-Subaihawi.
"The government must maintain security in Baghdad rather than separate its 
neighbourhoods," he added.
Shiite radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr has urged artists to paint the 
concrete barriers springing up around Baghdad with murals showing what he 
dubbed the "ugly face" of the US military in Iraq.
The Baghdad council has employed professional artists to paint the walls 
with calming landscapes and scenes depicting Iraq's natural beauty, but 
Sadr -- a firebrand preacher and militia leader -- had something more 
dramatic in mind.
"I call on you to draw magnificent tableaux that depict the ugliness and 
terrorist nature of the occupier, and the sedition, car bombings, blood and 
the like he has brought upon Iraqis," he said.


http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/article2977364.ece

Baghdad revealed as bank robbery capital of the world

Wednesday, September 19, 2007
By Kim Sengupta in Baghdad
The attack had been planned with military precision. Twelve men, masked and 
carrying Kalashnikov assault rifles stormed into the al-Sanik branch of the 
Bank of Baghdad, disarmed the guards, tied them up and then terrified the 
staff by firing into the ceiling.
About $800,000 (£400,000) in US dollars and Iraqi dinars was grabbed before 
the gang drove away in three cars, untroubled by the many checkpoints in the 
area.
The raid was just the latest of a long and lucrative line that sees, on 
average, a million dollars a month being taken at gunpoint. Bank executives 
have been kidnapped from their homes for ransoms as high as $6mn. Amid the 
bombs and gunfire, there is one "industry" is doing remarkably well - 
Baghdad is now the bank robbery capital of the world.
Iraq holds the world record for both the first and second highest amounts 
taken in the history of bank robberies. Top of the league is the estimated 
$800m removed from the Central Bank by Saddam Hussein's son, Qusay, in the 
dying days of the regime as US tanks were rolling into Baghdad.
In second position is the heist, just two months ago, at the Dar al-Salam 
Bank at Sadoun Street in central Baghdad when three guards turned on their 
employers and left with $282m.
Other banks hit recently has been the al-Rafidian which lost $1.2m; the 
Industry Bank, which had $784,000 taken; Iraqi Trade Bank, $1.8m ; the Bank 
of Baghdad, $ 1.6m; al-Warka Bank, $750,000; The Middle East Investment 
Bank, $1.32m... the list goes on.
Four years after "liberation" and the coming of the free market, Iraq is 
almost entirely a cash economy with a mushrooming group of private banks and 
vast sums of money being moved daily across the country.
The US authorities praised the rise of the private banking sector as one of 
the success stories of Iraq.
But the upsurge in robberies has meant that some branches have been unable 
to pay customers because of lack of cash.
One thing Iraq is not short of is men with guns. The banks, and their money 
convoys, are easy pickings. The security forces have their hands full with 
the insurgency and Shia militia groups and, in any case, are themselves 
suspected of carrying out many of the robberies.
Firas Ali Suleiman, a driver for the Bank of Baghdad described how a van 
carrying $1.6m from its Hilla branch to Baghdad was ambushed. "It was a Kia 
van and it was not armoured, but we had four guards with the money inside," 
he said.
"We were stopped at a checkpoint in Audiya run by the Ministry of Interior 
commandos. They ordered the back door to be opened and saw the money. The 
guards were called out and then put in handcuffs and hooded. I could hear 
them talking about the money and then they took the money out. I was told to 
drive away and I called the manager on my mobile and told him what happened.
"The next roadblock was by the Mehdi Army (Shia militia). I think they, too, 
were expecting to get some money but, by then, of course, it was gone. The 
police were called later but they did nothing."
Khalid Mohammed, the manager called by Mr Suleiman, is convinced most of the 
robberies take place with inside help. "I have been at a bank branch when 
the men with guns came. They knew exactly where the money was and, when they 
left, they went straight past all the checkpoints, no one searched their 
cars or asked any questions.
"Before the war we just had a few banks, now there are lots of private ones, 
so less security, and more opportunity for stealing."
Armed convoys, with darkened windows move through Baghdad every day.. They 
could be ministerial escorts, private security firms, or, as the police 
point out, robbers - and it is impossible for police to tell which is which.
Iraq's biggest heists
1: Central Bank (2003): $800m (£400m)
2: Dar al-Salam (2007): $282m
3. Iraqi Trade Bank (2007): $1.8m
4: Bank of Baghdad (2007): $1.6m
5: MEI Bank (2007): $1.32m


http://www.iwpr.net/EN-icr-f-339518

Baghdad's TV Escapists
Residents watch hours of cartoons, films and music shows to get a break from 
the chaos outside their homes.
By IWPR reporters in Baghdad (ICR No. 234, 2-Oct-07)
Glued to their favourite cartoon show, Kadim Muhammed's two children and 
wife protest when he tries to switch over to watch the news.

"My husband and I used to listen to detailed news bulletins about Iraq every 
day," said his wife, Sheima Juma. "But when a satellite channel reported a 
bombing in a popular market in Baghdad in which my brother was killed, I 
went into shock. Ever since that tragedy, I swore not to watch the news at 
all."

Baghdad residents are escaping the violent reality of daily life by watching 
hours of anything from cartoon shows to music videos.

Television helps stave off the depression and boredom born of having to 
endure constant curfews and shortages.

The ministry of health estimates that 25 per cent of Iraq's population 
suffers mental health problems because of the country's successive wars, 
poverty and political persecution.

Meisa' Sahib, a psychologist at the University of al-Mustanisiriyyah, said 
television entertainment allowed Iraqis to forget their cares and woes, 
especially children who see too much violence on the news.

"The tragic scenes on the news have a dangerous affect on Iraqis [of all 
ages and] from all walks of life," she said.

An aversion to the news is a relatively recent phenomenon here. In the past, 
Baghdadis were keen to know what was going on, with the latest headlines and 
political chatter dominating social interaction.

Since the early 20th century, even prior to electricity reaching Iraq, the 
capital's residents enjoyed listening to radio news from kerosene- and 
battery-operated radios.

Saddam Hussein's regime tightly controlled news and dissident political 
views, but people still managed to discuss current affairs in Baghdad's 
teahouses and literary gatherings.

But these days, such gatherings are rare and the few people who still turn 
up for them tend to reflect on Baghdad's past.

"We spend our time in the teashop playing dominos, backgammon and sipping 
tea with hamidh [dried lemon]," said Muhammed, a pensioner who wiles away 
the hours at the popular al-Zahawi teashop in Baghdad.

"It's better than listening to the news, although we'll occasionally read an 
independent newspaper. We're fed up with the lies of political parties and 
politicians in Iraq."

With the news such a turn-off these days, channels such as al-Qithara, 
featuring Iraqi songs, and MBC2, devoted to American films, are experiencing 
big hikes in their viewing figures.

"Our life is boring and difficult," said Muhammed Abadi, a university 
student. "There's nothing nicer than the satellite music channels, which 
take me away to another world - a world that is pure, comfortable and far 
away from the bloody reality of Iraq."

"I watch the Tom & Jerry cartoons more than my children do," said Waleed 
Talib, a teacher. "It is more enjoyable than news and politics."

Mahmood Taha, also a teacher, holds the TV remote control in his hand as he 
settles down to watch a film with a plate of nuts and chips by his side. He 
is addicted to films, he says, but he avoids thrillers.

"I don't want anything that scares me or causes me headaches," he said. 
"What we've already gone through is enough."

http://www.iwpr.net/EN-icr-f-339524

Karbala Radio Station Challenges Traditions
Station's tackling of controversial social issues and liking for western 
music raises clerics' eyebrows
By an IWPR reporter in Karbala (ICR No. 234, 2-Oct-07)
A radio station in Karbala is pushing boundaries in this holy Shia city by 
broadcasting music and cultural programming that some clerics and leaders 
consider inappropriate.

Originally backed by the Iraqi National Congress, a moderate party led by 
Ahmad Chalabi, Karbala FM launched in October 2003 from a small home in the 
city's Hussein neighbourhood. Karbala FM is now independent and is the most 
popular station in the city - particularly among its youth.

Karbala FM today broadcasts from a studio in the city and runs programming 
for much of the day, covering everything from culture to politics to 
religion. Its content frequently challenges traditions, raising eyebrows in 
this conservative city.

"We have limited experience, but we're pushing for progress and creativity," 
said Huda Amir as she clicked through a sound editing programme in the 
studio. Amir is one of three female producers at the station.

"I haven't worked at other radio stations because they're very religious and 
don't give women any opportunities," she said.

"Our independence allows us to have diverse programming," said Hadi al-Rubai'i, 
who produces several Karbala FM shows. "The radio's management is 
independent of any movement, party or Marji'iyyah [Shia religious clerics]."

"We broadcast the beliefs and views of all people," said programmes director 
Mohammed Fayhan. "We've even hosted Adnan Dulaimi (a hard-line Sunni 
lawmaker) because in our shows people from all Iraqi backgrounds get to have 
a voice."

Prior to the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003, "there was only one ruler 
and one media. The radio stations would repeat the same speech over and over 
again. There was no space for criticism and transparency", said Amir Makhif 
al-Omer al-Jubouri, who founded the station and directs Karbala FM's board. 
"Today, there are many radio stations and satellite channels reporting on 
all topics, but most of them are party-affiliated and politicised."

The station's "Good Morning Karbala" programme includes interviews with 
officials, phone-in discussions, coverage of social issues and even 
horoscopes. Its content is strikingly different from other broadcasters in 
Karbala, many of which are dominated by religious programming.

Al-Rawdha al-Husseiniyyah Radio, for example, primarily broadcasts what 
happens in the Imam al-Hussein Holy Shrine, including funerals, daily 
prayers, Friday prayers, some local news and Islamic entertainment 
programmes. Most of its audience are strict followers of the Grand 
Ayatollah, Shia cleric Ali al-Sistani.

Jubouri said that Shia religious values influence the station's content, and 
that Karbala FM "covers religious occasions with respect". But its content 
regularly touches on topics that are not normally addressed in public forums 
in Karbala.

"'Shababik' (Windows) tries to address the backward views of our tribes and 
negative tribal traditions," said producer and writer Adil al-Battat.

"Birds of Love", a night time call-in show about love and romance, was axed 
after a militia group paid a visit to the station "and asked us to end the 
show", said one Karbala FM employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

"Evening Studio" has also ruffled feathers. The show plays samba music from 
Brazil as well as eastern and western pop rhythms but does not broadcast 
lyrics. Lyrics may include content out of line with Islamic beliefs.

Music has been a key issue for the station as it tries to strike a balance 
between popular programming and the conservatism of Karbala's clerics.

Religious radio stations do not broadcast any non-Islamic music, making 
Karbala FM the only broadcaster in the area that plays classic modern 
singers such as the Lebanese diva Fairuz and the widely loved late Egyptian 
vocalist Umm Kalthoum.

Fairuz's voice floats through much of the Arab world via radio stations 
every morning, but Karbala FM has to mute Fairuz's voice so as not to offend 
the clerics.

"I wish I could play [lyrical] songs in all our programmes, but the city is 
under the authority of clerics and armed militias," said Hamza Muhammed 
Feihan, a producer and editor at Karbala FM. He broadcasts rock and jazz 
music during his shows, as well as classic Arabic songs without the lyrics. 
"I may lose my life if I broadcast one song [with lyrics]," he said.

"Some clerics criticise [Karbala FM] because in their opinion, most of the 
music the station plays is illicit and the [religious] scholars can't accept 
it," said al-Jubouri.

Sheikh Mu'yyah al-Baydhani, a Karbala cleric, said that music is a point of 
dispute between Shia clerics.

"Some forbid it all and are even opposed to broadcasting the national 
anthem, while others consider classical music permissible," he said.

The restrictions on music are a constant frustration for Jubouri, who yearns 
for a time when he'll be able traditional national songs.

"If you ask me about what I aspire to, I'll tell you that I wish I could 
broadcast all of the original Iraqi songs that made us sing for Iraq and 
love," said Jubouri. "I aspire to broadcast songs in my radio station, but 
the sacredness of [Karbala] . prevents me from doing that."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20839736/site/newsweek/

Kurdistan's Fatal Flames
Why are a growing number of young women in this relatively safe corner of 
Iraq showing up in local hospitals, dying of suspicious burns?
By Kevin Peraino
Newsweek
Updated: 2:43 p.m. ET Sept. 18, 2007
Sept. 18, 2007 - The doctor knows, just from glancing at the burns, that 
someone is lying to him. Srood Tawfiq, a reconstructive surgeon at 
Sulaimaniya Hospital in Iraq's northern Kurdish region, buttons his white 
lab coat and steps into the burn unit. "Busy day yesterday," he says, 
pulling back a curtain to reveal a sleeping 16-year-old girl with kerosene 
burns over 90 percent of her body. The mother of the young woman, hovering 
over the hospital bed, tells Tawfiq that her daughter slipped and scalded 
herself while carrying a portable stove. The doctor listens sympathetically. 
But later, out of the woman's earshot, he explains that he doubts the 
mother's explanation. If it were really an accident, he whispers, "you don't 
get this degree of burn." Outside the hospital room he pulls off his 
hygienic mask and shakes his head. "We never tell them that they're going to 
die," he says quietly.

Kurdistan has long been considered the one consistently safe and relatively 
prosperous region of Iraq. So why, in increasing numbers, are the 
territory's young women showing up at local hospitals dying of suspicious 
burns? According to the Women's Union of Kurdistan, there were 95 such cases 
in the first six months of 2007, up 15 percent since last year. A December 
2006 report from the Asuda women's rights group in Sulaimaniya says that the 
"phenomenon is increasing at an alarming rate." Ninety-five percent of the 
victims are under 30, and roughly half are between 16 and 21. On the day 
before I stopped by the emergency hospital in Sulaimaniya, six young women 
were admitted with major burns, three of them telling suspicious stories. 
When I called Zryan Yones, the Kurdish health minister, he said that the 
trend among young women is more disturbing than a recent outbreak of 
cholera. He provided a startling statistic: since August 10, Kurdistan had 
had nine deaths from its cholera epidemic; in the same period, there were 25 
young women dead of burns. "I have one young girl lying in our morgues every 
single day," he told me.

So what's going on? Most of the survivors tell doctors that the burns 
resulted from a "cooking accident." But surgeons told me they can tell that 
the vast majority are not telling the truth. Kerosene, the fuel used to cook 
here, is not particularly volatile; if a woman comes in with burns over the 
majority of her body, it is likely intentional. Women's rights advocates in 
Sulaimaniya believe that the majority of the burn cases are suicide 
attempts; the remainder are suspected to be honor killings or other murders 
disguised as accidents or suicide. ("Cooking accident" has long been a 
euphemism for dowry killing in India.) Doctors told me that it's virtually 
impossible to distinguish between murder and suicide based on the burns and 
the women's stories. Still, anecdotal evidence suggests that the trend may 
be aggravated by a copycat effect among Kurdistan's teenagers. One 
20-year-old woman, Heshw Mohammad, who briefly considered burning herself 
after her father killed her boyfriend two years ago, told me that 
self-immolation has become a sort of fashion among teenage Kurdish women. 
"They imitate each other," she says.

What's the motive-and why fire? Doctors, rights advocates, and young women I 
spoke to described a collision of local tradition with modern technology and 
the fallout from the Iraq war. Death by immolation has a long history among 
ethnic Kurds. When someone is angry here, a popular interjection is "I'm 
going to burn myself!" Locals I talked to attributed the fire obsession to 
various local cultural sources. The Zoroastrian religion uses fire as a 
prominent symbol. The Kurdish new year, called "Nawroz," commemorates the 
day a folk hero named Kawa killed a tyrant named Zohak and then set a fire 
on a mountaintop to tell his followers; Kurds celebrate the day by burning 
tires and with other pyrotechnic displays. "Burning, traditionally, has been 
the way to die among the Kurdish people," says Yones, the health minister.
Most of the burn cases in Kurdistan-whether suicides or honor 
killings-revolve around love and dating. Heshw Mohammad's case is typical. 
When she was 18 she fell in love with a local boy, and the two started 
seeing each other, which is generally frowned on in Kurdistan's traditional 
society. They communicated secretly by text message on their mobile phones 
to arrange meetings. But her father had other ideas about his daughter's 
future; he had already promised her to one of his friends. When Heshw's 
boyfriend asked her father to let the girl marry him, her father gunned the 
boy down with an AK-47, she says. She later attempted suicide by overdosing 
on medication, but she acknowledges that burning herself "crossed my mind." 
After the killing, her boyfriend's father took her to a women's shelter in 
Sulaimaniya, where she now says she sleeps late and spends her time watching 
South Korean soap operas on satellite TV. "I have no plans for the future," 
she told me. "I'm quite sure I will be killed in the end."

Rights advocates explain that the introduction in the past several years of 
inexpensive mobile phones and e-mail to Kurdistan have made dating and 
casual sex easier, even as the old patriarchal social structures remain in 
place. "The explosion of technology has alienated people from themselves," 
says Samera Mohammad of the Rassan women's rights center in Sulaimaniya. She 
says that a disturbing number of the suicides involve boys who take pictures 
of their girlfriends with their camera phones and then show their friends. 
But rights advocates say that even something as simple as bad grades can be 
a motive for self-immolation.

The Iraq war only made things worse. Refugees from Iraq's cities, some of 
whom have turned to prostitution to earn a living, have flocked to Kurdistan 
from elsewhere in the country, challenging rural sexual mores and the 
religious beliefs of the mostly Sunni Muslim Kurds. Kurdistan's lakeside 
resorts are said to be a popular destination for sex workers in search of 
easy income. "With the arrival of prostitutes, men have become more 
suspicious of their daughters," says Paiman Izzedine of the Women's Union of 
Kurdistan. Economic factors have also aggravated the problem, according to 
locals. The price of kerosene, for example, has tripled since the war began, 
its price swinging wildly, black-market dealers told me. That means 
households now stockpile the fuel for the winter in large quantities when 
they can get it cheap-providing young women with inspiration and an easy 
weapon.

For now, the suicides are a phenomenon that is seldom discussed openly in 
Kurdistan. Srood Tawfiq, the surgeon at Sulaimaniya's burn center, says he 
has seen only five or six cases in which the patients admitted to a suicide 
attempt. Rights advocates told me that they're beginning to hold conferences 
in local villages to educate teachers and other community leaders about the 
problem. Yet even Tawfiq acknowledges that he doesn't press his patients too 
hard about their real motivations. "We don't insist on the cause," he told 
me, as we talked outside the burn unit. "We just ask once; we don't push 
it." Even in relatively peaceful Kurdistan, sometimes the truth is too 
merciless to speak.
© 2007 Newsweek, Inc.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6988828.stm

Iraqis untouched by US surge
By Andrew North
BBC News, Baghdad


"I haven't left my home in two months," says Kulsoom, a medical student who 
lives in east Baghdad with her family.

The US has beefed up its forces in Iraq by 30,000 soldiers
Not to see friends or relatives, not to go shopping, not to go to college 
for the extra training she would like before the new academic year begins.
She has a lot of catching up to do. Kulsoom missed half her classes last 
year because of bombs, shootings and other threats which prevented either 
her or her teachers from reaching class.
Only a few family members ever go out, for daily essentials. Otherwise they 
stay at home, day after day.
But they would agree with Gen Petraeus that there has been a drop in 
violence since the American troop surge.
"There are fewer attacks," says Kulsoom. "Now it is only four or five killed 
a day in our area. It used to be 20 or 30."
"But we are still afraid. Nothing has really changed."
Spoiling for a fight
This is typical of what you hear from many Baghdad residents, nine months 
since President George W Bush announced his last-ditch bid to try to turn 
Iraq round.
I am the optimistic one in my family but I have to admit that nothing has 
changed

Kulsoom
Baghdad student

US surge has failed - poll
Viewpoints: Iraq surge
But that does not mean people feel any safer. It does not mean they believe 
the US troop surge has yet led to any lasting change that is bringing the 
fighting to an end.
More concrete barriers divide the city, more checkpoints. But they have only 
dampened the violence, not addressed its causes, people say.
Even if most Iraqis are exhausted by conflict, the many factions are not and 
the struggle for power goes on in a society which Ryan Crocker, the US 
ambassador to Iraq, acknowledged was still deeply "traumatised" by years 
under Saddam Hussein's brutal rule.
Sunni groups who have allied themselves with the Americans in the former 
al-Qaeda stronghold of Anbar are not necessarily allies of the Baghdad 
government. Many Sunni tribesmen openly say it is a "government of Iran" 
controlled from Tehran.
The suspicion is returned by many in Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's 
Shia-dominated government, who are anxious about the growing strength of 
some of these Sunni groups.
There is no doubt that there has been a significant turnaround in Anbar, 
because of the tribal rebellion against al-Qaeda there. It is the one 
relative success the Americans can point to. But it is far from clear this 
will help bring wider peace and reconciliation.
Militia rule
There is little sign of this either along other ethnic, political and 
sectarian fault lines. Death squads still operate in Baghdad and many 
cities, even if at lower levels than last year.
Under Saddam, it was the mukhabarat [secret police] we were terrified of - 
now it is the Mehdi Army

Ali
shopkeeper
But among Shia militias in southern Iraq, fighting has intensified this 
year.
Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi Army has continued to penetrate deeper into every 
aspect of life.
"Under Saddam, it was the mukhabarat [secret police] we were terrified of," 
says shopkeeper Ali. "Now it is the Mehdi Army. They are everywhere."
The only political progress since the surge is that the various boycotts of 
parliament have ended. But there is no sign that Iraq's politicians can now 
come together to agree on legislation such as sharing oil revenues or 
constitutional reform.
In their marbled villas, hidden behind the walls and razor wire of the Green 
Zone, Iraq's democratically elected politicians seem ever more out of touch.
Outside, people wrestle with the same problems.
"We only get two hours of electricity a day," says Kulsoom. "One in the 
morning, one in the evening."
The Americans send out constant press releases to journalists talking of new 
projects to improve the power system. But the situation is as bad as ever.
Even this lower level of violence is still shockingly high. Iraqis still get 
kidnapped every day.
Gen Petraeus told Congress that the number of car bombs was down by half 
from the start of the year. But they are still running at a rate of three a 
day.
Leaving Iraq
With so little sign of permanent change, that is why so many people continue 
to leave Iraq - up to 20,000 a week heading to already overwhelmed Syria.
Kulsoom says 60 or 70 of her classmates have left in the past 18 months, 
many of her professors too.
One hopeful sign is that a majority of Iraqis remain committed to the idea 
of Iraq as a unified state - not one split between Shia, Sunnis, Kurds and 
other groups.
A poll for the BBC and ABC News released on the eve of the general's 
testimony bore this out.
But this is not enough to overcome the violence.
"I am the optimistic one in my family," says Kulsoom. "But I have to admit 
that nothing has changed."