#iraq

A la frontière entre la #Lituanie et le #Bélarus, Loukachenko se fait maître passeur

Pour se venger de Vilnius, qui accueille l’opposition en exil, l’autocrate semble avoir organisé une filière d’immigration clandestine, qui mène des candidats au départ de Bagdad à la frontière de l’Etat balte.

Depuis la fin du mois de mai, les gardes-frontières bélarusses postés aux lisières de la Lituanie sont au repos. Ils ferment les yeux sur les silhouettes qui traversent les bois dans l’obscurité, sur les traces de pas laissées dans le sable du no man’s land qui sépare les deux pays. Dans leur dos, passent chaque jour plusieurs dizaines de personnes. Des migrants, Irakiens pour la plupart. Depuis le début de l’année, les #gardes-frontières lituaniens ont rattrapé 387 personnes qui venaient d’entrer dans leur pays – et au passage dans l’espace Schengen. Le rythme s’est largement accéléré en juin, avec plus de 200 entrées en quinze jours. Soit plus en deux semaines qu’au cours des deux années précédentes réunies : 81 migrants avaient été arrêtés en 2020 et 46 en 2019.

« Tout cela découle de raisons géopolitiques. D’après ce que nous voyons, les officiers bélarusses coopèrent et sont potentiellement impliqués dans le transport illégal de migrants », a affirmé la ministre lituanienne de l’Intérieur, Agne Bilotaite. « Les gardes-frontières bélarusses ont stoppé toute coopération avec leurs homologues lituaniens », confirme le porte-parole du service lituanien de protection des frontières, Giedrius Misutis.

#Chantage migratoire

Le mois dernier, après l’atterrissage forcé à Minsk d’un vol Athènes-Vilnius, l’arrestation de l’opposant #Raman_Protassevitch et l’opprobre international qui avait suivi, Alexandre #Loukachenko avait prévenu : « Nous arrêtions les migrants et les drogues. Attrapez-les vous-même désormais. » La menace lancée par l’autocrate bélarusse à ses voisins paraissait alors assez creuse. Son pays est loin des principales voies d’entrée en Europe empruntées par les migrants ce qui ne lui permet pas d’avoir recours au type de #chantage_migratoire utilisé l’an dernier par la Turquie ou plus récemment par le Maroc pour solder leurs différends avec Bruxelles.

Alors, pour augmenter sa capacité de nuisance, il semble que le régime bélarusse se soit lancé dans l’organisation de sa propre filière d’immigration illégale. Pour cela, il a trouvé un nouvel usage à #Tsentrkurort, l’agence de voyages d’Etat, qui travaille avec Bagdad depuis 2017. Entre le mois d’avril et la mi-juin, le nombre de liaisons aériennes opérées par #Iraqi_Airways entre Minsk et Bagdad est passé d’une à trois par semaine. Pendant la deuxième quinzaine de mai, les habituels Boeing 737 ont aussi été remplacés par des 777, à la capacité plus importante.

« A l’aéroport de Minsk, personne ne vérifie les documents des Irakiens qui ont réservé avec Tsentrkurort. Ils obtiennent automatiquement des #visas », indique le rédacteur en chef de la chaîne Telegram Nexta, Tadeusz Giczan. La compagnie aérienne #Fly_Baghdad, qui dessert presque uniquement des villes du Moyen-Orient, a également ouvert en mai une liaison directe entre les capitales irakienne et bélarusse, qui effectue deux rotations par semaine.

Agitation à la frontière

Les autorités lituaniennes ont fait les mêmes constats. « Il y a des #vols Bagdad-Minsk et Istanbul-Minsk deux fois par semaine. En tout, quatre vols qui correspondent aux vagues de migrations [hebdomadaires] », a expliqué le président du comité parlementaire lituanien consacré à la sécurité nationale, Laurynas Kasciunas. La ministre de l’Intérieur estime, elle aussi, que les migrants arrivent par avion de Bagdad et d’Istanbul, avant d’être conduits à la frontière lituanienne, pour des tarifs allant de 1 500 euros par personne à 3 500 pour une famille.

Ces flux migratoires soigneusement orchestrés semblent dirigés uniquement vers la Lituanie. Le pays est le plus fidèle allié de l’opposition bélarusse, dont la cheffe de file est exilée à Vilnius. C’est aussi un petit Etat, d’à peine 2,8 millions d’habitants, peu habitué à gérer une pression migratoire. Le centre d’accueil des étrangers installé à la frontière du Bélarus arrive déjà à saturation et des grandes tentes viennent d’être installées à sa lisière pour héberger 350 personnes supplémentaires. Lundi, la ministre de l’Intérieur a repoussé l’instauration de l’état d’urgence, estimant que « l’aide internationale prévue » suffirait pour tenir le choc.

Jamais cette frontière de 500 kilomètres de long n’avait connu autant d’agitation. La nuit, les migrants récemment débarqués au Bélarus tentent le passage, suivis ou précédés par des opposants à Loukachenko qui prennent le chemin de l’exil dans la clandestinité. Le jour, ce sont les Bélarusses déjà réfugiés en Lituanie qui s’y rassemblent, avec drapeaux et pancartes. Ils réclament l’imposition de nouvelles sanctions contre le régime et l’ouverture des frontières pour leurs compatriotes. Car dans le Bélarus de Loukachenko, les migrants sont encouragés à franchir les frontières, mais les citoyens sont assignés à résidence, interdits de quitter le pays, sauf s’ils sont en possession d’un permis de résidence permanent à l’étranger.

▻https://www.liberation.fr/international/europe/a-la-frontiere-entre-la-lituanie-et-le-belarus-loukachenko-se-fait-maitre

#frontières #réfugiés #réfugiés_irakiens #migrations #asile #Protassevitch #compagnies_aériennes #Irak #Biélorussie

ping @reka

Gertrude Bell - Britain’s ’Queen of the Desert’
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQjX1QFcvII

Gertrude Bell was a global adventurer, linguist, spy, archaeologist, and much more. She was responsible for defining the borders of modern-day Iraq, and founded the country’s first museum. However, her own family home in Redcar has fallen into disrepair. Activists are now fighting for the building to be preserved in her memory. ITV News Correspondent Emma Murphy reports.

Gertrude Bell
▻https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Bell

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/84/BellK_218_Gertrude_Bell_in_Iraq_in_1909_age_41.jpg/1200px-BellK_218_Gertrude_Bell_in_Iraq_in_1909_age_41.jpg

Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell, CBE (14 July 1868 – 12 July 1926) was an English writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, and archaeologist[2] who explored, mapped, and became highly influential to British imperial policy-making due to her knowledge and contacts, built up through extensive travels in Syria-Palestine, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and Arabia.[3] Along with T. E. Lawrence, Bell helped support the Hashemite dynasties in what is today Jordan as well as in Iraq.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Sir_Hugh_Bell%2C_with_Gertrude_Bell_aged_8_by_Edward_Poynter.jpg

She played a major role in establishing and helping administer the modern state of Iraq, using her unique perspective from her travels and relations with tribal leaders throughout the Middle East. During her lifetime she was highly esteemed and trusted by British officials and exerted an immense amount of power. She has been described as “one of the few representatives of His Majesty’s Government remembered by the Arabs with anything resembling affection”.

#fremmes #impérialisme #culture #archéologie #musée #Iraq

Der US-alliierte Krieg gegen den Irak. Ein „gerechter Krieg“ feiert seinen 30. Geburtstag
▻https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=71289

Ein Masterplan für einen Krieg aus edlen und selbstlosen Gründen, die nicht nur für alte Militaristen gut sind. Es liegt nun 30 Jahre zurück, als US-alliierte Truppen in den Irak einmarschiert waren. Es lohnt sich, Bilanz zu ziehen. Denn heute lassen sich viel sicherer Versprechen, Propaganda und Wirklichkeiten auseinanderhalten. Und es gibt noch einen sehr aktuellen Anlass, auf diesen ‚Zweiten Golfkrieg‘ zurückzublicken. Damals taten jene, die dem „Realoflügel“ der GRÜNEN nahestanden, alles, um den Pazifismus über Bord zu werfen. Heute machen sich Teile der Partei DIE LINKE dieselben Gedanken. Wie kann man sich als Koalitionspartner anbieten und gleichzeitig ein wesentliches Erkennungszeichen der LINKEN, keinen Kriegseinsätzen zuzustimmen, aushebeln? Von Wolf Wetzel.

#Allemagne #Iraq #guerre #OTAN

Saddam Key in Early CIA Plot
▻https://archive.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/169-history/36408.html

By Richard Sale, United Press International, April 10, 2003

U.S. forces in Baghdad might now be searching high and low for Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, but in the past Saddam was seen by U.S. intelligence services as a bulwark of anti-communism and they used him as their instrument for more than 40 years, according to former U.S. intelligence diplomats and intelligence officials.

United Press International has interviewed almost a dozen former U.S. diplomats, British scholars and former U.S. intelligence officials to piece together the following account. The CIA declined to comment on the report.

While many have thought that Saddam first became involved with U.S. intelligence agencies at the start of the September 1980 Iran-Iraq war, his first contacts with U.S. officials date back to 1959, when he was part of a CIA-authorized six-man squad tasked with assassinating then Iraqi Prime Minister Gen. Abd al-Karim Qasim.

In July 1958, Qasim had overthrown the Iraqi monarchy in what one former U.S. diplomat, who asked not to be identified, described as “a horrible orgy of bloodshed.”

According to current and former U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, Iraq was then regarded as a key buffer and strategic asset in the Cold War with the Soviet Union. For example, in the mid-1950s, Iraq was quick to join the anti-Soviet Baghdad Pact which was to defend the region and whose members included Turkey, Britain, Iran and Pakistan.

Little attention was paid to Qasim’s bloody and conspiratorial regime until his sudden decision to withdraw from the pact in 1959, an act that “freaked everybody out” according to a former senior U.S. State Department official.

Washington watched in marked dismay as Qasim began to buy arms from the Soviet Union and put his own domestic communists into ministry positions of “real power,” according to this official. The domestic instability of the country prompted CIA Director Allan Dulles to say publicly that Iraq was “the most dangerous spot in the world.”

In the mid-1980s, Miles Copeland, a veteran CIA operative, told UPI the CIA had enjoyed “close ties” with [the] . . . ruling Baath Party, just as it had close connections with the intelligence service of Egyptian leader Gamel Abd Nassar. In a recent public statement, Roger Morris, a former National Security Council staffer in the 1970s, confirmed this claim, saying that the CIA had chosen the authoritarian and anti-communist Baath Party “as its instrument.”

According to another former senior State Department official, Saddam, while only in his early 20s, became a part of a U.S. plot to get rid of Qasim. According to this source, Saddam was installed in an apartment in Baghdad on al-Rashid Street directly opposite Qasim’s office in Iraq’s Ministry of Defense, to observe Qasim’s movements.

Adel Darwish, Middle East expert and author of “Unholy Babylon,” said the move was done “with full knowledge of the CIA,” and that Saddam’s CIA handler was an Iraqi dentist working for CIA and Egyptian intelligence. U.S. officials separately confirmed Darwish’s account.

Darwish said that Saddam’s paymaster was Capt. Abdel Maquid Farid, the assistant military attaché at the Egyptian Embassy who paid for the apartment from his own personal account. Three former senior U.S. officials have confirmed that this is accurate.

The assassination was set for Oct. 7, 1959, but it was completely botched. Accounts differ. One former CIA official said that the 22-year-old Saddam lost his nerve and began firing too soon, killing Qasim’s driver and only wounding Qasim in the shoulder and arm. Darwish told UPI that one of the assassins had bullets that did not fit his gun and that another had a hand grenade that got stuck in the lining of his coat.

“It bordered on farce,” a former senior U.S. intelligence official said. But Qasim, hiding on the floor of his car, escaped death, and Saddam, whose calf had been grazed by a fellow would-be assassin, escaped to Tikrit, thanks to CIA and Egyptian intelligence agents, several U.S. government officials said.

Saddam then crossed into Syria and was transferred by Egyptian intelligence agents to Beirut, according to Darwish and former senior CIA officials. While Saddam was in Beirut, the CIA paid for Saddam’s apartment and put him through a brief training course, former CIA officials said. The agency then helped him get to Cairo, they said.

One former U.S. government official, who knew Saddam at the time, said that even then Saddam “was known as having no class. He was a thug — a cutthroat.”

In Cairo, Saddam was installed in an apartment in the upper class neighborhood of Dukki and spent his time playing dominos in the Indiana Café, watched over by CIA and Egyptian intelligence operatives, according to Darwish and former U.S. intelligence officials.

One former senior U.S. government official said: “In Cairo, I often went to Groppie Café at Emad Eldine Pasha Street, which was very posh, very upper class. Saddam would not have fit in there. The Indiana was your basic dive.”

But during this time Saddam was making frequent visits to the American Embassy where CIA specialists such as Miles Copeland and CIA station chief Jim Eichelberger were in residence and knew Saddam, former U.S. intelligence officials said.

Saddam’s U.S. handlers even pushed Saddam to get his Egyptian handlers to raise his monthly allowance, a gesture not appreciated by Egyptian officials since they knew of Saddam’s American connection, according to Darwish. His assertion was confirmed by former U.S. diplomat in Egypt at the time.

In February 1963 Qasim was killed in a Baath Party coup. Morris claimed recently that the CIA was behind the coup, which was sanctioned by President John F. Kennedy, but a former very senior CIA official strongly denied this.

“We were absolutely stunned. We had guys running around asking what the hell had happened,” this official said.

But the agency quickly moved into action. Noting that the Baath Party was hunting down Iraq’s communist, the CIA provided the submachine gun-toting Iraqi National Guardsmen with lists of suspected communists who were then jailed, interrogated, and summarily gunned down, according to former U.S. intelligence officials with intimate knowledge of the executions.

Many suspected communists were killed outright, these sources said. Darwish told UPI that the mass killings, presided over by Saddam, took place at Qasr al-Nehayat, literally, the Palace of the End.

A former senior U.S. State Department official told UPI: “We were frankly glad to be rid of them. You ask that they get a fair trial? You have to get kidding. This was serious business.”

A former senior CIA official said: “It was a bit like the mysterious killings of Iran’s communists just after Ayatollah Khomeini came to power in 1979. All 4,000 of his communists suddenly got killed.”

British scholar Con Coughlin, author of “Saddam: King of Terror,” quotes Jim Critchfield, then a senior Middle East agency official, as saying the killing of Qasim and the communists was regarded “as a great victory.” A former long-time covert U.S. intelligence operative and friend of Critchfield said: “Jim was an old Middle East hand. He wasn’t sorry to see the communists go at all. Hey, we were playing for keeps.”

Saddam, in the meantime, became head of al-Jihaz a-Khas, the secret intelligence apparatus of the Baath Party.

The CIA/Defense Intelligence Agency relation with Saddam intensified after the start of the Iran-Iraq war in September of 1980. During the war, the CIA regularly sent a team to Saddam to deliver battlefield intelligence obtained from Saudi AWACS surveillance aircraft to aid the effectiveness of Iraq’s armed forces, according to a former DIA official, part of a U.S. interagency intelligence group.

This former official said that he personally had signed off on a document that shared U.S. satellite intelligence with both Iraq and Iran in an attempt to produce a military stalemate. “When I signed it, I thought I was losing my mind,” the former official told UPI.

A former CIA official said that Saddam had assigned a top team of three senior officers from the Estikhbarat, Iraq’s military intelligence, to meet with the Americans.

According to Darwish, the CIA and DIA provided military assistance to Saddam’s ferocious February 1988 assault on Iranian positions in the al-Fao peninsula by blinding Iranian radars for three days.

The Saddam-U.S. intelligence alliance of convenience came to an end at 2 a.m. Aug. 2, 1990, when 100,000 Iraqi troops, backed by 300 tanks, invaded its neighbor, Kuwait. America’s one-time ally had become its bitterest enemy.

#impérialisme #USA #Iraq #CIA #histoire

Seit 30 Jahren bombardieren die USA den Irak
►https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=70630

US-Justizminister Clark nannte Mitte der 1990er die erschreckende Zahl von 1,5 Millionen durch Sanktionen Getötete, während andere diese noch höher ansetzten. Die Welternährungsorganisation nannte bereits 1995 die Zahl von 576.000 durch Sanktionen getötete Kinder – das ist Madeleine Albrights berühmt-berüchtigter „Preis“ für den Regime Change der USA, den es „wert“ sei, von irakischen Kindern zahlen zu lassen. Genozid durch Sanktionen, Zerstörung eines Landes durch Wirtschaftsterrorismus, millionenfacher Mord durch aktive Unterlassung – das ist Bill Clintons Erbe im Irak und das Paradebeispiel, wie ein Land und seine Bevölkerung zerstört werden können, ohne auch nur einen Fuß auf dieses Land zu setzen.

Madeleine Albright: „500,000 Dead Iraqi Children Was Worth It“
▻https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2008/03/madeleine-albright-500000-dead-iraqi-children-was-worth-it

Here is a much forgotten exchange between Lesley Stahl and Madeleine Albright on “60 Minutes” back on May 12, 1996 that is not getting much play lately:

Lesley Stahl on U.S. sanctions against Iraq: We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: I think this is a very hard choice, but the price–we think the price is worth it.

In case you missed that episode, here is the video:
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omnskeu-puE

#impérialisme #USA #Iraq #guerre #enfants #boycott

Seit 30 Jahren bombardieren die USA den Irak
►https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=70630

11. März 2021 um 9:37 Ein Artikel von Jakob Reimann

Mit der Operation Desert Storm setzte Bush Senior 1991 eine Pathologie US-amerikanischer Außenpolitik in Gang, unter der seit nunmehr 30 Jahren Krieg gegen die irakische Bevölkerung geführt wird. Die Kriegsformen wechseln sich ab und greifen verstärkend ineinander: Bombenteppich, Invasion, Flugverbotszonen, Wirtschaftskrieg, Drohnenkrieg. Das Ziel ist es, den Aufstieg des ölreichen Irak zum Regionalhegemonen dauerhaft zu unterbinden. Für dieses machtpolitische Kalkül zerstörten die USA die Grundfeste eines ganzen Landes, der Wiege der Zivilisation, und töteten im Irak mindestens 2,7 Millionen Menschen – im Schnitt 250 jeden Tag, seit 30 Jahren.

Der 17. Januar 2021 markierte den 30. Jahrestag des Krieges der USA gegen den Irak. Seit Januar 1991 bombardieren die Vereinigten Staaten nun ohne Unterbrechung das Land an Euphrat und Tigris, die Wiege der Zivilisation, und setzen darüber hinaus Wirtschaftskrieg, Staatsterrorismus und Folter ein. Der Irakkrieg dauert länger als der Amerikanische Bürgerkrieg, der Spanisch-Amerikanische Krieg, der Erste Weltkrieg, der Zweite Weltkrieg, der Koreakrieg, der Vietnamkrieg und der Kosovokrieg zusammen und ist damit der längste international ausgetragene Krieg seit dem Dreißigjährigen Krieg von 1618. Im Folgenden soll die Geschichte nachskizziert werden, wie die USA auf diesen mörderischen Irrweg gelangt sind.

#impérialisme #guerre #USA #Iraq

Früherer IS-Kindersoldat seit fast vier Jahren in Berlin in U-Haft
▻https://www.rbb24.de/panorama/beitrag/2021/02/berlin-untersuchungshaft-is-kindersoldat-un-ausschuss-kinderrechte.html

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Children_In_iraq-iran_war4.jpg

Fall jetzt beim UN-Kinderrechtsausschuss - Früherer IS-Kindersoldat seit fast vier Jahren in Berlin in U-Haft

26.02.21 | 12:22 Uhr

Seit Mai 2017, also seit fast vier Jahren, sitzt ein mutmaßliches früheres IS-Mitglied in Berlin in Untersuchungshaft - damals war der junge Mann noch minderjährig. Jetzt befasst sich der UN-Ausschuss für Kinderrechte mit seinem Fall. Von Ulf Morling

Seit November 2018 verhandelt der 1. Strafsenat des Berliner Kammergerichts gegen Raad A. (45) und Abbas (21). Es sind Vater und Sohn, beide Iraker sollen laut Bundesanwaltschaft IS-Mitglieder gewesen sein in ihrer Heimatstadt Mossul. Vor allem sollen sie beide an der Hinrichtung eines Offiziers einer paramilitärischen Polizeieinheit beteiligt gewesen sein, wenige Monate nach der Machtergreifung des IS in Mossul im Juni 2014.

Raad A. soll zu den schwer bewaffneten und vermummten Männern gehört haben, die die Hinrichtung durchführten. Der mitangeklagte Sohn Abbas beschimpfte zuvor das Opfer und bespuckte es. Er war damals 15 Jahre alt und nach Überzeugung von Menschenrechtlern Kindersoldat. Für ihn gilt das Jugendstrafrecht, das den Erziehungsgedanken für den Täter in den Vordergrund stellt. Trotzdem gab es noch nie einen Jugendlichen, der länger mit der Unschuldsvermutung in Untersuchungshaft in der Jugendstrafanstalt Plötzensee saß: Im Mai werden es vier Jahre.

Abbas in IS-Video zu sehen

Oktober 2014: Eine Prozession von IS-Männern zieht durch Mossul. Mindestens neun waffenstarrende Männer führen in ihrer Mitte einen Mann, bekleidet mit einem weißen langen Hemd. Seine Hände sind hinter dem Rücken gefesselt. Hupende Autos folgen, stille Menschen begleiten den Zug. Der Propaganda-Filmtrupp des IS filmt alles. Auf dem Quassem-al-Khayat-Platz kommen die Männer leicht erhöht zum Stehen. Im Video ist Abbas zu sehen, er wirkt wie ein Kind, seine Stimme eher hoch, er ist der einzige, der keinen Bart tragen kann. Er ist 15. Abbas tritt im roten Pullover an den Todgeweihten heran, hebt den rechten Zeigefinger und beleidigt ihn. „Dank des Islamischen Staates haben sie dich hierher gebracht!“, sagt er, spuckt das Opfer an und verschwindet in der Menge. Dann fallen die Schüsse. Abbas Vater soll unter den maskierten Bewaffneten gewesen sein.

Monate später flüchtet die Familie Abbas über die Türkei bis Berlin. Abbas lernt schnell Deutsch, hilft anderen Flüchtlingen im Heim beim Erlernen der Sprache, er lernt seine erste große Liebe kennen. Vater Raad, seine Mutter und die beiden kleinen Brüder werden als Flüchtlinge anerkannt. Doch dann werden Vater und Sohn im Mai 2017 festgenommen. Erst gibt es den Vorwurf des Rauschgifthandels. In dem Prozess erkennt der Richter Zeugen als Lügner und spricht Raad und Abbas frei. Doch sie bleiben in Untersuchungshaft. Der Vorwurf der Bundesanwaltschaft: Sie waren Mitglied im IS, an der Hinrichtung beteiligt und Raad soll in Berlin einen Selbstmordattentäter für die U-Bahn gesucht und für den IS geworben haben.

Islamisten oder nicht?

„Welche Handlungsoption hat so ein 15-Jähriger, umringt von neun schwer bewaffneten IS-Kämpfern? Soll er dann sagen: Das mache ich nicht?“, fragt Verteidiger Sven Peitzner. Abbas sei 15 Jahre alt gewesen, habe sein ganzes Leben lang nur Gewalt und Krieg erlebt: ob den Irak-Krieg und Saddam Husseins Sturz, den Bürgerkrieg, der Kampf mit den Islamisten. „Vater und Sohn sind keine religiösen Menschen“, sagt Abbas zweiter Verteidiger C. Marc Höfler. Im Gegenteil: Die Familie sei gut betucht und habe hohe Funktionäre im Saddam-Regime gehabt. Vater Raad A. komme aus der Nomenklatura der Baathisten, der Partei Saddam Husseins.

Die Bundesanwaltschaft möchte zu den erhobenen Vorwürfen keine Stellung nehmen. Schließlich habe man beim Prozessbeginn vor dem 1. Senat des Berliner Kammergerichts Auskünfte gegeben. Das müsse genügen, heißt es aus Karlsruhe. Eine monatelange Interviewanfrage, um mit Abbas selbst zu sprechen über sein Leben im Irak und seine Einstellungen, wird von dem jungen Mann selbst sehr begrüßt, ebenso - und das ist selten - vom Leiter der Jugendstrafanstalt. Auch Justizsenator Dirk Behrendt stimmt letztlich zu.

Doch der vorsitzende Richter des 1. Strafsenats verweigert schließlich den Zugang zum Jugendgefängnis. Zeugen könnten über die öffentlichen Äußerungen von Abbas unter Druck gesetzt, das Verfahren beschädigt werden, sagt er, obwohl ohnehin bei einem Interview unter Hochsicherheitsbedingungen drei Polizeibeamte anwesend gewesen wären. Selbst auf die Frage, ob jemals thematisiert wurde in den bisher 148 Verhandlungstagen, ob Abbas mit damals 15 Jahren nicht ein Kindersoldat gewesen sei, verweigert der Richter jede Information. Diese Auskunft könne den Eindruck der Befangenheit erwecken, wird mitgeteilt.

Rekrutierung von unter 18-Jährigen völkerrechtlich verboten

Vier Jahre Untersuchungshaft bedeutet für Abbas unter anderem: keine Ausbildung, keine umfassende Schule. Denn der Jugendliche ist ein Untersuchungsgefangener, der zweimal wöchentlich einen Prozesstermin hat. Außerdem unterliegt er strengen Sicherheitsauflagen. „Bei so einer langen Haftzeit hätte man ihm ruhig eine Ausbildung angedeihen lassen können. Das Problem ist, dass er zweimal die Woche beim Gericht ist“, sagt der Leiter der Jugendhaft, Bill Borchert.

Als Kinderrechtsschutzorganisationen von Abbas erfahren, sind die Mitarbeiter betroffen. Ein solcher Umgang sei höchst fragwürdig. Denn Abbas sei, ob er freiwillig bei IS mitgemacht habe oder nicht, ein Kindersoldat gewesen. „Für bewaffnete Gruppen und Milizen wie den IS ist die Rekrutierung von unter 18-jährigen verboten“, sagt die irakkundige Henriette Hänsch von Terre des Hommes. Das sei völkerrechtlich so festgelegt. Ob die Kinder freiwillig dort mitmachten oder nicht, sie seien Kindersoldaten.

Fall liegt beim UN-Kinderrechtsausschuss

Erst Anfang Februar wurde dem UN-Ausschuss für Kinderrechte in Genf der Fall Abbas von dem „Deutschen Bündnis Kindersoldaten“ vorgelegt." Bekannt wurde er durch diese Recherche, weil es keinerlei Statistiken gibt, wie viele Kindersoldaten in Deutschland Zuflucht suchten. Die UN muss nun prüfen, ob Deutschland gegen die Kinderrechtskonvention von 1989 verstößt. Damit wäre international geltendes Recht verletzt.

Noch vor einem möglichen Schuldspruch des Kammergerichts wird bereits die Abschiebung des inzwischen 21-jährigen Abbas in den Irak betrieben. Dort droht ihm zumindest Folter, sagt das Berliner Verwaltungsgericht und stoppte bisher alle Versuche der Abschiebung. Im letzten Sommer versuchte Abbas wegen dieser Pläne einen Suizid und überlebte nur knapp.

Bis April ist derzeit der Prozess in Berlin terminiert.

* Der Name des Vaters wurde von der Redaktion geändert. Der rbb nennt dagegen den richtigen Namen des jungen Mannes auf dessen ausdrücklichen Wunsch.

#Iraq #Allemagne #guerre #daech #enfants_soldats

Syrian Refugees Return From KRG Due To Unemployment Amid Coronavirus - The syrian observer
“Due to the continued spread of the coronavirus, businesses in Kurdish Iraq are remaining closed, creating an unemployment crisis for Syrian refugees living in the region”

For about eight months, the lockdown measures have affected restaurants and many tourist facilities that housed Syrian workers, and according to statistics from the Association of Restaurants and Hotels in Duhok Governorate, which received about 100,000 Syrian refugees in 2019, 30 percent of those refugees worked in the tourism sector.

The UNHCR in Iraq recorded an increase in returns to Syria, according to press statements by UNHCR media officer Rashid Hussein. “500 Syrian refugees in Duhok Governorate have registered with the UNHCR for voluntary return to Syria,” he explained.

He added, “The main reasons for the voluntary return, according to refugees, are the economic conditions and the decline in job opportunities in the KRG.”

Nuri Qasim is a former Syrian refugee who returned to his hometown of Derik three months ago after spending a year and a half in the city of Zakho in KRG. Qasim worked as a construction worker, but his work stopped due to coronavirus and the lack of aid provided by relief organizations to refugees, in addition to some health problems that forced him to return

https://syrianobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Syrian-refugees-return-from-KRG-due-to-unemployment-amid-coronavirus.jpg

#Covid-19#Syrie#Iraq#frontière#Pandémie#Travail#Retour_volontaire#Économie#migrant#Politique#réfugiés#migration

Agnes Callamard sur Twitter : “One year ago, the US targeted killing of #Iran’s #GeneralSoleimani in #Iraq became the first known incident outside the context of a declared conflict in which a State invoked self-defence as justification for an attack against a State-actor.” / Twitter
▻https://twitter.com/AgnesCallamard/status/1345733073661546501

[...]

The US killing of General Soleimani, a State officials, also failed to meet the standards of necessity and proportionality. It was unlawful under human rights law. What does its precedent mean?

We now confront the real prospect that States may opt to strategically eliminate high-ranking officials outside the context of a known war and then attempt to justify such a killing on the grounds of the target classification as a “terrorist who posed an undefined, future threat.

#etats-unis #droit_international

Anti-Turkey alliance emerging in the Arab World — by Abdus Sattar Ghazali — September 13, 2020

The intended target of the UAE-Israel alliance is not Iran but #Turkey, whose regional clout poses a threat to Gulf rulers, says David Hearst, the editor in chief of Middle East Eye.

▻https://countercurrents.org/2020/09/anti-turkey-alliance-emerging-in-the-arab-world

#Israel #Arab_League #UAE #Iraq #Syria #Libya #Iran #Emirates

Displaced people in Syria’s Hawl camp appeal to Iraqi government for repatriation - North press agency

IDPs in Syria’s Hawl camp, north of Hasakah, called on the Iraqi government to reopen the door for their return and facilitate their arrival to their families, and denied belonging to the Islamic State (ISIS).

Most of them were displaced during the battles between the Iraqi armed forces and ISIS.

The Iraqi government stopped repatriating Iraqi families displaced to Hawl camp between 2019 and 2020 due to the security situation, coronavirus outbreak, and the fact that some Iraqi tribal leaders accused them of belonging to ISIS.

Hawl camp houses about 65,000 people, including Iraqi refugees, Syrian IDPs, and ISIS families, living in 13,000 tents, according to the camp administration.

▻https://npasyria.com/en/?p=46751

https://npasyria.com/en/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/1-42.jpg

#Covid-19#Syrie#Iraq#frontière#Pandémie#DAESH#camp#Al-Hol#migrant#Politique#réfugiés#migration

Coronavirus: Iraq’s ’Covid-19 generation’ faces forced labour, lack of school | Middle East Eye

Yusuf, a 10-year-old Arab boy originally from Iraq’s central Salahaddin province, sells plastic bags in the centre of Sulaymaniyah.

Yusuf is one of hundreds, if not thousands, of children working across northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region to help their families - or just to survive - at a time that Iraqi government coffers have shrunk due to the crash in oil prices, an economic crisis and a pandemic that has caused mayhem around the world.

“I never attended school [and] have been working here for more than two years,” he told Middle East Eye. “My parents were killed by the Islamic State.”

Many Kurdish families, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and Syrian refugees are forced to take their children out of school and send them to work in dangerous conditions in order to make ends meet.

#Covid-19#Iraq#Déplacés#Précarité#Société_civile#migrant#migration

▻https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/coronavirus-iraq-covid-19-generation-forced-labour-education-school

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COVID-19: Highest death toll in Kurdistan Region, as WHO and KRG launch COVID awareness campaign - Kurdistan 24

Rising cases in Dohuk Province

The ministry said in a statement that it had conducted 4,699 new tests across the region, with 458 returning positive: 199 were in Dohuk province, marking a significant increase in cases there. Some 127 new cases were reported in Erbil and 91 in Sulaimani.

The ministry also said that 27 people had died of the virus over the past 24 hours—the highest coronavirus death count in one day, raising the total to 930 fatalities from the disease across the Kurdistan Region.

COVID-19 is highly contagious, and health authorities have repeatedly explained what needs to be done to control its spread: wear a face mask; practice social distancing; and regularly wash hands.

▻https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/b9c71dfc-6154-4ff2-a778-0479ce648f5f

https://kurdistan24.blob.core.windows.net/filemanager/resources/normals/2020/08/CORONA-KK.jpg

#Covid-19#Iraq#KRG#Dohuk#Seconde_vague#Camps#déplacés#Pandémie#Santé#migrant#migration

Bus, taxis drivers in Erbil protest coronavirus travel ban - NRT Tv

us and taxi drivers protested at a transportation terminal in Erbil city on Thursday (August 6) calling on the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to re-open routes between Erbil and other areas of the Kurdistan Region and Iraq.

Gathering at the Erbil-Baghdad Garage, the drivers complained that they had been out of business for more than four months due to the coronavirus travel ban in the Region, noting that their counterparts in Sulaimani had already begun operations to governorates in central and southern Iraq.

“Our demand is to be treated like the drivers from Sulaimani, Baghdad, Kirkuk, Kifri, Kalar, and Chamchamal,” one of the protesters told an NRT reporter.

“We are in a region that became three states. The roads have been opened between Sulaimani and Baghdad and there is no problem,” he added, saying that large numbers of tourists from outside the Kurdistan Region had visited Sulaimani over the Eid al-Adha holiday.

The protesters also argued that it was unfair that restaurants and other businesses are allowed to open, but their industry cannot return to normal.

According to the KRG’s health ministry, there have been 15,577 cases of coronavirus in the Kurdistan Region and 597 patients have died as of Wednesday night. In Iraq as a whole, there have been 137,556 cases and 5,094 deaths.

Although Sulaimani has recorded the highest total number of cases in the Kurdistan Region since the beginning of March, in recent weeks Erbil has had the highest number of new cases per day.

▻https://nrttv.com/En/News.aspx?id=23011&MapID=1

#Covid-19#Iraq#KRG#Frontièrerégionale#Seconde_vague#Pandémie#Santé#confinement#migrant#migration

COVID-19 case detected at IDP camp in Duhok: migration and displacement ministry- NRT Tv

The federal Ministry of Displacement and Migration announced on Wednesday (August 5) that it has identified a coronavirus case at the Chamishku camp in Duhok’s Zakho district, the first at that facility.

The General Director of the ministry’s Branches Affairs Department Ali Abbas said in a statement that the person in question was a 39-year-old internally displaced person (IDP).

“Thirty of those who were in contact with him have been isolated according to the initial report issued by the competent authorities in the province,” read the statement.

“With the guidance of Minister of Immigration and Displacement Evan Faeq, immediate measures have been taken to sterilize the camp and prevent entries and exits to limit the spread of the virus,” Abbas added.

“Necessary measures have been taken in coordination with Duhok Health Department to take samples, transport patients, and isolate the contacts.”

A request for comment sent to the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Joint Crisis Coordination Centre (JCC) was not immediately returned.

Located just north of Zakho city, Chamishku is home to 26,520 IDPs, according to UNHCR.

Since the beginning of the Kurdistan Region’s coronavirus outbreak in March, Duhok has been relatively free of the virus, but cases have increased significantly in the past two week, surging from 357 cases on July 21 to 801 on Tuesday.

For many, the nightmare scenario is that the coronavirus outbreak spreads to the displacement camps, where social distancing and other public health measures are difficult to achieve

▻https://nrttv.com/En/News.aspx?id=22999&MapID=1

#Covid-19#Iraq#KRG#Dohuk#Seconde_vague#Camps#déplacés#Pandémie#Santé#migrant#migration

Coronavirus cases rising in Erbil, says health official - ESTA KRD

Spokesman for the General Directorate of Health in Erbil Dr. Bzhar Musa said COVID-19 patients were in a “bad condition” in Erbil, as most of them have serious symptoms.

“The condition of patients at Rizgari hospital is bad, and most of them are under ventilators, and some others need oxygen,” Musa told Esta Media Network.
“Some of the patients have severe symptoms of the virus,” he said.
The Kurdistan Region’s ministry of health recorded 218 coronavirus cases and six deaths in Erbil on Tuesday. There were 16 cases and four deaths in Sulaimani. The Region’s total number of infections reached 15,173, with 586 deaths.
In Sulaimani, deputy director of health Dr. Herish Said Salim said the situation in the province was “good” and that the number of cases were decreasing.

As part of measures against the virus, the interior ministry ordered the closure of several places, including tourist sites, parks, cafeterias and teahouses in the Region

The Region’s ministry of health said in a statement that 218 new infections were in Erbil, 16 in Sulaimani, 28 in Garmian and 83 in Duhok.

▻https://esta.krd/En/news.aspx?id=4082&mapid=1
▻https://esta.krd/En/news.aspx?id=4074&mapid=1

#Covid-19#Iraq#KRG#Erbil#Seconde_vague#Pandémie#Santé#migrant#migration

Flights between Turkey and Iraq suspended over rising coronavirus cases - Middle East Eye

Flights between Turkey and Iraq are to be suspended over a rise in coronavirus cases, Iraq’s aviation authority announced on Sunday.

Iraq had reopened Baghdad and airports in the south of the country last week for international travel after months of closure.

Iraqi authorities lifted other restrictions last month, allowing malls and shops to reopen and delaying the start of overnight curfews to 9:30 pm (18:30 GMT).

Restaurants and coffee shops remain closed to customers but are allowed to fulfil takeaway or delivery orders.

#Covid-19#Turquie#Iraq#FermetureFrontière#Aeroport#Politique_internationale#migrant#migration

▻https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/flights-between-turkey-and-iraq-suspended-over-rising-coronavirus-cas

Border crossing between Turkey, Iraq’s KRG closed due to coronavirus - Bianet
The Habur-Ibrahim Khalil border crossings reopened in May after being shut down at the start of March

#Covid-19#Iraq#KRG#Frontière#TurquieSeconde_vague#Pandémie#Santé#confinement#migrant#migration

▻https://bianet.org/5/113/228456-border-crossing-between-turkey-iraq-s-krg-closed-due-to-coronavirus

« Des milliers d’Irakiens n’arrivent plus à manger » : en Irak, le COVID-19 a précarisé les travailleurs pauvres -Al Monitor

En périphérie de Bagdad, de nombreux Irakiens précaires ne peuvent plus subvenir aux besoins de leur famille depuis le début du confinement décrété à la mi-mars pour lutter contre le coronavirus. Seules les actions de solidarité leur permettent de survivre.
Dans le faubourg chiite de Sabaa Qusoor, localisé dans le nord-ouest de Bagdad, un demi-million d’Irakiens s’entassent dans des habitations de fortune faites de bâches et de parpaings. Des constructions pour la plupart illégales, bâties dans l’urgence au gré des guerres et des conjonctures économiques fluctuantes en Irak.

Les routes en terre, les installations électriques bricolées par les habitants et les marées d’eaux usées dessinent les allées de ce territoire laissé à l’abandon par les autorités.

#Covid-19#Iraq#Coopération#Déplacés#Précarité#ONG#Société_civile#migrant#migration

▻https://www.middleeasteye.net/fr/reportages/irak-pauvrete-coronavirus-crise-economique-solidarite

Iraq: Displaced people extremely vulnerable to COVID-19 - MSF

Two years since the end of the war with the Islamic State group, more than 1.3 million people in Iraq are still displaced from their homes and are now extremely vulnerable to COVID-19 due to overcrowded and unhygienic living conditions, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned today.

“Internally displaced people in Iraq have been suffering for years, living in precarious and often cramped formal and informal camps,” said Gul Badshah, MSF head of mission in Iraq. “There have been the first confirmed COVID-19 cases in a few internal displacement camps in Iraq, including where MSF works in Laylan camp near Kirkuk. While there have not been more confirmed cases for now, we are still worried about the impact COVID-19 will have on the most vulnerable people inside the camps, especially given the difficulty for people take self-protective measures.”

#Covid-19#Moyen-Orient#Iraq#KRG#Sanitaire#Déplacés#Camps#migrant#migration

▻https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/what-we-do/news-stories/news/iraq-displaced-people-extremely-vulnerable-covid-19

COVID-19: Iraq’s active cases reach over 28,000, more than 2,000 new infections in single day - Kurdistan 24

On Thursday, Iraq’s Ministry of Health and Environment reported that it had so far recorded over 28,000 actives cases of the highly infectious disease, formally known as COVID-19, while it recorded over 2,000 new infections over the last 24 hours and 90 deaths.

In its daily statement, the ministry mentioned that health workers had conducted 16,110 tests across the country in the same period, raising the total to 744,847 since the disease first entered the country. Out of the total new examinations, 2,281 returned positive.

▻https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/88b16ab5-b78e-41bc-b2d2-82ba147658bf

#Covid-19#Iraq#Chiffre_officiel#Seconde_vague#Pandémie#Santé#confinement#migrant#migration

PMU pitches in as COVID cases surge in Iraq - Al monitor

Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) have rehabilitated a hospital, buried victims, sprayed public places with disinfectant and delivered oxygen in recent weeks as part of the nationwide efforts against the COVID-19 pandemic.

From a few dozen recorded deaths per day on June 11 to almost 100 per day a month later, COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the country amid worsening poverty, unemployment and financial hardship.

On July 2, the International Rescue Committee noted, “With the number of confirmed cases standing at 53,708 on July 1 — up from 6,868 on June 1 — the Ministry of Health has announced that hospitals are almost at full capacity” and “schools and universities will be converted into isolation units.”

#Covid-19#Iraq#Crisesanitaire#Pandémie#Milice#Quarantaine#migrant#migration

▻https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/07/iraq-covid19-pmu.html

Kurdistan Region airports to stay closed to commercial passenger flights until July 22 - Rudaw

Commercial passenger flights from Kurdistan Region airports are to remain suspended until July 22, the head of Erbil International Airport (EIA) has announced.

The ban will include all international and domestic flights, except for military, medical aid, and cargo flights, EIA director Talal Fayaq told a press conference on Monday.

“It is expected that flights might resume after July 22, but until this date the airports remain closed,” Fayaq said, pending an Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority (ICAA) decision on whether flights will be allowed to resume on that date.

#Covid-19#migrant#migration#confinement#Aeroport#Iraq#KRG#Tourisme#santé#pandémie

▻https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/130720201

Turkey sends coronavirus aid to Iraq - Al Monitor

A Turkish military jet delivered coronavirus-related aid to Iraq today. The assistance comes as Turkey continues its war against Kurdish militants in the country, despite opposition from Baghdad.

#Covid-19#Moyen-Orient#Iraq#Turquie#Frontière#ouverture#Aide_humanitaire#migrant#migration

▻https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/07/turkey-flight-coronavirus-covid-19-aid-iraq-medical.html

COVID-19: Iraq announces new increase in cases, crosses 2000 total deaths - Kurdistan 24

The Iraqi Ministry of Health and Environment on Wednesday announced an increase of 2,415 new coronavirus cases, a new high in the past few days. The ministry also announced another 107 fatalities, raising the national total coronavirus-related death tally to more than 2000 since the outbreak began in Iraq.

In its daily statement, the ministry mentioned that 11,378 tests had been conducted in 24 hours, making the total nearly 556,000. It also outlined the total number of infections had reached 51,524 confirmed infections, including 26,267 recoveries, 2,050 deaths, and 23,207 active cases.

Today’s figures do not include the most recent developments in the Kurdistan Region, which has its own health ministry and typically announces results later in the day. As such, Kurdistan’s figures are usually added to the following day’s national tally.

#Covid-19#Iraq#Crisesanitaire#Pandémie#Santé#hôpital#migrant#migration

▻https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/0a9b0ff7-b0a2-451e-aa75-aee8e0011596