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vendredi 29 mai 2009
jeudi 28 mai 2009
Colonizing Culture by Dahr Jamail
May, 2009t r u t h o u t
Read story with photograph here
The geo-strategic expansion of the American empire is an accepted fact of contemporary history. I have been writing in these columns about the impact of the US occupation on the people of Iraq in the wake of the "hard" colonization via F-16s, tanks, 2,000-pound bombs, white phosphorous and cluster bombs.
Here I offer a brief glimpse into the less obvious but far more insidious phenomenon of "soft" colonization. That scholars and political thinkers have talked at length of such processes only establishes the uncomfortable reality that history is bound to repeat itself in all its ugliness, unless the human civilization makes a concerted effort to eliminate the use of brute force from human affairs.
Gandhi, the apostle of non-violent resistance said:
"I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any. I refuse to live in other people's houses as an interloper, a beggar or a slave."
This is an idea rendered irrelevant in the current scenario, where the mightier among the world's nations have secured the mandate to invade, with impunity, any society and any state that can be exploited for resources. Unlike earlier times, modern-day invasions are invariably camouflaged by a façade of elaborate deceit that claims altruistic intent as the motive of assault. In this new scheme of things, resistance is deemed as insurgency and dissent is unpatriotic. Those that are invaded do not have the luxury to decide between being beggar and slave. Culture would be the last thing on their minds as they struggle to stay alive. Yet it is the loss of their culture that ultimately causes the disintegration of these societies to the absolute advantage of their victors.
It is said that history is written by the victor. What is not said is that destroying the enemy is only half the purpose of a victor. The other half is the subjugation and drastic alteration of the self-perception of the enemy, so as to gain unquestioned control over every aspect of the subjugated state, its populace and its resources, so that having won victory it can get on with the "much bigger business of plunder," according to Franz Fanon, philosopher, psychiatrist, author and a pre-eminent thinker of the twentieth century.
At one level we have the Human Terrain System (HTS) I have written about previously wherein social scientists are embedded with combat units, ostensibly to help the occupiers better understand the cultures they are occupying. The veiled intent is to exploit existing schisms and fault-lines in these societies to the occupier's own advantage through the policy of divide and conquer.
As Edward Said stated in "Orientalism":
"... there is a difference between knowledge of other peoples and other times that is the result of understanding, compassion, careful study and analysis for their own sakes, and on the other hand knowledge - if that is what it is - that is part of an overall campaign of self-affirmation, belligerency, and outright war. There is, after all, a profound difference between the will to understand for purposes of coexistence and humanistic enlargement of horizons, and the will to dominate for the purposes of control and external enlargement of horizons, and the will to dominate for the purposes of control and external dominion."
It is extremely obvious that the HTS belongs to this second category.
At another unquestioned level, the "democratization" and "modernization" of a "barbaric" society goes on. The embedded scholars of HTS evidently find no evidence of these cultures having withstood decades of international isolation and assault, yet sustained their sovereignty by the sheer dint of their education, culture and a well-integrated diverse social fabric. So the US sets up a range of state-funded programs, ostensibly to empower the women and youth of the target society, in the ways of democracy and modern civilization. Whether or not that suspect goal is accomplished, the badgered collective consciousness of the invaded people, traumatized by loss and conflict, does begin to submit to the "norms" of behavior prescribed by the victor, even when they are in violation of actual norms of society that may have prevailed prior to invasion.
Transform
Fanon said:
"A national culture under colonial domination is a contested culture whose destruction is sought in systematic fashion."Describing the psychopathology of colonization he said, "Every effort is made to bring the colonized person to admit the inferiority of his culture which has been transformed into instinctive patterns of behavior, to recognize the unreality of his 'nation', and, in the last extreme, the confused and imperfect character of his own biological structure."
Fanon's speech to the Congress of Black African Writers in 1959 is an uncanny description of Iraq's tragedy today:
"Colonial domination, because it is total and tends to over-simplify, very soon manages to disrupt in spectacular fashion the cultural life of a conquered people. This cultural obliteration is made possible by the negation of national reality, by new legal relations introduced by the occupying power, by the banishment of the natives and their customs to outlying districts by colonial society, by expropriation, and by the systematic enslaving of men and women ...
"For culture is first the expression of a nation, the expression of its preferences, of its taboos and of its patterns. It is at every stage of the whole of society that other taboos, values and patterns are formed. A national culture is the sum total of all these appraisals; it is the result of internal and external extensions exerted over society as a whole and also at every level of that society. In the colonial situation, culture, which is doubly deprived of the support of the nation and of the state, falls away and dies."
At times we may witness blatant violations as in the distribution of backpacks with US flags to Iraqi children.
A more repulsive example is the Skin White Serum. One of many companies engaged in selling skin-bleaching cream is Skin White Research Labs. They proudly sell Skin White Serum in "over 30 countries." There are countless other companies involved in this market, selling similar products, like Skin White Bleaching Cream and Xtreme White.
The hidden message here is that, politically, those in the culture being colonized should seek to cover their brown skin, which is in fact part of their ethnic identity, and aspire to the culture, power and influence of the dominant culture at the expense of their own.
Somewhat less subtle is the corporate colonization of Iraq's culture. An example of this is Iraqi girls carrying Barbie backpacks in the Sadr City area of Baghdad.
In Iraq and Afghanistan, the dominant culture for a while now has been the US military. Since it has all the firepower and the brute force, it sets the norms and the standard. This is done by repeated suggestions through propaganda, and advertisements suggesting that the local population is of lesser worth than the occupiers of their country in their appearance, their beliefs, their customs and their way of life.
The material practices of society sustain its culture, which is the lifeline of identity, and affirmation that the progress of a nation depends on. Social custom, production systems, education, art and architecture are a few of the visible pillars of culture.
Community and custom become the first casualties when an entire people, unequal in the face of military might, struggle to survive under perpetual fear of loss and death. In a state of vacuum, the threatened society will grasp whatever is offered by the occupier as a "better" way of living. In the process it is bound to lose its own tried and tested self-sustaining modes of living.
With the destruction of infrastructure, education, health and livelihood sources are destroyed. When rehabilitation and restoration come packaged in alien systems of knowledge (read-USAID), that, too, is accepted in the absence of what existed earlier.
Literature, art and architecture meet with more systemic demolition.
My artist friends in Baghdad have reported,
"The occupation forces encouraged the rebels to loot museum and libraries. Five thousand years of history and art were irretrievably lost in hours. It is a loss for the world, not Iraq alone. Buildings can be fixed, so can electricity, but where can I find another Khalid al-Rahal to make me a new statue for Abu Fafar al-Mansoor? How will I replace the artifacts dating back to thousands of years? Iraq is altered forever."
I have heard from ordinary men and women in Iraq, "We need our art, because it connects us with what has brought us here, and reminds us of where we are headed." Dr. Saad Eskander has been director general of whatever remains of Iraq's National Archive and Library and he says, "This building was burned twice, and looted. We have lost sixty percent of our archival collections like maps, historical records and photographs. Twenty-five percent of our books were lost ... It has crippled our culture, and culture reaches to the bottom of peoples' hearts, whereas politics do not."
It is not difficult to see that the extent of devastation caused by the invasion and occupation of Iraq goes beyond loss of life, livelihood and property. The historical and cultural roots of the nation have been destroyed.
Read story with photograph here
The geo-strategic expansion of the American empire is an accepted fact of contemporary history. I have been writing in these columns about the impact of the US occupation on the people of Iraq in the wake of the "hard" colonization via F-16s, tanks, 2,000-pound bombs, white phosphorous and cluster bombs.
Here I offer a brief glimpse into the less obvious but far more insidious phenomenon of "soft" colonization. That scholars and political thinkers have talked at length of such processes only establishes the uncomfortable reality that history is bound to repeat itself in all its ugliness, unless the human civilization makes a concerted effort to eliminate the use of brute force from human affairs.
Gandhi, the apostle of non-violent resistance said:
"I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any. I refuse to live in other people's houses as an interloper, a beggar or a slave."
This is an idea rendered irrelevant in the current scenario, where the mightier among the world's nations have secured the mandate to invade, with impunity, any society and any state that can be exploited for resources. Unlike earlier times, modern-day invasions are invariably camouflaged by a façade of elaborate deceit that claims altruistic intent as the motive of assault. In this new scheme of things, resistance is deemed as insurgency and dissent is unpatriotic. Those that are invaded do not have the luxury to decide between being beggar and slave. Culture would be the last thing on their minds as they struggle to stay alive. Yet it is the loss of their culture that ultimately causes the disintegration of these societies to the absolute advantage of their victors.
It is said that history is written by the victor. What is not said is that destroying the enemy is only half the purpose of a victor. The other half is the subjugation and drastic alteration of the self-perception of the enemy, so as to gain unquestioned control over every aspect of the subjugated state, its populace and its resources, so that having won victory it can get on with the "much bigger business of plunder," according to Franz Fanon, philosopher, psychiatrist, author and a pre-eminent thinker of the twentieth century.
At one level we have the Human Terrain System (HTS) I have written about previously wherein social scientists are embedded with combat units, ostensibly to help the occupiers better understand the cultures they are occupying. The veiled intent is to exploit existing schisms and fault-lines in these societies to the occupier's own advantage through the policy of divide and conquer.
As Edward Said stated in "Orientalism":
"... there is a difference between knowledge of other peoples and other times that is the result of understanding, compassion, careful study and analysis for their own sakes, and on the other hand knowledge - if that is what it is - that is part of an overall campaign of self-affirmation, belligerency, and outright war. There is, after all, a profound difference between the will to understand for purposes of coexistence and humanistic enlargement of horizons, and the will to dominate for the purposes of control and external enlargement of horizons, and the will to dominate for the purposes of control and external dominion."
It is extremely obvious that the HTS belongs to this second category.
At another unquestioned level, the "democratization" and "modernization" of a "barbaric" society goes on. The embedded scholars of HTS evidently find no evidence of these cultures having withstood decades of international isolation and assault, yet sustained their sovereignty by the sheer dint of their education, culture and a well-integrated diverse social fabric. So the US sets up a range of state-funded programs, ostensibly to empower the women and youth of the target society, in the ways of democracy and modern civilization. Whether or not that suspect goal is accomplished, the badgered collective consciousness of the invaded people, traumatized by loss and conflict, does begin to submit to the "norms" of behavior prescribed by the victor, even when they are in violation of actual norms of society that may have prevailed prior to invasion.
Transform
Fanon said:
"A national culture under colonial domination is a contested culture whose destruction is sought in systematic fashion."Describing the psychopathology of colonization he said, "Every effort is made to bring the colonized person to admit the inferiority of his culture which has been transformed into instinctive patterns of behavior, to recognize the unreality of his 'nation', and, in the last extreme, the confused and imperfect character of his own biological structure."
Fanon's speech to the Congress of Black African Writers in 1959 is an uncanny description of Iraq's tragedy today:
"Colonial domination, because it is total and tends to over-simplify, very soon manages to disrupt in spectacular fashion the cultural life of a conquered people. This cultural obliteration is made possible by the negation of national reality, by new legal relations introduced by the occupying power, by the banishment of the natives and their customs to outlying districts by colonial society, by expropriation, and by the systematic enslaving of men and women ...
"For culture is first the expression of a nation, the expression of its preferences, of its taboos and of its patterns. It is at every stage of the whole of society that other taboos, values and patterns are formed. A national culture is the sum total of all these appraisals; it is the result of internal and external extensions exerted over society as a whole and also at every level of that society. In the colonial situation, culture, which is doubly deprived of the support of the nation and of the state, falls away and dies."
At times we may witness blatant violations as in the distribution of backpacks with US flags to Iraqi children.
A more repulsive example is the Skin White Serum. One of many companies engaged in selling skin-bleaching cream is Skin White Research Labs. They proudly sell Skin White Serum in "over 30 countries." There are countless other companies involved in this market, selling similar products, like Skin White Bleaching Cream and Xtreme White.
The hidden message here is that, politically, those in the culture being colonized should seek to cover their brown skin, which is in fact part of their ethnic identity, and aspire to the culture, power and influence of the dominant culture at the expense of their own.
Somewhat less subtle is the corporate colonization of Iraq's culture. An example of this is Iraqi girls carrying Barbie backpacks in the Sadr City area of Baghdad.
In Iraq and Afghanistan, the dominant culture for a while now has been the US military. Since it has all the firepower and the brute force, it sets the norms and the standard. This is done by repeated suggestions through propaganda, and advertisements suggesting that the local population is of lesser worth than the occupiers of their country in their appearance, their beliefs, their customs and their way of life.
The material practices of society sustain its culture, which is the lifeline of identity, and affirmation that the progress of a nation depends on. Social custom, production systems, education, art and architecture are a few of the visible pillars of culture.
Community and custom become the first casualties when an entire people, unequal in the face of military might, struggle to survive under perpetual fear of loss and death. In a state of vacuum, the threatened society will grasp whatever is offered by the occupier as a "better" way of living. In the process it is bound to lose its own tried and tested self-sustaining modes of living.
With the destruction of infrastructure, education, health and livelihood sources are destroyed. When rehabilitation and restoration come packaged in alien systems of knowledge (read-USAID), that, too, is accepted in the absence of what existed earlier.
Literature, art and architecture meet with more systemic demolition.
My artist friends in Baghdad have reported,
"The occupation forces encouraged the rebels to loot museum and libraries. Five thousand years of history and art were irretrievably lost in hours. It is a loss for the world, not Iraq alone. Buildings can be fixed, so can electricity, but where can I find another Khalid al-Rahal to make me a new statue for Abu Fafar al-Mansoor? How will I replace the artifacts dating back to thousands of years? Iraq is altered forever."
I have heard from ordinary men and women in Iraq, "We need our art, because it connects us with what has brought us here, and reminds us of where we are headed." Dr. Saad Eskander has been director general of whatever remains of Iraq's National Archive and Library and he says, "This building was burned twice, and looted. We have lost sixty percent of our archival collections like maps, historical records and photographs. Twenty-five percent of our books were lost ... It has crippled our culture, and culture reaches to the bottom of peoples' hearts, whereas politics do not."
It is not difficult to see that the extent of devastation caused by the invasion and occupation of Iraq goes beyond loss of life, livelihood and property. The historical and cultural roots of the nation have been destroyed.
Assyrian Politician Detained, Threatened By Kurdish Security in Iraq
GMT 5-28-2009 2:5:16
Assyrian International News Agency
Telkepe, North Iraq (AINA) -- An Assyrian political activist, Hazim Zori, member of the Telkepe district council, ranking member of the Assyrian Democratic Organization and member of the Hammurabi Human Rights Group, was detained by Kurdish security forces, known as Asayesh, on may 14, 2009. According to Mr. Zori, he was targeted by Asayesh because of his advocacy of Assyrian rights in the Telkepe council in north Iraq.
According to Mr. Zori, the Asayesh threatened him, intimidated and mistreated him. "This unfair treatment was due to principles and stands that I took in the Telkepe council," he said. "Those stands reflected the rights of our people to live honorable life and to have free will like every other group in Iraq and to have our own right to have our own independent decision not under submissiveness or pressure from others."This item is available as: html
Copyright (C) 2009, Assyrian International News Agency. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use.
Assyrian International News Agency
Telkepe, North Iraq (AINA) -- An Assyrian political activist, Hazim Zori, member of the Telkepe district council, ranking member of the Assyrian Democratic Organization and member of the Hammurabi Human Rights Group, was detained by Kurdish security forces, known as Asayesh, on may 14, 2009. According to Mr. Zori, he was targeted by Asayesh because of his advocacy of Assyrian rights in the Telkepe council in north Iraq.
According to Mr. Zori, the Asayesh threatened him, intimidated and mistreated him. "This unfair treatment was due to principles and stands that I took in the Telkepe council," he said. "Those stands reflected the rights of our people to live honorable life and to have free will like every other group in Iraq and to have our own right to have our own independent decision not under submissiveness or pressure from others."This item is available as: html
Copyright (C) 2009, Assyrian International News Agency. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use.
ITF Europe Rep says nobody seriously supports Turkmens
For my interview by Wladimir van Wilgenburg
on Transnational Middle-East Observer
See : http://vvanwilgenburg.blogspot.com/2009/05/itf-eu-rep-says-nobody-seriously_26.html
on Transnational Middle-East Observer
See : http://vvanwilgenburg.blogspot.com/2009/05/itf-eu-rep-says-nobody-seriously_26.html
mercredi 27 mai 2009
Pentagon: US Ready to Keep Troops in Iraq For Another 10 Years
Pentagon: US Ready to Keep Troops in Iraq For Another 10 Years
Gen. Casey Says Global Trends Going 'In the Wrong Direction'
by Jason Ditz, May 26, 2009
While US officials have continued to insist that the timetable for removing troops from Iraq remains in place, a growing trend of violence and a delay to Iraq’s national parliamentary elections has led to considerable speculation that the US won’t ultimately abide by the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) deadline to have troops out of the nation by the end of 2011.
That speculation seemed well-founded today, when Army Chief of Staff General George Casey said that the world “remains dangerous and unpredictable” and that his planning envisions leaving combat troops in Iraq for another decade “to fight extremism and terrorism.”
Gen. Casey’s planning was focused on troop rotations, and he emphasized that he wasn’t responsible for making decisions about policy, but that he believed the US would need to be ready for “sustained” wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, in which he saw a similar timeline.
During the campaign President Obama promised to have all troops out of Iraq within 16 months, though he abandoned that policy just days after taking office. His current policy is to declare an end to “combat” in August 2010, but to keep troops in the nation engaged in combat operations for an indefinite period past that. He has insisted that he still intends to abide by the SOFA deadline, however.
http://news.antiwar.com/2009/05/26/pentagon-us-ready-to-keep-troops-in-iraq-for-another-10-years/
Gen. Casey Says Global Trends Going 'In the Wrong Direction'
by Jason Ditz, May 26, 2009
While US officials have continued to insist that the timetable for removing troops from Iraq remains in place, a growing trend of violence and a delay to Iraq’s national parliamentary elections has led to considerable speculation that the US won’t ultimately abide by the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) deadline to have troops out of the nation by the end of 2011.
That speculation seemed well-founded today, when Army Chief of Staff General George Casey said that the world “remains dangerous and unpredictable” and that his planning envisions leaving combat troops in Iraq for another decade “to fight extremism and terrorism.”
Gen. Casey’s planning was focused on troop rotations, and he emphasized that he wasn’t responsible for making decisions about policy, but that he believed the US would need to be ready for “sustained” wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, in which he saw a similar timeline.
During the campaign President Obama promised to have all troops out of Iraq within 16 months, though he abandoned that policy just days after taking office. His current policy is to declare an end to “combat” in August 2010, but to keep troops in the nation engaged in combat operations for an indefinite period past that. He has insisted that he still intends to abide by the SOFA deadline, however.
http://news.antiwar.com/2009/05/26/pentagon-us-ready-to-keep-troops-in-iraq-for-another-10-years/
Talabani meets Turkish envoy, invites opposition leader to Iraq
ISTANBUL - Iraqi President Jalal Talabani met Wednesday Turkey’s special envoy to the neighboring country, Murat Ozcelik, to discuss the bilateral relations between Ankara and Baghdad. Separately, Talabani invited the leader of Turkey’s main opposition party, CHP, to visit Iraq.
It is necessary to establish strategic relations and enhance the cooperation and joint coordination between Ankara and Baghdad in order to serve the interests of both countries’ peoples, Talabani was quoted by PUKmedia, a news service associated with the Iraqi president, as saying during his meeting with Ozcelik in Iraq.
"Turkey is a crucial and a friendly country to the Iraqi people," he added.
The Turkish envoy reiterated his country’s support to the political process and democracy in Iraq and conveyed the Turkish government attitude in dealing with all Iraqi parties, the Iraqi Kurdish news agency reported on its website.
Ozcelik also appreciated Talabani’s efforts in establishing and promoting the friendship between Iraq and Turkey to serve peace, stability and prosperity in the region, it added.
In March, Kurdish-origin Talabani, told the PKK to disarm or leave Iraq, in some of the toughest comments to date by any Iraqi leader against the terror organization, whose use of Iraq as a base has strained ties between Baghdad and Ankara.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has also promised to help Turkey’s fight against the terror organization PKK. His comments were a further sign of a thaw in relations between the two major trading partners, starting with a trip to Iraq by Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan last year.
The PKK, which launches cross-border attacks on Turkey from bases in northern Iraq, is listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community, including the EU and the United States.
BAYKAL INVITED TO IRAQ
In a separate development, Talabani invited Turkey's main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, to Iraq, according to reports on Wednesday.
The invitation was conveyed to the opposition leader in a meeting between Bahroz Galali, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, or PUK, representative in Ankara and CHP’s deputy head Onur Oymen in the party's headquarters in the Turkish capital.
Galali expressed the PUK’s hope to develop its relations with the CHP in the meeting, as both parties are members of the Socialist International, or SI, PUKmedia said.
Oymen confirmed the reports of such an invitation to Turkish TV channels.
http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/world/11738206.asp?gid=244
It is necessary to establish strategic relations and enhance the cooperation and joint coordination between Ankara and Baghdad in order to serve the interests of both countries’ peoples, Talabani was quoted by PUKmedia, a news service associated with the Iraqi president, as saying during his meeting with Ozcelik in Iraq.
"Turkey is a crucial and a friendly country to the Iraqi people," he added.
The Turkish envoy reiterated his country’s support to the political process and democracy in Iraq and conveyed the Turkish government attitude in dealing with all Iraqi parties, the Iraqi Kurdish news agency reported on its website.
Ozcelik also appreciated Talabani’s efforts in establishing and promoting the friendship between Iraq and Turkey to serve peace, stability and prosperity in the region, it added.
In March, Kurdish-origin Talabani, told the PKK to disarm or leave Iraq, in some of the toughest comments to date by any Iraqi leader against the terror organization, whose use of Iraq as a base has strained ties between Baghdad and Ankara.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has also promised to help Turkey’s fight against the terror organization PKK. His comments were a further sign of a thaw in relations between the two major trading partners, starting with a trip to Iraq by Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan last year.
The PKK, which launches cross-border attacks on Turkey from bases in northern Iraq, is listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community, including the EU and the United States.
BAYKAL INVITED TO IRAQ
In a separate development, Talabani invited Turkey's main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, to Iraq, according to reports on Wednesday.
The invitation was conveyed to the opposition leader in a meeting between Bahroz Galali, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, or PUK, representative in Ankara and CHP’s deputy head Onur Oymen in the party's headquarters in the Turkish capital.
Galali expressed the PUK’s hope to develop its relations with the CHP in the meeting, as both parties are members of the Socialist International, or SI, PUKmedia said.
Oymen confirmed the reports of such an invitation to Turkish TV channels.
http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/world/11738206.asp?gid=244
mardi 26 mai 2009
Turkmeneli Europe Friendships has been unlocked by Blogger
Blogger has unlocked my blog Turkmeneli Europe Friendships.
dimanche 24 mai 2009
CENSORSHIP: LOCKING TURKMENELI EUROPE FRIENDSHIPS BLOG
CENSORSHIP
My blog "TURKMENELI EUROPE FRIENDSHIPS" has been disabled.
This morning I wanted to add a post on my blog http://turkmenelinews.blogspot.com/
but I was denied access and found the following message:
" This blog has been LOCKED due to possible Terms of Service Violations. You may not publish new posts until your blog is reviewed and unlocked. This blog will be DELETED within 20 days unless you request a review".
Nothing violating 'Blogger's Terms of Service' has ever been published on TURKMENELI EUROPE FRIENDSHIPS.
It is not the first time that a blog about the Iraqi Turkmens has been blocked.
Some Iraqi Turkmens' websites have been hacked and some have been completely deleted!
Some time ago, this blog "European Turkmen Friendships" was also locked for nearly two weeks, this is the reason why I decided to start a new blog "Turkmeneli Europe Friendships".
It is obvious that certain lobbies are attempting to silence the Iraqi Turkmens' voice.
jeudi 21 mai 2009
Lezing over Turkmeneli in Amsterdam
Davetiye: Amsterdam Üniversitesinde Türkmen Paneli
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam op 5 juni 2009mercredi 20 mai 2009
Iraq's October census
Iraq’s next count to include data on ethnic and religious affiliation
By Shakir al-Khateeb
Azzaman, May 19, 2009
The forms to be used for the country’s next census on October 24 will contain questions on Iraqis’ religious and ethnic affiliation, a senior government official said.
But Mahdi al-Allaq of the Planning Ministry said there is nothing in the forms with regard to sectarian belonging.
The census may put to rest issues regarding the ‘exact’ numbers which each of the country’s minorities claims for itself.
But analysts say it won’t be without problems particularly in disputed areas.
At issue will be the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, for instance, which the Kurds allege to be predominantly Kurdish in character, an allegation which the country’s Arabs and Turkmen reject.
Allaq said the government has allocated $80 million to carry out the count and has mobilized at least 250,000 of the country’s half a million teachers for the purpose.
The official said no area of Iraq will be excluded from the count and that the government is seeking assistance from specialized organizations such as the U.N. and the E.U.
The exclusion of information on sectarian affiliation is bound to leave issues regarding the percentages of both Shiites and Sunnis unsettled.
Analysts say there are many among the Sunnis who dispute that fact that the Shiites are the majority.
But Allaq said the government is keen not to politicize the October count.
“We are not concerned with politics. Our aim is to carry out the count merely for planning purposes to give the decision-makers information on the country’s economic conditions and issues with a bearing on the Iraqi society,” he added.
http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news%5C2009-05-19%5Ckurd.htm
By Shakir al-Khateeb
Azzaman, May 19, 2009
The forms to be used for the country’s next census on October 24 will contain questions on Iraqis’ religious and ethnic affiliation, a senior government official said.
But Mahdi al-Allaq of the Planning Ministry said there is nothing in the forms with regard to sectarian belonging.
The census may put to rest issues regarding the ‘exact’ numbers which each of the country’s minorities claims for itself.
But analysts say it won’t be without problems particularly in disputed areas.
At issue will be the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, for instance, which the Kurds allege to be predominantly Kurdish in character, an allegation which the country’s Arabs and Turkmen reject.
Allaq said the government has allocated $80 million to carry out the count and has mobilized at least 250,000 of the country’s half a million teachers for the purpose.
The official said no area of Iraq will be excluded from the count and that the government is seeking assistance from specialized organizations such as the U.N. and the E.U.
The exclusion of information on sectarian affiliation is bound to leave issues regarding the percentages of both Shiites and Sunnis unsettled.
Analysts say there are many among the Sunnis who dispute that fact that the Shiites are the majority.
But Allaq said the government is keen not to politicize the October count.
“We are not concerned with politics. Our aim is to carry out the count merely for planning purposes to give the decision-makers information on the country’s economic conditions and issues with a bearing on the Iraqi society,” he added.
http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news%5C2009-05-19%5Ckurd.htm
mardi 19 mai 2009
IRAQ: Corruption undermining state food aid programme?
BAGHDAD, 19 May 2009 (IRIN) - Iraq’s state-run food rationing system is crumbling and corruption in high places could be partly to blame.
A new survey by the Ministry of Planning and Development Cooperation of 120,000 families which had qualified for state food handouts in 15 of Iraq’s 18 provinces, found that 18 percent of families had not received the nine-item food ration for 13 months; 31.5 percent for 7-12 months; 14.5 percent for 4-6 months; 22 percent for 2-3 months and 14.5 percent for one month.
The survey also revealed concerns about the quality of food items: 16 percent of the surveyed families said the ration items in April were bad, 45 percent said they acceptable, while 29 percent said they were good. Top on the list of bad items was tea, followed by rice, flour and sugar, the survey found.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Trade Minister Abdul-Falah al-Sudani is facing a no-confidence vote in parliament next week over embezzlement and corruption charges - mainly in relation to food imports for the food rationing scheme known as the Public Distribution System (PDS), a member of parliament (MP) said on 18 May. “So far we have collected 110 MPs’ signatures for this vote.
Corruption in the Trade Ministry is running high, mainly over imported food items unfit for human consumption,” said Sheikh Sabah al-Saidi, chairman of the parliament’s Integrity Committee. “Billions of dollars have been wasted in this ministry and this has led to citizens receiving bad food items over the past few years and also delays in distribution [of food items] in some places,” al-Saidi said. A simple majority of the 275 members of parliament is enough to dismiss the trade minister.
On 16 and 17 May, Al-Sudani appeared before parliament where he acknowledged there had been some cases of corruption in his ministry and admitted “some food items were bad.” The minister’s brother and another official were arrested while seven other officials, including another brother, are still at large. Rations still vital “Despite the negative points that have been registered by the survey, the [surveyed] families still considered the food ration system to be the only guaranteed way of ensuring their food security,” the survey said.
Iraq’s food rationing system, known as the Public Distribution System (PDS), was set up in 1995 as part of the UN’s oil-for-food programme following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait 17 years ago.
However, it has been crumbling since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 due to insecurity, poor management and corruption. Monthly PDS parcels are supposed to contain rice (3kg per person); sugar (2kg per person); cooking oil (1.25kg or one litre per person); flour (9kg per person); milk for adults (250g per person); tea (200g per person); beans (250g per person); children's milk (1.8kg per child); soap (250g per person); detergents (500g per person); and tomato paste (500g per person).
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=84447
A new survey by the Ministry of Planning and Development Cooperation of 120,000 families which had qualified for state food handouts in 15 of Iraq’s 18 provinces, found that 18 percent of families had not received the nine-item food ration for 13 months; 31.5 percent for 7-12 months; 14.5 percent for 4-6 months; 22 percent for 2-3 months and 14.5 percent for one month.
The survey also revealed concerns about the quality of food items: 16 percent of the surveyed families said the ration items in April were bad, 45 percent said they acceptable, while 29 percent said they were good. Top on the list of bad items was tea, followed by rice, flour and sugar, the survey found.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Trade Minister Abdul-Falah al-Sudani is facing a no-confidence vote in parliament next week over embezzlement and corruption charges - mainly in relation to food imports for the food rationing scheme known as the Public Distribution System (PDS), a member of parliament (MP) said on 18 May. “So far we have collected 110 MPs’ signatures for this vote.
Corruption in the Trade Ministry is running high, mainly over imported food items unfit for human consumption,” said Sheikh Sabah al-Saidi, chairman of the parliament’s Integrity Committee. “Billions of dollars have been wasted in this ministry and this has led to citizens receiving bad food items over the past few years and also delays in distribution [of food items] in some places,” al-Saidi said. A simple majority of the 275 members of parliament is enough to dismiss the trade minister.
On 16 and 17 May, Al-Sudani appeared before parliament where he acknowledged there had been some cases of corruption in his ministry and admitted “some food items were bad.” The minister’s brother and another official were arrested while seven other officials, including another brother, are still at large. Rations still vital “Despite the negative points that have been registered by the survey, the [surveyed] families still considered the food ration system to be the only guaranteed way of ensuring their food security,” the survey said.
Iraq’s food rationing system, known as the Public Distribution System (PDS), was set up in 1995 as part of the UN’s oil-for-food programme following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait 17 years ago.
However, it has been crumbling since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 due to insecurity, poor management and corruption. Monthly PDS parcels are supposed to contain rice (3kg per person); sugar (2kg per person); cooking oil (1.25kg or one litre per person); flour (9kg per person); milk for adults (250g per person); tea (200g per person); beans (250g per person); children's milk (1.8kg per child); soap (250g per person); detergents (500g per person); and tomato paste (500g per person).
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=84447
samedi 16 mai 2009
Musique et chansons des Turkmènes d'Irak (Hoyrat)
Musique et chansons des Turkmènes d’Irak (Hoyrats)
Pour écouter:
HOYRAT : Les Hoyrat sont un genre de uzun hava construit sur les quatrains qui contiennent souvent des allusions et jeux de mots. Les Hoyrat sont chantés dans toute l’Anatolie de l’Ouest, le Sud-est de l’Anatolie et à Kirkouk, qui se trouve aujourd'hui dans les frontières de l'Irak. Les Hoyrat s’appellent par plusieurs noms: Gelin Hoyratı (jeune mariée), Nöbetçi Hoyratı (gardien), Muhalif Hoyratı, Kesik Hoyratı, Muçula Hoyratı, etc.
Voir :
http://www.turkishmusicportal.com/page.php?id=58&lang2=fr
http://www.turkuler.com/?lang2=fr&lang2=fr
http://www.turkuler.com/sozler/ta.asp?harf=I
Voir :
http://www.turkishmusicportal.com/page.php?id=58&lang2=fr
http://www.turkuler.com/?lang2=fr&lang2=fr
http://www.turkuler.com/sozler/ta.asp?harf=I
Comment l'armée américaine a "libéré" les Irakiens
Détenus irakiens torturés par les soldats de l’armée d’occupation E.U. dans la prison d’Abu Ghraib
Images de la presse australienne
http://www.smh.com.au/ftimages/2006/02/15/1139890768716.html
Obama veut interdire la publication des ‘nouvelles photos’ sur les sévices dans les prisons américaines en Irak, de peur que cela nuise à l’image de l’Amérique dans le monde…
Images de la presse australienne
http://www.smh.com.au/ftimages/2006/02/15/1139890768716.html
Obama veut interdire la publication des ‘nouvelles photos’ sur les sévices dans les prisons américaines en Irak, de peur que cela nuise à l’image de l’Amérique dans le monde…
mardi 12 mai 2009
KERKÜK'TE İNTİHAR SALDIRISI.!
Kerkük kentinde bomba yüklü araçla düzenlenen intihar saldırısında ölü sayısı 8’e yükseldi. Güvenlik kaynaklarına göre Kerkük’te Bağdat’a giden yol üzerindeki El Şimue yakınında hareket halinde polis kamyonuna bomba yüklü araçla intihar saldırısı düzenlendi. Saldırıda 8 kişi ölürken, 11 kişinin de yaralandığı bildirildi. Polis sözcüsü Serhat Kadır, ölenlerin 5’inin polis olduğu açıkladı. Kadır, aynı dakikalarda kentin bir başka yerinde askeri araç yakınlarında yola döşenen bir bombanın patladığını, ancak olayda ölen yara yaralanan olmadığını söyledi. Dün akşam da Edil Camisi önünde bomba yüklü bir aracın patlaması sonucu 2 kişi öldü, 9 kişi yaralandı.
lundi 11 mai 2009
دولة رئيس الوزراء نوري المالكي المحترم
دولة رئيس الوزراء نوري المالكي المحترم
اشيع في بعض وسائل الاعلام العراقية عن نية او قرار رئيس الوزراء العراقي بتخصيص نصف دولار لمحافظة البصرة من كل برميل نفط تخرج منها
ونحن التركمان نؤيد بقوة هذه المبادرة الشجاعة ونقول في الوقت نفسه ان محافظة كركوك كانت تنتظر مثل هذه الخطوة قبل البصرة وغيرها ، باعتبارها أول محافظة عراقية منتجة للنفط
لذا ندعو السيد رئيس الوزراء إلى تعميم هذه المبادرة والقرار ليشمل جميع المحافظات العراقية المنتجة للنفط وفي مقدمتها كركوك التي لا يخفى على السيد المالكي ما تعانيه هذه المحافظة من الإهمال والارتباك والفوضى في إعادة بنائها وإعمارها
من هنا نقترح ونقول إذا كانت الظروف السياسية لكركوك لا تسمح في الوقت الحاضر بتفعيل هكذا مشروع ، فإن الحل يكمن في تشكيل لجنة عراقية محايدة أو ايداع حصة كركوك في صندوق دولي إلى حين تقرير مصيرها بالتراضي بين مكوناتها القومية
مع فائق التقدير والاحترام
علي مهدي صادق
نائب رئيس حزب توركمن ايلي
اشيع في بعض وسائل الاعلام العراقية عن نية او قرار رئيس الوزراء العراقي بتخصيص نصف دولار لمحافظة البصرة من كل برميل نفط تخرج منها
ونحن التركمان نؤيد بقوة هذه المبادرة الشجاعة ونقول في الوقت نفسه ان محافظة كركوك كانت تنتظر مثل هذه الخطوة قبل البصرة وغيرها ، باعتبارها أول محافظة عراقية منتجة للنفط
لذا ندعو السيد رئيس الوزراء إلى تعميم هذه المبادرة والقرار ليشمل جميع المحافظات العراقية المنتجة للنفط وفي مقدمتها كركوك التي لا يخفى على السيد المالكي ما تعانيه هذه المحافظة من الإهمال والارتباك والفوضى في إعادة بنائها وإعمارها
من هنا نقترح ونقول إذا كانت الظروف السياسية لكركوك لا تسمح في الوقت الحاضر بتفعيل هكذا مشروع ، فإن الحل يكمن في تشكيل لجنة عراقية محايدة أو ايداع حصة كركوك في صندوق دولي إلى حين تقرير مصيرها بالتراضي بين مكوناتها القومية
مع فائق التقدير والاحترام
علي مهدي صادق
نائب رئيس حزب توركمن ايلي
KRG-Baghdad dispute export agreement
Iraq Oil Report
Friday, 8 May 2009
By BEN LANDO
Iraq Oil Report
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq announced Friday it will begin June 1 sending oil from the Tawke and Taq Taq fields to the northern Iraq export pipeline.
The Ministry of Oil in Baghdad has not confirmed the agreement. The ministry, which has sparred with the KRG over the rights to sign oil deals and set oil policy, would need to OK the field’s entry into the export pipeline. Spokesman Assem Jihad told Reuters no agreement has been reached.
These exports have been held up as the central and regional governments dispute the rights to sign oil deals and the mechanisms for revenue to be collected and redistributed, including to the producing companies.
The Tawke pipeline ended in Feshkhabor near the Turkish border as of June 2008, not yet connected. It has since been tied into the export line from Kirkuk. In the background is the metering station which the oil flows through before entering Turkey. (source: Ben Lando)
Baghdad says the KRG’s two-dozen oil deals and regional oil law undermine state authority of the oil sector. Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani has since called the deals illegal and blacklisted companies who signed with the KRG from buying Iraqi oil or signing deals. The KRG says it has the rights under the “new” Iraq’s federalist system.
Iraq exports about 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd), earning more than 91 percent of state income.
The Tawke field, operated by Norway’s DNO, on June 1 will produce “at an initial rate of around 60,000 barrels per day,” KRG Natural Resources Minister Ashti Hawrami said in a statement. “This follows the completion of all the metering instrumentation and the tie-in of the field pipeline with the Iraq-Turkey main export pipeline at the border town of Fishkhabur.”
Another 40,000 bpd is to be added in June from the Taq Taq field, operated by Turkey’s Genel Enerji and Canada’s Addax Petroleum. Until a pipeline is built linking the field to the export pipeline, the crude will be trucked from the field to be loaded into the export line.
“This will be a temporary measure and will continue until a field pipeline is laid between the Taq-Taq field and the Khurmala Station,” Hawrami said.
Hawrami’s statement also claims the quality of the Iraq oil exports will be improved by the added oil from the semi-autonomous three northern provinces that constitute the KRG. There were claims from Baghdad earlier this week the oil would be downgraded by the additional flow.
A ceremony is set for June 1, Hawrami said, and officials from the KRG and Baghdad governments are invited.
Currently, small amounts of oil are produced in the KRG, sold to the domestic market.
Hawrami told Iraq Oil Report last month the KRG could produce 250,000 bpd by the end of this year or early 2010, with plans to build pipelines with a capacity of 570,000 bpd.
http://www.iraqoilreport.com/the-biz/iraq-oil-exports-get-kurdish-boost/1420/
Friday, 8 May 2009
By BEN LANDO
Iraq Oil Report
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq announced Friday it will begin June 1 sending oil from the Tawke and Taq Taq fields to the northern Iraq export pipeline.
The Ministry of Oil in Baghdad has not confirmed the agreement. The ministry, which has sparred with the KRG over the rights to sign oil deals and set oil policy, would need to OK the field’s entry into the export pipeline. Spokesman Assem Jihad told Reuters no agreement has been reached.
These exports have been held up as the central and regional governments dispute the rights to sign oil deals and the mechanisms for revenue to be collected and redistributed, including to the producing companies.
The Tawke pipeline ended in Feshkhabor near the Turkish border as of June 2008, not yet connected. It has since been tied into the export line from Kirkuk. In the background is the metering station which the oil flows through before entering Turkey. (source: Ben Lando)
Baghdad says the KRG’s two-dozen oil deals and regional oil law undermine state authority of the oil sector. Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani has since called the deals illegal and blacklisted companies who signed with the KRG from buying Iraqi oil or signing deals. The KRG says it has the rights under the “new” Iraq’s federalist system.
Iraq exports about 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd), earning more than 91 percent of state income.
The Tawke field, operated by Norway’s DNO, on June 1 will produce “at an initial rate of around 60,000 barrels per day,” KRG Natural Resources Minister Ashti Hawrami said in a statement. “This follows the completion of all the metering instrumentation and the tie-in of the field pipeline with the Iraq-Turkey main export pipeline at the border town of Fishkhabur.”
Another 40,000 bpd is to be added in June from the Taq Taq field, operated by Turkey’s Genel Enerji and Canada’s Addax Petroleum. Until a pipeline is built linking the field to the export pipeline, the crude will be trucked from the field to be loaded into the export line.
“This will be a temporary measure and will continue until a field pipeline is laid between the Taq-Taq field and the Khurmala Station,” Hawrami said.
Hawrami’s statement also claims the quality of the Iraq oil exports will be improved by the added oil from the semi-autonomous three northern provinces that constitute the KRG. There were claims from Baghdad earlier this week the oil would be downgraded by the additional flow.
A ceremony is set for June 1, Hawrami said, and officials from the KRG and Baghdad governments are invited.
Currently, small amounts of oil are produced in the KRG, sold to the domestic market.
Hawrami told Iraq Oil Report last month the KRG could produce 250,000 bpd by the end of this year or early 2010, with plans to build pipelines with a capacity of 570,000 bpd.
http://www.iraqoilreport.com/the-biz/iraq-oil-exports-get-kurdish-boost/1420/
dimanche 10 mai 2009
ABD'den Türkmenlere yakınlık
http://www.kerkuk.net/haberler/haber.aspx?dil=1055&metin=200905106
10 Mayıs 2009, Pazar
ABD askerinden oluşan bir heyet, bugün Irak Türkmen Cephesi'ni ziyaret etti. Heyet, ABD Büyükelçiliği Tuzhurmatu bölge temsilcisi Dr. Wayn yanında bölgede yeniden yapılandırma projesi sorumlusu ve yeni atanan temsilci Bili Hol'dan oluşuyordu.
ABD askerinden oluşan bir heyet, bugün Irak Türkmen Cephesi'ni ziyaret etti. Heyet, ABD Büyükelçiliği Tuzhurmatu bölge temsilcisi Dr. Wayn yanında bölgede yeniden yapılandırma projesi sorumlusu ve yeni atanan temsilci Bili Hol'dan oluşuyordu. Heyet Irak Türkmen Cephesi Selahettin İl başkanı ve Selahettin il meclisi üyesi Ali Haşim Muhtaroğlu tarafından karşılandı. Muhtaroğlu ziyaretçi heyete ziyaretlerinden dolayı sevindiklerini bildirdi ayrıca yeni göreve başlayan temsilciye görevinde başarılar diledi.
Görüşmede Tuzhurmatu'da yapılması planlanan projelerin önünde olan engeller ve o engellerin çıkış yolları masaya yatırıldı. Ayrıca Tuzhurmatu çevresindeki Türkmen Bayat köylerindeki su ve hizmet sıkıntılarını giderecek projeler konuşuldu. Muhtaroğlu: 'Millet bize güvendi oy verdi biz de buna karşılık vermemiz gerekiyor oda vatandaşın hayatında bir değişim yaratmakla elde edilir ve vatandaşlara en iyi hizmetleri sunmakla gerçekleşir dedi. Ayrıca Muhtaroğlu biz 2005 yılından itibaren bir çok köylerde su kuyuları kazmaya kalktık ve bu vatandaşların su sıkıntısını bir nevi giderdi. Görüşmede ayrıca bölgede bulunan ve Kürt partilere ait olan ve resmi olmayan silahlı gruplar, asayiş güçleri konuşuldu.
Muhtaroğlu, "Biz bu güçlerin bölgede olmalarını uygun görmüyoruz çünkü burası merkezi Irak hükümetine bağlı bir bölgedir bu yüzden hiç bir siyasi tarafın silahlı milisi olmayacaktır burada. Irak hükümetine sunulan BM raporuyla ilgili Muhtaroğlu 'Türkmen milleti bu rapordan büyük hayal kırıklığına uğradı çünkü bağımsız ve tarafsız olması gereken BM temsilcisi raporda çok açık bir şekilde taraf tuttuğu gösteriyor biz bundan tepkiliyiz" dedi.
Görüşmede ayrıca, Türkmen arsalarına siyasi amaçla yapılan tecavüzler ve bunların bir an evvel kalkması gerektiği belirtildi. Görüşme sonunda yeni temsilci Bili Hol, görüşmeden memnun olduklarını dile getirirken verilen fikirlerin tamamen pozitif olduğunu belirtti.
Milliyet
10 Mayıs 2009, Pazar
ABD askerinden oluşan bir heyet, bugün Irak Türkmen Cephesi'ni ziyaret etti. Heyet, ABD Büyükelçiliği Tuzhurmatu bölge temsilcisi Dr. Wayn yanında bölgede yeniden yapılandırma projesi sorumlusu ve yeni atanan temsilci Bili Hol'dan oluşuyordu.
ABD askerinden oluşan bir heyet, bugün Irak Türkmen Cephesi'ni ziyaret etti. Heyet, ABD Büyükelçiliği Tuzhurmatu bölge temsilcisi Dr. Wayn yanında bölgede yeniden yapılandırma projesi sorumlusu ve yeni atanan temsilci Bili Hol'dan oluşuyordu. Heyet Irak Türkmen Cephesi Selahettin İl başkanı ve Selahettin il meclisi üyesi Ali Haşim Muhtaroğlu tarafından karşılandı. Muhtaroğlu ziyaretçi heyete ziyaretlerinden dolayı sevindiklerini bildirdi ayrıca yeni göreve başlayan temsilciye görevinde başarılar diledi.
Görüşmede Tuzhurmatu'da yapılması planlanan projelerin önünde olan engeller ve o engellerin çıkış yolları masaya yatırıldı. Ayrıca Tuzhurmatu çevresindeki Türkmen Bayat köylerindeki su ve hizmet sıkıntılarını giderecek projeler konuşuldu. Muhtaroğlu: 'Millet bize güvendi oy verdi biz de buna karşılık vermemiz gerekiyor oda vatandaşın hayatında bir değişim yaratmakla elde edilir ve vatandaşlara en iyi hizmetleri sunmakla gerçekleşir dedi. Ayrıca Muhtaroğlu biz 2005 yılından itibaren bir çok köylerde su kuyuları kazmaya kalktık ve bu vatandaşların su sıkıntısını bir nevi giderdi. Görüşmede ayrıca bölgede bulunan ve Kürt partilere ait olan ve resmi olmayan silahlı gruplar, asayiş güçleri konuşuldu.
Muhtaroğlu, "Biz bu güçlerin bölgede olmalarını uygun görmüyoruz çünkü burası merkezi Irak hükümetine bağlı bir bölgedir bu yüzden hiç bir siyasi tarafın silahlı milisi olmayacaktır burada. Irak hükümetine sunulan BM raporuyla ilgili Muhtaroğlu 'Türkmen milleti bu rapordan büyük hayal kırıklığına uğradı çünkü bağımsız ve tarafsız olması gereken BM temsilcisi raporda çok açık bir şekilde taraf tuttuğu gösteriyor biz bundan tepkiliyiz" dedi.
Görüşmede ayrıca, Türkmen arsalarına siyasi amaçla yapılan tecavüzler ve bunların bir an evvel kalkması gerektiği belirtildi. Görüşme sonunda yeni temsilci Bili Hol, görüşmeden memnun olduklarını dile getirirken verilen fikirlerin tamamen pozitif olduğunu belirtti.
Milliyet
samedi 9 mai 2009
Photos of KERKUK by Karakoyunlu82
Photos of KERKÜK by Karakoyunlu82
Please click on the link below:
http://www.panoramio.com/user/1465637/tags/Kerk%C3%BCk
mercredi 6 mai 2009
US soldiers proselytizing in Iraq and Afghanistan (video)
US soldiers' Bible group in Afghanistan - 05 May 09
Extended footage shot by Brian Hughes, a US documentary maker and former member of the US military who spent several days in Bagram near Kabul.
The material, which appears to show the Christian soldiers apparently discussing the conversion of Afghans, was obtained by Al Jazeera's Bays, who has covered Afghanistan extensively.
To watch the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbJ63Y4R0dA
Extended footage shot by Brian Hughes, a US documentary maker and former member of the US military who spent several days in Bagram near Kabul.
The material, which appears to show the Christian soldiers apparently discussing the conversion of Afghans, was obtained by Al Jazeera's Bays, who has covered Afghanistan extensively.
To watch the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbJ63Y4R0dA
Human Rights Violations in Northern Iraq
Who Will Say “Stop” to the Human Rights Violations in Northern Iraq?
Khanzad Barwari
21 April 2009,
The USA Department of State has recently issued World Report of Human Rights Violations in 2008. This report included widely the human rights violations in the Kurdish regional administration as well. Hence, it is revealed out once again that this region, which has been presented as "the most secure, democratic and respectful to the human rights", is in fact the area of humanity crimes.
In the part of "Illegal Arrests and Deaths" of this report, it is stated that an innocent young person of 15 years old was killed by the police in July 2008 in the village of Sreshma of Khalifan district; the officials of non-governmental organizations in the region have been prevented from visiting the prisons; torture has been done in the prisons although it is banned by law, and even the methods of torture by electricity and cold water, which causes little scars on the body, have been used. It is claimed that more than 107 people have been tortured in the prisons of the region, but the real number is more than this one as the concerned authorities are not able to pay visits to the prisons.
In the part of "Violation of Press and Political Freedoms", it is indicated that most of the newspapers and magazines have been serving to the ruling parties of KDP and PUK; especially the journalists who criticize the government have been threatened in the Kurdish region -for example Jalal Talabani filed Hawlati newspaper on January 26, 2008 because of its criticisms against himself. It is also indicated that the report of the Union of Journalists also stated that the law enforcement bodies have been using force against the journalists, and the journalist Sharzad Sheykhani has been kept arrested for one month due to the disagreement between himself and the governor of Irbil.
According to the report, there are also efforts to hinder the political freedoms; while there is legal freedom of forming organizations and holding marches in the Kurdish region, these freedoms are violated; the KDP and PUK have been exerting pressure on the citizens in order to make them member of their party; the trade, contractor works and tenders in the region are under the control of the KDP and PUK and the political and economic affairs are conducted through the kinship relations.
In the part of "Racial Discrimination and Human Trafficking", there are also some surprising findings. The report states that chastity murders are very widespread in the Kurdish region. In the period of January-July 2008, 77 women were victims of chastity murders and 211 women of self-immolation. In the period of January-November 2008, 154 women were killed in Irbil. The people in the region are not unfamiliar to the mores murders. In the year of 2007, 528 women were also died due to the same reason. The non-governmental organizations indicate that these numbers are higher than the stated ones and the real number of the cases are concealed by the Kurdish authorities.
This kind of reports reveal, in fact, the real face of the KDP and PUK which claim the leadership of the Kurds, and use all the means of the region to their own benefits and exert any kind of pressure and violence to this aim. Even though the Kurdish regional administration denies these claims, there is a need that the world public opinion and concerned organizations give ear to the voice of the people in the region.
By/ khanzad Barwari
kerkuk.net /özel
Khanzad Barwari
21 April 2009,
The USA Department of State has recently issued World Report of Human Rights Violations in 2008. This report included widely the human rights violations in the Kurdish regional administration as well. Hence, it is revealed out once again that this region, which has been presented as "the most secure, democratic and respectful to the human rights", is in fact the area of humanity crimes.
In the part of "Illegal Arrests and Deaths" of this report, it is stated that an innocent young person of 15 years old was killed by the police in July 2008 in the village of Sreshma of Khalifan district; the officials of non-governmental organizations in the region have been prevented from visiting the prisons; torture has been done in the prisons although it is banned by law, and even the methods of torture by electricity and cold water, which causes little scars on the body, have been used. It is claimed that more than 107 people have been tortured in the prisons of the region, but the real number is more than this one as the concerned authorities are not able to pay visits to the prisons.
In the part of "Violation of Press and Political Freedoms", it is indicated that most of the newspapers and magazines have been serving to the ruling parties of KDP and PUK; especially the journalists who criticize the government have been threatened in the Kurdish region -for example Jalal Talabani filed Hawlati newspaper on January 26, 2008 because of its criticisms against himself. It is also indicated that the report of the Union of Journalists also stated that the law enforcement bodies have been using force against the journalists, and the journalist Sharzad Sheykhani has been kept arrested for one month due to the disagreement between himself and the governor of Irbil.
According to the report, there are also efforts to hinder the political freedoms; while there is legal freedom of forming organizations and holding marches in the Kurdish region, these freedoms are violated; the KDP and PUK have been exerting pressure on the citizens in order to make them member of their party; the trade, contractor works and tenders in the region are under the control of the KDP and PUK and the political and economic affairs are conducted through the kinship relations.
In the part of "Racial Discrimination and Human Trafficking", there are also some surprising findings. The report states that chastity murders are very widespread in the Kurdish region. In the period of January-July 2008, 77 women were victims of chastity murders and 211 women of self-immolation. In the period of January-November 2008, 154 women were killed in Irbil. The people in the region are not unfamiliar to the mores murders. In the year of 2007, 528 women were also died due to the same reason. The non-governmental organizations indicate that these numbers are higher than the stated ones and the real number of the cases are concealed by the Kurdish authorities.
This kind of reports reveal, in fact, the real face of the KDP and PUK which claim the leadership of the Kurds, and use all the means of the region to their own benefits and exert any kind of pressure and violence to this aim. Even though the Kurdish regional administration denies these claims, there is a need that the world public opinion and concerned organizations give ear to the voice of the people in the region.
By/ khanzad Barwari
kerkuk.net /özel
mardi 5 mai 2009
Mulla 'Uthman al-Musili (Musullu Hafız Şaşı Osman Efendi)
http://iraqimaqam.blogspot.com
Hijaz Gazel - Mulla 'Uthman al-Musili
Iraqi Maqam المقام العراقي
Hijaz Ghazel (Hicâz Gazel) Mulla 'Uthman al-Musili (Musullu Hafız Şaşı Osman Efendi) c. 1920, Istanbul, Turkey.
Rare recording of Iraqi musician, Sufi icon, and maqam reader Mulla 'Uthman al-Musili (1854-1923) singing a Turkish gazel in Maqam Hijaz, recorded in Istanbul, c. 1920.
تسجيل قديم و نادر للملا عثمان الموصلي يغني غزل بالتركية على نغم مقام حجاز، تسجيل أسطوانة من اسطنبول سنة ١٩٢٠
Mulla 'Uthman al-Mawsili: blind prodigy, talented poet and composer, Quran recitor and protégé of the great Sufi master Abu-l Huda al-Sayyadi al-Rifa'i and the Ottoman Sultan 'Abdul-Hamid II.
He learned the art of Maqam al-'Iraqi from the greatest Baghdadi musicians at the time, the famed Turkmen virtuoso Rahmat Allah Shiltegh (1798-1872), Hajj Abdullah al-Kirkukli, and Amin Agha ibn al-Hamamchiyya.
He composed dozens of profane and religious songs that can be heard throughout the Arabic and Islamic world; many of these compositions and songs were later unjustly attributed to his students or labeled as "folklore").
Please click on the link below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJOx3OdvYEA
Hijaz Gazel - Mulla 'Uthman al-Musili
Iraqi Maqam المقام العراقي
Hijaz Ghazel (Hicâz Gazel) Mulla 'Uthman al-Musili (Musullu Hafız Şaşı Osman Efendi) c. 1920, Istanbul, Turkey.
Rare recording of Iraqi musician, Sufi icon, and maqam reader Mulla 'Uthman al-Musili (1854-1923) singing a Turkish gazel in Maqam Hijaz, recorded in Istanbul, c. 1920.
تسجيل قديم و نادر للملا عثمان الموصلي يغني غزل بالتركية على نغم مقام حجاز، تسجيل أسطوانة من اسطنبول سنة ١٩٢٠
Mulla 'Uthman al-Mawsili: blind prodigy, talented poet and composer, Quran recitor and protégé of the great Sufi master Abu-l Huda al-Sayyadi al-Rifa'i and the Ottoman Sultan 'Abdul-Hamid II.
He learned the art of Maqam al-'Iraqi from the greatest Baghdadi musicians at the time, the famed Turkmen virtuoso Rahmat Allah Shiltegh (1798-1872), Hajj Abdullah al-Kirkukli, and Amin Agha ibn al-Hamamchiyya.
He composed dozens of profane and religious songs that can be heard throughout the Arabic and Islamic world; many of these compositions and songs were later unjustly attributed to his students or labeled as "folklore").
Please click on the link below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJOx3OdvYEA
dimanche 3 mai 2009
Sayin Ersat Hurmuzlu on Al-Arabiya TV
Bugun Saat 10.30 Irak vaktile Al-Arabiya Telvizyonu panorama programina, Sayin Ersat Hurmuzlu'ile yeni kabine degisikligi hakinda bilgi verecek. ilgilere duyurulur.
Saygilar, Afsin Hurmuzlu
Saygilar, Afsin Hurmuzlu
Les Espions de l'Or Noir, par Gilles Munier
Envoi de "Les espions de l'or noir", dédicacé par l’auteur
France: chèque de 29 euros (22, 40 + 6,10 de port en enveloppe spéciale)
à l’ordre de : AFI - 7, rue de Sarzeau - 35700 Rennes
(tarif sur demande pour les envois à l'étranger)
Table des matières, commentaires et questions posées à l’auteur sur : http://espions-or.noir.over-blog.com/
samedi 2 mai 2009
Obama's Iraq - The Picture of Dorian Gray
April 28, 2009
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Obama's Iraq
By JEREMY SCAHILL
http://www.counterpunch.org/scahill04282009.html
Remember when Barack Obama made that big announcement at Camp Lejeune about how all US combat troops were going to be withdrawn from Iraqi cities by June 30? Liberals jumped around with joy, praising Obama for ending the war so that they could focus on their “good war” in Afghanistan.
Of course, the celebrations were and remain unwarranted. Obama’s Iraq plan is virtually identical to the one on Bush’s table on January 19, 2009. Obama has just rebranded the occupation, sold it to liberals and dropped the term “Global War on Terror” while, for all practical purposes, continuing the Bush era policy (that’s why leading Republicans praised Obama’s plan). In the real world, US military commanders have said they are preparing for an Iraq presence for another 15-20 years, the US embassy is the size of Vatican City, there is no official plan for the withdrawal of contractors and new corporate mercenary contracts are being awarded. The SOFA Agreement between the US and Iraq gives the US the right to extend the occupation indefinitely and to continue intervening militarily in Iraq ad infinitum. All it takes is for the puppets in Baghdad to ask nicely…
In the latest episode of the “Occupation Rebranded” mini-series, President Obama is preparing to scrap the June 30 withdrawal timeline.
As The New York Times reports: “The United States and Iraq will begin negotiating possible exceptions to the June 30 deadline for withdrawing American combat troops from Iraqi cities, focusing on the troubled northern city of Mosul, according to military officials. Some parts of Baghdad also will still have combat troops.”
According to the Times, the US is playing with the definition of the word “city” when speaking of withdrawing combat troops from all cities:
There are no plans to close the Camp Victory base complex, consisting of five bases housing more than 20,000 soldiers, many of them combat troops. Although Victory is only a 15 minute drive from the center of Baghdad and sprawls over both sides of the city’s boundary, Iraqi officials say they have agreed to consider it outside the city.
In addition, Forward Operating Base Falcon, which can hold 5,000 combat troops, will also remain after June 30. It is just within Baghdad’s southern city limits. Again, Iraqi officials have classified it as effectively outside Baghdad, so no exception to the agreement needs to be granted, in their view.
Combat troops with the Seventh Field Artillery Regiment will remain in the heart of Baghdad at Camp Prosperity, located near the new American Embassy compound in the Green Zone. In addition to providing a quick reaction force, guarding the embassy and noncombat troops from attack, those soldiers will also continue to support Iraqi troops who are now in nominal charge of maintaining security in the Green Zone.
Camp Victory is of tremendous strategic importance to the US occupation. In addition to the military’s share of Baghdad International Airport, it includes four bases—Victory, Liberty, Striker and Slayer—as well as the US-run prison “Camp Cropper.” That’s where the US keeps its “high value” prisoners. While the US officially handed control of Forward Operating Base Freedom to “Iraqi control,” the US military is keeping the swimming pool.
Meanwhile, future plans are being laid for other US bases. Camp Prosperity is going to house US contractors and other personnel, while at Camp Union III housing is being built for several thousand soldiers, trainers and advisers.
What is abundantly clear is that there are enough cosmetic changes going on in Baghdad intended to make it look like the occupation is ending, while continuing it. Again, from the Times:
The Green Zone was handed over to Iraqi control Jan. 1, when the agreement went into effect. In addition to the United States-Iraqi patrols, most of the security for the Green Zone’s many checkpoints and heavily guarded entry points is still done by the same private contractors who did it prior to Jan. 1.
“What you’re seeing is not a change in the numbers, it’s a doctrine change,” said First Sgt. David Moore, a New Jersey National Guardsman with the Joint Area Support Group, which runs the Green Zone. “You’re still going to have fighters. Every U.S. soldier is trained to fight.”
The Iraq occupation is like The Picture of Dorian Gray. No matter what public face the Obama administration attempts to present, it only grows more heinous with each passing day.
Jeremy Scahill, an independent journalist who reports frequently for the national radio and TV program Democracy Now, has spent extensive time reporting from Iraq and Yugoslavia. He is currently a Puffin Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute. Scahill is the author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army.His new website is RebelReports.com
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Obama's Iraq
By JEREMY SCAHILL
http://www.counterpunch.org/scahill04282009.html
Remember when Barack Obama made that big announcement at Camp Lejeune about how all US combat troops were going to be withdrawn from Iraqi cities by June 30? Liberals jumped around with joy, praising Obama for ending the war so that they could focus on their “good war” in Afghanistan.
Of course, the celebrations were and remain unwarranted. Obama’s Iraq plan is virtually identical to the one on Bush’s table on January 19, 2009. Obama has just rebranded the occupation, sold it to liberals and dropped the term “Global War on Terror” while, for all practical purposes, continuing the Bush era policy (that’s why leading Republicans praised Obama’s plan). In the real world, US military commanders have said they are preparing for an Iraq presence for another 15-20 years, the US embassy is the size of Vatican City, there is no official plan for the withdrawal of contractors and new corporate mercenary contracts are being awarded. The SOFA Agreement between the US and Iraq gives the US the right to extend the occupation indefinitely and to continue intervening militarily in Iraq ad infinitum. All it takes is for the puppets in Baghdad to ask nicely…
In the latest episode of the “Occupation Rebranded” mini-series, President Obama is preparing to scrap the June 30 withdrawal timeline.
As The New York Times reports: “The United States and Iraq will begin negotiating possible exceptions to the June 30 deadline for withdrawing American combat troops from Iraqi cities, focusing on the troubled northern city of Mosul, according to military officials. Some parts of Baghdad also will still have combat troops.”
According to the Times, the US is playing with the definition of the word “city” when speaking of withdrawing combat troops from all cities:
There are no plans to close the Camp Victory base complex, consisting of five bases housing more than 20,000 soldiers, many of them combat troops. Although Victory is only a 15 minute drive from the center of Baghdad and sprawls over both sides of the city’s boundary, Iraqi officials say they have agreed to consider it outside the city.
In addition, Forward Operating Base Falcon, which can hold 5,000 combat troops, will also remain after June 30. It is just within Baghdad’s southern city limits. Again, Iraqi officials have classified it as effectively outside Baghdad, so no exception to the agreement needs to be granted, in their view.
Combat troops with the Seventh Field Artillery Regiment will remain in the heart of Baghdad at Camp Prosperity, located near the new American Embassy compound in the Green Zone. In addition to providing a quick reaction force, guarding the embassy and noncombat troops from attack, those soldiers will also continue to support Iraqi troops who are now in nominal charge of maintaining security in the Green Zone.
Camp Victory is of tremendous strategic importance to the US occupation. In addition to the military’s share of Baghdad International Airport, it includes four bases—Victory, Liberty, Striker and Slayer—as well as the US-run prison “Camp Cropper.” That’s where the US keeps its “high value” prisoners. While the US officially handed control of Forward Operating Base Freedom to “Iraqi control,” the US military is keeping the swimming pool.
Meanwhile, future plans are being laid for other US bases. Camp Prosperity is going to house US contractors and other personnel, while at Camp Union III housing is being built for several thousand soldiers, trainers and advisers.
What is abundantly clear is that there are enough cosmetic changes going on in Baghdad intended to make it look like the occupation is ending, while continuing it. Again, from the Times:
The Green Zone was handed over to Iraqi control Jan. 1, when the agreement went into effect. In addition to the United States-Iraqi patrols, most of the security for the Green Zone’s many checkpoints and heavily guarded entry points is still done by the same private contractors who did it prior to Jan. 1.
“What you’re seeing is not a change in the numbers, it’s a doctrine change,” said First Sgt. David Moore, a New Jersey National Guardsman with the Joint Area Support Group, which runs the Green Zone. “You’re still going to have fighters. Every U.S. soldier is trained to fight.”
The Iraq occupation is like The Picture of Dorian Gray. No matter what public face the Obama administration attempts to present, it only grows more heinous with each passing day.
Jeremy Scahill, an independent journalist who reports frequently for the national radio and TV program Democracy Now, has spent extensive time reporting from Iraq and Yugoslavia. He is currently a Puffin Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute. Scahill is the author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army.His new website is RebelReports.com
vendredi 1 mai 2009
Kurdish security forces arbitrarily detain, torture people, Amnesty International says
14 April 2009
Rights report cites abuses in Kurdish Iraq
Kurdish security forces arbitrarily detain, torture people, Amnesty International says
Government has made progress in human rights, but problems remain, agency says
Honor killings, other attacks on women need to end, it says
Journalists have been detained, beaten and harassed by security forces, report says
(CNN) -- The Kurdish region of Iraq has seen gains in human rights, but security forces "regularly abuse their authority" and women continue to be targets of violence, Amnesty International said Tuesday.
The international human rights group drew the conclusions in a report titled "Hope and Fear, Human Rights in Kurdistan Region of Iraq."
Amnesty International report on Kurdistan region (PDF)
The Kurdish region has been an island of relative stability during the Iraq war, and the report said it has "witnessed growing prosperity" and has made progress in human rights. But serious problems remain, Amnesty said.
Asayish forces, as the local security forces are called, arrested and arbitrarily detained people, "including some who were tortured or forcibly disappeared and whose fate and whereabouts remain unknown," the report said.
The report said the torture included electric shocks, sleep deprivation, kicking, suspension by the wrists and ankles, and beatings with fists, cables and batons.
Malcolm Smart, Amnesty's director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme, said the Kurdistan Regional Government "must take concrete steps to rein in these forces and make them fully accountable under the law if recent human rights gains are to prove effective."
Amnesty said that Kurdish authorities have also failed to control the security wings of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the two major Kurdish political movements that make up the regional government.
The report, based on research from a fact-finding mission last year, said the Kurdistan Regional Government has made progress in human rights, citing, for example, the release of political prisoners detained without charges or trial.
It also cites legislation expanding freedom of expression and measures that strengthen women's rights, and said several agencies are working to monitor and prevent violence against women.
But Smart said problems such as "arbitrary detention and torture, attacks on journalists and freedom of expression, and violence against women" haven't ended and "need urgently to be addressed by the government."
As for abuse against women, authorities must "redouble their efforts to overcome discrimination and violence against women," he said, "and end the vicious cycle of so-called honor killings and other attacks on women by men who wish to subordinate them."
According to official records, the report said, at least 102 women and girls were killed between the beginning of July 2007 and the end of June 2008 in the region.
"These include an unknown number of 'honor killings' -- women who were killed by male relatives because their behavior was considered to have infringed traditional codes of 'honor.' Victims of 'honor crimes' include women who have objected to being forcibly married as well as women who were found having telephone contact with a man without approval of their family," the report said.
The report said 262 women and children "died or were severely injured in the same period due to intentional burning, including suicides. Some women were reported to have been burned to disguise a killing."
The report cites one woman who was strangled to death apparently by her brother "because of her suspected relationship with another man." A 17-year-old female "was shot dead after she sought a divorce from her husband." A 13-year-old girl burned herself to death "to escape forcible marriage to an adult man."
"Such cases show how much more still needs to be done by the KRG authorities to give women and girls effective protection against violence from those who wish to control their behavior or force them into marriages against their will," Smart said.
"No effort should be spared to prosecute and imprison those who commit violence against women, and to make clear that those who perpetrate these crimes cannot escape justice."
The report also said that emerging independent press outlets that have criticized the KRG or have focused on the security forces, human rights violations and government corruption have been harassed. Journalists "have been detained, beaten and harassed" by security forces, and several newspapers have been sued by the KRG
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/04/14/kurdistan.rights/index.html
Rights report cites abuses in Kurdish Iraq
Kurdish security forces arbitrarily detain, torture people, Amnesty International says
Government has made progress in human rights, but problems remain, agency says
Honor killings, other attacks on women need to end, it says
Journalists have been detained, beaten and harassed by security forces, report says
(CNN) -- The Kurdish region of Iraq has seen gains in human rights, but security forces "regularly abuse their authority" and women continue to be targets of violence, Amnesty International said Tuesday.
The international human rights group drew the conclusions in a report titled "Hope and Fear, Human Rights in Kurdistan Region of Iraq."
Amnesty International report on Kurdistan region (PDF)
The Kurdish region has been an island of relative stability during the Iraq war, and the report said it has "witnessed growing prosperity" and has made progress in human rights. But serious problems remain, Amnesty said.
Asayish forces, as the local security forces are called, arrested and arbitrarily detained people, "including some who were tortured or forcibly disappeared and whose fate and whereabouts remain unknown," the report said.
The report said the torture included electric shocks, sleep deprivation, kicking, suspension by the wrists and ankles, and beatings with fists, cables and batons.
Malcolm Smart, Amnesty's director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme, said the Kurdistan Regional Government "must take concrete steps to rein in these forces and make them fully accountable under the law if recent human rights gains are to prove effective."
Amnesty said that Kurdish authorities have also failed to control the security wings of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the two major Kurdish political movements that make up the regional government.
The report, based on research from a fact-finding mission last year, said the Kurdistan Regional Government has made progress in human rights, citing, for example, the release of political prisoners detained without charges or trial.
It also cites legislation expanding freedom of expression and measures that strengthen women's rights, and said several agencies are working to monitor and prevent violence against women.
But Smart said problems such as "arbitrary detention and torture, attacks on journalists and freedom of expression, and violence against women" haven't ended and "need urgently to be addressed by the government."
As for abuse against women, authorities must "redouble their efforts to overcome discrimination and violence against women," he said, "and end the vicious cycle of so-called honor killings and other attacks on women by men who wish to subordinate them."
According to official records, the report said, at least 102 women and girls were killed between the beginning of July 2007 and the end of June 2008 in the region.
"These include an unknown number of 'honor killings' -- women who were killed by male relatives because their behavior was considered to have infringed traditional codes of 'honor.' Victims of 'honor crimes' include women who have objected to being forcibly married as well as women who were found having telephone contact with a man without approval of their family," the report said.
The report said 262 women and children "died or were severely injured in the same period due to intentional burning, including suicides. Some women were reported to have been burned to disguise a killing."
The report cites one woman who was strangled to death apparently by her brother "because of her suspected relationship with another man." A 17-year-old female "was shot dead after she sought a divorce from her husband." A 13-year-old girl burned herself to death "to escape forcible marriage to an adult man."
"Such cases show how much more still needs to be done by the KRG authorities to give women and girls effective protection against violence from those who wish to control their behavior or force them into marriages against their will," Smart said.
"No effort should be spared to prosecute and imprison those who commit violence against women, and to make clear that those who perpetrate these crimes cannot escape justice."
The report also said that emerging independent press outlets that have criticized the KRG or have focused on the security forces, human rights violations and government corruption have been harassed. Journalists "have been detained, beaten and harassed" by security forces, and several newspapers have been sued by the KRG
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/04/14/kurdistan.rights/index.html
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