It's a quagmire out there!
If the security situation in Iraq continues to improve, the number of refugees and displaced people returning to their homes could more than double this year to 500,000, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Thursday.
Iraq is now experiencing markedly improved security, said Daniel Endres, Baghdad representative of the Geneva-based agency. "Although this security remains fragile, last year we saw a significant return as a result," he told journalists in Brussels.
More than 220,000 Iraqis who fled abroad or were displaced within the country after the US-led invasion returned home in 2008, according to UN statistics. I don't remember any mention of this in the MSM. Could it be that no one wanted to give credit to George Bush? Say it ain't so!
International refugee organisations have been encouraged by the government's recent moves to normalise the situation and encourage returns. This includes setting up a special army unit charged with evicting militia members and others who moved illegally into homes owned by people forced to flee the violence. This wasn't mentioned by the MSM either. Will Obama get the credit?
While we're at it, why do I have to go to a Dubai newspaper to get this information? Can't the NYT or WAPO find this stuff?
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
02/01/2009 14:45 ||
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Aswat al-Iraq: Spokesperson for the Sadr parliamentary bloc on Saturday said that he has fears of rigging the results of the elections in that some voters' registration folders went missing in some provinces, attributing the responsibility for this issue to political sides that he did not name.
"There are some indications of election rigging by withdrawing some voters' registration folders from some polling stations in a number of provinces, to prepare for rigging the elections," Ahmed al-Masaodi told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
For his part, the Iraqi Minister of Interior, Jawad al-Bolani, announced that the election security plan that was implemented on Saturday has succeeded, describing Iraqi people's participation in the elections as good.
But the coordinator of al-Hadbaa national list, Atheel al-Nujaifi, said that "forces of the Iraqi army 3rd division arrested today one of the list's monitors, without mentioning the reasons."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Washington Post discovers Iraqi elections...
In Iraq's receding but still entrenched sectarian struggle, perhaps the most important votes in the provincial elections Saturday were cast in Diyala, a sometimes picturesque province known for its orchards of oranges and its killing fields.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Iraqis streamed past police cordons and barbed wire as they went to the polls on Saturday to vote for the first time in four years. The elections are widely seen as a test of Iraq's stability as the U.S. role here diminishes.
As the polls closed Saturday evening, there were no reports of anyone being injured or killed for political reasons. At polling stations across Iraq, people voted calmly, with many bringing their families to participate in only the second elections since the collapse of former president Saddam Hussein's government. Voter turnout in many areas was lower than expected, according to early reports.
"I am so happy," declared Raad al-Shimari, 30, in Baghdad's Kadhamiyah neighborhood, flashing his forefinger, which had been dipped in purple ink to indicate he had just voted. "I chose the person that will represent me."
The all-important provincial elections are viewed as a key indicator of whether the nation can build upon fragile security gains and address imbalances in power that still plague many areas. More than 14,000 candidates are running for 440 seats to lead councils that are the equivalent of state legislatures in the United States.
The elections are unfolding in all of Iraq's provinces except three in the autonomous Kurdish region and the province that includes the disputed city of Kirkuk, where ethnic groups were unable to reach a power-sharing agreement paving the way for elections.
The voting at 7,000 polling stations opened shortly after dawn following a heavy security clampdown launched on Friday. Those security measures included closing Iraq's borders and airspace coupled with bans on vehicle traffic and the deployment of thousands of security personnel around polling stations. Officials extended the voting by one hour to accommodate last minute crowds.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Iraqis went to polls on Saturday to vote in the country's provincial elections, with a massive participation from Sunni Arabs and women, a candidate told Gulf News.
Ammar Al Zobaie, a Sunni Islamic Party's candidate in Fallujah, said many Sunni Arabs participated in the elections. "Sunni Arabs [want] to redress the harm suffered by the Sunni cities because of their non-participation in the previous elections in 2005, which led to the suspension of development projects," Al Zobaie said.
Tribal elders in Al Anbar said that the large Sunni attendance in the elections is also aimed at decreasing in the influence of Al Qaida.
Girl power
Amera Al Baldawi, a member of the Iraqi parliament, told Gulf News that women also turned out in full force at the elections. Al Baldawi said the participation of women in the elections shows "greater political maturity" in Iraq.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqi President Nouri al-Maliki on Saturday expressed thanks to the Iraqi people and organizations that did their best to render the 11-hour marathon local elections "successful" less than one hour before all voting centers close in 14 Iraqi provinces. "The Iraqis have sent a message to the whole world through these elections and I thank all participants who bypassed their religious, sectarian, and ethnic affiliations," Maliki said in a speech he delivered after the provincial council elections were wrapped up today (Jan. 31).
The premier also praised Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) staff for their efforts and the security agencies that protected the citizens during the course of the voting.
Voting centers in Baghdad and other 13 provinces started at 07:00 a.m. Baghdad local time to receive eligible voters who are electing their candidates to occupy all 440 seats in local councils amidst blanket security measures.
Four provinces, including the three autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region provinces of Arbil, Sulaimaniya and Duhuk, have not witnessed local elections, in addition to oil-rich Kirkuk, where elections were postponed until reconciliatory solutions are reached for the political crises there.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
And all of this was made by possible by who, again?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqi President Nouri al-Maliki on Saturday expressed thanks to the Iraqi people and organizations that did their best to render the 11-hour marathon local elections "successful" less than one hour before all voting centers close in 14 Iraqi provinces. "The Iraqis have sent a message to the whole world through these elections and I thank all participants who bypassed their religious, sectarian, and ethnic affiliations," Maliki said in a speech he delivered after the provincial council elections were wrapped up today (Jan. 31).
