IRAQ: NGOs call for a new strategy for displaced people

Photo: jamesdale10/Flickr

An Iraqi family returns to their village in Burah, Diyala Province, after being displaced for months by insurgents

BAGHDAD, – As Iraq observes the third anniversary of the bombing of a revered Shia shrine in the northern city of Samarra that set off nationwide sectarian violence and led to major displacement, the challenges of meeting the growing needs of internally displaced persons (IDPs) persist and must be addressed more effectively, experts have said.

We and others working on the ground are doing all that we can to help, but the needs are still so great and so diverse, Rafiq Tschannen, Chief of Mission in Iraq for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said in a new report issued on 20 February.

We urgently need a much greater level of humanitarian response and funding to meet the challenges. The future of Iraq depends on the resolution of the displacement crisis, Tschannen said two days before the bombing anniversary.

However, Tschannen hailed the fact that few new displacements were occuring and said the fact that people are returning home, although in smaller than expected numbers, is a positive development which we hope will gather pace.

In its report, IOM said that since the 2006 Samarra bombing more than 1.6 million Iraqis (about 270,000 families) had been displaced, 5.5 percent of Iraq’s population. Out of these, at least 49,000 families (almost 300,000 individuals) had returned to their homes.

We urgently need a much greater level of humanitarian response and funding to meet the challenges. The future of Iraq depends on the resolution of the displacement crisis.

Those who are still displaced suffer a variety of hardships, top of which is a lack of shelter, followed by unemployment, food shortages, and a lack of basic services such as health care, electricity, clean water and sanitation.

Many of those who have returned to their former homes have found them to be damaged or occupied by other displaced families, the report added.

Government failing to cope

The scope and complexity of the Iraqi displacement issue is beyond the current capacity of the GoI [Government of Iraq] and, therefore, calls for international involvement, it said.

The IOM’s concerns were echoed by Iraqi NGOs involved in helping IDPs. “I think the displacement issue has reached the level which we were afraid of; a level which is like a chronic disease we can only deal with by painkillers,” Jassim Hassan Naief, head of Baghdad-based al-Zahra NGO, said. “The absence of any political solution will keep the problem as it is for years to come. We have not seen yet any courageous steps by the politicians to solve this problem but instead only humble initiatives.”

Ali Khalil Mohammed, head of the Basra-based al-Nidaa NGO, has called on the Iraqi government to adopt a new strategy for IDPs and said he felt it was time for international NGOs to come back to Iraq (most having left since 2003 for security reasons).

“We need an active presence of international NGOs and aid workers in Iraq as the security situation has improved. The problem is so big it needs mass effort to be dealt with and solved,” Mohammed said. “And we need the government to adopt a strategy to follow up with those who have returned to their former homes, to meet their needs and make sure they will not be displaced again.

He suggested a one-year follow-up programme for returnee families with an emphasis on their ensured security.

Sects education

Sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shias Iraq’s two major Islamic sects – took a dramatic turn for the worse after the bombing of the Shia al-Askariya shrine in February 2006. The attack in Samarra, about 100 km north of Baghdad, was carried out by what many believe was a Sunni extremist group and was repeated in early 2007.

The al-Askariya shrine contains the tombs of the 10th and 11th imams – Ali al-Hadi, who died in 868, and his son Hassan al-Askari, who died in 874. Both are descendants of the Prophet Muhammad and the Shia community considers them to be among his successors.

The shrine is also near the place where the 12th imam, Mohammed al-Mahdi, disappeared. Al-Mahdi, known as the hidden imam, was the son and grandson of the two imams buried in the al-Askariya shrine. Shias believe he will return to earth to restore justice to humanity.

sm/ar/ed source.www.irinnews.org

SRI LANKA: UN humanitarian chief makes plea for civilian safety

Photo: Amantha Perera/IRIN

On Saturday, John Holmes, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, urged that combatants ensure the safety of civilians

COLOMBO,  – At the end of a three-day visit to Sri Lanka, John Holmes, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, urged that combatants ensure the safety of tens of thousands of civilians who remain trapped within areas of heavy fighting in northern Sri Lanka.

“I fear the reality is that a significant number of civilians are killed every day [within the combat zone],” Holmes said at a joint press conference with government officials held in Colombo on 21 February.

Holmes did not cite specific civilian casualties but said that reports he had received indicated that many civilians were dying and many more injured on a daily basis due to fighting in parts of Kilinochchi and Mulaithivu districts, about 300 km north of the capital, referred to as the ‘Vanni Pocket’ by the UN.

“We need to ensure that the civilian population can escape as soon as possible from the position they find themselves in, which is extremely dangerous,” Holmes said at the end of his three-day mission in Sri Lanka. “Every effort should be made by the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam [LTTE] to avoid civilian casualties – that is the message.”

Sri Lankan government forces have encircled the LTTE in about a 100-sq-km narrow swath of land.

Over 100,000 still displaced

In December 2008, before fighting escalated in the Vanni Pocket, the UN estimated that 250,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) were in the area, while government figures today put that figure at less than half that amount.

Mahinda Samarasinghe, Sri Lankan Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights, said at the press briefing with Holmes that over 36,000 civilians had escaped the fighting in the Vanni Pocket and crossed behind government lines since January.

During his meeting with Holmes on 21 February, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse said that government forces were making every effort to minimize civilian casualties.

“These are all my people, they are citizens of my country and their safety is foremost to me,” President Rajapakse told Holmes, according to a statement by the Defence Ministry.

Conditions at transit sites

During his mission Holmes toured transit sites near the town of Vavuniya, 250 km north of the capital and about 100 km south of the combat zones, where most civilians who fled the fighting are now staying.

Holmes confirmed the good cooperation between UN agencies and government authorities in providing assistance to those who fled the combat zones, but added, “We have some concerns. There are clearly a lot of fears about these camps. We are not completely satisfied.”

Holmes said that he had raised with government officials and the president the issues of freedom of movement for those living at the transit sites, the presence of military personnel and the screening process of those arriving from combat zones.

“I was reassured by the government, including the president, that they [the concerns] would be addressed,” Holmes said. “The important thing is not words but action and we will be following up.”

Disaster management and human rights minister Samarasinghe said the strict security measures in place at IDP centres had been put in place to prevent LTTE fighters mingling with civilians. He said 250 people who had fled the Vanni Pocket had already revealed that they were with the LTTE.

Holmes said that since 18 February, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) had been present at the screening sites north of Vavuniya. He added that the UN’s Central Emergency Relief Fund (CERF) had released US$10 million to assist those civilians fleeing the fighting and the World Food Programme (WFP) would increase its deliveries of food to civilians trapped in the combat zones.

No overland food convoys have travelled into the combat zones since 29 January, due to security risks. However, on 18 February the government began ferrying food – with an initial shipment of 40 metric tonnes – to the combat zones by ship and it hopes to increase shipments in the days ahead.

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PAKISTAN: Strong jolt triggers panic as houses collapse in Kashmir

Photo: Andy Goss/IRIN

October 2005 earthquake destroyed thousands of homes in and around Muzaffarabad

ISLAMABAD,  – Fear swept across many parts of Pakistan-administered Kashmir as an earthquake measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale hit its capital, Muzaffarabad, and surrounding areas just after 9am local time on 20 February. “The epicenter of the quake was just across the Line of Control [dividing Pakistani and Indian-administered Kashmir] in Baramula, Chaudhry Qamar-uz-zaman, Director General of the Pakistan Metrological Office, told IRIN.

There were no reports of deaths, but damage was said to be widespread, particularly in the Neelum Valley area north of Muzaffarabad.

The region suffered widespread devastation from an earthquake in October 2005 that killed 73,000 people. Evidence of the damage caused by that disaster can still be seen, with some buildings yet to be fully repaired. Any subsequent tremors in this area put the population on edge.

“I was here when that quake struck [in 2005] and I was here again today. We heard screams and saw panic as people rushed out of their homes,” Anwar Butt, 40, a shopkeeper based in Muzaffarbad, told IRIN by phone.

In the village of Panjkot, some 60 km north of Muzaffarbad, 40 to 50 houses reportedly collapsed. “We don’t know how many others have been damaged,” Ashraf Abbas, a resident of Panjkot, told IRIN.

School damage

In Muzaffarbad, Geo TV reported that a newly built government school had been damaged, injuring two children. Concern over the substandard construction of schools has been a feature in the aftermath of the 2005 quake, in which around 10,000 children died under the debris of school buildings.

According to the US-based Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), which sent a team to survey damage to buildings soon after the 2005 quake, 17,000 schools had been damaged or destroyed beyond repair. It also noted there was a higher proportion of “catastrophic damage” to government-owned buildings. Other studies bore out these findings, but it is feared the lessons have not been learnt.

“Again school buildings have been damaged. What would have happened if the quake had been more severe?” asked Butt, who rushed to pick up his children from their school minutes after the tremor hit.

In Neelum Valley, many people say their homes are still not quake-resistant. “The government promised it would help us build stronger structures, but this has not happened. We received some support, and used it to build our houses any way we could, using brick and wood,” said Fahim Hamid, a resident of a village some 20 km south of Muzaffarabad.

kh/at/ed source.www.irinnews.org

SENEGAL: Squeezing more out of sesame

Photo: Mamadou Alpha Diallo/IRIN

Farmers in southern Senegal have been forced to look to new cash crops (file photo)

DAKAR,  The Senegalese government has invested millions of dollars in the past decade to revive sesame production, but the sector has been slow to develop. Yet as profits decline for the country’s main cash crops – peanuts and cotton – and Asia’s demand for sesame grows, some producers are reconsidering the abandoned crop.

Government agricultural advisor Khardy Ndiaye told IRIN farmers have been reluctant to cultivate sesame, but face more pressure to find a viable cash crop with higher food prices and lower profits. We have to adapt. Tastes change. Prices change. So we, too, need to change, she said.

In recent years, international prices for cotton and national subsidies for peanuts have decreased; fuel price increases have further eroded farmers’ profits.

Demand

But despite increased worldwide demand and potential profits for sesame, some farmers in Ziguinchor  capital of the southern Casamance region – have yet to take to sesame. “It is still considered only as a back-up crop here, said Sihounk Diatta of the government’s local agricultural agency. “There is traditionalism [preference for other cash crops] and the price is not that good.

He said farmers earn on average 20 US cents more per kilogramme for sesame in neighbouring Gambia. The coordinator for the Agriculture Ministry’s sesame sector, Maguye Thioune, told IRIN that Gambia’s port, which is larger than Senegal’s, attracts more exporters willing to pay competitive prices.

Almost half of the world’s sesame comes from Africa, mostly east Africa, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Senegal generally contributes less than 0.1 percent to total exports.

Supply

In 2003 the Senegalese government invested US$3 million in sesame production to improve food security and reduce rural poverty, according to a government report. Government sector coordinator Thioune said since then, production has increased from 2,500 metric tons to an expected 38,000 mt in 2009.

But the actual yield for 2009 is much smaller, said Dakar-based analyst Sidy Niang. I have visited all the production zones [in February 2009] and met with the farmers. The yield will not even reach one-tenth of this estimate. He said the government’s estimate is based on the number of seeds it distributes, but up to 70 percent of the crop is lost before harvest time, mostly due to planting inappropriate seed varieties and insufficient seed drying at harvest.

Government rural advisor Ndiaye told IRIN one reason so much of the crop is lost is that farmers use outdated methods. The farmers think they know sesame planting, but they are using outdated, manual, time-consuming and labour-intensive practices.

In 2008 the US Agency for International Development distributed 750 guides on sesame cultivation in French and in the country’s main local languages.

Pricing

Saoudatou Sonko, a sesame grower in the south of Senegal, told IRIN prices are too low. “We work for nothing growing sesame. If Senegal wants us to really grow sesame, it needs to work with the Chinese [export company] so they bring up their prices because otherwise, people will give up. Why should we work just to make someone else rich?

China’s Datong Enterprise (DTE) is the largest purchaser of Senegal’s sesame, and pays on average 50 cents per kilo and provides farmers with seeds on credit.

Both the government’s Thioune and analyst Niang said in order for farmers to get higher prices, they need to form farmer associations and demand better seeds from DTE.

Sesame grows in most climate conditions, does not require much water, has an international market and can boost rural economies that have been battered by high food prices, said Thioune. It is a small grain. But it holds a lot of potential.

But that potential is not tapped, said analyst Niang. The country has factories that can process more than 4,000 mt of sesame into oil and other valuable products. But Senegal currently processes only one percent of this amount, said Niang.

And when seeds are pressed for oil in Senegal’s factories, a lack of investment in needed chemicals means the equipment extracts only part of the oil available in the grain.

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source.www.irinnews.org