Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Fake checkpoints and Martin Kobler out in July

Through yesterday, Iraq Body Count counts 173 violent deaths so far this month -- so that would currently average out to 17.3 violent deaths each day.  AFP adds that yesterday's death toll climbed to 73.  And today?

Ahlul Bayt News Agency reports 7 Shi'ite truck drivers were kidnapped in Baquba by "unidentified gunmen [who] erected [a] fake checkpoint" and the 7 were then killed; also 4 Shi'ites were shot dead at a Zagenah "fake security checkpoint."  The Iraqi Times notes that 4 shot dead had been displaced (internal Iraqi refugees) who had just returned to their Zagenah home a few weeks before.  Both cities are in Diyala Province.  Both were false checkpoints.  Iraqi journalist Sahar Issa addressed the false checkpoints last week while discussing Iraq with Marco Werman  on The World (PRI):

Sahar Issa:  You will find explosions are targeting mosques and they are targeting commercial areas.  In the neighborhoods where people live, there is fear, there is tension.  At the checkpoints?  There are fake checkpoints where they ask for your name and your i.d.  To tell you the truth, the situation is really quite fearful on the streets.


It was a major break through for the topic which was reported in Iraq but ignored by the world press (and denied on NPR by one BBC correspondent).  After Sahar broke the 'imbargo,' the western press became more comfortable reporting on these fake checkpoints.

Yang Yi (Xinhua) reports, "A roadside bomb struck an Iraqi army patrol in al-Arabi neighborhood in northern Mosul city, some 400 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, killing two officers and wounding three soldiers, a local police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity."  Yi also notes  police Colonel Ali Hussein was injured in a Qaiyarra roadside bombing, another Qaiyarra roadside bombing claimed the life of 1 police member, an al-Adheim roadside bombing killed 2 "suspected al-Qaida militants," an al-Adheim roadside bombing injured al-Adheim Mayor Mohammed al-Obiedi and "Also in the province, Iraqi security forces killed a local al- Qaida group leader, named Abu Baraa, during a clash with militants of his group while they were manning a faked checkpoint at a rural area located some 20 km north of Baquba, the source added."

National Iraqi News Agency notes a Falluja attack in which 1 Iraqi soldier was killed and two more were injured.  All Iraq News reports a Tikrit bombing left four people injured.  Meanwhile, Alsumaria notes it's being called "a suicide" at the same time that it's under investigation but a Christian woman in Mosul is dead -- she was burned to death.

On violence, Human Rights Watch notes today:

 (Baghdad) – Iraqi authorities should immediately investigate evidence that federal police executed four men and a 15-year-old boy on May 3, 2013, south of Mosul. Witnesses last saw the victims in the custody of the federal police 3rd Division, commanded by Gen. Mehdi Gharawi, who had been removed from his post as a federal police commander following claims he was implicated in torture and other abuses but was later reinstated. 
Villagers found the bodies of the five in a field three kilometers from East Mustantiq village on May 11, near where federal police were seen taking them immediately after their arrest. A witness said the bodies had multiple large gunshot wounds, and machine gun shells were found in the vicinity. But photos leaked to the media by a police officer show police officers with the bodies in a less decomposed state than they were when the villagers found them.
“The apparent police role in the machine gun execution of four men and a boy requires an immediate investigation and the prosecution of those responsible,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “That these killings may have been committed by a unit under a commander once implicated in torture shows why abuses can’t be swept under the rug and forgotten.”
Relatives of the victims and residents in East Mustantiq told Human Rights Watch that on May 3 a joint convoy of army soldiers and police from the federal police “Belt of Ninewa” brigade, a unit of the 3rd Division that controls areas south and west of Mosul, surrounded the village and asked residents whether it was West Mustantiq. When they said no, the army left, but federal police swept the village searching houses and barns, and arrested eight people without warrants, including the five who were later killed.


The foreign press are more interested in al Qaeda in Iraq this morning while Iraq's press is more interested in Martin Kobler.  Let's start with Kobler.  As noted in yesterday's snapshot, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has announced Kobler will no longer be his special envoy in Iraq but will instead be addressing issues in the Congo.

 National Iraq News Agency reports Iraqiya MP Wahda al-Jumaili is stating that this move is "evidence about [Kobler] not being impartial" and, "His duty as an envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations in Iraq is to show the negatives in the performance of the government and write reports on the popular movement happening in Iraq and transfer them to the United Nations honestly but recently he worked as media spokesman of the government and a reporter who selects some of the events that he transmits to the United Nations with clear bias to the government."  Kitabat notes Kobler is a diplomat with 25 years experience and that his tenure in Iraq began in October 2011 and has been marked by calls, from various Iraqi political blocs, that he be replaced because he was not impartial.  They note he has been criticized for blanket statements about "progress" in Iraq and has failed to note when rights and freedoms were under attack.  The Iraq Times notes that Kobler is expected to leave Iraq in July.  All Iraq News reports a UNAMI spokesperson insists that this move is a normal "periodical procedure." 


We're going to leave it there because the hearing we're at has started and then some.  And opening statements are over.


Today's the day CBC's Q wish Jian Ghomeshi presents a rare interview with the legendary artist Joni:


 [. . .]  we present a feature interview with Canadian folk icon Joni Mitchell. Jian travelled to Los Angeles to interview her at her home. It was a wide-ranging conversation and we'll be devoting a full hour of Q to it on Tuesday, June 11. Joni Mitchell be honoured by the Luminato Festival with a tribute show in Toronto on June 18 and 19. But for now, click through for a photogallery of her remarkable career.

The program airs on CBC (and satellite radio -- and streams online) at 10:00 AM  and 10:00 PM EST.  So it should be finishing right now.  At 10:00 PM (EST) it will broadcast again.  You can check out the audio archives later today and Jian's also going to post an extended video of the interview so look for that.







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