IDP camps? When they exist, they exist for a reason. People are displaced for a reason. And just closing the camps doesn't end displacement -- despite that being the approach the Iraqi government has elected to take. For now, the Kurdistan Region is a place of safety for the displaced. How long that will last is now a serious question. KURDISTAN 24 reports:
A senior Iraqi official on Friday outlined several conditions to facilitate the end of the internally displaced persons (IDP) issue after repeated promises to close displacement camps by the end of 2020 failed to deliver.
Millions of Iraqis have been displaced to different parts of the country as well as the Kurdistan Region and neighboring countries after ISIS took over vast swathes territories of Iraq in 2014.
Amid Iraqi government efforts to return IDPs to their areas of origin, international humanitarian organizations have indicated that many of their areas remain unsafe, with basic services, including water and electricity, lacking.
The Iraqi Ministry of Migration and Displacement previously said 2020 will be "the year the displacement file would be closed." Till now, Anbar and Nineveh provinces still host displacement camps. There are such facilities in the Kurdistan Region as well.
Was it really this time last year that we were raising this issue because, in the rest of Iraq, the Iraqi government was moving to shut down these damps? Yes, it was. We were raising it this time last year. Months later the press would catch up to this problem. After the fact.
Will that be the case this time as well?
Staying with northern Iraq, NDTV reports:
Archaeologists in Iraq revealed Sunday their discovery of a large-scale wine factory from the rule of the Assyrian kings 2,700 years ago, along with stunning monumental rock-carved royal reliefs.
The stone bas-reliefs, showing kings praying to the gods, were cut into the walls of a nearly nine-kilometre-long (5.5-mile) irrigation canal at Faida in northern Iraq, the joint team of archaeologists from the Department of Antiquities in Dohuk and colleagues from Italy said.
The carvings, 12 panels measuring five metres (16 feet) wide and two metres tall, show gods, kings and sacred animals. They date from the reigns of Sargon II (721-705 BC) and his son Sennacherib.
"There are other places with rock reliefs in Iraq, especially in Kurdistan, but none are so huge and monumental as this one," said Italian archaeologist Daniele Morandi Bonacossi.
On the elections, now two weeks old, RUDAW notes:
However, the political system in Iraq is “fundamentally flawed,” according to researcher Farah Sabir.
“It’s the same faces [in Iraq] since 2003,” she said. “I say the
protests will be back with stronger force if the political system
behaves with this deficient mentality from 2003.”
IHEC last week announced the official preliminary results in the
parliamentary election, following the manual count of polling stations
that faced technical issues. It also gave parties the option to file
complaints about the updated results.
The elections handed unexpected victories and devastating blows. Sadr’s
movement is leading the election by a large margin, securing more than
70 seats, according to preliminary results, and is expected to be the
main force in forming the new government once the results are finalized.
Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr claimed victory a day after the vote. Three days later, he formed
a negotiating committee to hold talks with other parties in order to
form a government. In a statement on Sunday, Sadr said they will work on
building coalitions that are “national” and not “sectarian” in order to
form a “serving government that will protect the homeland and its
security, sovereignty, and dignity of its people.”
He appears to be looking to form a mixed government, gathering the
strongest parties of Shiites, Kurds, and Sunnis, but “Sadr will not form
the government,” according to Abdullah.
“In Iraq, whoever has won the elections, didn’t form the government … someone else came and formed the government,” he said.
There's a great deal more reality in the paragraphs above than the western press has been providing in their own coverage. And did you catch this news:
Well that's a shocker . . . if you weren't paying attention. We've been noting all last week that this would be happening and that you'd have to be an idiot to be writing those puff pieces on Moqtada and ignoring past history which would let you know that while Moqtada dithered, Nouri wasn't just sitting around waiting. Underestimating Nouri has always led the press to get it wrong and the western press continues to underestimate him. But, hey, write another puff piece glorifying the dithering Moqtada. Well all need something to look back on and laugh about in a few months, right?
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