[Centraal] Irak na de oorlog - deel 37 : Irak staat op instorten

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Miljoenen Iraki's zijn op de vlucht geslagen

di 20/03/07 - De humanitaire gevolgen van de oorlog in Irak worden zwaar onderschat, zegt de Vluchtelingenorganisatie van de Verenigde Naties. Zo'n twee miljoen Iraki's zijn naar het buitenland gevlucht en nog eens 1,9 miljoen mensen zijn ontheemd in Irak zelf.

"De meeste mensen die hun huis zijn ontvlucht, hebben helemaal niets meer. De gemeenschappen die hen opvangen, moeten zelf vechten om het toenemende aantal ontheemden te absorberen", zegt een woordvoerder van de VN.

Die schat dat vier miljoen Iraki's (ruim 16 procent van de bevolking) afhankelijk zijn van voedselhulp. 23 procent van de kinderen is ondervoed.

Zowat twee miljoen Irakezen zijn naar het buitenland gevlucht. De meesten van hen bevinden zich nu in Syrië, zo'n 1,2 miljoen mensen. In Jordanië zijn er zo'n 800.000 Iraakse vluchtelingen.

In Irak zelf zijn er nog eens 1,9 miljoen ontheemden.

Sinds vorig jaar alleen al zijn maar liefst 730.000 mensen op de vlucht geslagen.

"Verwerpelijke ontkenning"

"Er is een verwerpelijke ontkenning van de humanitaire gevolgen van de oorlog", zegt VN-woordvoerder Peter Kessler.

Hij luidt de alarmklok. De betrokken regeringen moeten dringend de koppen bij elkaar steken om een oplossing te bieden voor de problemen van de vluchtelingen op het vlak van gezondheid, onderwijs en voedsel.

Bovendien blijken de vluchtelingenstromen in Irak zelfs nog toe te nemen. Sommige Iraakse provincies proberen nu zelfs al hun grenzen te sluiten voor mensen uit andere provincies.

Het geweld heeft ook nog andere gevolgen. Vaak zijn het immers mannen die worden gedood, waardoor hun weduwen nu alleen moeten instaan voor het levensonderhoud van het gezin.

Geweld duurt gewoon voort

Bij gevechten tussen het Iraakse leger en rebellen in de onrustige provincie Al Anbar, in het westen van het land, zouden 39 "terroristen" zijn gedood.

In de hoofdstad Bagdad vielen vandaag minstens 16 doden en ruim 50 gewonden bij verschillende aanslagen.

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Op maandag 19 maart 2007 19:48 schreef Hurricane1 het volgende:


[afbeelding]

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Op woensdag 21 maart 2007 11:55 schreef IRAKEES-NL het volgende:

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Heroic Iraqi masses!

The Baath made no mistake when summing up the US Occupation fate, before it happened, on the mouth of the master of modern times' martyrs the leader Saddam Hussein when he said that today's Mongols will commit suicide on Baghdad ramparts' gates warning the US from undertaking any idiotic step to invade Iraq.. Here are today's Mongols, incarnated by both occupations US and Iranian of Iraq, getting killed and slaughtered at the ramparts' gates of Baghdad.. in Mahmudya and Youssifya to the South.. in Abu Ghraib and Falluja to the West.. In Diyala to the East..In Balad, Dur, and Samarra to the North.. These are the strategic gates and the principal entries to Baghdad.. With US and Iranian enemies committing suicide thanks to the intrepid Iraqi Resistance weapons, Baghdad the pearl of the Resistance and martyr Saddam' Capital City, remained liberated in most of its neighborhoods and districts except some tiny little pockets including the Green Zone.. The fact that Baghdad remains liberated and combating heroically the Occupation and defeating every (security) plans and every Safawides attacks, is nothing but the greatest symbol for all Iraq to resist and to defeat the occupation, every single one of its big projects into mere utopia and recording through its armed Resistance gun, the greatest Resistance epic in Iraq, in the Arab nation and in the human histroy.

On the land of Iraq, wrecked were the US, Zionism and Safawide Iran dreams to establish a regional colonialist system as a basis for a new colonialist world order.

While we enter the fifth year of the invasion, the Baath findings before the invasion and the Baath' and the Resistance's directly after the invasion.. So what are these findings?

1- The Baath has ascertained that the US occupation and whatever overwhelming material force it possess, will be fatally and absolutely defeated in Iraq. Yes indeed! For the people of Iraq has prepared itself in an excellent manner by the Baath and its patriotic government for a guerrilla war for more than ten years before the invasion and has provided all the necessary means to endure a cruel and long liberation war without relying on any external help.. Also the Patriotic, the national and the Islamic cultural edifice, built by the Baath for 35 years of government, has prepared the people of Iraq to support and nurture the Resistance and give whatever price or sacrifices to see her triumphing.

Thus the Resistance found herself living in a favorable, supportive and friendly environment where she can breath, providing her with every kind of progress and triumph means.. The inexhaustible flow of the volunteering combatants, the financial, intelligence and political support for the Resistance from every Iraqi has been and will always be the reason of the Resistance victory upon the most ferocious colonialist force in ancient, modern and contemporary history..

The Iraqi armed revolution has confirmed what the Baath has already established before the invasion that the victory at the end of the war and the conflict will be for the high moral and never for the tanks and the war jets.. Indeed! The freedom and independence will which the Iraqis carry in their hearts has and always will be the decisive factor and not the power of blackmail through technology, military,and material supremacy.

2- The Baath has ascertained and in particular by the mouth of the master of martyrs, the beloved leader Saddam Hussein, that the belonging plurality of the people of Iraq (Arabs, Kurds, Turcomens, Muslims, Christians, Sunnis and Shias.. etc) is a source of strength and creativity and not a source of weakness as the enemies imagined. That is why the US colonialism and its colonialist Iranian ally and despite all they did such as destruction and mass murders against the people of Iraq under whatever cover and sectarian names to foment sectarian strife through exploiting the Iraqi pluralism, all these attempts have scandalously failed, and will fatally fail in the future. The disasters and the catastrophes inflicted to Iraq were enough to tear down Iraq, if it was possible to harm and to tear down its social fabric; for the people of Iraq in all its components has endured mass murders based on sectarian identities, and millions of Iraqi have been displaced in an attempt to tear down the social fabric of Iraq! But this fabric remained strong and become even stronger than before, when some discovered and others were convinced that the attempts to divide Iraq in the name of federation and allotment and wealth sharing is nothing but a US Iranian plot, whose objective is to wipe Iraq out from the map and eradicate its national identity.. this pushed all Iraqis to stand with the unity of Iraq.. The plot failed..

Today while we enter the fifth year of the invasion, we see the Armed Iraqi Resistance striking in the south as it does in the center and the north.. This is nothing but an added proof that the Resistance against the US - Iranian occupation is a common denominator in amongst all Iraqis.. in spite that the militants of the south and mainly the Baathists are exposed to ferocious corporal liquidation leading to the murder of hundreds weekly, on the hands of the Safawides who hate Arabity.

3- The Zionist Neo Cons' plan, was to colonize and transform Iraq into a basis to an absolute and direct control over the petrol and the countries of the region, and move from Iraq and through the main strength of Iraq, to impose a new world colonialist order blackmailing every single nation in the world through using the petrol. This blackmail can't be opposed for to resist against such a black mail will lead to the halt of every modern life phenomenon and to the destruction of the countries' economies.. thus achieving the old and most beloved dream to the hearts of the Anglo-Saxon elite : making out of the present century, a US century.. But the Iraqi national Resistance with all its factions has destroyed the basis of this project which was to occupy Iraq successfully, rendering absolutely impossible to achieve the second plan i.e. to be fully in control of all the regional petrol countries and the third plan being to colonize the world.

The Iraqis in this very sense have achieved a formidable global strategic coup d'état against the US colonialism - preventing it from holding successfully to Iraq, i.e. forcing it to a halt and preventing it from achieving any progress, then confronting it through combat and finally make out of it, a daily target which endures killer blows, in order to bleed the US economy and its human resources and destroy its reputation of the black mail and assert to the whole wide world that the US is (a paper tiger) with all the very meaning of this saying.. Failed Nikita Khrushchev, the former USSR Premier when it uttered that..when applying it to a nuclear super power. Mao Tse Dong the historic China leader mocked the Soviet leader at that time saying.: ( It is a tiger paper indeed but with nuclear fangs) !Only the Iraq of the Resistance and the Baath has ascertained that the US is a paper tiger when Iraq succeeded into uprooting the US nuclear fangs and made of the US a mangy itchy errant dog looking for a place to hide fleeing the blows and the wrath of the lions of Iraq!

Following the defeat of the US, the world over freed itself from the blackmail of the US force, challenging the US. as it happened in South America known as the (US back yard). Furthermore the armed Resistance against the US-European Occupation in Afghanistan has evolved fast affected by and imitating the Iraqi revolution and learning from the Iraqis developed combating means and styles which were a creative and unique mix on how to use a guerrilla war and the styles of a regular army which changed into a guerrilla....This army is army of Iraq! The army of one million soldiers, the armly of the experienced one million combatants.. and the world over saw for the first time ever in its history a guerrilla war relying mainly on a regular and formidable developed army.. Thus the US and the NATO alliance realized that they were trapped into a killer quagmire they won't be able to quit except to the grave of the fatal defeat.

The Iraqi Resistance has severed the claws of the West' colonialist savages' and mainly those of the beastly US when they realized that the colonialist era will not rise from its grave after the Soviet Union death except for a glimpse of time because the popular forces combating for freedom, specially in Iraq and Palestine, enjoys a Resistance' and a sacrifices' will far greater than that of the Soviet Union'. That is why and for this very reason they succeeded into bringing colonialism to its grave while still alive and kicking!

Today while we enter the fifth year of the Occupation, the world over has become convinced that the armed Iraqi Resistance has been the only super power which dwarfed the US hegemony and has dragged the US filthy nose into the mire of the bitter defeat.. bringing to a halt the rampaging US buffalo's global and regional ambitions.. and forcing it to delay or to cancel its expansionist projects and completely re consider its global strategy! The most striking proof of the US strategic defeat is when it frankly admitted that the US military strategy relied upon for decades and based on undergoing two wars at the same time in two different countries or regions, has been wrecked by the Iraqi Resistance, for the US failed in one single war which is the Iraq war!

4- The US Zionists have widely spread a false opinion that the Arab nation is the nation of the defeats, underdevelopment, cowardice, egoism and scattering that is why its destiny is to disappear or to be enslaved to the West and to Zionism.. and to Iran..these days..But the Iraqi Resistance has wrecked this theory and proofed to the world over that the Arab is not only more courageous than the Colonialism and the Zionism armies but he is even smarter and more genius and has deeper humanity and farther vision than any Western and Zionism models..Sometime this truth was shaken and has replaced in others the well know model of the Arab in the world and drew a new picture for the Arab known for his rare courage and wisdom and his wish to lead the way.

The greatest and the outstanding incarnation of the mythical and heroic Arab is the image of Saddam Hussein as a combatant who started and led the Resistance, and as an intrepid detainee who put fear into his jailers' hearts and made the world mock the US.. and as a martyr mounting the execution stage smiling and praying God and cursing the US and Iran. This picture has attracted the admiration of the world.. shook and changed the given ideas and prejudices of millions of people who knew martyr Saddam through a western Media which wanted to demonize him though lies but when the decisive moments arrived, every body discovered that Saddam Hussein refused to make any compromise with the US while he was threatened with death and refused every backing off over principles and Iraq and the Arab nation interests. The Baath has drawn again the image of the Arab in the world as it is in reality and this an outstanding formidable achievement.

On the fifth year of the occupation, the Arab will not be seen by the world with his ogal and keffiah, his fat protuberant potbelly and through the fleet of his concubines' cars as drawn by the Zionist west, but the Arab has become Saddam Hussein with his nobility, heroism, purity, wisdom, a symbol and a good example to follow, smiling, while the jailer- torturer puts the death rope around his neck.

5- In the fourth year of the invasion, the Iraqi Resistance forced Bush to replace his idiotic laughs with tears and the world over saw him crying on his soldiers whose corpses are daily flown to the US in plastic bags.. Broken was his arrogance which was replaced nowadays with the defeat which filters from any word Bush says, begging some organizations and regimes he used to despise !

The Iraqi Resistance knocked the US and the colonialist West into shape and taught them their real place and mainly through the real fabric of the Arab nation and showed the ability of the free loving human kind to repeat the Iraqi model through a successful Resistance in general.

Terms like, (an exit strategy from Iraq) has replaced those of (achieving victory)! Further more! The most important invasion hawks such as Dick Cheney, the US vice president which was the main motor behind Bush stubbornness, has admitted in a suffocated voice that (the US is looking for an honorable exit from Iraq). The US game in Iraq is over and with this, are over the hopes to see the present century as a US' century.

6- The US defeat in Iraq has become a well admitted reality and which needs three final steps to render the withdrawal (honorable) as said Cheney. The first step is to get an oil contract which put Iraq petrol into the US bosom for may be some 99 years and the US will get according to this contract 80 percent from the Iraqi oil revenues. This US' request is decisive to make the invasion profitable to the US to compensate its losses and for this reason and with the approach of the US withdrawal the US has ordered in a accelerated way the puppet government in Baghdad to set an oil bill to give the US all the petrol of Iraq. This means one single thing that the US time in Iraq has become short, very short indeed. The second step is to achieve destroying Iraq through assassinating its symbols and its patriotic leaders quickly too.. that is why martyr leader Saddam Hussein was murdered and assassinated were both martyrs Barzan al Tikriti and Awad Bandar al Saadoon. Today preparations are set to kill the militant leader Taha Yassin Ramadhan. This series of assassination is nothing but some of the preparations to withdraw from Iraq and to prevent it from having experienced leaders from the legitimate leadership. The third step when we see the US using its dearest reserves, preciously kept until the decisive day and the most important being to unleash the most dangerous factors in amongst sectarian forces from both sides Shia and Sunna to divide the armed Resistance and make the sectarian strife the number one problem. The sectarian terminology practiced by some elements which say they belong to the Resistance is nothing but the other side of the US Iranian coin and which completes the role of Badr brigade and Mahdi army. The Resistance will triumph as long as it strengthens its patriotic character and avoid falling into the sectarian trap encouraged by both the US and Iran and some other parties.

That is why our Party draws everyone' attention in particular within the Resistance to isolate the elements with sectarian orientations and to have a spirit which overcomes sectarism and to hold on to patriotic and Islamic unity cleaned from the despised sectarism.. other wise the only beneficiary will be the occupation.

Our great Arab people from Mauritania to Oman!
Your Mujahid Arab socialist Baath Party ascertains to you that the assassination of the Leaders of Iraq will never lead as the US expects to prevent Iraq from its best experienced leaders! Rather for any assassinated martyr hundred field's leaders will appear to lead the Jihad until the victory. Also the attempts to foment loggerhead in amongst the Mujahideens will fail for the patriotic Resistance is stronger than these exposed tactics. The coming phase will witness an unprecedented and terrifying expansion of the Jihadi operations in Iraq to wreck any Occupation attempt to deviate it from its patriotic and liberation path. As for the US attempt to steal Iraq oil before cutting and running, we say today that the Resistance will transform any petrol agreement into a mere torn worthless piece of paper and the oil will remain the property of the people of Iraq.

What is required today while the decisive hour is approaching and the US defeat is getting clearer like the shining sun in the middle of the day.. is the unity in amongst all the Resistance factions and the utter discipline for every one of their elements and prevent any of them to indulge in a patriotically negative behavior.

May the fifth year of the occupation be the decisive year for victory and for expelling the Occupation!
Long live the Iraqi armed Resistance, the path for freedom and independence!
Long live the Iraqi patriotic Resistance with all its factions!
Victory to the Mujahid people of Iraq!
Glory and eternity for the master of martyrs, the Revolution starter, its designer and its leader Saddam Hussein.
Glory and eternity for the martyrs of the Iraqi Resistance!
Shame and dishonor to the US and to Iran!

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Op woensdag 21 maart 2007 14:17 schreef _Qmars_ het volgende:
Vinden de meeste incidenten trouwens plaats in Bagdad, of is dat ook zo buiten Bagdad?

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Op donderdag 22 maart 2007 17:53 schreef IRAKEES-NL het volgende:
Bomaanslag of mortieraanval tijdens persconferentie Iraakse premier Al-Maliki en Ban Ki Moon

http://youshare.com/uploads/video/unpress.swf

Hehe, die Zuid-Koreaan duikt weg Al-Maliki is het wel gewend Hij voelt zich alleen een beetje ongemakkelijk omdat het gewoon niet netjes is om zijn gast zo te ontvangen
Zo zie je maar tot hoever de terroristen zijn geinfiltreerd in de Iraakse regering, tot binnen de Groene Zone dus

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US struggles to avert Turkish intervention in northern Iraq

Ankara claims Kurdish rebels preparing attacks
Operations could wreck American peace strategy

The US is scrambling to head off a "disastrous" Turkish military intervention in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq that threatens to derail the Baghdad security surge and open up a third front in the battle to save Iraq from disintegration.

Senior Bush administration officials have assured Turkey in recent days that US forces will increase efforts to root out Kurdistan Workers' party (PKK) guerrillas enjoying safe haven in the Qandil mountains, on the Iraq-Iran-Turkey border.

But Abdullah Gul, Turkey's foreign minister, MPs, military chiefs and diplomats say up to 3,800 PKK fighters are preparing for attacks in south-east Turkey — and Turkey is ready to hit back if the Americans fail to act. "We will do what we have to do, we will do what is necessary. Nothing is ruled out," Mr Gul said. "I have said to the Americans many times: suppose there is a terrorist organisation in Mexico attacking America. What would you do?... We are hopeful. We have high expectations. But we cannot just wait forever."

Turkish sources said "hot pursuit" special forces operations in Khaftanin and Qanimasi, northern Iraq, were already under way. Murat Karayilan, a PKK leader, said this week that a "mad war" was in prospect unless Ankara backed off.

Fighting between security forces and Kurdish fighters seeking autonomy or independence for Kurdish-dominated areas of south-east Turkey has claimed 37,000 lives since 1984. The last big Turkish operation occurred 10 years ago, when 40,000 troops pushed deep into Iraq. But intervention in the coming weeks would be the first since the US took control of Iraq in 2003 and would risk direct confrontation between Turkish troops and Iraqi Kurdish forces and their US allies.

Several other factors are adding to the tension between the Nato partners:

The firm Turkish belief that the US is playing a double game in northern Iraq. Officials say the CIA is covertly funding and arming the PKK's sister organisation, the Iran-based Kurdistan Free Life party, to destabilise the Iranian government.

US acquiescence in plans to hold a referendum in oil-rich Kirkuk in northern Iraq. Turkey suspects Iraqi Kurds are seeking control of Kirkuk as a prelude to the creation of an independent Kurdistan.

Plans by the US Congress to vote on a resolution blaming Turkey for genocide against the Armenians in 1915. Faruk Logoglu, a former ambassador to Washington, said that if the resolution passed, relations "could take generations to recover".

Record levels of Turkish anti-Americanism dating back to 2003, when Turkey refused to let US combat forces cross the Iraq border.

The US is already fighting Sunni insurgents and Shia militias. Analysts say a surge in violence in northern Iraq, previously the most stable region, could capsize the entire US plan. But pressure on the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is also growing as a result of forthcoming elections. Military intervention was narrowly avoided last summer when he said that "patience was at an end" over US prevarication. Now conservatives and nationalists are again accusing him of not standing up to Washington.

"If they are killing our soldiers ... and if public pressure on the government increases, of course we will have to intervene," said Ali Riza Alaboyun, an MP for Mr Erdogan's Justice and Development party. "It is the legal right of any country to protect its people and its borders."

US support for Iranian Kurds opposed to the Tehran government is adding to the agitation. "The US is trying to undermine the Iran regime, using the Kurds like it is using the MEK [the anti-Tehran People's Mujahideen]," said Dr Logoglu. "Once you begin to differentiate between 'good' and 'bad' terrorist organisations, then you lose the war on terror." But he warned that military intervention might be ineffective and could be "disastrous" in destabilising the region. A recent national security council assessment also suggested that senior Turkish commanders were cautious about the prospects of success.

Daniel Fried, assistant secretary of state, said last week that the US was acting to assuage Turkish concerns. "We are committed to eliminating the threat of PKK terrorism in northern Iraq," he said.

General Joseph Ralston, the US special envoy dealing with the PKK issue, was less upbeat, admitting that "the potential for Turkish cross-border action" was growing. "We have reached a critical point in which the pressure of continued [PKK] attacks has placed immense public pressure upon the government of Turkey to take some military action. As the snows melt in the mountain passes, we will see if the PKK renews its attacks and how the Turkish government responds ... I hope the Turks will continue to stand by us."

But a Milliyet journalist, Kadri Gursel, said: "The US attitude has really pissed off the government and the army. The US really doesn't understand how exhausted and fed up they are."

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Op donderdag 22 maart 2007 17:58 schreef IRAKEES-NL het volgende:

[..]

Als je goed kijkt dan zie je dat de beveiliging de Iraakse premier tot twee keer probeert mee te nemen, ze houden hem vast en daarna zegt de premier droog (ik vertaal het ff) 'ga weg'.

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Op vrijdag 23 maart 2007 12:22 schreef zakjapannertje het volgende:
[afbeelding]

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Op vrijdag 23 maart 2007 12:39 schreef Basp1 het volgende:

[..]

Heb je ook zo'n plaatje van de burgerslachtoffers

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Tweestromenland is open riool
Stephen Leahy

TORONTO, 22 maart (IPS) - Saddam Hoessein stond niet bekend als een groene jongen en ook vier jaar na de Amerikaanse invasie blijft het milieu in Irak ernstig ziek. Ondanks 22 miljard dollar investeringen voor heropbouw, lekken industrieel afval en olie nog altijd ongehinderd in de rivieren.

De gezamenlijke studie van de VN-Milieuorganisatie UNEP en het Iraakse Milieuministerie identificeerde in 2005 vijftig rampgebieden en vroeg onmiddellijke actie om de ergste vijf op te ruimen. Tot nu toe zijn twee van de vijftig probleemgevallen gesaneerd. Het gaat om de gebombardeerde metaalfabriek Al Quadissiya, die vol zat met gifstoffen, en de verlaten pesticidenfabriek Al Suwaira. Om de rest van de aanbevelingen van het rapport uit 2005 uit te voeren is minstens 40 miljoen dollar nodig.

Volgens Nature Iraq, een milieuorganisatie in Bagdad, zijn niet minder dan vijfhonderd industriële staatsbedrijven aan sanering toe. Industrieel afval, ziekenhuisafval, meststoffen en olie komen intussen ongehinderd in de Tigris en de Eufraat terecht. Geen goede zaak, want dat water dient voor irrigatie en als drinkwater. ”De Tigris en de Eufraat zijn eigenlijk open riolen”, zucht Azzam Alwash, het hoofd van Nature Iraq.

Erfenis verergerd

“We hebben een vreselijke situatie geërfd op vlak van milieu”, zegt de Iraakse milieuminister Othman, “De natuur in Irak is verwoest door drie oorlogen sinds 1980 en tientallen jaren verwaarlozing en wanbeheer onder het regime van Saddam Hoessein.”

“Onder Saddam waren de milieuwetten een lachtertje”, bevestigt Alwash. “Staatsbedrijven vervuilden zoveel ze wilden.” Veel van die bedrijven produceerden militair materiaal. Ze werden gebombardeerd en geplunderd, waardoor het land nu bezaaid ligt met hoogtoxische zones. Ook de olie- en metaalindustrie zorgen voor vervuiling.

22 miljard maar geen geld

Het Iraakse Milieuministerie heeft geen geld, materiaal of opgeleid personeel om veel meer te doen, zegt minister Othman. Nature Iraq bevestigt dat: het ministerie bestaat nog maar drie jaar en heeft erg beperkte mogelijkheden. Er zijn om te beginnen weinig gegevens over wat gedaan moet worden en in de huidige veiligheidssituatie is het geen lachertje om grond- of waterstalen te nemen. En probeer maar eens milieuwetten te laten naleven in een land dat grotendeels wetteloos is.

“Ik rij voorbij steenfabrieken die dikke zwarte rook uitbraken omdat ze verboden ‘zwarte olie’ gebruiken als goedkope brandstof”, zegt Alwash. Eind 2006 waren er berichten dat miljoenen vaten van die zwarte olie in valleien en lekkende reservoirs naar de Tigris werden gepompt en in brand gestoken.

“De luchtvervuiling is erg en het is de afgelopen drie jaar van kwaad naar erger gegaan”, geeft Othman toe. Ondanks de betere elektriciteitsvoorziening – ingenieurs van het Amerikaanse leger beweren dat ze nu gemiddeld 12 uur per dag werkt – verpest het groeiend aantal benzine- en dieselgeneratoren de lucht.

Een klein lichtpuntje is dat dankzij herstellingswerken aan waterzuiveringsinstallaties door het Amerikaanse Agentschap voor Ontwikkelingssamenwerking USAID 5,1 miljoen Iraakse stedelingen drinkbaar leidingwater hebben, 2,3 meer dan in 2002. De meerderheid van de 26 miljoen Irakezen moet het voorlopig nog zonder drinkbaar leidingwater stellen. Er is ook de hersteloperatie van de Mesopotamische moeraslanden, een waardevol ecosysteem van 9000 vierkante kilometer dat de regering van Saddam in de jaren tachtig drooglegde.

De toekomst ziet er niet groenkleurig uit voor Irak. De Amerikaanse inspanningen voor heropbouw zullen de komende 12 tot 18 maanden worden afgebouwd, zegt de commandant van de Amerikaanse genietroepen in Irak. Er zijn nog zo’n 3,5 miljard dollar over in het Amerikaanse heropbouwfonds en die zullen naar water- en rioleringsvoorzieningen en naar olieproductie gaan. De tijd van grote infrastructuurprojecten is voorbij, zeggen de ingenieurs. Schattingen voor de heropbouw van Irak spreken van 80 tot 100 miljard dollar.

Minister Othman zit nog met een ander probleem. “Het milieu is geen prioriteit voor de Irakezen, terwijl het dat wel is, samen met veiligheid en economie.” Maar zoals Alwash zegt “zonder twijfel schaadt de vervuiling de gezondheid van de Irakezen, maar dat verliest zijn belang als je een kogel in je hoofd kan krijgen als je je huis uitkomt.” (ADR/MC)(EINDE/2007)