Thread: Iraq/Dinar Until June 9th 1PM CST

War Refugees Live in Baghdad Trash Dump
"They Live on the Garbage" -- No Clean Water, No Sewage, No Electricity
By JANE ARRAF Posted 0 hr. 18 min. ago
Photo by Jane Arraf/IraqSlogger
Trash dump in southwestern Baghdad area of al-Shoula, home to dozens of Shiite families displaced by sectarian cleansing in formerly mixed neighborhoods.



Baghdad – Their old homes were in mixed neighborhoods of Abu Ghraib and a-Haswa. Their new homes are literally built of garbage.
At first glance it looked like a huge field of trash with water buffalo wallowing in stagnant water and piles of garbage burning in the distance.
And then the garbage trucks came. As a landslide of trash came sliding from the backs of the trucks, women in abayas rushed forward to pick through it, darting around the sheep competing with them.
The last time I’d seen people pick through garbage in Iraq was immediately after the 1991 war, when Baghdad was shattered by the bombing and the shock of trade sanctions, when people would do almost anything to eat.
One woman carried away a large square of cardboard. Another flung masses of plastic bags out of her way as she dug deeper into the pile.
“They live on the garbage,” said one of the Iraqi policeman on a highway overpass overlooking the field.
I was with soldiers of the U.S. Army’s 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment of the 1st Cavalry Division who were watching an Iraqi police checkpoint in al-Shoula, in southwestern Baghdad. The checkpoint, manned by Shiite police, seemed to be working. Police officers climbed into the back of trucks to inspect them and listened to directions from the American soldiers on checking gun permits.
“They’re pretty receptive to how to do things better which is what we look for,” said platoon leader 1st Lieutenant Christopher Ford.
But then there was that field of trash. What had looked at first glance like just a garbage dump was dotted with crude brick homes and mud huts with walls reinforced with tin cans and roofs of corrugated iron and cardboard.
Small children played barefoot in the dirt. An elderly man hobbled by on a crutch. The water buffalo, valued in the south of Iraq for their milk, wallowed in stagnant ponds that had turned a dark maroon color from the waste.
There is no clean water, no sewage, no electricity. Just makeshift houses in a seemingly never-ending field of trash. When Saddam was in power, it was to have been a sports stadium.
Photo by Jane Arraf/IraqSlogger
Iraqi police taking a break in the shade at a checkpoint near the trash dump.


The police said the Shiite families had been driven out of al-Haswa south of Baghdad by sectarian cleansing. They said there were perhaps 100 families who had arrived over the past year.
One of the policemen himself was displaced. Mohammad, 27, said his family had had two houses and a supermarket in Abu Ghraib, near Baghdad.
“They took them and we had to leave,” he said. “Who took them?” I asked. “The terrorists,” he said, meaning Sunni extremists. He said two of his cousins had been killed there.
As a policeman, he said he made 100,000 dinars a month – about $70. He and his colleagues spend ten days at a time at the checkpoint with no running water and a makeshift tent for shade. “We have to buy our own uniforms,” one of his colleagues said. “Look at his shoes.” One of the police was wearing mismatched plastic sandals.
The group was from Diwaniyah, in the Shiite south of Iraq. “Life was better under Saddam because then there were no terrorists,” one said. “Nothing has changed except they removed Saddam - we didn’t have electricity or water then either.”
Photo by Jane Arraf/IraqSlogger
Five-year-old refugee Sajad Abbas.


“All of the Arab countries around us are against Iraq,” said another. “Even Iran – Iran just uses Iraq.”
Next to the police station in al-Shoula, Younnis, who runs the parking lot, introduces me to Sajad Abbas, who is five years old.
“This is one of our refugees,” he tells me. “There are lots of them everywhere.” He says Sajad’s family was also driven out of al-Haswa, fleeing to al-Shoula, a Shiite neighborhood controlled by the Mehdi Army.
In turn, Sunni families fled their homes in al-Shula. “They went to Abu Ghraib, to Fallujah, to al-Anbar,” Younnis says.
I ask him whether people prefer it that way. “It’s not right,” he says. “We were brothers for years.”

Well!!!!...This is reason enough for the Rv to happen,if for no other reason to help the people of iraq...When i see a child like in the above picture..i realize that as much as i want the rv for myself,it truley is needed more by the people of iraq!!!!.Lets hope for them real soon!!
Sarah!!

U.A.E. May Be Next to End Dollar Peg, Forwards Show (Update2)
By Matthew Brown

June 5 (Bloomberg) -- The United Arab Emirates may be the next Middle Eastern country to stop pegging its exchange rate to the U.S. dollar, according to trading in currency forwards.

The second-largest Arab economy may follow Syria and Kuwait, which both said in the past two weeks that they would dump the dollar peg to curb rising import costs and inflation. Middle East currencies have been dragged lower by declines in the dollar, pushing up the cost of imports from Europe and Asia.

``The market has the expectation that the U.A.E. dirham is the most likely of the Gulf countries to follow,'' Monica Malik, an economist at EFG-Hermes, an investment bank in Egypt, said from Dubai. ``Forwards show what the market is betting on.''

The dirham would climb to 3.66025 to the dollar in a year, 0.35 percent above today's exchange rate, trading in forwards showed as of 5 p.m. in Dubai. The average premium in the so- called implied rate in the past year was 0.04 percent.

In comparison, the premium on one-year Qatari riyal forwards is 0.06 percent today.

Central Bank of Syria Governor Adib Mayaleh said yesterday that the country needed to broaden its peg to ``stabilize the Syrian pound and bring down inflation.'' Kuwait switched to a currency basket on May 20 after gains in consumer prices accelerated above policy makers' target rate.

`Nothing Final'

The U.A.E's peg to the dollar, while favorable so far, is ``not untouchable,'' Sultan Bin Nasser al-Suwaidi, governor of the central bank told Germany's manager-magazin. ``Nothing is final or forever,'' the magazine quoted al-Suwaidi as saying in an interview on its Web site on May 25. Central bank officials weren't immediately available for comment today.

Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum said after Kuwait's decision that the U.A.E. would keep its link to the U.S. currency, even after inflation quickened to 10.1 percent in 2006, from 7.8 percent the year before. The government hadn't ``discussed a change,'' he said on May 22.

``Syria's move may lead to further speculation of another country de-pegging from the dollar,'' Steve Brice, Dubai-based chief Middle East economist at Standard Chartered Plc., wrote in a research note to clients today.

Syria said yesterday that it will tie its currency to so- called special drawing rights, certificates issued by the International Monetary Fund that represent a basket of currencies including the dollar, euro, yen and U.K. pound.

Global Trend

Middle Eastern central banks have been following a global trend in attempting to diversify their foreign-exchange reserves away from the dollar. Syria had converted half its reserves to euros, Mayaleh said last July.

The dollar made up 64.7 percent of global currency reserves in the fourth quarter, down from 65.8 percent in the prior three months, International Monetary Fund data show. The euro's share was 25.8 percent, the highest since its 1999 debut.

The six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, including Saudi Arabia, the largest Arab economy, pegged their currencies to the dollar to stabilize revenue from crude oil sales and prepare for the launch of a unified currency in 2010.

The single currency plan has become ``more difficult'' after Kuwait dropped its peg to the dollar, the deputy governor of Saudi Arabia's central bank, Mohamed al-Jasser, said May 31.

The U.A.E. dirham was unchanged at 3.6732 to the dollar today, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Syrian pound was at 52.21, the Qatari riyal fell 0.02 percent to 3.6406, and the Saudi riyal traded at 3.7504.

The GCC is an economic and political grouping of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain, that collectively pumps around one fifth of the world's oil and owns 40 percent of the world's proven crude reserves.

Forwards are agreements in which assets are traded at current prices for delivery at a later specified time and date. Trading in the contracts allows investors to bet on the value of a currency that isn't fully convertible or hedge investments denominated in it.

Bloomberg.com: News

Postal strike over unpaid salaries in Kut

Wassit - Voices of Iraq

Wednesday , 06 /06 /2007 Time 5:35:13


By Adel Subhi

Wassit, Jun 6, (VOI) – Postal workers in Wassit province organized a strike on Wednesday, protesting unpaid salaries, and prevented employees from performing their work.

The strike is the second this week.
"We have decided to paralyze work in Wassit's Postal and Communications Department where we work in protest against the non-payment of our salaries by the ministry for four months," Hassan Zidan, a postal worker, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).
"We fulfill our duties all day long and face many threats, but we do not receive our salaries for no reason," Zidan explained, adding "Our number exceeds 300, which means than over 300 families had to survive without supplies during the past four months."
After several failed attempts to convince the ministry to pay the workers their overdue salaries, Zidan said that a ministry official, whom he did not name, suggested that the ministry would pay them one month’s salary. "We refused this unfair offer and went on a strike on Wednesday morning," Zidan explained.
"A similar strike was staged on Monday. We received many promises from an official in the municipal council, but none were fulfilled," Zidan added.

Aswat Aliraq

Originally Posted by inquisitive1

The Union has been upset since they were not invited to participate in the first draft oil law and started protesting back then. I do not know for fact but I doubt that they were invited to the draft for the new draft oil law either. They have caused a lot of non constructive delays which in turn causes them to not have wage increases and better working conditions. Members of that group are among those who conspire against the GOI. PM Maliki has made it very clear what he would do to those found to be against Iraq. I am guessing that the parliament vote yesterday that opposed Maliki and the troops has something to do with it.

Inquisitive1
The oil workers asked to be involved in the oil law talks because they wanted to request that Iraq's oil remain public property.....a vast majority do not want privatization. Quote: "The Union has repeatedly asked for involvement in the drafting of the Hydrocarbon Law but has been ignored. Iraqi civil society should be involved in the decision making process over the future of the Iraqi economy - this includes trade unions."



Iraqi oil strike leaders threatened with arrest

Submitted on 6 June, 2007 - 14:00 :: Iraq

Iraq's government has responded to a strike by Basra oil pipeline workers, in puursuit of basic economic demands, by ordering the arrest of four leaders of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions for "sabotaging the Iraqi economy".

For detailed updates, click here.

On the morning of Monday 4 June, the oil pipeline workers in Basra, southern Iraq, struck. According to the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine & General Workers’ Unions: "Earlier strike calls in May [focused around demands including consultation with the union on the proposed new oil law] were postponed after the union gained a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki" - where, according to the union, Maliki accepted all its demands, on paper. Maliki did not deliver.

"The union is currently focussing on two core demands in its strike at the pipeline company:

"They demand that the Oil Ministry take action to force the general manager of the pipeline company to resign;

"They demand that the company be financially and administratively independent from the Baghdad-based central ministry, and that the
pipeline company be managed locally.

"ICEM is informed that the reason for the first demand, and the catalyst for today’s action, is that the general manger of the pipeline company, Adel Aziz, who is based in Baghdad rather than in Basra, blocked the orders of Prime Minister Nouri Al-Mailiki to release delayed benefits due to workers [and] stopped an allowance which the workers are regularly entitled to".

All the different Iraqi union movements are united in supporting democracy, opposing Sunni-Shia-Kurdish division, and insisting that Iraq's oil remain public property. With sufficient resources - which they do not yet have - they could begin to unite a majority of the population around such demands, and lay the basis for a political way out.

Support and success for the current strike is vital even on its limited demands, because it can lay the basis for Iraqi workers starting to develop the confidence for a new political direction.

Links:
Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions
Iraq Union Solidarity

Iraqi oil strike leaders threatened with arrest | Workers' Liberty




British unions express support for Iraqi oil workers' strike
June 5, IRNA

British trade unions have sent a formal message of solidarity to Iraqi oil workers, who were striking for better terms and conditions at a pipeline company in the south of the country.

Many of workers' demands were said to be related to wages and working conditions, including a demand for wage increases; the payment of a previously agreed bonus and no salary deductions to be made for granted vacations.

Further demands were for the recruitment of new graduates and the promotion of workers. The union also called for full time permanent status to be given to workers presently classed as temporary.

British unions express support for Iraqi oil workers' strike - Irna

Analysis: Oil strikers met by Iraqi troops

Published: June 6, 2007 at 4:32 PM E-mail Story | Print Preview | License

By BEN LANDO
UPI Energy Correspondent

WASHINGTON, June 6 (UPI) -- On the third day of an oil strike in southern Iraq, the Iraqi military has surrounded oil workers and the prime minister has issued arrest warrants for the union leaders, sparking an outcry from supporters and international unions.

"This will not stop us because we are defending people's rights," said Hassan Jumaa Awad, president of IFOU. As of Wednesday morning, when United Press International spoke to Awad via mobile phone in Basra at the site of one of the strikes, no arrests had been made, "but regardless, the arrest warrant is still active." He said the "Iraqi Security Forces," who were present at the strike scenes, told him of the warrants and said they would be making any arrests.

The arrest warrant accuses the union leaders of "sabotaging the economy," according a statement from British-based organization Naftana, and said Maliki warned his "iron fist" would be used against those who stopped the flow of oil.

IFOU called a strike early last month but put it on hold twice after overtures from the government. Awad said that at a May 16 meeting, Maliki agreed to set up a committee to address the unions' demands.

The demands include union entry to negotiations over the oil law they fear will allow foreign oil companies too much access to Iraq's oil, as well as a variety of improved working conditions.

"Apparently they promise but they never do anything," Awad said, confirming reports the Iraqi Oil Ministry would send a delegation to Basra.

"One person from the Ministry of Oil accompanied by an Iraqi military figure came to negotiate the demands. Instead it was all about threats. It was all about trying to shut us up, to marginalize our actions," Awad said. "The actions we are taking now are continuing with the strike until our demands are taken in concentration."

The strike by the Iraq Pipelines Union in Basra started Monday, instigated by a decision by the Iraq Pipelines Company to stop regular bonuses to workers. It is part of a larger picture, however, of 17 different demands laid out -- beginning last month -- to the Iraq Oil Ministry and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki by the Iraq Federation of Oil Unions.

Since the strike began, two small pipelines delivering oil products to Baghdad and other cities have been closed, as has a larger pipeline that sends gas and oil to major cities, including Baghdad, and utilities.

The strike started with domestic pipelines transporting oil and oil products, but Iraq's top oil unionist says it will soon encapsulate the 1.6 million barrels per day of oil Iraq sends to the global market.

Basra, home to much of Iraq's 115 billion barrels of oil -- the third-largest reserves in the world -- is also Iraq's main port. Awad said the unions will continue to restrict all oil exports, which bring in 93 percent of Iraq's federal budget funds. Such a move, combined with the choking off of much-needed supplies of transportation, cooking and heating fuels, is what the unions hopes to use as leverage against Maliki.

Awad said "the atmosphere here is full of tension," and added that he wants to pressure the government to agree to their demands, not topple an already-weak Maliki government.

"At the end we are hoping that the situation will not go that way," Awad said.

Maliki has been unable to meet a key benchmark set by the Bush administration and backed by the Democratic-led Congress: to pass an oil law. Many in Iraq, including oil experts and parliamentarians, are calling for the law to be put on hold. Negotiators haven't been able to agree on the best means of revenue distribution, whether central or regional governments will have more power in the oil sector, or how much access foreign investors will have.

Manfred Warda, general secretary of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions, Wednesday sent a letter to Maliki condemning his tactics in addressing the strike. "Genuine and democratic trade unions are a cornerstone of democracy and at the same time are a force for reconciliation, peace and stability in a society," Warda wrote.

The Brussels-based International Trade Union Confederation and London-based Trades Union Congress have also condemned the military action and arrest warrants.

A top official with the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine & General Workers' Union said his contacts say the strike had been toned down while negotiations were underway, but has not ended.

"The strike began purely and simply at the pipeline," said Jim Catterson, the energy industry officer for Warda's federation, based in Brussels. IFOU "has membership capable of bringing an end to exports."

Kamil Mahdi, an Iraqi economist on Middle East affairs at the University of Exeter, said Maliki's swing from agreement with the unions to a military presence and warrants is "very surprising," and arresting the leaders won't quell the workers' demands.

"It may be the opposite. These are people who are highly respected in the community," he said. If the strike isn't stopped soon, "the effect on the global oil market will certainly be felt."


United Press International - Energy - Analysis

Originally Posted by Lunar

Inquisitive1
The oil workers asked to be involved in the oil law talks because they wanted to request that Iraq's oil remain public property.....a vast majority do not want privatization. Quote: "The Union has repeatedly asked for involvement in the drafting of the Hydrocarbon Law but has been ignored. Iraqi civil society should be involved in the decision making process over the future of the Iraqi economy - this includes trade unions."



Iraqi oil strike leaders threatened with arrest

Submitted on 6 June, 2007 - 14:00 :: Iraq

Iraq's government has responded to a strike by Basra oil pipeline workers, in puursuit of basic economic demands, by ordering the arrest of four leaders of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions for "sabotaging the Iraqi economy".

For detailed updates, click here.

On the morning of Monday 4 June, the oil pipeline workers in Basra, southern Iraq, struck. According to the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine & General Workers’ Unions: "Earlier strike calls in May [focused around demands including consultation with the union on the proposed new oil law] were postponed after the union gained a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki" - where, according to the union, Maliki accepted all its demands, on paper. Maliki did not deliver.

"The union is currently focussing on two core demands in its strike at the pipeline company:

"They demand that the Oil Ministry take action to force the general manager of the pipeline company to resign;

"They demand that the company be financially and administratively independent from the Baghdad-based central ministry, and that the
pipeline company be managed locally.

"ICEM is informed that the reason for the first demand, and the catalyst for today’s action, is that the general manger of the pipeline company, Adel Aziz, who is based in Baghdad rather than in Basra, blocked the orders of Prime Minister Nouri Al-Mailiki to release delayed benefits due to workers [and] stopped an allowance which the workers are regularly entitled to".

All the different Iraqi union movements are united in supporting democracy, opposing Sunni-Shia-Kurdish division, and insisting that Iraq's oil remain public property. With sufficient resources - which they do not yet have - they could begin to unite a majority of the population around such demands, and lay the basis for a political way out.

Support and success for the current strike is vital even on its limited demands, because it can lay the basis for Iraqi workers starting to develop the confidence for a new political direction.

Links:
Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions
Iraq Union Solidarity

Iraqi oil strike leaders threatened with arrest | Workers' Liberty




British unions express support for Iraqi oil workers' strike
June 5, IRNA

British trade unions have sent a formal message of solidarity to Iraqi oil workers, who were striking for better terms and conditions at a pipeline company in the south of the country.

Many of workers' demands were said to be related to wages and working conditions, including a demand for wage increases; the payment of a previously agreed bonus and no salary deductions to be made for granted vacations.

Further demands were for the recruitment of new graduates and the promotion of workers. The union also called for full time permanent status to be given to workers presently classed as temporary.

British unions express support for Iraqi oil workers' strike - Irna

Thanks Lunar, I hope they can find the ground to agree on and move forward.

Originally Posted by inquisitive1

Thanks Lunar, I hope they can find the ground to agree on and move forward.

Hopefully they will.....

Originally Posted by Lunar

Inquisitive they aren't actually trying to sabotage the Iraqi economy....they're just trying to get a wage increase and some job security.

By threatening to shutdown the country's only source of income? Sounds like a form of sabotage to me.