November 13, 2007
The Iraki Red Crescent has issued a statement expressing regret that inaccurate statements are being made about Iraki Internally Displaced Persons. In a statement passed to the the independent Iraki newsagency Aswat Al Iraq (Voices of Iraq) the Iraqi Red Crescent, said on Monday, that it "deeply regretted" the statements circulated recently by officials about the Displaced in Iraq and said they were not related realities of the situation faced by the displaced.
The body said in a statement, a copy of which was sent to the Independent News Agency (Voices of Iraq) that it deeply regretted the statements made by some green zone government officials regarding the situation of displaced people inside Irak, downplaying the sufferings and harsh conditions they are facing.
The society outlined a week ago in a report the numbers of migrants and displaced within the country and outside and the harsh living conditions they suffer, and said in its report that there were some two million and three hundred thousand displaced inside Iraq alone.
In their statement they said that,
"The real number of displaced persons by October (was) well over two million, three hundred thousand displaced inside the country."
Green zone government Brigadier Qasim al-Musawi, spokesman for the fard qanoon plan being implemented since February by American occupation troops and green zone government forces last week questioned the figures contained in the latest report issued by the Red Crescent, which said that the numbers of displaced inside the country were still increasing.
Al-Musawi criticised the Red Crescent for saying that the number of displaced persons was rising continuously.
The Red Crescent statement quoted an official from the Iraki organization as saying that "The number of displaced people in Iraq announced (by the Iraki organisation) does not represent the real number. There are 25 per cent who do not register their names as displaced in Iraq because of their circumstances."
It added that "the Iraqi Red Crescent was ready to engage any governmental or non-governmental organizations on the methodology of the census and it’s classification according to age groups."
The [Red Crescent] statement continued that "such statements [editor’s note: The statement by the green zone government] do not serve the Iraki people and are harmful to displaced persons and the forcibly displaced."
Green zone government authorities have spoken in the [recent] past about the return of thousands of families to their homes, who had previously left the areas they inhabited because of violence, the green zone government authorities have tried to claim that this has occurred because of the improved security situation in the country.
[Editor’s Note: Aswat Al Iraq - have a very brief English version of the Arabic language article here.]
Um Thalit & Nur
