The Red Crescent's suspension of its work in Baghdad has seriously affected the lives of thousands of IraqisDisplaced families in the capital, Baghdad, have urged the Iraqi Red Crescent Society to continue supporting people who have been displaced as a result of sectarian violence.
"We need urgent help because since the [Red Crescent] volunteers in the capital stopped their work, we have been seriously suffering with the lack of assistance, medical care at camps, and especially food," said Ibraheem Rabia'a, a displaced metal-worker who acts as a spokesperson for a group of 120 families living in abandoned government buildings on the outskirts of the capital.
According to the Brookings Institution, 650,000 Iraqis are internally displaced, living in camps or abandoned buildings. A further one million people are estimated to have been displaced before March 2003. Local NGOs, like the Red Crescent and Iraqi Aid Association, believe that at least 30 percent of the total number are living in the capital, Baghdad.
The Red Crescent suspended its activities in Baghdad after 36 people were abducted, 30 of them Red Crescent staff members, on 17 December. The move spurred the organisation, which was the main provider of aid in Baghdad, into closing 40 of its subsidiary offices in the capital.
Eleven of the abducted employees were released last month, however, 19 others - a mixed group of Shi’'te and Sunni aid workers - have still not been released.
According to Rabia'a, the abduction has led to a fall-off in aid, and some of the smaller NGOs are withdrawing their services due to the violence.
"The Red Crescent was our main source of food and medicines but now we are desperate; if the situation continues, our children are going to get very sick. We call on the abductors to release the remaining volunteers and leave them to help Iraqis in need," Rabia'a said.
On 3 January, nearly 400 people held a demonstration in the capital calling for the release of the Red Crescent workers, and urging the government to help protect NGOs.
"The government isn't doing anything to help us, but instead is relying on the Red Crescent, which now for understandable reasons is focused on keeping its employees alive; but at the same time, the government isn't doing anything to help them too," said Sahar Amin, 34, a displaced person who took part in the demonstration.
Hospitals in the capital also have felt the lack of support by the Iraqi Red Crescent which had been providing them with drugs and other medical items.
"With lack of medicines, it is the children who are suffering more, especially those from poor families who cannot buy medicine on the black market. We cannot close the hospital due to lack of medicines, but at the same time we are having serious problems in treating our patients without essential drugs," said Dr. Marouf Bakar, at the Children's Teaching Hospital in Baghdad.
Mowafaq Abdul-Raoof, a spokesman for the Ministry of Displacement and Migration, said that the Red Crescent's suspension of its work in the capital has seriously affected the lives of thousands of Iraqis, and that the government alone cannot give the required support to all displaced families.
"The Red Crescent has been the main support for the Ministry of Displacement and Migration, especially in the capital, but we also are aware that their situation is critical and what they are concentrating on now is to have the abducted volunteers returned so they can soon resume their work," Abdul-Raoof said.
On 21 December, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) called on those holding the kidnapped Iraqi Red Crescent employees to release them immediately, unharmed and unconditionally.
The Iraqi Red Crescent has not commented on the matter for security reasons. However, the organisation has urged the kidnappers to release the abducted aid workers, saying that they are innocent people who are only interested in helping Iraqis survive.
Reproduced with the kind permission of IRIN
Copyright IRIN 2006
Photo: Copyright Afif Sarhan/IRIN
Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies
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