Iraqi Squatters hold rally against occupying powers

[Gerrard Winstanley]

Iraqi Squatters hold rally against occupying powers
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/05/399274.html

......In the southern governorate of Muthanna, local authorities have
recently issued an order to remove all illegal collective settlements
within two weeks, regardless of whether the squatting families are
internally displaced or host community. In the Al Tanak neighbourhood,
this decision will affect dozens of impoverished families who are
living in mud houses on public land. According to the report, eviction
orders are sometimes opposed by displaced families who feel they
simply have no other place to go. In Basra's Jenaina neighbourhood,
IOM monitors report that families who were squatting in a former
military intelligence building successfully staged a rally to protest
against their eviction order........



Occupying Powers
 http://www.bilderberg.org/milne.htm#Potter

CIA behind all of this Terrorism? Is the COLD WAR really over?
 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2562426309305280206


Iraq: Returns erratic as authorities clamp down on illegal IDP settlements
 http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/LSGZ-7ETBZ2?OpenDocument

A recent assessment carried out by Iraq's Ministry of Displacement and
Migration (MoDM) and IOM shows that returns throughout the country
remain erratic as increasing numbers of destitute internally displaced
families risk being evicted from public buildings or land they
illegally occupy because they have no other place to go to.

In the southern governorate of Muthanna, local authorities have
recently issued an order to remove all illegal collective settlements
within two weeks, regardless of whether the squatting families are
internally displaced or host community. In the Al Tanak neighbourhood,
this decision will affect dozens of impoverished families who are
living in mud houses on public land.

According to the report, eviction orders are sometimes opposed by
displaced families who feel they simply have no other place to go. In
Basra's Jenaina neighbourhood, IOM monitors report that families who
were squatting in a former military intelligence building successfully
staged a rally to protest against their eviction order.

In other governorates, security concerns continue to drive local
authorities to search for and evict displaced families originating
from neighbouring governorates. This is particularly affecting
families from Diyala and Anbar who have been displaced to Salah al-Din
governorate.

The report however notes that the Prime Minister's Office, Iraqi
Forces, or the Multi-National Force-Iraq have facilitated returns to
safer areas in Baghdad, while others are returning of their own accord
within Diyala and Anbar governorates.

Improved security and reconciliation among various factions have led
to more than 1,000 displaced families returning to Baghdad's Rasheed
sub district. In Sadr City, only a few families have returned after
recent clashes despite an improvement in the security situation due to
the recent truce between Shia militiamen and government forces.

According to the report, returnees throughout the country face a
chronic shortage of facilities, with almost half of the families
saying they only had intermittent access to government food rations,
which remain largely insufficient to meet their needs. Access to
potable water, education, health care and medicines also remains
problematic, particularly for poor families.

More than 2.7 million Iraqis are now internally displaced, more than
1.5 million of them since February 2006 when the bombing of the
Al-Askari shrine in Samara triggered a new displacement crisis in the
country.

To access the report, please go to:

 http://www.iom-iraq.net/Library/IOM%20Iraq%20Displacement%20Assessments%20&%20Statistics%2015%20May%2008.pdf

For more information, please contact Dana Graber Ladek, IOM Iraq, Tel:
+962 79 611 1759, Email:  dgraber at iom-iraq.net