March 24, 2006

Undeclared sectarian war and bloodshed are still underway in Iraq, regardless of non-stop calls to put an end to them, which are warning against being dragged into civil war, which will definitely end up with casualties from all parties involved.

Below are the details of this ongoing war:

On March 2, 2006, an envoy of the Voice of Freedom for Human Rights and the Red Crescent visited Al-Fursan Village, located near An-Nahrawan in Madaen. It comprises of 60 brick and mud houses, inhabited by more than 60 Sunni families. The village is surrounded by a number of predominantly Shiite villages, decorated with black and red flags.

On February 27, 2006, Al-Fursan village was attacked by hordes of men in black, who were driving cars of the ministry of interior and state-backed militias. A large number of the villagers fled their homes. Eight people, including the Imam of the village mosque, whose name is Abu Aisha, and a ten year-old boy called Adnan Midab, were executed. Please find the attached photograph of the room in which Adnan was hiding and was later killed. A number of dead animals (sheep, cows and dogs) were also shot at by the attackers.

The village mosque was sabotaged and burned down like almost all the houses in the village. When the relief workers and VOF envoy were in the village, four men, who were hiding outside the village came back stealthily to recount the details of the attack. They stated that the perpetrators used machinegun, Kalashnikov, explosives and fuel to carry out the attacks. Given the fact that the villagers thought that it was the security forces, they did not take any precautionary measures to protect themselves.

The aforementioned men, who were hiding outside the village showed us where the dead bodies of men, women and a child were buried.

We saw the room, where ten-year old Adnan Midab was shot dead. We also saw the burned down cars of the villagers.

Young men stated that they have been repeatedly harassed in order to force them into leaving their village. After this attack, all the remaining families left to other places in Dyala and Baghdad.

We have taken photographs of a large number of places in the village. There is a number of isolated predominantly Sunni villages (Al-Batta, Al-Mujamma', etc), whose people were harassed by men of the ministry of interior and militias, backed by foreigners. The latter villages are attacked on a regular basis, but it was impossible for our staff to get into them, due to security restrictions.
The above is but the tip of the iceberg. These practices are organized and carried out on a regular basis within towns, rural villages and suburbs. Civilians are asking for international forces to protect them.
It is worth noting that the authorities are turning a blind eye on the perpetrators and terrorists who have been carrying out these attacks. Failure to protect the civilians will only make things worse.

Initial Statistics

The coercive displacement practiced by the ministry of interior, the state-backed militias and foreigners against the people of Nahrawan is on the increase. The number of the Sunni families who have fled their homes is as follows:

Al-Jboor Village, 50 families.
Jabir Hummadi Village, 60 families,
Shakha Village No. 5, 12 families
Shakha Village No. 7, 30 families
Al-Khalisa Village, 50 families
Al-Fursan Village, 60 families
Jasim Ibrahim Al-Battawi Village, 33 families,
Bani Zed Village, 100 families
Al-Mujamma' Village, 100 families.


The tragedy is mounting. People are deprived of basic needs. The aid workers are helpless. The UN and humanitarian NGOs must act and do the following:

a) Send a Fact Finding Committee of the UN, the Arab League or International Organizations.
b) Send Peacemaking forces to protect the civilians and put an end to genocides, sectarian cleansing and coercive displacement.
c) Control the east borders of Iraq to stop the acts of terrorism perpetrated by foreigners, who have been pouring to Iraq through the Iranian borders and raid and search the villages harbouring them.
d) Launch a relief program by neutral trusted parties.


















Abdul Wahab Al Obeidi