Fallujah faces this new crisis after much of the city was destroyed by U.S. military operations in 2004.

The area around Fallujah city, which lies 70 km west of Baghdad, has traditionally been one of the most agriculturally productive in Iraq. Farmers planted tomatoes and cucumbers north of Fallujah, others grew potatoes south of the city near Amiriya. Both areas had plenty of date palm trees and small fruit plantations. Now production is down to a fraction of what it was.

Farmers have been struggling with changing times. "We changed our motors from electric to diesel oil to avoid electricity failures during the UN sanctions (during the 1990s)," Raad Sammy, an agriculture engineer who has a small farm in Saqlawiya on the outskirts of Fallujah told IPS. "We used to have a minimum of 12 hours electricity per day under the programmed cut, but there is practically no electricity now. And now we also have to face lack of fuel for our pumps, and the incredible increase of fuel prices on the black market."

The price of agricultural products has skyrocketed. "The average price for one kilogram of tomatoes is approximately one dollar," Yasseen Kamil, a grocer in Fallujah told IPS. "This price is when there is no crisis such as Americans blocking the entrance into the city. It is naturally doubled in winter when we have to import everything from Syria and Jordan."

Fallujah residents say the price of food now exceeds their income. The average income for government employees is 170 dollars a month, and no more than 100 dollars for labourers and salesmen.

Residents say unemployment in the city is well above 50 percent. Under these circumstances, a food crisis has hit people harder than it might elsewhere.

"The social effects of the situation are enormous," Ahmed Munqith from the city told IPS. "We believe that people are carrying out illegitimate acts in order to obtain their daily life necessities. The food crisis has led to vast corruption, and raised crime rates to peak point."

As with any difficulty now, many Iraqis believe that the occupation forces want it this way.

"It is obvious that the prices are up and life is difficult in this city and all of Iraq because it has been so planned," Sheikh Ala'in, a cleric in Fallujah told IPS. "Occupation planners designed this poverty in order to make Iraqis work for them as policemen and spies. Iraq is floating on a lake of oil, but there is no gas to run water pumps. What an irony."

Residents say they are told of a world food crisis that may be affecting them. But their crisis arises mainly from local factors like shortage of water, fuel and electricity.

Whatever the reason, residents simply want relief. "We just want our lives back," said a college student who gave her name only as Nada. "We want to eat, buy clothes, get proper education and breathe pure air. No thanks to Americans for their effort to bring us democracy that killed half of us by their bombs and is now apparently killing the other half by starvation. Can you pass this message to the American people for us?"

According to the UN, at least four million people in Iraq do not have enough food, while approximately 40 percent of the 27.5 million population do not have access to clean drinking water. At least 30 percent do not have access to proper health services.

(*Ali, our correspondent in Baghdad, works in close collaboration with Dahr Jamail, our U.S.-based specialist writer on Iraq who has reported extensively from Iraq and the Middle East).

BAQUBA, May 9 (IPS) - Water supply is drying out in what was once the agriculturally rich Diyala province north of Baghdad. Baquba, the capital city of Diyala, is now running out of water both for drinking and for irrigation.

The pumping station is located between two districts in conflict -- Hwaider, which is predominantly Shia, and Jupenat, mostly Sunni. For two years now, fighting between Sunnis and Shias here has led to reduced water supply.

"The Diyala river passes by the two villages before the pumping station," resident Zuhair Mahmood told IPS. "They try to change its stream to deprive the other of water for irrigating their farms. The diversions mean relatively little water can reach the station."

Often, Mahmood added, "farmers irrigate their farms by setting up pumps on the banks of the river, which further contributes to reduced supply to the station."

Some farmers have demanded that the pumping station be supplied directly from the Diyala river upstream of the conflict area.

"But this suggestion was rejected because people know that the Diyala river carries the bodies of those killed in the sectarian fighting," said Abdul-Qadir Omran, a now unemployed trader. "It is not good for drinking, and psychologically it is unacceptable."

People of Baquba are used to seeing bodies floating by in the Diyala river, and have long since ceased to use water from the river or fish in it.

Rising summer temperatures have made these problems worse. Many families like to use air coolers that rely heavily on water. Without some cooling it is difficult to sleep through the heat.

"Air coolers can be operated by simple generators, while air conditioners need high electricity, and there is a problem with the electricity," Nasir Jacob, an employee with the Diyala province water authority told IPS. "People prefer to use all available water for cooling, more than even for a bath; forget washing cars or watering our gardens."

"With the tremendous need for water in summer, pumping may not be sufficient for all residents," Mohammed Abid, father of a large family, told IPS. "Many families spend whole nights waiting for piped water in order to fill their holding tank."

Some have dug their own wells but this brings its own problems, an engineer at the directorate-general of water for the city told IPS on condition of anonymity.

"Water from these wells may be mixed with sewage water," he said. "Our towns and villages have no sewage networks, and even if they exist, they are not systematic." Locally discharged sewage often seeps into the water reserves below.

In the face of the water shortage, many farms and orchards are now desolate, and their owners jobless. Iraq now has to import food and vegetables, adding to the difficulties of local farmers.

According to an Oxfam report released last July, 70 percent of Iraqis do not have access to safe drinking water.

Inevitably, people ask why the occupation forces have not cared to ensure water and electricity supply. Just as inevitably, they get no answers.

(*Ahmed, our correspondent in Iraq's Diyala province, works in close collaboration with Dahr Jamail, our U.S.-based specialist writer on Iraq who has reported extensively from Iraq and the Middle East.)

Le Monde Diplomatique

May 2008 Issue

As soon as it was clear that the presidential primaries would be the news story of the year in the US, Iraq was dropped by the media. The occupation and the campaign for the presidential nominations were de-linked almost from the start. So we don’t know what the potential candidates would do in Iraq. But pulling troops out doesn’t seem to be an option for any of them.

By Dahr Jamail

Amman, April 2008: the UN undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs, John Holmes, said he wanted “to highlight the gravity of the humanitarian situation in Iraq” (1).

New Hampshire, January 2008: the Republican presidential candidate John McCain said: “President Bush has talked about our staying [in Iraq] for 50 years, maybe 100. We’ve been in Japan for 60 years, in South Korea for 50 years or so. That would be fine with me as long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or killed” (2).

Baghdad, April 2008: in an interview with Al-Jazeera, an Iraqi government employee said: “There is no improvement in Baghdad on the security level. All of it is getting worse. We hear about it on TV, but on the ground we see nothing. No services, no security in the streets” (3).

What worsens these hardships is the complete lack of security. The propaganda accompanying the surge of US troops claimed a dramatic decrease in violence, but facts indicate otherwise. The ministries of the interior, defence and health in Iraq said 33% more Iraqis were killed in February than in January. In March the figure was 31% higher than in February. In April, because of the debacle of the offensive by US-backed Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki against the militia of Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the numbers will increase again.

The UN figure of displaced Iraqis is 4.9 million, and nearly half of those have fled the country. A UNHCR/IPSOS survey of Iraqi refugees in Syria in March found that only 4% were planning to return to Iraq. Oxfam International claims another 4 million are in serious need of emergency aid without which they will probably die. On 12 April the Iraqi parliament urged the government to reallocate $5bn earmarked for investment in infrastructure and services to social welfare programmes and a functional food rationing system for nearly 2.8 million internally displaced persons (IDPs).

A study in The Lancet in October 2006 estimated the number of Iraqis who died as a direct result of invasion and occupation to be 655,000 or 2.5% of the population. This figure (now very out of date), plus the number of displaced Iraqis and those in need of emergency aid, means nearly 10 million of 27 million citizens are dead or displaced or living in the worst conditions (5).

Silence is censorship

Yet the three US presidential contenders, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain, have been mostly silent on the Iraq issue, with tacit support from the media. Their silence is censorship.

In April the New York Sun reported that Colin Kahl, an adviser to Barack Obama’s campaign and its day-to-day coordinator of the working group on Iraq, recommended that the US maintain between 60,000 and 80,000 troops in Iraq to serve in an “over-watch role” until 2010. Post publication, Kahl clarified that “this has absolutely zero to do with the campaign” (6).

Obama, who, on his past record, is believed to have the best policy on military withdrawal from Iraq, does not seem to intend to end the occupation. Susan Rice, a senior foreign affairs adviser to the Obama campaign, reiterated what we have heard from Bush administration officials over the past five years: that the number of US troops Obama would keep in Iraq “depends on the circumstances on the ground”.

Obama emphatically cautioned in October 2002: “Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbours and even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences” and “an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaida” (7).

Today he not only refrains from calling for total withdrawal – he does not address the removal of the “enduring” US military bases in Iraq and the embassy scheduled to open there this month. This is the size of the Vatican, has superthick walls, electrical and water plants, gymnasium and the largest swimming pool in the country. It cost $740m, has room for at least 1,000 “government employees”, a school for their children, bunkers, two helipads, yoga studios, fast-food outlets and shopping malls.

Other “enduring bases” remain, four of them along the lines of Camp Victory near Baghdad airport, which is twice the size of Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo, already one of the largest US overseas bases built since Vietnam. Camp Anaconda near Balad houses more than 20,000 troops, over 250 aircraft, thousands of civilian contractors, Burger King, Subway, Pizza Hut and Starbucks outlets.

A worse prospect

For those who hope the election will bring a US policy change in Iraq, Hillary Clinton is a worse prospect. She has consistently refused to promise withdrawal of US forces from Iraq by the end of her first term, 2013, if elected. On 17 March Clinton outlined her plans in a telling speech at the George Washington University. While she did call for a gradual withdrawal of US combat brigades, she refused to apologise for her 2002 vote authorising the invasion. Not once has she acknowledged the illegality of that move nor explained claims she made then about Iraq’s military status and ties to al-Qaida. She continued to be a strong proponent of the occupation until she found herself vying with Obama for the votes of a populace now against the occupation; and she says she is willing to withdraw US troops from Iraq.

Clinton attempts to deflect attention from her own position by blaming President George Bush. “It has been five years this week since our president took us to war in Iraq,” she said in the same speech, sidestepping the fact that Bush was able to launch the invasion only because Clinton, along with a minority of congressional Democrats plus a Republican majority, provided the votes necessary to invade and occupy Iraq. Clinton justified her vote by claiming that Saddam had “given aid, comfort and sanctuary to terrorists, including al-Qaida members” and that the invasion was “in the best interests of our nation”.

During her only trip to Iraq in February 2005, a helicopter took Clinton to the Green Zone because the highway between Baghdad International Airport and the city was so dangerous. Scores of Iraqis and at least one US soldier were killed during her visit, yet she insisted that the occupation was “functioning quite well”. Later that month on NBC’s Meet the Press she said it would be a mistake to withdraw US forces immediately from Iraq, or set a timetable for withdrawal, because “we don’t want to send a signal to insurgents, to the terrorists, that we are going to be out of here at some, you know, date certain”. This echoes the Bush administration and John McCain.

In November 2005 Clinton denounced representative John Murtha’s call for the withdrawal of US forces as “a big mistake”. In 2006 senator John Kerry sponsored an amendment that would have required the redeployment of US forces from Iraq. Clinton voted against it. She is now is offering to withdraw some of the troops but is determined that the US should indefinitely maintain its “military as well as political mission” in Iraq.

Like the Bush administration, Clinton rationalises this as an imperative to offset Iranian influence in the region, protect the Kurdish minority, support the Iraqi military and prevent Iraq from becoming a failed state, all of which would be false goals for anyone aware of the situation in Iraq. Last year on ABC’s This Week, she offered a more viable reason: “We have to protect our civilian employees, our embassy that will be there” (8).

Clinton sounds contradictory when attacking her Democrat co-nominee Obama, who opposed the invasion from the beginning. Just what did she mean by: “Now, my Democratic opponent talks a great deal about a speech he gave in 2002. He is asking us to judge him by his words, and words can be powerful, but only if the speaker translates them into action and solutions. Senator Obama holds up his original opposition to the war on the campaign trail, but he didn’t start working aggressively to end the war until he started running for president. So when he had a chance to act on his speech, he chose silence instead” (9).

Extensive lobbying

According to Dr Stephen Zunes, professor of politics and chair of Middle Eastern studies at the University of San Francisco: “Obama did a lot more than give a speech: he gave interviews, lobbied members of Congress and made a series of other statements in which he warned of the violent sectarian and ethnic divisions which could emerge following a US invasion and occupation, the risks of a long-term US military commitment, and the dangerous precedent of giving a carte blanche for a pre-emptive war” (10).

To his credit, in January 2007 Obama introduced legislation “to responsibly end the war in Iraq, with a phased withdrawal of troops engaged in combat operations” and has promised to take “immediate steps to confront the ongoing humanitarian disaster”.

It has not been an easy task to get a clear idea through the media of each candidate’s position on Iraq or infer the policies they intend to implement there. Norman Solomon, columnist and founder director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, a national consortium of policy researchers and analysts, told me: “Whatever tendencies existed in the US media in 2006 to look toward a reasonably swift withdrawal of US troops have largely dissipated since then and the presidential contenders who remain, with a real chance to become president, are not too willing to run counter to the overall media terrain.”

A study carried out by the Project for Excellence in Journalism showed that by autumn 2007 media attention had shifted from the occupation of Iraq to the presidential campaign, de-linking the two. Reportage of the occupation fell sharply around the time that the 2008 presidential campaign emerged as the top story.

This works to the advantage of Arizona senator John McCain, the most unambiguous about his pro-occupation stand. Aboard his campaign plane McCain told reporters in April: “We fought a war with Japan and Germany. Afterwards we maintained a military presence there, which we are doing today. We fought a war in Korea, we maintained a military presence in Korea, which we are doing to this day.” Jumbling time, space and reality, he concluded: “The first Gulf war, we threw Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait, and we have a military presence there to this day” (11).

McCain also decried Obama for lack of experience and knowhow about occupation: “So he... hasn’t read or doesn’t understand the history of this country in warfare, and the way that we secure alliances and secure the peace, that is through military government-to-government agreements that call for United States presence and mutual defence. Not only in that country itself, but also in the region... it displays a fundamental misunderstanding of history and how we’ve maintained national security, and what we need to do in the future to maintain our security in the face of the transcendent challenge of radical Islamic extremism.”

Spin cycle

Solomon points out: “The structural disconnects of accountability and the shortage of functional democracy in the United States together cause a large gap between popular sentiment and US foreign policy. The two wheels are spinning in somewhat different directions; the teeth of their gears are only partially meshing. The war machine is able to move forward with little functional hindering from popular opinion. In part this has to do with the ongoing impacts of the capacity of pro-war spinners to use the levers of media to constrict what seem to be viable political options.”

This explains why the candidates are able to edge closer to the November election without being taken to task on their policy. Solomon said: “Conventional media wisdom feeds on itself. What a lot of US journalists ‘know’ is what other journalists are saying, and so the spin cycle goes. Corporate media coverage is anyhow in sync with the range of opinion heard most often from Republican and Democratic leaders in Washington. News outlets say the war is receding as a political issue; when the candidates say less about the war, journalists point to them saying less as evidence that the war is receding as a political issue.”

The US doesn’t want to be in Iraq – that is, 65% of actual people in the US oppose the occupation – yet Obama, Clinton and McCain march towards the election with the media not challenging their ambivalent positions on Iraq. As for the Iraqis – if any one of those three is listening – a recent BBC/IPSOS poll in Iraq showed more than 70% of Iraqis oppose the continuation of the occupation, while local polls found 92% of Iraqis oppose it.

Dahr Jamail is a journalist and author of Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq, Haymarket Books, Chicago, 2007

(1) “Top UN official highlights gravity of humanitarian situation”, International Regional Information Network, 4 April 2008.

(2) Derry, New Hampshire, 3 January 2008.

(3) “Fresh Fighting Erupts in Iraq”, Al-Jazeera English website, 16 April 2008.

(4) “Rising to the Humanitarian Challenge in Iraq”, Oxfam International, July 2007.

(5) Gilbert Burnham, Riyadh Lafta, Shannon Doocy, Les Roberts, “Mortality after the 2003 invasion of Iraq: a cross-sectional cluster sample survey”, The Lancet, 11 October 2006.

(6) Eli Lake, “Obama Adviser Calls for Troops To Stay in Iraq Through 2010”, New York Sun, 4 April 2008.

(7) Barack Obama, 2 October 2002, www.barackobama.com

(8) http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerI ...

(9) Hillary Clinton, speech at George Washington University, 17 March 2008, www.hillaryclinton.com

(10) Stephen Zunes, “Clinton’s GWU Iraq Speech,” Foreign Policy in Focus, 25 March 2008.

(11) “McCain, Obama Spar Over Spending 100 Years in Iraq”, FoxNews.com, 1 April 2008.

FALLUJAH, May 2 (IPS) - Amidst unemployment and impoverishment, Iraqis now face a cutting down of their monthly food ration – much of it already eaten away by official corruption.

The sanctions were devastating nevertheless. Former UN programme head Hans von Sponeck said in 2001 that the sanctions amounted to "a tightening of the rope around the neck of the average Iraqi citizen." Von Sponeck said the sanctions were causing the death of 150 Iraqi children a day.

Denis Halliday, former UN humanitarian coordinator for Iraq who quit his post in protest against the sanctions, told IPS they had proved "genocidal" for Iraqis.

During more than five years of U.S.-occupation, the situation has become even worse. The rationing system has been crumbling under poor management and corruption.

From the beginning of this year, the rations delivered were reduced from 10 items to five.

"We used the PDS as counter-propaganda against Saddam Hussein's regime before the U.S. occupation of Iraq began in 2003," Fadhil Jawad of the Dawa Party led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told IPS in Baghdad. "But then we found it necessary to maintain basic support for Iraqi people under occupation. We blamed Saddam for feeding Iraqis like animals with simple rations of food -- that we fail to provide now."

"When the Americans came to occupy Iraq, they promised us a better life," Ina'm Majeed, a teacher at a girls school told IPS in Fallujah. "After killing our sons and husbands, they are killing us by hunger now. The food ration that was once enough for our survival is now close to nothing, and the market prices are incredibly high. It is impossible for 80 percent of Iraqis now to buy the same items they used to get from the previous regime's food rations."

Ina'm's husband was killed in a U.S. air strike during the April 2004 siege of her city, leaving her with four children to bring up.

A World Food Programme (WFP) report in May 2006 found that just over four million people in Iraq were "food-insecure and in dire need of different kinds of humanitarian assistance."

According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in April 2007, of the four million Iraqis who cannot regularly buy enough to eat, only 60 percent had access to PDS rations. The situation is worse today.

The former Iraqi ministry of trade used to distribute fair quantities of food in the PDS, then low quality food at the beginning of the UN sanctions. The quantities were reduced after the sanctions lasted longer than the former government expected. After Iraq signed the memo of understanding in 1996 with the UN, the quality and quantity of food notably improved.

"Do not blame Iraqis for calling the sanctions days 'the good old days' because they were definitely good compared to the dark days we are living under U.S. occupation," Abu Aymen, a 45-year-old lawyer with eight children told IPS in Fallujah. "All Iraqis complained about life under Saddam's regime because it was bad, but it seems that all the good things, little as they were, have been taken away along with his statues."

Aymen added, "We used to get cheese, powdered milk for us and our children, shaving paste and blades, tomato paste, special food for children, beans, soap and cleaning detergents, and even chicken, as well as basic foods like flour, rice, cooking oil, tea and sugar. Now we get bullets and missiles and polluted food and medicines."

Haj Chiad, a PDS distribution agent in Fallujah, told IPS that he now also distributes illness.

"I used to deliver food, but now I distribute poison with it," he said. "It has happened many times during the past four years that the food given to us by the ministry of trade was either rotten or actually poisoned. We distributed rice and sugar from sacks that had been stored a long time in damp places, and tomato paste that was long past its expiry date before we received it."

The Iraqi parliament's Committee for Integrity has demanded comprehensive interrogation of minister for trade Abdul Falah al-Sudany for the "vast corruption in his ministry." But as with other complaints of corruption, Maliki has taken no action.

(*Ali, our correspondent in Baghdad, works in close collaboration with Dahr Jamail, our U.S.-based specialist writer on Iraq who has reported extensively from Iraq and the Middle East)

But events in the western Anbar province had already been spiralling out of control and were threatening the volatile security situation in occupied Iraq.

Residents of Falluja had also been protesting against the use of night vision goggles, which they mistakenly believed were used by US soldiers to spy on their wives and daughters.

Seventeen Iraqis were killed and scores wounded.

The US military said its soldiers had responded properly after coming under "effective fire" from some 25 armed men hiding within the Iraqi crowds outside the school and atop adjacent buildings.

Human Rights Watch, however, disputed the military’s accounts citing ballistic evidence and called for an independent investigation. Five years later, no such study has been conducted.

Though attacks on US forces continued in Iraq despite the fall of Baghdad, the events in Falluja in late April 2003 helped fuel anger throughout the country and led to a 2004 siege of the city.

Dahr Jamail was one of a handful of western journalists in Falluja during the April 2004 siege.

He writes here of the trials and tribulations Falluja faces as it rebuilds after a war-ravaged past:

Falluja, a crossroads city located 60km west of Baghdad along the main highway to Jordan, remains in tatters nearly four years after a US military siege labelled "Operation Phantom Fury".

Often omitted from the discourse about Falluja is that the city did not initially oppose the US occupation in 2003. Tribal leaders were quick to cooperate and even appointed a liaison to work with the US occupation authorities.

But because of events outside the Al-Qaid school in April 2003, the US military lost control of the city within a year, setting the scene for the gruesome killing of four Blackwater security contractors on March 31, 2004.

It is this event which triggered the first US assault in April 2004, which would kill - according to doctors I spoke with later at Falluja General Hospital - 736 Iraqis. According to medical staff, at least 60 per cent of the fatalities were civilians.

I witnessed some of this destruction myself when I was in Falluja during the April 2004 siege.

Makeshift clinic

When I first entered Falluja, home to some 300,000 people, on April 10, 2004 – one day after a ceasefire had been reached - I watched in surprise as a US F-16 jets bombed a district in the city.

I was travelling with an aid convoy bringing food and medical supplies to residents of the city which had been under siege for a few days. We avoided using the US-controlled highway and entered the city through farm roads controlled by the local fighters.

Much of my reporting was done from a makeshift medical clinic in the middle of the city.

Over a period of two days, I watched as women, children, and a few men were brought into the clinic by family members.

They came from different parts of the city, and at different times, and they all claimed the same thing – that they had been shot at by American snipers.

One woman and small child had been shot in the neck; doctors frantically worked on her amongst her muffled moaning.

The small child, his eyes staring into space, continually vomited as the doctors raced to save his life.

After 30 minutes, it appeared as though neither of them would survive.

Sitting outside the clinic was an ambulance riddled with bullet holes. The driver, whose head had been grazed by one of the shots, refused to go collect any more dead and wounded.

Several of the doctors I spoke with accused US forces of targeting them when they had attempted to venture into the city to provide medical assistance.

The "clinic" lacked electricity often, as the city's water and power had long since been cut by the US military, and doctors had been working for days on end to treat the wounded.

Buried in fields

As night fell, doctors often worked with flashlights and lighters held up by family members of the fallen. The buzz of unmanned military drones above was constant as gunfire cracked in the distance.

When I ventured to other neighbourhoods of the city after the fighting stopped, I visited a football field which had been turned into a makeshift cemetery.

Fearing sniper fire, many Fallujans had buried the bodies of loved ones in gardens; the corpses were dug up later and transferred to these new graves.

The ceasefire agreement stipulated that the US military would remain outside Falluja, a condition which relieved Iraqi police and army personnel.

In April 2004, Falluja remained the only unoccupied city in Iraq until November of the same year, when the second siege was launched, days after the US presidential election was won by George Bush.

The November 2004 siege ended with most of Falluja destroyed and several thousand killed. There has never been a detailed death toll.

Falluja in 2008

While promises of reconstruction were made prior to the siege, Falluja today continues to struggle to regain a sense of normalcy. Residents must plan their lives around curfews and vehicle bans, which are common.

Fallujans must also navigate through biometric checkpoints where they are fingerprinted, undergo body searches, and have their retinas scanned in order to obtain bar-coded ID's to access their homes.

Though acts of violence have severely dropped Fallujans see their city as "a big jail". They complain that the checkpoints have effectively divided the city into small cantons.

Beyond the security restrictions, the city is but a skeleton of its former glory. Street fighting, aerial bombardment, suicide bomb attacks and the sieges have left much of the infrastructure destroyed.

Locals estimate that 70 per cent of the city was heavily damaged or destroyed during the 2004 sieges. Very little of that has been reconstructed. Many streets were houses once stood look like they have been paved over, with rubble and concrete debris the only evidence that people ever lived there.

Some homes have long since been abandoned, their exteriors pock-marked by shell and bullet holes.

Trade has improved as Chinese and Turkish goods flood the local markets. Towns such as Al-Qaim along the border with Syria now act as commercial hubs through which goods are imported into Falluja.

But unemployment is rampant, giving local young men few opportunities.

Tense security situation

Many young men have been hired through their tribal affiliations to work with the popular Awakening Council.

While this has contributed to a drop in attacks against US forces, it has not limited internal fighting and rivalry among many former insurgent groups.

In 2006, Sunni groups fought each other as precursor groups to the Awakening Council tried to wrest control of western Iraq from militias allied with al-Qaeda.

US commanders have credited the Awakening Councils with helping to secure the country, but for some Fallujans such entities have led to further divisions in the city.

They say the security situation remains tense, largely in part to various tribal chiefs and Awakening group commanders engaged in ongoing power struggles and turf wars both in Falluja and other areas of Iraq's volatile western al-Anbar province.

Disputes between the Iraqi Islamic Party and Awakening groups also create security tensions in the city nowadays.

Marine Major General Walter E. Gaskin of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force who handed security of Falluja over to Iraqi forces in March 2008, told reporters that the fractured nature of a myriad of tribal sheikhs in the area impacted the security situation in Falluja heavily.

"They are homogeneous in dialect, but they are independent in opinion and politics," he told reporters at a news conference at a US base near Falluja.

DAMASCUS, Apr 26 (IPS) - More than a million Iraqis were lucky enough to flee into Syria. But in this relatively safe haven, there is no getting away from poverty.

The day came when they were told by militias to leave within 24 hours, he said. "It is not possible for us to start over in Syria, and so my brother is selling our property piece by piece so that we can survive."

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates there are 1.5 million Iraqis in Syria. But the economy of Syria itself is struggling under U.S. sanctions. Jobs for refugees on the black market bring no more than 100 dollars a month.

And expenses have risen. "I paid 300 dollars rent when I came here in early 2005," said Dr. Shakir Awad. "In 2006 I had to rent a smaller flat for the same amount of money because rent went up after more Iraqis fled for Syria when sectarian evictions escalated in Iraq. My assets started to dry up, and I have started selling my property back home to maintain a minimal living standard."

A very large number of Iraqi refugees live on charity from Syrians.

"My Syrian landlord was generous enough to keep the same flat rent," Ikhlas Fadhil, a 35-year-old Iraqi woman with two little girls told IPS. "My husband and son were killed by American marines on the highway near Fallujah, and I had to bring my six-year-old daughter for treatment here. I thought things would be better in a year or less, so I sold all my jewellery for 5,000 dollars. I spent all of it in a year, and now I am living on charity."

Treatment for her daughter is being taken care of by the U.S.-based NGO, No More Victims.

The Syrian government does not allow Iraqis in Syria to work legally, and an increasing number of refugees have taken to prostitution. While there are no precise figures, refugees speak of many cases of families who left their belongings back home, and now have no means to support themselves – and whose women have taken to prostitution.

"There are small Iraqi associations and NGOs that fundraise for what they call special cases like widows and other vulnerable families," Numan Fadhil, an Iraqi sociologist who now works as a trader in Syria told IPS. "But the problem is that most Iraqi refugee families are vulnerable due to the long-term nature of their refugee status, and the unemployment."

With every passing day the situation seems to get worse. "It (the refugee crisis) needs a major international effort far beyond UNHCR's (the United Nations Refugee Agency) current modest assistance to maintain survival for people who were well off before the whole world decided to execute them by sanctions and occupation," said Fadhil.

UNHCR officials have told IPS that they are under-funded and understaffed.

(*Maki al-Nazzal, our correspondent in Syria, works in close collaboration with Dahr Jamail, our U.S.-based specialist writer on Iraq who has reported from the region for more than four years.)

FALLUJAH, Apr 14 (IPS) - Fallujah remains a crippled city more than two years after the November 2004 U.S.-led assault.

The city suffered two devastating U.S. military attacks during 2004. Many of the buildings were destroyed, or heavily damaged. Several collapsed under the heavy bombing, and were never rebuilt. The heaps of concrete slabs and piles of rubble remain where they were.

"We wonder why we have been targeted by Americans since the first days of the occupation," Dr. Mohammad Abed from al-Anbar University told IPS. "This city sacrificed thousands of its citizens through five years of occupation just because they said 'no' to a project that threatens their country's future."

Now a less visible form of destruction is being spread, he said. "The new wave of destruction is represented by tearing the social tissue apart. The Americans are paying tremendous amounts of money to get people of Fallujah to fight each other."

The road into Fallujah from the main Amman-Baghdad highway is safer today, but nobody is allowed into Fallujah who is not from the city and can prove it by providing elaborate identity documentation. That can only be obtained by undergoing biometric identification by the U.S. military -- a process which includes retina scans, body searches and finger-printing before issuance of a bar-coded ID badge.

The city remains sealed. Many residents refer to it as a big jail.

"Being sealed for five years, Fallujah has lost all aspects of natural life," Ahmad Hamid, a former member of the city council told IPS. "A man who has lived most of his life mixing with British and American people told us in 2003 that we could not reach any agreement because they (Americans) look at Fallujah as a centre of Iraqi people's unity. He told us Iraq would be divided into regions, provinces and even tribes, but we in the council did not listen to him."

The city remains tense in the face of power struggles and turf wars between tribal chiefs and Awakening group commanders, in Fallujah and in other areas of the volatile al-Anbar province. Disputes between the Iraqi Islamic Party and Awakening groups are also creating security tensions. The Awakening forces are former resistance fighters that the U.S. pays to be now on its side.

Beyond security, the health situation in the city is particularly difficult. A study conducted by two civil society organisations and the administration of Fallujah General Hospital over a two-year period was submitted to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees on Mar. 4.

The hospital administration and the two groups, the Conservation Centre of Environment and Reserves in Fallujah and the Monitoring Net of Human Rights in Iraq, say that in 2006 they found "5,928 new illness cases that were unknown before in Fallujah," over 70 percent of which were "cancers and abnormalities" in children below 12 years of age.

"In the first six months of 2007 there were 2,447 cases, more than 50 percent of these cases were children. Simply, this means that most of the victims are children, and this will threaten the new generation in this city."

"Now we face death of all kinds," said a doctor at Fallujah General Hospital. "In addition to all known diseases, new ones are invading us. Blackwater fever for instance was an unknown disease in our area, but now it is spreading like fire in a forest. We have no medicines to give our patients, and the black market is flourishing.

"Our best doctors fled the city for fear of being detained by American and police forces just because they helped civilians during the two sieges of 2004. They are now considered terrorists or at least terrorist supporters, when they should have been decorated with medals for their heroic work in helping their people."

Medically speaking, "the siege is total," a doctor who gave his name as Dr. Kamal told the press recently, speaking of the lack of drugs, oxygen, electricity and clean water at Fallujah General hospital.

U.S. military officials say reconstruction is under way, and that aid is being provided to hospitals. People see little of that.

"The brutal destruction of Fallujah by the American army was not followed by any reconstruction, as if the city is being punished for its attitude against the occupation," said an engineer in Fallujah, Kaltan Fadhil.

Water and electricity supply, health facilities and roads were provided "in a way that only made some people who collaborated with Americans richer," he said. "It was no more than repainting some buildings to make them look nicer for a while, and then new contracts were announced to rehabilitate what was already rehabilitated."

(*Ali, our correspondent in Baghdad, works in close collaboration with Dahr Jamail, our U.S.-based specialist writer on Iraq who has reported extensively from Iraq and the Middle East)

BAGHDAD, Apr 12 (IPS) - Many Iraqis have come to believe that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is just as much a dictator as Saddam Hussein was.

Following the failed attempt by the U.S.-backed al-Maliki to crack down on the Mehdi Army militia of Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the situation in Iraq has become much worse. Iraq appears to be splintering more widely under this rule than under Saddam's.

Fierce fighting has broken out between Sadr's Mehdi Army and Maliki's army and police forces in Baghdad, which comprise mostly the Badr Organisation militia, the armed wing of the political group, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC).

According to statistics compiled by the U.S. military in Baghdad, there has been a sharp increase in attacks against U.S. and Iraqi security forces, from 239 in February to 631 in March. Most of these attacks are believed to have been carried out by the Mehdi Army.

The Mehdi Army is known to have substantial control of the streets of Baghdad, Basra, and many other predominantly Shia areas in southern Iraq.

But there is also considerable Shia support for Maliki's effort to disarm the Mehdi Army. "Those who shout loud against Maliki and his legally elected government are all thieves and murderers and must be executed," says Aziz Mussawi, a resident of Hilla, 100km south of Baghdad, who fled for Baghdad when the clashes started there last month. "These militias will destroy Iraq if left unleashed."

Many Iraqis feel caught in a cross-fire in what they see as a battle for power between the Shia factions. "Over a thousand Iraqis got killed and more than that number wounded just for a game of chess between warlords," Mohammad Alwan, a lawyer in Baghdad told IPS. "All of them call for dissolving militias while they keep militias of their own. Most of those in power in the government are militia leaders."

Sadr and his followers are calling for unity, in an attempt to bring as many Iraqis as they can, Sunni and Shia, to their side. The rival Fadhila Party, that is powerful in many Shia provinces and in cities like Basra where it holds the governorship, has also called for unity.

It is widely believed in Iraq that parties who call for unity are using the issue to get public support against federalism, seen to be supported by the U.S. and Iranian backed parties such as the SIIC and Maliki's Dawa Party. Many in Iraq see federalism as the break-up of the country.

After five years of occupation and suffering, with no end to it in sight, many Iraqis have become skeptical of all political and religious leaders.

"Sadr is another face of the Iranian project, despite their pretending to be a national movement," Jassam Hady, a colonel of the former Iraqi army in Baghdad told IPS. "All those in the Iraqi government in the so-called Green Zone have militias that have killed Iraqis under one flag or another."

Hady, like many Iraqis, believes that the current spasm of violence will worsen as the two main Shia groups, the Sadr Movement and Maliki's affiliations, continue to vie for power ahead of the provincial elections slated for October.

Division has broken out also within tribes; many have now come to back Sadr, not because they like him, but because they hate the Badr militia of Hakeem's SIIC and Maliki's Dawa party.

"Our problem in the southern parts of Iraq and other Shia dominated areas is that all options are bad," the chief of a major tribe in Basra who fled for Baghdad, told IPS on condition of anonymity. "Iranian controlled militias killed so many chiefs of tribes because they refused to support these division projects concealed under the flag of federalism."

Several tribes in the south have formed unions to fight the separation project, but some sheikhs have formed counter unions to support the Badr and Dawa agenda.

Most people seem to oppose any federalism that would separate Shia from Sunni Muslims.

"We will be weak without our Sunni brothers," says Shamil Mahmood from Sadr City, the east district of two million in Baghdad. "The whole of the south will be swallowed by Iran, that will humiliate us and treat us like animals."

(*Ali, our correspondent in Baghdad, works in close collaboration with Dahr Jamail, our U.S.-based specialist writer on Iraq who has reported extensively from Iraq and the Middle East)

In Baquba and elsewhere in Diyala province the Sahwa are deployed around residential areas and streets. But the checkpoints are manned by Iraqi police and army.

"Our task is to provide protection to the people and to cooperate with the security forces in a way that does not cross with them," local Sahwa member Abu Hamza told IPS.

In late February, the Sahwa accused government security forces of carrying out further attacks against Sunni people in and around Baquba. Sahwa forces cut ties with government and occupation forces, and abandoned security posts.

But last month the provincial government agreed to many of the demands made by the Sahwa, an indication of the increasing power of the Sunni group against the Shia-dominated government.

In a new development, Sahwa groups are being set up comprising Shia men. "They are not necessarily fighters but notable members of the tribes," Sahwa member Harith al-Ansari told IPS.

Ansari said the new Sahwa in Baquba are being created by local government, as in the western al-Anbar province. This development further complicates the relations between local people and the national government in Baghdad.

A meeting was held two weeks ago at the house of tribal sheikh Dra'a al-Fayadh, 30 km south of Baghdad to work out ways of incorporating Shia men into Diyala's Sahwa. Fayadh has ties with the U.S. military.

The meeting was attended by governor of Diyala, Raad Hameed Mulla Jawad, U.S. military officers, and leaders of tribes from districts and towns around Baquba.

Money was a key issue. "A week ago, a number of popular committees in Qatoon district and al-Mualimeen quarter, one kilometre from Baqouba, decided to quit because the coalition forces were late in giving them their salaries," Abu Hajir, a fighter in a local popular committee told IPS. "When they received the salary four days ago, they returned."

Despite progress in local collaboration between Sahwa and government forces, unresolved demands remain on a national level for Sahwa members to be incorporated into government security forces.

"We want to be included in the forces as the Shia are," a local Sahwa member told IPS on condition of anonymity. "We want to put an end to unemployment for the Sunnis, and to take part in the running of our city."

Tension between the Sahwa and Iraqi army and police continues in Sunni towns around Baquba such as Tahreer and Buhriz. "Members of the police can't give up their sectarian bias and their allegiance to Iran," a local trader told IPS.

Some want the delicate balance of power to continue between government forces on one side and the Sahwa on the other. "We all hope to have a law that governs all people, because we've seen the injustice of the government in this province," Abu Ethar from an Awakening Group unit in Baquba told IPS.

(*Ahmed, our correspondent in Iraq's Diyala province, works in close collaboration with Dahr Jamail, our U.S.-based specialist writer on Iraq who has reported extensively from Iraq and the Middle East)

BAQUBA, Apr 7 (IPS) - Battles between rival Shia groups have spread from Basra in the south to Baquba in the north.

The fighting for control of Baquba has left at least seven dead and several more wounded, according to local doctors.

"Police chief Ghanim al-Qureyshi gave orders to control the fighting in this district very secretly," a policeman in the 2nd battalion told IPS on condition of anonymity. "The 2nd battalion of Iraqi police moved to Hwaider, whose people witnessed severe military clashes between the Mehdi Army and police."

The policeman said that U.S. jets and helicopters launched attacks to target Mehdi Army fighters. But rather than Mehdi Army members, two policemen were wounded, he said. "After that, U.S. troops stormed houses to search for the Mehdi militants." The policeman and two others said politicians from Diyala province attempted to conceal the incident.

"A big verbal quarrel took place (in the governor's office) between al-Qureyshi, who is a Badr (Organisation) member, and followers of Sadr," a second policeman said. "The Sadrists accused Qureyshi of targeting the Mehdi, and the governor tried to end the conflict."

Many in Baquba believe the root of the conflict is control of money and power in the province ahead of elections slated for October. They say this was behind the recent attempt of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to take control of Basra, an attempt that failed miserably.

"All the fighting is for money," Haider Abu Ali, a resident of Baquba told IPS. "These councils are money factories. Millions of dollars can be stolen through them, and this is why Iraq has turned from bad to worse."

A resident of Hwaider spoke with IPS on condition of anonymity. "A week ago, for the first time, written messages were dropped at night in the predominantly Shia districts and towns like Hwaider, Khirnabat and Abara," he said. "These messages were a threat to members of the Badr Organisation, warning them they would be killed if they kept targeting the Mehdi. The messages were signed by the Mehdi Army."

It is widely known that Badr Organisation members comprise a large portion of the government security forces.

The new inter-Shia fighting complicates the situation, as the predominantly Sunni Sahwa forces are also vying for control of parts of Baquba.

The Sahwa, referred to as Awakening Groups by the U.S. military, were formed to battle al-Qaeda. Members are paid 300 dollars a month by occupation forces, and now number over 80,000 across Iraq. The Sunni-dominated groups form a counterweight to the government security apparatus, which has long been known to comprise primarily Shia militiamen.

"The Sahwa took the position of the monitor; they are now watching how the Shia fight each other after they destroyed the province," said Abu Ali. "They proved that Shia religious parties cannot rule the people."

The inter-Shia fighting in Baquba has come as no surprise to residents; it was expected when the situation in Basra exploded. "When the fight started in Basra, we expected a lot of fighting in Baquba since there are Shia districts here," a local trader said. "I, my neighbours, and relatives did not go to work because the clashes were expected."

Residents say the fighting was covered up to maintain an illusion of Shia unity against the Sahwa forces in the city.

(*Ahmed, our correspondent in Iraq's Diyala province, works in close collaboration with Dahr Jamail, our U.S.-based specialist writer on Iraq who travels extensively in the region)

"Mehdi army militias controlled all Shia and mixed parts of Baghdad in no time," a Baghdad police colonel, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IPS. "Iraqi army and police forces as well as Badr and Dawa militias suddenly disappeared from the streets, leaving their armoured vehicles for Mehdi militiamen to drive around in joyful convoys that toured many parts of Baghdad before taking them to their stronghold of Sadr City in the east of Baghdad."

The police colonel was speaking of the recent clashes between members of the Shia Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army, the largest militia in the country, and members of the Iraqi government forces, that are widely known to comprise members of a rival Shia militia, the Badr Organisation.

Dozens of militiamen from both sides were killed in clashes that broke out in Baghdad, Basra, Kut, Samawa, Hilla and most of the Iraqi Shia southern provinces between the Mehdi Army and other militias supported by the U.S., Iran and the Iraqi government.

The Badr Organisation militia is headed by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, who is also head of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC) that dominates the government. The Dawa Party is headed by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

The number of civilians killed and injured in the clashes is still unknown. Iraqi government offices continue to keep largely silent about the events.

"Every resident of Basra knew the situation would explode any minute between these oil thieves, and that Basra would suffer another wave of militia war," Salman Kathum, a doctor and former resident of Basra who fled for Baghdad last month told IPS.

For months now there has been a struggle between the Sadr Movement, the SIIC, and the al-Fadhila Party for control of the south, and particularly Basra.

Falah Shenshal, an MP allied to al-Sadr, told al-Jazeera Mar. 26 that al-Maliki was targeting political opponents. "They say they target outlaw gangs, but why do they start with the areas where the sons of the Sadr movement are located? This is a political battle...for the political interests of one party (al-Maliki's Dawa party) because the local elections are coming soon (due later this year)."

The fighting came just as the U.S. military announced the death of their 4,000th soldier in Iraq, and on the heels of a carefully crafted PR campaign designed to show that the "surge" of U.S. troops in Iraq has successfully improved the situation on the ground.

"I wonder what lies General David Petraeus (the U.S. forces commander in Iraq) will fabricate this time," Malek Shakir, a journalist in Baghdad told IPS. "The 25th March events revealed the true failure of the U.S. occupation project in Iraq. More complications are expected in the coming days."

Maliki has himself been in Basra to lead a surge against Mehdi Army militias while the U.S. sent forces to surround Sadr City in an attempt to support their Badr and Dawa allies.

News of limited clashes and air strikes have come from Sadr City, with unofficial reports of many casualties amongst civilians. Curfew in many parts of Baghdad and in four southern provinces had made life difficult already.

"This failure takes Iraq to point zero and even worse," Brigadier-General Kathum Alwan of the Iraqi army told IPS in Baghdad. "We must admit that the formation of our forces was wrong, as we saw how our officers deserted their posts, leaving their vehicles for militias."

Alwan added, "Not a single unit of our army and police stood for their duty in Baghdad, leaving us wondering what to do. Most of the officers who left their posts were members of Badr brigades and the Dawa Party, who should have been most faithful to Maliki's government."

The Green Zone of Baghdad where the U.S. embassy and the Iraqi government and parliament buildings are located, was hit by missiles. General Petraeus appeared at a press conference to accuse Iran of being behind the shelling of the zone that is supposed to be the safest area in Iraq. At least one U.S. citizen was killed in the attacks, and two others were injured.

"The Green Zone looked deserted as most U.S. and Iraqi personnel were ordered to take shelter deep underground," an engineer who works for a foreign company in the zone told IPS. "It seemed that this area too was under curfew. No place in Iraq is safe any more."

Further complicating matters for the occupiers of Iraq, the U.S.-backed Awakening groups, largely comprised of former resistance fighters, are now going on strike to demand overdue payment from the U.S. military.

(*Ali, our correspondent in Baghdad, works in close collaboration with Dahr Jamail, our U.S.-based specialist writer on Iraq who has reported extensively from Iraq and the Middle East)

DAMASCUS, Mar 31 (IPS) - The Arab summit held in Damascus over this weekend has convinced many Iraqis that Arab leaders do not speak for them.

"It was a disappointment to us that some Arab leaders decided not to attend the summit in Damascus," Dr. Zeki al-Khazraji, an Iraqi refugee in Syria told IPS. "We were looking forward to the summit thinking it might discuss our agonies that have lasted too long without any sign of improvement. If not the Arab leaders, who will think of us?"

Many Iraqi refugees say Arab leaders are cut off from their own people.

"The Iraqi fire is spreading to the Arab world and our leaders must think of their own positions," Salim Mahmood, an Iraqi freelance journalist in Damascus told IPS. "We cannot understand why Iraqis are left alone to face daily death while Arabs just watch in silence.

"We are trying to understand the pressures applied on our brothers, but meanwhile we demand real intervention from our brothers to stop our government and the Americans from spilling our blood like water in Iraq."

The Arab summit kicked off Saturday with a fiery speech from Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi attacking fellow Arab leaders for doing nothing while the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003.

"How can we accept that a foreign power comes to topple an Arab leader while we stand watching," said Gaddafi. Saddam Hussein, he said, had once been an ally of Washington. "But they sold him out." He then pointed to Arab officials at the conference to say, "Your turn is next."

The Libyan leader added: "Where is the Arabs' dignity, their future, their very existence? Everything has disappeared."

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says there are at least 1.5 million displaced Iraqis in Syria alone.

"Five years now, and things are getting worse in Iraq while only two poor Arab countries (Syria and Jordan) are taking the load of Iraqis who fled their country for safety," Malek Sabeeh from the Iraqi Centre for Human Rights told IPS.

"Syria was our first safe haven, but how long can this country that has limited resources stand the high cost of hosting such a huge number of refugees while other countries are paying billions of dollars for building separation walls between them and Iraq, and now boycotting such an important summit." Sabeeh was referring to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait who are building protection walls along their borders with Iraq.

Leaders from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan stayed away from the summit after Washington urged its allies to think twice before attending.

Many Iraqi refugees also expressed anger over the lack of support from the Gulf countries. Gulf countries such as the United Arab Emirates do not allow Iraqis in, and their contributions to Iraqi refugees have been modest.

Many Iraqis say the absence of many Arab leaders highlighted the deep divisions caused by the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq across the Middle East. "This nation will never be united as long as Americans have their fingers in the area," Sheikh Faris Ahmed, an Iraqi cleric who brought his son for medical treatment in Syria told IPS.

Egypt and some Gulf countries have recently signed arms deals with the U.S. worth several billion dollars.

(*Maki, our correspondent in Syria, works in close collaboration with Dahr Jamail, our U.S.-based specialist writer on Iraq who has reported from the region for more than four years.)

FALLUJAH, Mar 31 (IPS) - Iraqi doctors in al-Anbar province warn of the spread of Blackwater fever, a complication of malaria. Many Iraqis see that name as ominously one with Blackwater Worldwide, the U.S. mercenary company operating in Iraq.

Blackwater fever is a well-known medical condition, and while it has nothing to do with Blackwater Worldwide, Iraqis in al-Anbar province have decided to make the connection between the disease and the lethal U.S.-based company which has been responsible for the death of countless Iraqis.

The disease is most prevalent in Africa and Asia. The patient suffers severe intravascular haemolysis -- the destruction of red blood cells leading to kidney and liver failure. It also leads to black or red urination, and hence perhaps the name 'Blackwater'.

The deadly disease, never before seen in Iraq on at least this scale, seems to be spreading across the country. And Iraq lacks medicines, hospitals, and doctors to lead a campaign to fight the disease.

"We informed the ministry of the disease, but it seems that they are not in a mood to listen," a doctor from the al-Anbar Health Office in Ramadi told IPS, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We are making personal contacts with NGOs in an attempt to get the necessary medicines."

The three doctors who spoke to IPS in Fallujah and in Ramadi in al-Anbar province that lies west of Baghdad, seemed sure that the Iraqi government would do little to face the plague.

"They have not even made any announcement so that people can take precautions," one of the doctors from Fallujah told IPS.

The doctor said a patient usually suffers three stages of malarial infection. "First is the cold stage where the patient will have chills and shaking, the second is the hot stage when fever takes over, and the third is the sweating stage."

Doctors in Fallujah say the new complication of the disease that may develop from malarial infection can be treated in its early stages, but is difficult to control when complications develop. Drugs currently being used to treat the disease include Chloroquin, Mefloquin, Pyrimethamine, Suladox, Halfotrin and Primaquine.

Patients seem unaware of the seriousness of the disease, though doctors tell them it is essential to buy medicines from private pharmacies because they are not available at general hospitals.

"Many have died within the past two weeks in my town," Mahmood Nassir, a schoolteacher from Saqlawiya, north of Fallujah, told IPS. "We know it is a deadly disease, but what can we do about it? We have no government to refer to, and everyone in the Green Zone (the government district of Baghdad) is too busy preparing to escape with their share of the money they stole from us."

Talat al-Mukhtar is an Iraqi doctor now studying abroad. IPS asked him to comment on the Blackwater fever outbreak in Iraq.

"Malaria is endemic in Iraq, mainly in the northern part. However, it is prevalent in the milder forms; the severe form had been reported but not at an epidemic level."

Dr. Mukhtar said this form of malaria requires a "triple-drug treatment programme because it is an aggressive infection." He said the patient "requires meticulous medical and nursing care, and might even need time in an intensive care unit, as it can easily lead to kidney and liver failure."

Like the other doctors IPS spoke with, Dr. Mukhtar was clear that the Iraqi ministry of health needs to take a proactive role before the disease spreads further. "These cases of severe fever that follow haemolysis should warrant immediate action from the ministry of health to investigate thoroughly these cases and assess whether they are malaria or other conditions."

Dr. Mukhtar added, "Considering the poor health situation and poor resources in Anbar province, even though clinical judgment is important, laboratory tests are not easily verified, and many other diseases can give the same clinical picture. That is why standard lab investigation is needed, may be with the help of WHO (World Health Organisation)."

The disease seems too sensitive for journalists to talk about.

"There was a great deal of anger when we wrote about cholera in Iraq last summer," a journalist in Fallujah told IPS. "Neither the government nor the occupation forces would accept our covering such a story."

IPS was not allowed to take pictures at the Fallujah General Hospital. A doctor refused to disclose how many may have been infected or how many may have died.

The spread of this condition follows the outbreak of other diseases. According to the WHO, as of Oct. 3, 2007 cholera outbreaks in Iraq had spread to nine of 18 provinces, and roughly 30,000 people had fallen ill with acute diarrhoea, with 14 deaths.

An Oxfam International report released last July showed that the humanitarian disaster in Iraq is compounded by a mass exodus of medical staff fleeing chronic violence and lawlessness. The report said the lack of doctors and nurses is breaking down a health system now on the brink of collapse.

The report said many hospitals had lost up to 80 percent of their teaching staff.

(*The story, earlier issued Mar. 26, corrects information about Blackwater fever)

FALLUJAH, Mar 26 (IPS) - Iraqi doctors in al-Anbar province warn of a new disease they call "Blackwater" that threatens the lives of thousands. The disease is named after Blackwater Worldwide, the U.S. mercenary company operating in Iraq.

What Iraqis now call Blackwater fever is really a well-known medical condition, and while it has nothing to do with Blackwater Worldwide, Iraqis in al-Anbar province have decided to make the connection between the disease and the lethal U.S.-based company which has been responsible for the death of countless Iraqis.

The disease is most prevalent in Africa and Asia. The patient suffers severe intravascular haemolysis -- the destruction of red blood cells leading to kidney and liver failure. It also leads to black or red urination, and hence perhaps the new name 'Blackwater'.

The deadly disease, never before seen in Iraq on at least this scale, seems to be spreading across the country. And Iraq lacks medicines, hospitals, and doctors to lead a campaign to fight the disease.

"We informed the ministry of the disease, but it seems that they are not in a mood to listen," a doctor from the al-Anbar Health Office in Ramadi told IPS, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We are making personal contacts with NGOs in an attempt to get the necessary medicines."

The three doctors who spoke to IPS in Fallujah and in Ramadi in al-Anbar province that lies west of Baghdad, seemed sure that the Iraqi government would do little to face the plague.

"They have not even made any announcement so that people can take precautions," one of the doctors from Fallujah told IPS.

The doctor said a patient usually suffers three stages of malarial infection. "First is the cold stage where the patient will have chills and shaking, the second is the hot stage when fever takes over, and the third is the sweating stage."

Doctors in Fallujah say the new complication of the disease that may develop from malarial infection can be treated in its early stages, but is difficult to control when complications develop. Drugs currently being used to treat the disease include Chloroquin, Mefloquin, Pyrimethamine, Suladox, Halfotrin and Primaquine.

Patients seem unaware of the seriousness of the disease, though doctors tell them it is essential to buy medicines from private pharmacies because they are not available at general hospitals.

"Many have died within the past two weeks in my town," Mahmood Nassir, a schoolteacher from Saqlawiya, north of Fallujah, told IPS. "We know it is a deadly disease, but what can we do about it? We have no government to refer to, and everyone in the Green Zone (the government district of Baghdad) is too busy preparing to escape with their share of the money they stole from us."

Talat al-Mukhtar is an Iraqi doctor now studying abroad. IPS asked him to comment on the Blackwater fever outbreak in Iraq.

"Malaria is endemic in Iraq, mainly in the northern part. However, it is prevalent in the milder forms; the severe form had been reported but not at an epidemic level."

Dr. Mukhtar said this form of malaria requires a "triple-drug treatment programme because it is an aggressive infection." He said the patient "requires meticulous medical and nursing care, and might even need time in an intensive care unit, as it can easily lead to kidney and liver failure."

Like the other doctors IPS spoke with, Dr. Mukhtar was clear that the Iraqi ministry of health needs to take a proactive role before the disease spreads further. "These cases of severe fever that follow haemolysis should warrant immediate action from the ministry of health to investigate thoroughly these cases and assess whether they are malaria or other conditions."

Dr. Mukhtar added, "Considering the poor health situation and poor resources in Anbar province, even though clinical judgment is important, laboratory tests are not easily verified, and many other diseases can give the same clinical picture. That is why standard lab investigation is needed, may be with the help of WHO (World Health Organisation)."

The disease seems too sensitive for journalists to talk about.

"There was a great deal of anger when we wrote about cholera in Iraq last summer," a journalist in Fallujah told IPS. "Neither the government nor the occupation forces would accept our covering such a story."

IPS was not allowed to take pictures at the Fallujah General Hospital. A doctor refused to disclose how many may have been infected or how many may have died.

The spread of this condition follows the outbreak of other diseases. According to the WHO, as of Oct. 3, 2007 cholera outbreaks in Iraq had spread to nine of 18 provinces, and roughly 30,000 people had fallen ill with acute diarrhoea, with 14 deaths.

An Oxfam International report released last July showed that the humanitarian disaster in Iraq is compounded by a mass exodus of medical staff fleeing chronic violence and lawlessness. The report said the lack of doctors and nurses is breaking down a health system now on the brink of collapse.

The report said many hospitals had lost up to 80 percent of their teaching staff.

(*Ali, our correspondent in Baghdad, works in close collaboration with Dahr Jamail, our U.S.-based specialist writer on Iraq who has reported extensively from Iraq and the Middle East)

DAMASCUS, Mar 24 (IPS) - More than a million Iraqis in Syria cannot find work. For their idleness, they have come to be called the "pillow drivers".

And so Iraqi refugees who were once doctors, engineers, athletes, artists and businessmen sit it out in Syria with nothing to do.

"They call us the pillow drivers here," says Dr. Jassim Alwan who fled Baghdad after he was arrested by U.S. forces in 2003. "I was humiliated like an animal by those who call themselves soldiers of liberty, so I decided to flee to Syria."

He has no work now, he says. "All I do is stay up late at night thinking of myself and my family's dark future, and sleep all day like a drugged man. Most Iraqis do the same."

Many Iraqi refugees gather at night at Damascus teahouses. They spend much of the night talking over strong Iraqi tea, some smoking the water pipe.

"Not all of us can afford the water pipe," Salim Khattab, earlier an engineer from Mosul told IPS. "Most of us have run out of money after the long years of spending while there has been no income. I accepted a job of salesman for 100 dollars a month for a while, but I quit when I was asked to clean the shop and the doorsteps. A hundred dollars would not be enough for more than a few days anyway. Now I spend the days in bed waiting for night so I can meet my new friends."

Many Iraqis have turned to reciting poems about their condition, or trying to joke about it. Audiences do not always laugh; more often they have tears in their eyes. Some poets and writers frequent particular teahouses, and their fans follow them there.

"Iraq has become the wasteland we've been reading about by (English poet T.S.) Eliot, and worse," said an Iraqi poet, who wanted his name withheld. "Those thieves who took over the country with the help of the bigger thieves, the occupiers, are the reason for our agony."

From the outside, such thoughts and observations are seen as idleness. Many Iraqi refugees ponder these days over their new status as "pillow drivers".

"Better to be a pillow driver than worm feed my friend," Mohammad Adnan, who was a trader in Baghdad told IPS. "I think Americans invaded our country to turn us into good for nothing people. They want us to stay outside Iraq so that it stays retarded until they bring more capitalist corporations to loot what is left."

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said in a report Mar. 19 that there are 2.7 million Iraqis displaced within their own country, and another 2.4 million who have fled, mostly to Jordan and Syria. The IOM, an independent body that cooperates with the UN and its agencies, said the situation for Iraqis who are outside their country is deteriorating.

"There is very little light at the end of the tunnel in Iraq's humanitarian crisis," IOM spokeswoman Jemini Pandya told reporters. "Conditions for the displaced, and refugees, have been getting steadily worse."

Yet, bad as it is for the refugees outside, the situation for Iraqis within Iraq continues to be far worse. "Many IDPs (internally displaced persons) live in sub-standard or overcrowded shelters as they are largely without an income to afford escalating rent prices," the IOM report said.

More than 75 percent of them have no access to government food rations, and nearly 20 percent lack clean water supply, the report said. Some 33 percent cannot get the medicines they need. Only 20 percent have had any help from humanitarian agencies.

(*Maki, our correspondent in Syria, works in close collaboration with Dahr Jamail, our U.S.-based specialist writer on Iraq who has reported from the region for more than four years.)