MESOP NEWS : Latest HUMAN RIGHTS Report on the Situation in North Iraq
(AINA) — The Hammurabi Human Rights Organization* has issued its latest report, dated June 25, 2014 on the situation in North Iraq.
Mosul – There is a job paralysis and a halt in all financial and banking activity as ISIS has forcefully prevented all female employees from working. All members of minority groups have been fired from public service positions.
The Nineveh Plain
The suffering of the residents of the Nineveh plain has been exacerbated since the fall of Mosul to the militants. Residential neighborhoods receive only one hour per day of electricity while only 10 to 15 megawatts of energy reaches the Nineveh Plains and that is devoted mostly to hospitals and water projects. An agreement with the Government of the region to provide 40 megawatts has not been honored.
Militants are still in control of Hamdaniya water project and are only allowing 90 minutes of pumping through two pumps. This situation has intensified the suffering of the people in Hamdaniya, Bartella and Ba’shiqah municipalities, particularly with the sharp rise in temperature.
In the district of Tel Kepe, all residents receive domestic water for only two or three hours per day. The source of drinking water is under the control of the militants in the area of ??Rashidiya. The people of Tel Kepe also receive one hour of electricity per day and they are unable to use their private generators for lack of fuel. The electricity shortage is expected to worsen in the next few days.The accumulation of trash in residential areas is significantly noticeable because most sanitation employees are not working and fuel shortages. Doctors have warned of the possibility of the spread of epidemics as a result of the decomposition and decay of the waste.
Mental Health
Monitors of this situation have noted a high frequency of anxiety, fear and frustration as a result of the exceptional circumstances that prevailed in the region, the scarcity of electricity and water and the surge in fuel prices. There are reports of high anxiety and unrest which is causing some people to leave the affected areas.
Government Assistance
The Ministry of Displacement and Migration embarked this morning on distributing aid including food items and furniture to more than 250 displaced families that came to Hamdaniya District.
Other Cases
We have been informed by reliable sources in the Makhmor District that gunmen told all the Arab service employees and security forces to leave Makhmor District and not attend work, but to return to their Arab villages, even though Makhmour District is still under the control of the Kurdistan Regional Government.
* The Hammurabi Human Rights Organization (HHRO), an NGO based in Baghdad, Iraq, monitors the human rights situation in Iraq, particularly of minorities such as Assyrians, Turkmen, Yazidis and Shabak. Founded in 2005, HHRO works for human rights observation and documentation, in addition to implementation of humanitarian relief in Iraq.
HHRO works with various Iraqi and international institutions on variety of issues.
HHRO publishes annual reports on Human Rights situations focusing on Minorities. In 2013, HHRO was recognized and awarded as the best NGO by the United States State Department for its major achievements in the most difficult situations for the year 2012 in Baghdad.