MIDDLE EAST: IRIN-ME Weekly Round-up 128 for 25 May – 31 May 2007
03 Jun 2007 12:49:52 GMT Source: IRIN
DUBAI, 3 June 2007 (IRIN) - CONTENTS: IRAQ: Adeela Harith, "I have to
scrounge around rubbish bins to feed my children"
IRAQ: Cancer emerges as major cause of death in south
IRAQ: Women forced to give up their jobs, marriages
IRAQ: UN report highlights plight of over
800,000 IDPs
IRAQ: Mustafa Abdul-Muta'al, "We couldn't even get a single chair to remind us of the good old days"
ISRAEL: Natalie M, "We can't keep running for ever"
ISRAEL-OPT: Palestinian
workers' situation has worsened, says ILO
ISRAEL-OPT: Low attendance as schools reopen in shell-shocked Sderot
LEBANON: Aid agencies assist families displaced from Nahr al-Bared camp
LEBANON: Aid
agencies concerned about security in refugee camp
LEBANON: Chronic disease sufferers in refugee camps urgently need medication
LEBANON: "Nahr al-Bared is a ghost town"
YEMEN-ETHIOPIA: Oromo
migrants fear deportation IRAQ: Adeela Harith,"I have to scrounge around rubbish bins to feed my children" Adeela Harith, a 39-year-old widow and mother of three, says she misses the days when her
husband was daily bringing them food and when they used to sleep in a safe house in comfort. As a recently widowed displaced person, she has no support and is now collecting left-overs from rubbish
bins to feed her children. Adeela - who is the mother of Ahmed, 14, Zaineb, 12 and Yasser, 8, - said she had tried to get a job as a housekeeper but did not succeed as most families cannot afford
maids or do not trust strangers in their homes. Without an education, she was left with no choice but to look for food in rubbish bins. http://www.irinnews.org/HOVReport.aspx?ReportId=72476 IRAQ:
Cancer emerges as major cause of death in south Recent studies by medical colleges, and statistics from local morgues and hospitals, have shown a higher than expected number of cancer-related deaths
in Iraq's southern provinces. According to specialists, the main causes are the increased use of unsafe products in agriculture and the long-term effects of war on health. Psychological stresses and
strains engendered by years of conflict, violence, displacement and uncertainty have weakened people's natural resistance to disease. This has been compounded by the lack of skilled medical staff and
poor facilities and equipment. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72484 IRAQ: Women forced to give up their jobs, marriages When Suha Abdel-Azim, 38, received a letter from her boss
saying she had to stop working for security reasons, she couldn't believe it. After three years as an engineer for a local company, she was fired without compensation. "I was shocked when they told
me I was being fired. I was an excellent worker and had done many fantastic and profitable projects but they didn't want a woman with them any more. They tried to explain, saying it was too dangerous
for the company to employ women: the company had received threats," Suha said. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72451 IRAQ: UN report highlights plight of over 800,000 IDPs Escalating fighting and sectarian violence are forcing hundreds of families in Iraq to flee their homes on a daily basis, aid agencies say. According to a report released on Sunday by the United
Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), an estimated 822,810 Iraqis are now displaced within their country.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72423 IRAQ: Mustafa Abdul-Muta'al, "We couldn't even
get a single chair to remind us of the good old days" Mustafa Abdul-Muta'al, 42, says he cannot bear seeing his nine-member family live as displaced persons. He blames his plight on the government
which did not compensate him after his house was destroyed two years ago in an insurgent attack in Ramadi. Abdul-Muta'al says he is tired of hearing promises that his compensation will soon be paid.
With his wife suffering from cancer and two sons seriously malnourished, he is desperately trying to find a way to win his rights and take his family back to a safer place. http://www.irinnews.org/HOVReport.aspx?ReportId=72395 ISRAEL: Natalie M., "We can't keep running for ever" Natalie M., a young mother of a three-year-old boy, Shlomi, is not used to being away
from her home, family and friends. Now she is also separated from her husband, as she chose to flee the Israeli town of Sderot and take her child with her. The Israeli Ministry of Defence
coordinated with the Jerusalem Municipality and other bodies to provide hotel rooms and other options for people who wanted to escape Sderot, which has lately shouldered the brunt of the Palestinian
militants' rocket fire into southern Israel. http://www.irinnews.org/HOVReport.aspx?ReportId=72416 ISRAEL-OPT: Palestinian workers' situation has worsened, says ILO A new report issued on Monday
by the International Labour Organization (ILO) says seven out of 10 households in the occupied Palestinian territories, or about 2.4 million Palestinians, are living in poverty. It says the
workers' situation has continued to worsen dramatically over the past year. According to the report, entitled The Situation of Workers of the Occupied Arab Territories, the Israeli-imposed
"closures [checkpoints and movement restrictions] are the main cause of the worsening socio-economic situation of Palestinian women and men". http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72468 ISRAEL-OPT: Low attendance as schools reopen in shell-shocked Sderot Schools reopened on Monday in the Israeli border town of Sderot, which has been hard hit by rockets fired by suspected
Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, but fewer than a third of schoolchildren attended. In some schools less than 10 percent of students showed up, Israeli media reported. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72417 LEBANON: Aid agencies assist families displaced from Nahr al-Bared camp With no immediate end in sight to the stand-off between the army and
Islamist militants in Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon, and with neighbouring Beddawi camp already full to bursting, aid agencies have delivered relief to several hundred families
displaced further to the east and south of the country. According to figures from the UN Palestinian relief organisation UNRWA, some 309 families, or about 1,500 people, have fled Nahr al-Bared for
the camps of Borj Barajneh, Shatila and Mar Elias, located in and around Beirut. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72481 LEBANON: Aid agencies concerned about security in refugee camp The heaviest fighting in a week between the Lebanese army and Fatah al-Islam militants in Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon has raised security concerns for humanitarian workers
delivering relief to thousands of Palestinians remaining in the camp. "We have had access every day for the past few days to deliver humanitarian assistance but we remain very worried about
security conditions for the civilians in the camp," Virginia La Guardian, a spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Beirut told IRIN. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72456 LEBANON: Chronic disease sufferers in refugee camps urgently need medication Thousands of elderly and sick refugees in Nahr al-Bared refugee camp
and neighbouring Badawi camp in northern Lebanon are in urgent need of chronic disease medication currently unavailable to aid agencies, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) told IRIN. ICRC representatives at the military checkpoint to the south of the camp say thousands of people are in need of treatment for chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and kidney
failure. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72400 LEBANON: "Nahr al-Bared is a ghost town" Heavy overnight bombardment on Friday of the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp by the Lebanese army
killed at least four civilians and injured dozens, with eye-witnesses describing scenes of devastation after the military's week-long clashes with Islamist militants in the once densely populated
camp. "Nahr al-Bared looks like Leningrad," Bilal Aslan, a commander in the military wing of the secular Palestinian faction Fatah, who has spent the week inside the camp, told IRIN, referring to
the German World War II siege of the Russian city. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72404 ETHIOPIA-YEMEN: Oromo migrants fear deportation The Oromo people in Yemen have called on
international organisations and rights groups to guarantee their rights and ensure their security in the country. Their representatives told IRIN they lead miserable lives in Yemen and live in fear of
deportation. Mohammed Mousa, 27, an Oromo who has an ID card from the Somali community, is able to work in a sewage plant in Sana'a. He told IRIN that in April a group of young Yemeni men
attacked him after he received his salary. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72442
