Category: Unami

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Severe flash flooding along the Unami Creek triggered by the remnants of Hurricane Ida claimed a man’s life in upper Bucks County Wednesday, Pennsylvania State Police at Dublin said.

In a news release, troopers said 65-year-old Donald Allen Bauer of Perkiomenville, Montgomery County, drowned after his vehicle became submerged in flood waters.

A 54-year-old female passenger who was also in the vehicle was able to escape from it and survived, police said, adding that she was taken to St. Luke’s Upper Bucks Campus for treatment.

According to the news release, state police were first dispatched to the 1900 block of Trumbauersville Road around 11:15 p.m. Wednesday for a report of “a missing person from a vehicle that had driven into the flood waters of Unami Creek.”

Pennsylvania State Police at Dublin said 65-year-old Donald Allen Bauer of Perkiomenville, Montgomery County, drowned Wednesday when his vehicle became trapped in flood waters along the Unami Creek, which burst its banks after the remnants of Hurricane Ida dumped upwards of 7 inches of rain on the area. (Credit: Google Street View)

After locating the vehicle–which was described as a 2013 Mazda CX9–and attempting a rescue, troopers said they and fire department personnel determined that “conditions were too severe” and postponed the rescue effort at 11:30 p.m.

At approximately 6 a.m. Thursday, along with fire department personnel and members of a water rescue team, troopers said they again attempted to retrieve the vehicle and subsequently found Bauer deceased inside it.

The news release indicated that the Bucks County Coroner’s Office pronounced Bauer dead at the scene at 10:10 a.m. determined that his cause of death was drowning.

The manner of Bauer’s death was determined to be…

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Briefing Council members in person for the first time in over a year, Ms. Hennis-Plasschaert, who is also the head of the Mission, also called claims that UNAMI is advocating for a postponement of the elections “frankly absurd”.

She urged everyone to “stick to the facts”, focus on their own roles and refrain from using the United Nations as a scapegoat.

“Truth, discipline and, yes, courage, are required at this critical juncture”, said the UN official

Misinformation ‘risky business’

If misinformation overtakes reality, “it is not only an enormous energy-drain for those working hard for the greater good of Iraq,” she cautioned.  “It is also risky business.” 

The UNAMI chief urged media outlets to provide accurate, reliable and timely information, instead of fuelling “false perceptions to suit their backers”.

Stressing that Iraq “leads and owns” the 10 October elections, she reminded that their credibility would prove essential for its future.

Elections at hand 

Detailing joint efforts, Ms. Hennis-Plasschaert said that the Independent High Electoral Commission has reached “several complex milestones” while noting that UNAMI has provided technical assistance wherever it can. 

She outlined that candidate lists have been finalized; a ballot lottery conducted for all 83 constituencies; ballot printing is ongoing; and all ballot papers expected in country by mid-September. 

Meanwhile, polling and results management systems are being reviewed by an independent audit firm.

In parallel, she said preparations for UN monitoring are moving rapidly, with most members of the preparatory team being deployed to Baghdad “as we speak” and regional teams due on the ground in early September.

The Special Representative emphasized that the October elections have “the potential to be different” from those in 2018, and noted that that five times as many UN personnel are currently engaged as were three years earlier.

To calls for…

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NEW YORK — With just 46 days until Iraq goes to the polls, the UN Assistance Mission for the country (UNAMI) is stepping up its communications to inform voters about their conduct, Special Representative Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert told the Security Council on Wednesday, stressing that it is up to the political parties themselves to refrain from attempts to distort the results.

Briefing Council members for the first time in over a year, Hennis-Plasschaert, who is also the head of the Mission, also called claims that UNAMI is advocating for a postponement of the elections “frankly absurd”.

She urged everyone to “stick to the facts”, focus on their own roles and refrain from using the United Nations as a scapegoat. “Truth, discipline and, yes, courage, are required at this critical juncture,” said the UN official

Misinformation ‘risky business’

If misinformation overtakes reality, “it is not only an enormous energy-drain for those working hard for the greater good of Iraq,” she cautioned. “It is also risky business.”

The UNAMI chief urged media outlets to provide accurate, reliable and timely information, instead of fueling “false perceptions to suit their backers”.

Stressing that Iraq “leads and owns” the Oct. 10 elections, she reminded that their credibility would prove essential for its future.

Elections at hand

Detailing joint efforts, Hennis-Plasschaert said that the Independent High Electoral Commission has reached “several complex milestones” while noting that UNAMI has provided technical assistance wherever it can.

She outlined that candidate lists have been finalized; a ballot lottery conducted for all 83 constituencies; ballot printing is ongoing; and all ballot papers expected in country by mid-September.

Meanwhile, polling and results management systems are being reviewed by an independent audit firm.

In parallel, she said preparations for UN monitoring are moving rapidly, with most members of the preparatory team being deployed to Baghdad “as we speak” and regional teams due on…

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ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the UN’s Special Representative and head of the United Nations’s Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), told Kurdistan 24 in an exclusive interview on Tuesday that Kurdish parties should work together to best serve the people of Kurdistan.

Unhealthy 

“In any society, it is very risky to take rights, freedoms and in this case autonomy for granted. What I’m saying is you have to take care of it,” she said.

“You have to find common ground, to unify, and to work together in the interest of the Kurdistani citizens.”

“I’m not saying that it’s not okay to have an internal debate. It’s very healthy to have internal debate,” she added. “What is not healthy is constant party rivalry, intra-party rivalry, and partisanship.”

“Again, the interests of the Kurdistani citizens are best served if the Kurdistan Region parties work together and find common ground in the interest of the Kurdistani citizens.”

She also underlined that the UN is working on the assumption that the Iraqi elections will take place on October 10, and that “it’s important for Iraq to move beyond elections to get things done.”

During a conference in Erbil in May, Hennis-Plasschaert said that today’s autonomy should not be taken for granted and that, in order to sustain it, unity will prove essential.

Erbil-Baghdad Dialogue

The UN envoy stressed that a strong relationship between Erbil and Baghdad is in the interest of all Kurdistani and Iraqi citizens.

Baghdad has been chronically late or delinquent in its budget payments to the KRG for years, causing those who depend on government salaries – a large percentage of the public – to face significant and often unexpected missed monthly income.

Last month after receiving a long-overdue disbursement of 200 billion…

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The interviews are harrowing. “It was the same routine, every day hanging me up and beating me. There are things they did to me there that I am too ashamed to talk about, but one thing I can tell you is that two times they made me sit on a bottle.” This is from interview number 106. The detainee who gave interview number 107 said: “They cuffed my hands behind my back and hanged my handcuffs from a hook on a chain from the ceiling. They didn’t really ask me questions, they just kept shouting [at me] to confess.”

In the depths of Iraqi detention centres, interviews were conducted with 235 detainees. Their testimony has been included in the report titled “Human Rights in the Administration of Justice in Iraq: legal conditions and procedural safeguards to prevent torture and ill-treatment” prepared by the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UHCHR), issued on 3 August. The report covers the period 1 July 2019 to 30 April 2020.

“Torture is a reality in places of detention throughout Iraq,” it begins. This stark sentence opens the condemnation of the inhumane practices in the detention centres operated not only by the Ministries of Justice and the Interior, but also the Ministry of Defence, the Counterterrorism Service, the Baghdad Operations Command, the National Security Agency, the National Intelligence Service, and the Popular Mobilisation Forces. These are in addition to other places that the detainees do not know the location of.

The number of detainees is also unknown, as with the exception of the Ministry of Justice, which reported that there were 39,518 detainees in 2020, among them 2,115 women and 11,595 people sentenced to death, including 25 women; and 24,853 in facilities…

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While acknowledging legal changes against torture, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said that “the authorities need to effectively implement the provisions written in the law in each and every detention centre”.  

“If not, they remain a dead letter”. 

Shocks and beatings 

Covering 1 July 2019 to 30 April this year, the report is based on interviews conducted with 235 detainees, along with prison staff, judges, lawyers and detainees’ families. 

“I experienced the worst days of my life”, one prisoner told UN staff who helped draw up the report. “As soon as I arrived, the officers beat me using metal pipes. The following days, they used two exposed electricity wires to electrocute me”. 

Another detainee said that “they cuffed my hands behind my back and hanged my handcuffs from a hook on a chain from the ceiling…they didn’t really ask me questions, they just kept shouting to confess”. 

The report, Human Rights in the Administration of Justice in Iraq: legal conditions and procedural safeguards to prevent torture, states that legal procedures designed to bring interrogations and detention under judicial control within 24 hours of the initial arrest, are not respected; and access to a lawyer is systematically delayed until after security forces interrogate suspects.  

“Eradicating torture will be one of the most effective tools to start to build public trust in the State’s ability to deliver justice and uphold the principle of fairness”, Ms Bachelet said. “However, when the authorities themselves break the law, it has the opposite effect”. 

Lack of trust 

The report also raises concerns that the authorities ignore signs of torture; complaints procedures appear to be neither fair or effective; and an apparent lack of accountability for these failures.  

“The fact that many detainees choose not to report such treatment due to lack of trust, or fear of reprisals, indicates their lack of trust in the system”, said the UN Human Rights Chief.  

“This needs to be addressed”, she added, pointing out that “specific recommendations on…

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ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The the head of the UN’s Iraq Assistance Mission (UNAMI), on Monday called again for the creation of a unified administration in the disputed district of Sinjar (Shingal) during an online event marking the seventh anniversary of the Yezidi (Ezidi) genocide, in which thousands were brutally murdered, kidnapped, and trafficked at the hands of ISIS.

“Years later, survivors, still face immense challenges, while they urgently need to rebuild their lives, unnecessary obstacles continue (…) on security arrangements, public service provision and unified, administration, and inability of parties and authorities to set aside differences for the greater good,” said Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert during an online event organized by the Yezidi rights organization Yazda and the Zovighian Partnership.

In October 2020, Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) announced they had reached an agreement, with support from the UN, to restore and normalize the situation in Shingal, where competing armed groups are active.

Read More: KRG and Baghdad reach administrative, security agreement on Sinjar

Notably, the agreement includes a framework to withdraw all armed groups from the area, restore the local administration, and appoint a new mayor. So far, however, these steps have not been taken. 

Despite the agreement’s strong international backing, multiple armed groups remain, making the administrative piece of the agreement, to some degree, a moot point.

After a field visit to SInjar in January, Hennis-Plasschaert called for the stalled deal’s implementation, but there has been little clear progress since.

According to the envoy, Baghdad and Erbil “took an important step in the right direction, laying the groundwork for stability, improved safety and better living conditions,” but “progress has been unacceptably slow in improving governments and unifying administrations. And the harsh reality is that these roadblocks are holding progress hostage with…

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ANI | Updated: Jul 27, 2021 04:51 IST

Washington [US], July 27 (ANI): There will be no US forces with a combat role in Iraq by December 31, 2021, the US and Iraqi governments said in a joint statement following the strategic dialogue held in Washington on Monday (local time).
The delegations include – Iraq’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Fuad Hussein and the US Secretary of State Antony J Blinken. They co-chaired the final session of the Strategic Dialogue, initiated on June 11, 2020, in accordance with the 2008 Strategic Framework Agreement for a Relationship of Friendship and Cooperation between the United States of America and the Republic of Iraq (SFA), according to a statement issued by US Department of State on Monday (local time).
The Iraqi delegation also included representatives of the Kurdistan Regional Government.
The joint statement said that the two countries reaffirmed the importance of these discussions, which focused on strengthening the long-term strategic partnership defined by the SFA and on key issues of mutual concern: regional stability, public health, climate change, energy efficiency, energy independence, humanitarian aid, human rights, economic cooperation, and cultural and educational exchanges, among other issues.
Iraq provided a detailed accounting of its efforts to promote the safe and voluntary return of internally displaced persons to their home regions, and the United States pledged its continued support in this regard.
The two delegations reaffirmed the principles agreed upon in the SFA. The United States reaffirmed its respect for Iraq’s sovereignty and laws and pledged to continue providing the resources Iraq needs to preserve its territorial integrity.
The Government of Iraq reaffirmed its commitment to protect Coalition personnel advising and enabling the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) and reasserted its position that all Coalition Forces are in Iraq at its invitation.

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