Meanwhile, in Baghdad, First Lady survives roadside bomb

Hero Ibrahim Ahmed's convoy was struck by the bomb nearby the National Theatre [AFP]

The wife of Jalal Talabani, the Iraqi president, has escaped unhurt after her convoy was hit by a roadside bomb.

The attack in the centre of the capital on Sunday wounded four of her bodyguards but left Hero Ibrahim Ahmed, the first lady, unhurt, the president's office said.

"One of the vehicles of Ms Hero Ibrahim's convoy hit an improvised explosive device in the road this morning," an office statement said.

"She was heading to the National Theatre to attend a cultural festival."

Two Iraqi soldiers and two civilians were also wounded in the attack in Baghdad's Karrada district.

The bomb hit the convoy which was passing by the National Theatre at about 10am [0700GMT].

The assailants are unknown.

'Rising stakes'

Al Jazeera's Owen Fay in Baghdad said: "Authorities are trying to determine whether she was the target of this attack or whether the convoy simply got unlucky, drove into an area they shouldn't have and struck an IED that was buried in the road

"That is obviously the focal point of the investigation at this stage.

"Nobody has claimed responsibility and the government is mulling its reaction at the moment.

"There is an investigation into this and if it does turn out that the president's wife or the families of any senior politicians in this country are now being targeted directly then that raises the stakes significantly."

Iraq has seen a large increase in violence in the past month, in the main between Shia militias loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr and US and government forces.

Iraq is undergoing a cholera epidemic

Alive in Baghdad: Sewage Problems Persist in East Baghdad

Thursday March 27th, 2008

We show this segment courtesy of www.aliveinbaghdad.org. Alive in Baghdad employs Iraqi journalists to produce video packages each week about a variety of topics on daily life in Iraq.

Baghdad, Iraq - Shama’iya - The Shama’iya district is in far east Baghdad, although considered a part of the capital, the sprawling metropolis is perhaps more accurately seen as a series of boroughs than one contiguous city. Shama’iya is a relatively new district, and, strangely in the crisis-ridden capital, has been relatively calm since the beginning of the invasion. Shama’iya is the home of a large mental hospital, and perhaps the only noteworthy element of the district for many Baghdadis.

To Shama’iya residents, the most noteworthy element is the ever-present sewage water polluting the streets, filling some roads nearly completely. Although you might not know it on first glance, Shama’iya is not simply a neighborhood of the poor and indigent, forgotten by the capital and municipal government. Shama’iya is the home of doctors, engineers, and journalists, as well as more “mundane” peoples.

Iraq is undergoing a cholera epidemic, exacerbated by the failing sewer system in the capital and excess of stagnant sewage polluting Baghdad and much of the rest of the country. While security may be improving, there seems to be little movement to improve access to basic necessities such as clean water and electricity.

Despite being a calm district, which its residents claim has seen no major disasters, terrorist attacks, or other traumatic events, the Baghdad and 9th April Municipalities claim they cannot assist the residents in repairing the broken sewer system due to security concerns. The residents themselves told Alive in Baghdad the issues are due more to corruption and waste than any actual security issues at hand. While the government fails to rebuild even the calm districts, its left to question how more restive areas can ever hope to get back on their feet.

Audio slideshow: One woman's war

Canadian photojournalist Rita Leistner travelled to Baghdad in 2003 as a freelance reporter determined to get behind the front lines of the war in Iraq. Over the next 18 months she returned to the country several times capturing images of life with the troops - as well as behind the scenes in a psychiatric hospital.

Because I do not have a java player installed, please to to this url and watch.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/629/629/7301682.stm

It will make you cry ... in pain and in joy, both.

Please make the wars stop! Please!

Children in Irak; the DANGERS now

Al Jazeera English - News - Iraqis Resort To Selling Children

http://english. aljazeera. net/NR/exeres/ F22B4D85- 59F6-4778- 8E9F-C15E7F1CDB4 0.htm

Iraqis resort to selling children

By Afif Sarhan in Baghdad

Unicef says an estimated two million children in Iraq continue to face
threats,
including poor nutrition, disease and interrupted education [GALLO/GETTY]

Abu Muhammad, a Baghdad resident, found it difficult to let go of his
daughter's hand but he had already convinced himself that selling her to
a family outside Iraq would provide her with a better future.

"The war disgraced my family. I lost relatives including my wife among
thousands of victims of sectarian violence and was forced to sell my
daughter to give my other children something to eat," he told Al Jazeera.

In 2006, Abu Muhammad and his family were forced to leave their home in
Adhamiya, a district of Baghdad, after militia fighting claimed the
streets in his once tranquil neighbourhood.

They began living in a makeshift refugee camp on the outskirts of
Baghdad, but he soon lost his job and the children, unable to make the
daily trek, quit school.

"There wasn't enough money to spend on books, clothes and transport," he
said. His daughter, Fatima, the youngest of four children, began to show
signs of malnourishment and a local medic said she had become anaemic.

*Desperation*

By mid-2007, conditions for his family had become desperate and his
children, once healthy and bubbling with life, had become gaunt and
lethargic.

It was then that a translator and a Swedish couple claiming to be part
of an international NGO arrived in the makeshift refugee camp.

"They heard about my situation and the woman, who said she could not
have babies, offered some money to give her my youngest daughter of two
years old," he said.

"I refused in the beginning but the Iraqi translator was constantly
coming at the camp and insisting with the same question. One day I found
that my children would die without food and a clean environment and the
next time he came to my tent, I told him that I agreed."

He gave the translator all personal documents and after a week the
couple came with new documents for Abu Muhammad to sign, authorising the
adoption and to pick up his daughter.

Abu Muhammad, who received $10,000, believes he is now damned by God,
but he says his inner turmoil is allayed somewhat by his belief that
Fatima will have a better life than many in Iraq.

"I could see her love in the first time she looked at her," he said of
the adoptive mother.

*Alarming disappearances*

Local officials and aid workers have expressed concern over the alarming
rate at which children are disappearing countrywide in Iraq's current
unstable environment.

Many Iraqi families have fled sectarian fighting
to live in makeshift camps [EPA]

Omar Khalif, vice-president of the Iraqi Families Association (IFA), an
NGO established in 2004 to register cases of those missing and
trafficked, said that at least two children are sold by their parents
every week.

Another four are reported missing every week.

He said: "[The] numbers are alarming. There is an increase of 20 per
cent in the reported cases of missing children compared to last year."

"In previous years, children were reported missing on their way home
from schools or after playing with friends outside their homes. However,
police investigations have revealed that many have been sold by their
parents to foreign couples or specialised gangs."

According to police investigations and an independent IFA study, Iraqi
children are being sold to families in many European countries -
particularly the Netherlands and Sweden - Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

"Taking advantage of the desperate situation of many families living
under poverty conditions in Iraq, foreigners offer a good amount of
money in exchange of children as young as one-month old and up to five
years of age," Khalif said.

He said there are fears children are being trafficked for the sex trade
and the organ transplant black market.

*Children drugged *

Hassan Alaa, a senior interior ministry official, said that while it has
been difficult to precisely trace where the missing children are taken,
government forces have captured 15 human trafficking gangs operating in
Iraq in the past nine months.

"Many were carrying false documents prepared to take some children out
from the country."

"During their confessions, they said many children are sold for as
little as $3,000 and for very young babies, the price could reach
$30,000," Alaa said.

The interior ministry has stepped up its security at checkpoints and
border posts throughout Iraq.

He says that the child traffickers resort to drugging children with
powerful sedatives during the trip out of Iraq. When they drive up to a
checkpoint, the police are told the children are merely sleeping.

"All children leaving Iraq now have to be woken up and interviewed by
the police and border patrols, except those who are infants and unable
to speak," Alaa said.

*Extreme poverty*

Mahmoud Saeed, a senior official at the ministry of labour and social
affairs, says extreme poverty and nationwide unemployment have pushed
parents to the edge, forcing them to make decisions once believed
unthinkable.
*December 2007 Unicef Report on
Iraqi Children*

Roger Wright, Unicef's special representative for Iraq, recently told
the media that "Iraqi children are paying far too high a price."

"While we have been providing as much assistance as possible, a new
window of opportunity is opening, which should enable us to reach the
most vulnerable with expanded, consistent support. We must act now."

Unicef says:

- An estimated two million children in Iraq continue to face threats
including poor nutrition, disease and interrupted education.

- Many of the 220,000 displaced children of primary school age had their
education interrupted.

- An estimated 760,000 children (17 per cent) did not go to primary
schools in 2006.

- An average 25,000 children per month were displaced by violence or
intimidation, with their families seeking shelter in other parts of Iraq.

- In 2007, approximately 75,000 children had resorted to living in camps
or temporary shelters.

- Hundreds of children lost their lives or were injured by violence and
many more had their main family wage-earner kidnapped or killed.

"Desperate seeing their families without food and hygiene, parents
prefer to give their children for adoption, to save their lives," he said.

Saeed said the ministry was making employment a national crisis issue in
2008, hoping to find immediate work for the poor.

He is hoping international aid agencies and NGOs will increase their
participation and investments in projects geared towards helping children.

But for many parents, help will inevitably come too late.

*Anguish*

Khalid Jabboury, 38, a father of seven and displaced on the outskirts of
Baghdad, says giving his daughter up for adoption to a Jordanian family
has given him nothing but torment.

He said: "After one year I heard from some relatives that they had seen
my seven-year-old daughter working as a servant for the supposed new
family and she was being beaten as well."

He says he was paid $20,000 but wants to give the money back if a local
NGO can assist in her repatriation.

The IFA's Khalif says there is nothing the NGOs can do once children
have been taken out of Iraq.

Ruwaida Saleh, 31, a mother of three, is also praying for her
eight-year-old daughter Hala's safety.

Saleh says her daughter disappeared in July 2007 and has not been heard
from since.

"The police told us to give up, but I cannot. I have nightmares she is
being raped," she said.

"I will hold God's hands and beg Him to have Hala in my arms again one
day. It is a pain without explanation that I will carry to my coffin if
I never find her."