Visits to people deprived of freedom and maintaining family links

Between April and May 2007, the ICRC:

• carried out 4 visits to 3 places of detention under the authority of the Multi-National Forces in Iraq (Camp Bucca in the South, Camp Remembrance II and Camp Cropper in Baghdad), and 12 visits to 8 places of detention under the authority of the Kurdistan Regional Government;
• visited over 1,400 detainees throughout Iraq;
• with the help of the Iraqi Red Crescent Society, collected and distributed a total of 12,990 Red Cross messages;
• within its family visits allowance programme, financed a total of 4,574 trips enabling families to visit their relatives held at Camp Bucca and at an internment facility at Basrah Air Station. A total of 4,021 detainees benefited from this programme;
• issued 122 detention and other attestations;
• facilitated the repatriation to their home country of 4 released detainees;
• received over 11,200 visits and/or telephone calls from people requesting news about their detained relatives

Clarifying the fate of the missing

• the ICRC clarified the whereabouts 76 people and helped them re-establish contact with their families.

Response to medical emergencies

• delivered medical and surgical supplies to treat the war wounded in various hospitals in Kirkuk, Qadisiya, Kerbala, Nainawa, Baghdad, Diyala, Anbar, Erbil, Thiqar and Saladin governorates;
• provided equipment for 11 emergency rooms in various medical facilities in Baghdad, Nainawa, Babel, Saladin, Kerabala, Al-Qadisiya and Anbar governorates;
• equipped medical facilities with seven operating theatres in Baghdad, Basrah, Najaf and Thiqar governorates;
• delivered 18 infusion sets (200 litres per set) to hospitals in Baghdad, Babel, Missan, Basrah, Najaf, Anbar and Nainawa governorates;
• delivered 8 thoracic drainage kits to various hospitals in Baghdad, Basrah and Nainawa governorates;
• delivered two dressing and two suture sets (each set enough for 50 injured) to medical facilities in Erbil and Dohuk governorates.

Support to health infrastructures

• in Baghdad governorate, the ICRC initiated the rehabilitation of water and sanitation facilities in the 137-bed Al-Khadimiyah paediatric hospital; continued repair work on water and sanitation facilities and electro-mechanical components in 17 primary health care centres (PHCC), serving a total of 3,732 patients per day; continued to truck 50 m3 of drinking water per day to Al-Yarmouk and Imam Ali hospitals (total capacity of 1,385 beds), and started trucking daily 80m3 of drinking water to the 1,200 bed Al-Rashad paediatric hospital;
• in Diyala governorate, initiated the rehabilitation of water and sanitation facilities and electro-mechanical components in two primary health care centres serving 150 patients per day;
• in Anbar governorate, initiated the rehabilitation of water supply and sanitation facilities in the 100-bed hospital of Heet;
• in Basrah governorate, continued emergency repair work on the sewage system of the 600 bed Basrah General Hospital; continued the rehabilitation of the laundry section of the 220 bed Al-Zehrawri hospital; completed the reconstruction of the Al-Jihad and Al-Shaibe PHCC, serving a total of 150 patients per day;
• in Nainawa governorate, completed the rehabilitation of the 100 bed Al Shefa'a hospital in Mosul city; completed the construction of the emergency and paediatric unit of the 110 bed Al-Hamdaniyah hospital and of the maternity unit in the 50 bed Sheikhan hospital; continued the construction of a primary health care centre in Debaga, which will serve 150 patients per day.

Support to medico-legal infrastructures

• initiated projects aimed at recovering the capacity of the mortuaries in the 237 bed Al-Numan Hospital and the 340 bed Al-Kindy Hospital in Baghdad City and of the Medico-legal institute (MLI) mortuaries in Diyala governorate; continued work to recover the capacity of the MLI mortuaries in Basrah.

Water and Sanitation

• in Baghdad, the ICRC completed the rehabilitation of the "2B Boosting Station" of the Sharq Dijla water treatment plant, serving 400,000 people, and continued trucking 120m3 of drinking water per day to 4,500 IDPs in Sectors 52 and 53 of Sadr City;
• in Diyala governorate, it continued the rehabilitation of the Khanakin water treatment plant, serving 105,000 people;
• in Anbar governorate, it continued to truck 42 m3 of drinking water per day to Al-Waleed refugee camp serving 1,000 Palestinians;
• in Diwaniyah governorate, it completed the rehabilitation of the Al-Malaab boosting station serving 400,000 people;
• in Wasit governorate, it completed the rehabilitation of the Al-Emarat Al-Sakanyah and Hay Al-Hussein sewage facilities in Kut, serving a total of 50,000 people;
  in Nainawa governorate, completed work on sanitation facilities in the Makmoor refugee camp, serving 13,000 people, and the construction of water supply facilities in Demakar and Ein Zala villages, serving a total of 7,500 inhabitants; continued the construction of water supply facilities in Garbashay Sabir village, serving 3,000 people;
• in Kirkuk governorate, continued rehabilitation work on water supply facilities in Hasary Gawra, serving a total of 5,000 people;
• in Dohuk governorate, continued to truck 15m3 of drinking water per day to 225 IDPs in Dash Mir;
• in Suleimaniya governorate, continued to truck 16m3 of drinking water per day to 72 families in Qlawa quarter;
• continued to truck 45,000 litres of drinking water per week to 200 Iranian Kurds settled in no-man's land at the Iraqi-Jordanian border (Al-Karama/Trebil).

Emergency Relief

• provided assistance to 10,000 destitute families through Iraqi Red Crescent (IRCS) branches in Wasit, Babel, Najaf, Diwaniyah and Kerbala governorates (10,000 food parcels, 250 tons of rice, 8,000 hygiene kits, 35,850 blankets, 20,000 jerry cans, 10,000 kitchen sets, 10,000 Tarpaulin sheets, 10,000 thermoses and more than 24,300 items of canned food);
• provided assistance to cover the needs of 1,800 IDPs in Talafar camp, 1,800 IDPs in host communities of Mosul city, as well as of 1,000 IDP families from Diyala governorate who settled in camps north of Baghdad;
• provided 400 metric tons of fertilisers to vulnerable farmers in Basrah governorate to support local agricultural production.
• distributed food and essential household items to 213 IDPs in Qoratu and Kulajo, Suleimaniya governorate, and to 32 IDPs in Dash Mir camp, Dohuk governorate.
• provided food parcels to 2,085 vulnerable families in Haditha and to 2,000 families in Garma in Anbar governorate, as well as to 1,350 families in Baghdad's Adhamiya area.

Assistance to the physically disabled

• provided material support and training to the physical rehabilitation centres in Baghdad (five centres), Najaf, Tikrit, Basrah and Hilla, as well as to the IRCS-run physical rehabilitation centre in Mosul;
• continued to fully run the physical rehabilitation centre in Erbil.;
• provided one-month training courses to two orthopaedic technicians and one physiotherapist from the Tikrit physical rehabilitation centre;
• provided technical support to the management of the Basrah physical rehabilitation centre.

In April 2007, 1,715 patients were seen and 229 prostheses and 466 orthoses delivered;


Working closely with the IRCS to answer needs of the Iraqi population

The ICRC cooperates closely with the IRCS on a daily basis. ICRC and IRCS work together in several fields such as health, the distribution of food and other basic items, water and sanitation and re-establishing family links.

The ICRC continues its support to the IRCS by offering technical and material support. In May, the ICRC provided computers to the tracing departments of IRCS headquarters and its branches.