IRAQ: Most NGOs Losing Face

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.enewspf.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4104&Itemid=1&ed=93

Inter Press Service

By Ali al-Fadhily and Dahr Jamail*

BAGHDAD, Jul 23 (IPS) - Welcomed at first after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, most NGOs have run into scepticism and mistrust. Few remain to help.

Hundreds of local and foreign NGOs became active in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, after decades of restrictions under the regime of former dictator Saddam Hussein.

"The former Iraqi regime did not trust NGOs, and always thought them to be spies," Muath A'raji of the National Societal Organisation, a human rights NGO based in Baghdad told IPS. "Iraqis used to think the regime was wrong, but now they have changed their minds because of the many false foreign NGOs that look more like contracting companies than humanitarian and human rights organisations."

Iraqis expected NGOs to ease the agonies caused by both the U.S. occupation and corruption of the Iraqi government. But now most appear to believe that NGOs work for money and personal interests, if not for intelligence and missionary purposes. snip

People in Fallujah, 69km west of Baghdad, told IPS that some associations that helped them during the 2004 sieges disappeared after some of their activists were detained by the U.S. military.

"The good men who served the city were either detained or forced to flee the country under threat of detention or even termination by secret police squads," an Iraqi doctor in Fallujah, speaking on terms of anonymity, told IPS. "Most of the ones who are active now belong to parties in power or people who know nothing about organised work. The Iraqi Red Crescent, for example, is totally dominated by Iraqi Prime Minister (Nouri al) Maliki's Da'wa Party."

[KharmaTrain]

1. How We "Lost" The War

Imagine in those days following the "shock and awe", instead of protecting the oil ministry, our troops were given the orders to make restoration of utilities and public safety as a priority...IMHO, things would have been a lot different. But then we're not dealing with your father's NGO here, either.

Instead of providing services, this regime has used mercenaries and only allowed THEIR NGOs (patronage) in...and after 5 plus years, what do we have to show for their work? Do all Baghadadi's get power or clean water? Can they count on the same people who shoot at them and occupy their cities as "friends"?

Another "mission accomplished" by the most corrupt regime ever.