* Chronology of Events in Iraq, June 2003 June 1 Gun amnesty declared. (Kurdistan Democratic Party newspaper Khabat) The two weeks' notice given by the coalition forces to the population to hand over weapons and ammunitions in Iraq, started. Everyone can put his gun in a plastic bag and bring it to the Iraqi police centres. According to a statement by the coalition forces, anyone who carries gun in the streets, except a pistol, which has been allowed, after the two weeks notice will be immediately arrested and punished. It was stated that people can possess rifles like Kalashnikovs at home, but they are not allowed to carry them in the markets. Ba’athist killed in Basra. (Al-Jazeera satellite TV) A former army colonel who worked for the security agencies was targeted and killed on the Umm-Qasr-Basra road. June 2 Food rationing resumes in Iraq. (Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty RFE/RL Iraq Report) Millions of Iraqis began collecting food rations as the UN World Food Program restarted the distribution of monthly ration packages in Iraq after two months. The rations will be given to Iraqi citizens who present pre-war ration cards. Around 60 percent of Iraqis were dependent on monthly rations under the deposed Baath regime. The UN distributed the rations from 1996 until the start of US-led war under the oil-for-food program, which is currently being phased out under UN Security Council Resolution 1483. Tension between Arabs and Kurds in Daquq region. (Iraqi Kurdish newspaper Jamawar) It was reported by Kurdish sources that after the Arabs who had been brought to the Daquq province within the context of the Arabization process had fled, and the Kurds returned to their properties and homes, some Arabs once again intend to fight their way back to those regions. As a result of such actions, shooting and clashes have constantly been happening in the region during the past days. * Disclaimer: Reports contained in this document are selected from publicly available resources and edited by country experts. The information provided here is not, and does not purport to be, either exhaustive with regard to conditions in the country of origin surveyed, or conclusive as to the merits of any particular claim. Further information may be obtained from BO Ankara. Chronology of Events in Iraq UNCHR Ankara COI Team June 2003 Page 1 16/02/2004 U.S. forces arrest another Iraqi official on most-wanted list. (Associated Press / AP) U.S. forces are holding the commander of an Iraqi militia force that supposedly included millions of volunteer fighters, a military statement said. Ayad Futayyih Khalifa al-Rawi was No. 30 on the U.S. list of the 55 most-wanted former Iraqi officials, according to a brief statement released by the U.S. Central Command. It did not say when he was captured. He was chief-of-staff of the al-Quds Army, which was set up three years ago by Saddam Hussein to act as a backup to the regular army. Al- Rawi was a former Republican Guard commander who was awarded 27 medals and prized "Qadassiyah Sword" for exploits during 1980-88 war with Iran. He was severely wounded in the head in 1988 leading his troops in a counterattack against Iranian forces. Iraqis repatriated from Syria and Lebanon. (Iran based Shi’a radio Voice of the Mujahidin and RFE/RL Iraq Report) The Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) reportedly assisted in the repatriation of several thousand Iraqis to their country. According to a statement by Muhammad Sa'id al-Hakim in Damascus, 8,000 Iraqis from Syria and Lebanon were repatriated since the war ended in Iraq. June 3 A Ba’athist woman killed in Basra. (Al-Jazeera satellite TV) A hand grenade attack was mounted on a Ba'thist woman in Basra. The woman's house was set ablaze. June 4 Iraqi tribal chief killed in Basra. (Al-Jazeera satellite TV) Shaykh Ali Al-Sa'dun, chief shaykh of the Al-Sa'dun tribe, killed while returning to his house in his private car. Besides him, there were a driver and two of his relatives in the car. Four masked persons travelling in a car opened fire on him and killed him on the spot. One of his relatives was wounded in this incident. A member of his tribe, Abd-al-Baqi Abd-al-Karim al-Sa'dun, was official in charge of the Ba'ath Party organisations in Basra, Al-Karkh, Al-Rusafah and Diyala. Another member of the tribe, Muhammad Zimam Abd-al-Razzaq, was the Tikrit governor and an interior minister. Al-Sa'dun tribe is a Sunni tribe living in Basra. June 5 Hand grenade wounds 20 Kurds in Kirkuk. (Agence France Presse / AFP) Twenty people were injured when a young man threw a hand grenade in a street of the city of Kirkuk. Colonel Sarhad Qader of the Kirkuk police said that a group of youths were involved in a street fight over gambling, and one of them threw a hand grenade among the crowd, wounding 20 people. All those injured were Kurdish civilians. Chronology of Events in Iraq UNCHR Ankara COI Team June 2003 Page 2 16/02/2004 June 6 Iraqi Sunni imam defends jihad. (AFP) A Sunni prayer leader urged Muslims to wage jihad, or holy war, to recover their usurped rights and called on US forces to speed up their withdrawal from Iraq. "Muslims are entitled to raise the banner of jihad to restore usurped rights or repel an evil threatening them," Sheikh Muayyed al-Aazami said in his Friday sermon at the Abu Hanifa mosque in Baghdad. Iraqi Shi'a cleric urges confronting "remnants" of Iraqi regime. (London-based newspaper Al-Hayat) Muhammad Bahr-al-Ulum, Iraqi Shi'i cleric, has called for "confronting the remnants of the defunct regime" and "beginning to fill the political vacuum" in Iraq by forming a transitional government. In a statement, he warned of the "heavy legacy" that the Saddam regime left behind and which "has had its impact on every Iraqi". June 7 Hundreds of lawyers stage protest at British commander's Basra premises. (Al- Jazeera satellite TV) Hundreds of lawyers have staged a demonstration in front of the premises of the British commander of Basra to demand that the judicial authority be purged of the Ba'athists who were reinstated by the British forces. The demonstrators rejected the formation of an administrative council at which Iraqis will merely serve as advisers. In case the occupation troops procrastinate on this demand, Falih Ali, president of the Basra Lawyers Association, warned that he will coordinate with political parties to continue the protests until this demand is met. June 8 Iraqis protest against ongoing detention of senior cleric in Baghdad. (Egyptian news agency Middle East News Agency / MENA) Dozens of members of Iraq's Muslim scholars’ body demonstrated, calling for the release of a senior cleric and his son arrested by US troops on May 21. A spokesman for the Muslim body said that a delegation had met the former US civil administrator, Jay Garner, who promised them to release Shaykh Ahmad al-Balisani and his son. Arab settlers in Kurdish villages to return to their original homes. (Iraqi Patriotic Union of Kurdistan newspaper Kurdistani Nuwe) A meeting was held in Dibis district attended by Rizgar Ali, Kamal Kirkuki, members of Kirkuk council and representatives of Arab and Kurdish farmers in the district and a military representative from the coalition forces. The topic of the meeting was the Arabized villages in the area. All the previous efforts to deal with the harvest of 2003 in these villages were presented which resulted in dividing the produce 50 per cent for the owners of the lands and 50 per cent for the Arab farmers who had cultivated them. All the sides agreed that the Arabs who had been settled in the village of A'misha should leave the village a day after the date of the meeting and return to their place of Chronology of Events in Iraq UNCHR Ankara COI Team June 2003 Page 3 16/02/2004 origin, and that the Kurds displaced from the village should return to their village. The same decision was taken for all the other villages in the same area, but a deadline was not reported. June 9 Former intelligence chief takes refuge in Syria. (Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party newspaper Al-Ta'akhi) It was reported that the former head of the Iraqi intelligence service, Sa'dun Shakir, was hiding in Syria, where he arrived a few days before the fall of Baghdad. Meanwhile, his wife arrived in Amman and his children have settled in Dubai. Sa'dun Shakir was among the first Ba'athist leaders to form the nucleus of the Iraqi intelligence body in 1968, which was then called the "Apparatus of Yearning", and later the official in charge of the liaison office, both headed by Saddam Hussain himself. June 10 "Retribution body" calls for punishing elements of former Iraqi regime. (London-based newspaper Al-Zaman) An Iraqi group calling itself the "Retribution Committee" (lajnat al-Qisas) has decided to take revenge against officials in the former Iraqi regime before they are tried. Posters have appeared on mosque walls and in shops in Baghdad saying that the Retribution Committee has given itself the authority to search for former Iraqi officials, detain them and exact "the toughest revenge against them for crimes they committed against the Iraqis”. The posters said that the "Retribution Committee" is an independent group that does not belong to any political movement.