A new Arab initiative to ease the hardship of Iraq's refugees is being launched, Dina Ezzat reports Tomorrow, the Arab League will launch a three-month campaing to raise over $1 million to provide for the basic needs of over two million Iraqi refugees and two million Iraqis displaced within the country. Collecting financial donations from Arab individuals, governments and non- governmental organisations is the theme of the campaign which will also include allocating the revenues of several performances by some of the most renowned Arab artists to the same cause -- assisting Iraqi refugees and internally displaced persons to access better basic services. The campaign's launch will be aired from ART studios in Cairo at around 6 GMT (8am Cairo Local Time). Throughout the morning, afternoon and evening of tomorrow, the ART Cairo studio will be airing interviews, reviews and documentaries about the lives of Iraqi refugees, their problems and needs. Also to be aired on the same day are the Friday prayers, transmitted live from the holiest Muslim mosque in Mecca with a special address on the need for Muslims to reach out to individuals in need. Prominent Arab satellite channels, including Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabiya, and the Egyptian and Iraqi satellite channels, will join the ART Cairo studio for parts of the day- long transmission with the objective of spreading the call for donations across the Arab world. "Our target is to raise over $100 million during this [three-month] campaign," said Naseer Shamma, a prominent Iraqi musician with widescale Arab support and acclaim. The fund raising campaign is Shamma's brainchild. "The suffering of over four million Iraqis cannot go unnoticed. Their mere accommodation in Arab countries is not enough [in and of itself]. Arabs should not get used to the [plight of] these Iraqis or about not doing much about it," Shamma said on Tuesday. Speaking during a joint press conference with Ambassador Hesham Youssef, chief of the cabinet of the Arab League secretary-general, Shamma said he had called on the Arab League to sponsor the campaign not just for the sake of securing sufficient political and logistical support for the fund-raising exercise but to help relay the message of Arab solidarity across the Arab world and beyond. "The concept of Arab solidarity, especially at a humanitarian level, is not an obsolete cause to champion. Today, we are not just here to say we want to help Iraqi refugees but that despite [all political differences], Arabs are there for each other especially at difficult [moments]," Shamma said. "Arabs -- hand in hand with Iraqis" is the title chosen for the campaign. "It says a lot about Arab solidarity... and about the need to champion this solidarity," Shamma said. He added that preliminary visits and talks he held in several Arab capitals, and with a wide range of Arab artists, show a great interest on the part of all to take part in the campaign. The humanitarian call, he added, bypassed all divides including some entrenched animosities. As such, the Kuwaiti people, perceived as the ultimate enemy during the rule of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, along with entrepreneurs and artists, are willing to join in supporting Iraqi refugees. "I think that once this campaign is launched people around the Arab world and beyond will get to learn the true story of the Iraqi refugees. Everybody will come to the rescue," Ambassador Youssef said. He added that the very first donations to the campaign would be offered by several Arab governments which showed interest in the campaign and pledged support. According to Abeer Etefa of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), who was also present at the press conference held at the headquarters of the Arab League, the campaign is essential for the work of the UNHCR which faces serious financial shortcomings while trying to reach out to Iraqi refugees in neighbouring countries and internally displaced Iraqi individuals. According to Etefa, while most Iraqi refugees are not registered with UNHCR, the international organisation, like other UN and other humanitarian organisations, have been unable to cater to even half of those registered in very basic needs. Indeed, she added, the situation is getting worse, to the extent that children are being denied access to education and proper nutrition. Towards the end of the three months, the funds raised by the campaign will be directed to the UNHCR and the governments of the hosting states of the refugees, especially Syria and Jordan, which have put up more than half the Iraqi refugees. The money will be spent to address the pressing socio-economic demands of the Iraqi refugees and internally displaced persons. Etefa admitted that in view of the limited presence of the UNHCR inside Iraq, one which is confined to a restricted staff in Baghdad and Erbil, new schemes will need to be designed to disburse the donations which will then be collected by internally displaced Iraqis whose suffering is grave. The organisers of the campaign and their partners in several world organisations are not expecting enough money to be raised to address the immediate needs of all the four million Iraqis for the duration of a year. Another campaign might be needed. And according to Shamma the next one might be coordinated with international performers and sympathisers of Western political groups. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari who held talks with Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa on Tuesday morning, pledged the support and cooperation of his government to the campaign.
