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Iraqi president's plea to Britain: 'Don't
let the blood of your sons be for nothing'
23.10.2005
By Toby Harnden at Qolat Cholan, north-west Iraq
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Iraq's president pleaded
yesterday for Britain to keep its troops in the
country to ensure that "the blood of your sons,
which was the price of freedom you bought for our
people" was not squandered.
"You liberated 50 million Muslims from Afghanistan
to Iraq," said President Jalal Talabani, a former
Kurdish guerrilla leader. "This was a noble goal. If
your troops left tomorrow, all their blood and
sacrifice would be wasted.
"In Iraq, there would be chaos and perhaps be civil
war. There would be foreign intervention - our
neighbours [Iran, Syria, Turkey] would come in." |
Iraqi
President : Jalal Talabani
Photo: Reuters |
Mr Talabani was talking to The Sunday Telegraph at
Qolat Cholan, the compound near the town of
Suleimaniya in Kurdish north-west Iraq that used to
be his military stronghold.
Once a mountain retreat for Saddam's Hussein's
cronies, it became a base for resistance against the
tyrant and a haunt of CIA agents when Kurdistan was
granted semi autonomy after the 1991 Gulf war.
Despite the growing disquiet in Britain over the
roadside bombing campaign against troops in southern
Iraq, Mr Talabani said that withdrawing British
forces would hand the terrorists a propaganda
victory.
"We are now fighting a world war launched by
terrorists against civilisation, against democracy,
against progress, against all the values of
humanity," he said. "If British troops withdrew, the
terrorists would say, 'Look, we have imposed our
will on the most accomplished armed forces in the
world and terror is the way to oblige the Europeans
to surrender to us'.''
Mr Talabani, whose fellow Kurds were among the
worst-persecuted under Saddam, hailed the start of
the former dictator's trial last week as a watershed
for Iraqis.
"Those who thought that one day he would be pardoned
or he would come back will be sure he is finished,"
he said. He laughed aloud when reminded of Saddam's
claim on the opening day of the hearing that he was
still the real president of Iraq. "I am now the
President," he said.
Surprisingly, however, Mr Talabani believes that
Saddam's life, which he would have gladly ended
during his guerrilla days, should be spared -
although as an additional punishment rather than an
act of mercy.
"It would be better to treat him like Rudolf Hess,
to put him in prison and show him how Iraq is
developing without him. This would be a kind of
death for him every day.
"But most people here disagree with me. Being
against the death penalty is difficult in the
Islamic world because it is guaranteed by the
Koran."
As President, his would be one of the three
signatures on Saddam's death warrant but the assent
of his two vice-presidents would be legally
sufficient.
"I will not prevent the sentence of the judges being
carried out. I will be absent the day they discuss
this."
He said he was "certain" that last week's referendum
on the Iraqi constitution had resulted in a Yes,
although the official result has not yet been
announced.
In his view, this was another turning point for Iraq
and the record turnout of up to 68 per cent was a
sign of the country coming together.
A genial, avuncular man, Mr Talabani said his career
as a fighter, which began in 1961 when Kurds rose up
against the Iraqi monarchy, was over.
"I commanded people who fought and killed. I planned
many battles. But we never carried out terrorist
attacks or used car bombs or violence against
civilians. We treated Iraqi prisoners as our
brothers.
"I believe in popular war and I believe in partisan
war. But my revolutionary opinion is that in the
21st century this is finished. Now is not the time
of Mao Tse Tung, Ho Chi Minh and Che Guevara. It's a
new era... The time for armed struggle has passed."
With its thriving trade, colourful, bustling streets
and peshmerga checkpoints that ensure insurgents
cannot operate, Kurdistan is a vision of what the
rest of Iraq might be. Mr Talabani, who insists the
situation in Iraq is improving every day, believes
that time is now within sight.
"Iraqis have started to hate these killers and
butchers and they are isolated from the people. In
certain areas, even some tribes are ready to
co-operate with the government and coalition forces
to fight against terrorists."
British troops, he said, had helped to create such
conditions for Iraqis, including Kurds, who under
the federalism enshrined in the new constitution
will be guaranteed regional autonomy. A country
which had been "a concentration camp built on top of
a mass grave" under Saddam was being slowly
transformed.
"If terrorism is not controlled, it will increase
and spread all over the world. Now you are fighting
the terrorists here in their own place. If you stop
doing this then you will be fighting them in your
own cities and towns. You are our partners in this."
www.telegraph.co.uk
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