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Kurdish Iraqi soldiers are deserting to
avoid the conflict in Baghdad
20.1.2007
By Leila Fadel and Yaseen Taha |
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January 20, 2007
Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan region (Iraq), - As
the Iraqi government attempts to secure a capital
city ravaged by conflict between Sunni and Shiite
Muslim Arabs, its decision to bring a third party
into the mix may cause more problems than peace.
Kurdish soldiers from Kurdistan (northern Iraq), who
are mostly Sunnis but not Arabs, are deserting the
army to avoid the civil war in Baghdad, a conflict
they consider someone else's problem.
The Iraqi army brigades being sent to the capital
are filled with former members of a Kurdish militia,
the peshmerga, and most of the soldiers remain loyal
to the militia.
Much as Shiite militias have infiltrated the Iraqi
security forces across Arab Iraq, the peshmerga fill
the ranks of the Iraqi army in the Kurdish region in
the north, poised to secure a semi-independent
Kurdistan and seize oil-rich Kirkuk and parts of
Mosul if Iraq falls apart. One thing they didn't
bank on, they said, was being sent into the "fire"
of Baghdad.
"The soldiers don't know the Arabic language, the
Arab tradition, and they don't have any experience
fighting terror," said Anwar Dolani, a former
peshmerga commander who leads the brigade that's
being transferred to Baghdad from the Kurdish city
of Sulaimaniyah.
Dolani called the desertions a "phenomenon" but
refused to say how many soldiers have left the army.
"I can't deny that a number of soldiers have
deserted the army, and it might increase due to the
ferocious military operations in Baghdad," he said.
"This is the biggest performance through which we
can test them," said Lt. Gen. Ali Ghaidan, the
commander of land forces for the Iraqi Ministry of
Defense. The Kurdish soldiers will be using
translators, and they'll start off doing less
dangerous tasks, such as manning checkpoints with
Arab soldiers, he said.
In interviews, however, soldiers in Sulaimaniyah
expressed loyalty to their Kurdish brethren, not to
Iraq. Many said they'd already deserted, and those
who are going to Baghdad said they'd flee if the
situation there became too difficult.
"I joined the army to be a soldier in my homeland,
among my people. Not to fight for others who I have
nothing to do with," said Ameen Kareem, 38, who took
a week's leave with other soldiers from his brigade
in Erbil and never returned. "I used to fight in the
mountains and valleys, not in the streets."
Kareem said he knew that deserting was risky, but he
said he'd rather be behind bars in Kurdistan than a
"soldier in Baghdad's fire." Without the language
and with his Kurdish features, he was sure he would
stand out, he said. He's a Kurd, he said, and he has
no reason to become a target in an Arab war.
Now he drives a taxi in Sulaimaniyah, eking out a
living and praying that he doesn't get caught.
Other soldiers in Sulaimaniyah also said they didn't
want to be involved in someone else's war.
Farman Mohammed, 42, celebrated the Muslim Eid
holiday with his family last month and didn't go
back when he heard that he might be deployed to
Baghdad. Afraid for his life, he found a new job and
settled in with his family.
"The fanatic Sunnis in Baghdad kill the Shiites, and
vice versa. Both of them are outraged against the
Kurds. They will not hesitate to kill us and accuse
us of being collaborators with the occupiers," he
said. "How can we face them alone?"
Those who are planning to go to Baghdad said they
didn't want to be considered cowards.
Mohammed Abdoul, 41, reluctantly prepared to leave
for the Iraqi capital earlier this week. Fear
clouded his mind.
"I don't know why we should interfere in this
Sunni-Shiite war," he said. "If I am going to face a
difficult task in Baghdad and feel sectarian
tension, I will leave the army forever, come back to
Sulaimaniyah and work in the market."
An army brigade from Sulaimaniyah began arriving at
the Muthana Airport in Baghdad earlier this week,
and a brigade from Erbil, another Kurdish city, is
expected in February, Ghaidan said.
The 1,200 Kurdish soldiers in each of the two
brigades from the Kurdish north will be dwarfed by
2,700 soldiers in each brigade that are being
brought to Baghdad from the Shiite south.
Generals in Erbil and Sulaimaniyah begged the
Ministry of Defense to choose brigades out of Kirkuk
that spoke Arabic to help in Baghdad, brigade
commander Dolani said. Ghaidan wouldn't explain why
entire Kurdish brigades weren't being transferred
from the north.
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