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Iraqi Border Kurdish town of Khanaqin
Struggles With Violence, Drugs and Little Government
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3.3.2007
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March 3, 2007
Khanaqin, The Kurdish city outside Kurdistan
region (Iraq)
The daily attacks in Iraq's cities often overshadow
the problems in smaller towns. But as
hundreds-of-thousands of Iraqis flee Baghdad and
other major cities, small town officials face
growing problems. VOA's Barry Newhouse recently
visited the town of Khanaqin on Iraq's border with
Iran, where local officials are trying to cope with
sectarian violence, a stagnant economy, booming drug
trafficking and a massive influx of new arrivals.
The town of Khanaqin straddles an ancient trade
route between Iraq and Iran, and the city remains a
hub for cross-border commerce. Residents have
historically been Shi'ite Kurds, but under Saddam
Hussein's decades-long Arabization campaign,
hundreds-of-thousands fled to Iran, or other parts
of Iraq, as Arabs were moved into the oil-rich city. |
Khanaqin's governor, Muhammad Amin Hassan Hussein.
VOA |
After the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, many
Kurds who had been refugees in Iran returned,
shifting the town's demographics yet again. Now,
more Shi'ite Kurds fleeing sectarian violence in
Baghdad and other cities continue to arrive.
Khanaqin's governor, Muhammad Amin Hassan Hussein,
says, in recent years, the population has grown from
fewer than 50,000 people before the invasion, to
more than 250,000 today.
He says officials face many problems with security,
with the economy and with administrative gridlock.
He also says there are some people in neighboring
villages who plot against the local government and
carry out attacks.
Khanaqin lies on the northeastern edge of Iraq's
violent Arab-majority Diyala province. Like many
towns and cities across Iraq, the town is becoming
ethnically and religiously homogenized, as
minorities flee to places where they will not be
singled out for attacks.
Governor Hussein says he struggles to help even
those families who want official documents to
legally move.
Hussein says that he was recently asked to write
permits for 60 Arab families, who want to leave
town, and for 60 Kurdish families who want to come
to Khanaqin. He says his office does not even have
the money to buy the necessary stationery.
The governor says the Kurdish-majority town receives
no support from the Arab-majority Diyala regional
government, nor from the central government in
Baghdad.
Khanaqin and other towns near Iraq's northern
Kurdistan region will hold a referendum later this
year to decide if they will join the Kurdistan
regional government authority. The referendum has
further inflamed tensions, as Arabs and other ethnic
groups accuse Kurds of pursuing policies to
influence the vote.
Khanaqin sits just a few kilometers from a border
crossing checkpoint with Iran, and the border
traffic helped support the local economy.
But the Iraqi government recently closed the
Munthariya checkpoint to all traffic, except trucks
carrying desperately needed fuel from Iran.
While Khanaqin's proximity to Iran helps fuel its
economy, locals say it also contributes to a growing
drug problem. Illegal drugs are cheap here, and many
blame Iranian traffickers.
At the Munthariya checkpoint, Iraqi Army General
Salman Muhammed Dumar says, while his forces have
not found any illegal arms shipments here, they do
find drugs.
"We catch drugs on some people," he says. "We also
find tablets - these kinds of drugs. We send the
traffickers to court." The general also says his
forces have confiscated more than 400 Motorola
radios used for military-style communications.
As Khanaqin officials struggle with the town's
current problems, many of the youth are pessimistic
about their future here.
Mohammed is an 18-year-old student who earns $200 a
month as a guard for a local Kurdish political
party.
He describes himself as Khanaqin's biggest fan of
American hip hop and rap music.
"Everyday, everyday I try to learn American
language," he says. "I read the dictionary -
everything. I hear [listen to] hip hop to study. In
Khanaqin, only I listen to hip hop, because it's my
life. You know? It takes back my life."
Muhammed, who says his friends call him by his rap
name - M2 - says he identifies with the violent
lyrics in rap music. Standing in a dusty parking lot
in the middle of Khanaqin with an AK-47 slung over
his shoulder, he says the music reminds him of his
life.
As other guards gather around M2's cell phone and
listen to his favorite rap songs, he says he wants
to go to America some day, and drive around in a
1969 Chevy Malibu with a gold chain around his neck.
He wants to be a hip hop star.
But in Khanaqin, M2 says, each day is worse than the
one before. He struggles to understand the killing
on Iraq's streets. He says he cries every night -
and he writes rap lyrics about his life.
M2 says, "Whenever you walk down the street, someone
kidnaps you - and your family must pay for you. If
1,000 Iraqis are killed, they just lie in the
streets. Every building is smashed. The thieves are
trying to crush the country. Every car is a bomb. Be
careful."
voanews com
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