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Iraqi Kurdistan faces trouble on two
fronts
9.8.2007
By Fazil Najeeb, Mariwan Hama-Saeed and Christoph
Reuter (ICR No. 230) |
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The Turkish army makes war-like noises and Sunni
extremists stage hit-and-run raids along the border
with Iran.
August 9, 2007
Kurdistan region (Iraq)
While sectarian violence and extremist acts dominate
daily life in many areas of Iraq, the Kurdistan
Region enjoys relative stability and safety - but
threats loom from the north and south.
The three Kurdish provinces Duhok, Erbil and
Sulaimaniyah in Kurdistan experience more much more
stability than the rest of Iraq.
Bomb attacks are rare - the last one occurred on May
9 in front of the ministry of interior in Erbil,
killing 14 people. There are very few cases of
kidnappings and no internecine killings or ethnic
cleansing.
In many respects, the Kurdish Regional Government,
KRG, has managed to establish de facto autonomy,
which is questioned less and less by other political
groups in Iraq - although the apparent plan to
expand the Kurdish area to include Kirkuk and
disputed areas around Kirkuk, Mosul, Mandali and
Sinjar remains controversial.
One of the main reasons for the relative peace here
is the tight control exerted over the region by the
Asayish, Kurdish security forces.
For instance, Arabs fleeing the violence in the
south are searched prior to entering the Kurdish
Region, to ensure there are no insurgents amongst
them. And only once they have passed other security
checks can they be registered.
But Arab extremists seeking to smuggle themselves
into Iraqi Kurdistan pose less of a threat than
militants based across the border in Iran, who are
blamed for bomb attacks in the region.
An Asayish officer told IWPR that “elements within
the Tehran regime” sponsor cross-border raids by
Sunni extremists and supply them with weapons.
The Sunni extremists are often referred to as Ansar
al-Islam, a radical group linked to al-Qaeda, which
was active in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan for a
number of years. Its followers were either wiped out
or dispersed by the American military in 2003, but
the name is still commonly used for Sunni militants.
The Asayish source says that although there are many
cases of Iran assisting the militants, this is
rarely raised publicly as it may jeopardise
relations between the KRG and Tehran.
“Asayish knows of many cases of Iran helping the
[the extremists], but doesn’t talk about it because
it might compromise ties between the KRG and the
Iranian government,” he said. “[Kurdish officials]
don’t accuse Iran directly for political and
economic reasons.”
The militants have attacked Kurdish members of the
Iraqi army along the Iranian border east of
Sulaimaniyah.
But the head of the army’s border guards in
Sulaimaniyah province, Ahmad Dskarayy, insists
there’s no evidence to suggest that Tehran is
helping the infiltrators.
Ismat Argooshy, head of Kurdish security forces in
the area, admits that extremists are penetrating the
frontier.
"There is no country in the world whose borders have
not been violated by smugglers. Kurdistan has the
same issues and along with smugglers terrorists
infiltrate," he told IWPR.
Dskarayy complains that the 500 border guards he has
at his disposal are not enough to keep the
extremists at bay.
“We have told the Iraqi government that we need
2,000 more, but they have not responded,” he said.
Complicating matters, says IWPR’s Asayish source, is
that some border guards are bribed by the militants
to, for instance, “turn a blind eye” when they lay a
roadside bomb or stage incidents themselves, in
order to draw the government’s attention to the
border security threat and, in so doing, press for
salary rises.
But by far the biggest danger the Kurdistan Region
is facing comes from Turkey. The Turkish chief of
staff, General Yasar Buyukanit, has threatened
several times to invade Kurdistan, not only to
destroy the Kurdish Workers Party, PKK - which has
resumed its attacks on Turkish forces from its
mountain bases in Iraqi Kurdistan - but also to
prevent the KRG from taking over Kirkuk.
In the last few months, the Turkish army has shelled
Iraqi northern border areas in the provinces of
Duhok, Erbil and Sulaimaniyah. Duhok and Erbil
provinces have borders with Iran and Turkey, and
Sulaimaniyah is within range of Turkish artillery.
Some residents of villages in these areas have fled
and there have been reports of casualties.
There doesn’t appear to be a solution to this
problem on the horizon. The KRG has shown no
intention of confronting the PKK. And although US
officials have repeatedly promised Ankara that it
will tackle the Kurdish rebels, they seem to have
turned a blind eye to their activities, as the
American military has been preoccupied with the dire
security situation in Iraq.
While The Turkish authorities have resisted an
invasion of Iraqi Kuristan so far, it cannot be
ruled out. There are already several thousand
Turkish troops in the border region, deployed there
following an accord between Ankara and the Saddam
regime, according to which Iraqi and Turkish troops
could enter each other’s territory up to a few
kilometres to hunt down rebels.
The Turkish troops are based close to Duhok province
and in a triangular area between Turkey, Iraq and
Iran. Hoshyar Zebari, Iraqi foreign minister, who is
a Kurd, told a press conference on July 9 that
Turkey has deployed 144,000 troops along the
frontier.
To lessen the risk of a direct confrontation with
its NATO ally, America has pulled its troops out of
Iraqi Kurdistan - a decision made following a
meeting between US Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice and the Turkish foreign minister Abdulah Gul on
May 27, where a possible outbreak of Turkish-Kurdish
hostilities was discussed.
On May 30, US commanders and Nechirvan Barzani, the
prime minister of Iraqi Kurdistan, signed an accord
transferring security responsibility for the region
from Coalition forces to the Kurdish Peshmerga.
American troops were hurriedly pulled out of Erbil,
Duhok and Sulaimaniyah, but remain in force in and
around Kirkuk.
While Iraqi Kurdistan faces threats from Turkey and
Iran, it stands accused of provocative actions and
abuses in disputed areas outside the region. These
are nominally controlled by the federal government,
but militarily in the hands of the Kurdish militias.
The major disputed area is Kirkuk, however some
other districts - such as Shingar in Ninewa
province, Khanaqeen in Diyala province, and Tuz
Khurmatu in Salahadin province - are also contested.
All of which is a consequence of the former Iraqi
government’s manipulation of the administrative map
in the north, which was intended to curb the power
of Erbil and Duhok and to reduce the number of Kurds
and Turkomen in Kirkuk.
Some minorities living in the disputed areas, such
as the Assyrians, Chaldeans, Yezidi and Shabbak, who
are often targeted by Arab extremists, also complain
of harassment and persecution by Kurdish security
personnel.
“They are intimidating us because they want to take
our land by force,” said Hunein Kaddo, a member of
parliament from the Shabbak-minority, who speak
Kurdish but don’t consider themselves Kurds. “The
Arabs want to kill us, and the Kurds feel free to
oppress us as well.”
The Kurdish security forces are accused of singling
out those living in the disputed areas who oppose
apparent Kurdish annexation plans.
A report by the New York-based Human Rights Watch,
published in July 2007, is heavily critical of the
way the Kurdish military deal with people they
detain.
Human Rights Watch found that in the vast majority
of cases, those held by Asayish were not charged,
granted access to lawyers nor brought before an
investigative judge. The report said there was no
method by which prisoners could appeal their
detention or be brought to trial within a reasonable
period of time.
HRW found several cases where detainees remained in
behind bars after being acquitted of serious
offences or completing their sentences. Most had no
knowledge of their legal status; how long they would
continue to be held; or what was to become of them.
Detainees interviewed by HRW spoke of a wide range
of abuse, including beatings, use of implements such
as cables, hosepipes, wooden sticks and metal rods.
They also described how Asayish officers put them in
stress positions for prolonged periods, and kept
them blindfolded and handcuffed continuously for
several days at a stretch.
The vast majority of detainees with whom Human
Rights Watch spoke also reported that they were held
in solitary confinement for extended periods.
Asayish rejected the findings of the report,
claiming the accusations had no foundation.
In the latest incident blamed on the Kurdish
security forces, an Assyrian farmer, Fadi Nazar
Jarjis Habash, was reportedly shot and killed while
riding his tractor. Eyewitnesses said he pulled his
vehicle over when a Peshmerga unit of the Iraqi army
approached, but they opened fire as they passed,
killing Habash. "These KDP (Kurdistan Democratic
Party) Peshmarga make a mockery of the Iraqi army,”
said one eyewitness. “Their uniform is that of the
Iraqi army but the badge on their lapels is that of
Kurdistan.”
Although they were on Iraqi army duty when the
incident occurred, the assailants were part of a KDP
delegation which visited the victim’s family to
express their condolences.
Fazil Najeeb and Mariwan Hama-Saeed are IWPR
contributors. Christoph Reuter is an IWPR trainer.
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