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Iraq Through Iraqi Kurdistan
30.9.2007
By Stafford Clarry |
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September
30, 2007
This speech -- Iraq Through Iraqi Kurdistan -- was
presented by Stafford Clarry, a Hilo resident and
Humanitarian Affairs Advisor, on Sept. 6, 2007, at
the University of Hawaii-Hilo. Mr. Clarry, who
served in Iraqi Kurdistan since 1991, is the
American with the longest continuous service in
Iraq.
Let me begin to try to help you understand more
about what is happening in Iraq by understanding
what is happening, and not happening, in one part of
Iraq, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, often referred
to as Iraqi Kurdistan or just plain Kurdistan. This
is not about understanding everything there is to
understand of course, but to understand a bit more
about Iraq, certainly more about the Kurdistan
Region.
I hope to help you know and understand that there is
a lot more to know and understand. Every month in
Iraq the whole population of Hilo -- some 50,000
persons, or 10,000 families -- are being forced by
the threat of violence, fear, to migrate from their
homes. Every three months the whole population of
the Big Island migrates. Today, in Iraq, more than
three times the population of our fair State of
Hawaii is no longer able to go home -- more than 4
million people.
Whatever we hear or read or see on TV about the
progress or success being made regarding security in
Iraq, or the lack thereof, there is one fundamental
question and two directly related questions to ask
of our government and its military, of journalists
and pundits and political analysts:
1. How many displaced Iraqis have gone home?
2. When are displaced Iraqis going home?
3. How many schools are operating normally, at or
near full attendance, on all school days, and where
are they located?
Iraqis will go home, certainly most of them, at some
point in time. Relatively few will resettle
permanently in other countries, for various reasons
-- home is home, other countries will not allow them
in, or if they are already in a foreign country as
refugees they will not be allowed to remain. But
they will only go when they know their homes are no
longer threatening places to be.
For those of you with friends or relatives or
acquaintances serving in Iraq, they might not be
able for security reasons to tell you much about
where they are or what they are doing. But there are
primary and secondary schools everywhere in Iraq.
Ask them how the local schools are doing.
Ask them to check them out. Are the schools
operating regularly? Are all the students attending
their classes? Is the school normally staffed with
enough teachers?
It’s not about snow days or hurricane days. Parents
in Iraq, as parents anywhere, do not send their
children to school when neighborhood security is not
really right.
Answers to the first question will indicate the
progress being made.
Answers to the second question will indicate
thoughts and trends.
Answers to the third question will indicate
locations and the level of security in those
locations.
In May 1992 the Kurdistan Region conducted the first
internationally-observed free and fair elections in
Iraq since the country was formed by the British.
The British “cooked” Iraq from three major remnants
of the Ottoman Empire that sided with Germany and
suffered defeat during WW-I. Those elections were
regional elections. The regime of Saddam Hussein had
nothing to do with them.
Following those elections, a regional parliament was
formed, the Kurdistan National Assembly (KNA), and
also a government, the Kurdistan Regional Government
(KRG). Both the KNA and the KRG continue to this
day.
How did we get to those elections? And how did we
get to where we are since those elections? This is
the story of Iraqi Kurdistan, a story of the
Kurdistan Region of Iraq. It is also a story of Iraq
today, and quite possibly a story for the Iraq of
the future.
Kurdistan, which means the land of the Kurds, is a
region that covers substantial and important parts
of primarily Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria. There
are also groups of Kurds in Armenia, Lebanon, and
other countries in that Middle Eastern part of the
world. In this Greater Kurdistan there are more than
25 million Kurds, the largest ethnic group in the
world without a country of their own. Most Kurds
live in Turkey, about 12 million, 5-6 million in
Iraq, about 6 million in Iran, 1-2 million in Syria.
Kurds are Kurds, they speak Kurdish. Turks are
Turks, they speak Turkish. Arabs are Arabs, they
speak Arabic. These three languages are very
different from each other, in very different
language families. Three people, each speaking one
of these languages, and each speaking only one
language, cannot communicate with each other.
Kurds, Turks, and Arabs are peoples of many
centuries. Kurds claim an ancestry going back more
than 4,000 years. Turks came from the East, from
Central Asia perhaps 1,000 years ago. Arabs came up
from Arabia over dozens of centuries.
The City of Erbil, where I live in Iraqi Kurdistan,
the regional capital, has about one million people
and is said to be the oldest continuously inhabited
human settlement in the world, perhaps 10,000 years
old.
Along with language differences, to these three
separate peoples we have to add thousands of years
of heritage, legacies, and culture differences. Over
these thousands of years we have to highlight the
addition of religions: Zoroastrianism, Yezidism,
Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and the Sabeans
(followers of John the Baptist who are neither
Christian nor Muslim). And there are other
religions, like the Kakayee who tell me their
beliefs are more akin to Buddhism. And then there is
the very major Muslim split between the Sunni and
the Shia. And within all these religions there are
various sects and splits and fractions and factions.
The Christians are split among the so-called
Assyrians some of whom are Nestorians, also known as
the Church of the East or Ancient Church of the
East, one of the oldest Christian communities in the
world, from the 2nd century at least. Some Assyrians
follow the new calendar and some the old calendar
(Justinian vs. Gregorian, I forget which is which).
And then in the 17th century Rome inserted itself
into the picture and brought some of the Assyrians
into their camp to eventually form the Chaldean
Catholic Church. It was about the Protestants and
the Catholics, déjà vu all over again.
The head of the Assyrian church, the Church of the
East, their Patriarch, sits in Chicago. The head of
the Chaldean Church sits in Baghdad, or at least the
last time I knew. I have heard that for security
reasons he may be moving to Erbil. The seminary and
other religious organizations have already moved to
the Kurdistan Region.
Incidentally, both the Assyrians and Chaldeans speak
a derivative of Aramaic, the language spoken by
Jesus Christ.
Let me make absolutely and emphatically clear, based
on my long and personal experience, in Iraq all
these ethnicities and all these religions can live,
and do live, very respectfully and very warmly with
each other. They have learned to do so over
centuries.
They share and participate in each others’
festivities. Muslims visit with their Christian
friends and colleagues on Easter.
Christians visit with their Muslim friends and
colleagues on Eid. This has been normal over
centuries. There is no hate between Iraqi
communities as we learned of the hate between
European communities in the former Yugoslavia.
How do I know this? I know if from Baghdad where I
lived for a year in 1991-92. My staff was Muslim and
Christian, Arab and Kurd, Shia and Sunni. We also
had Palestinians. We had very enjoyable social times
together. And I noticed that they looked out for
each other, regardless of their ethnic or religious
backgrounds.
I also know it from people today in Iraq who express
shock when they and the people around them are being
labeled according to their ethnicity and religion.
It is happening for the first time in their lives
and they don’t like it.
I also know this from the Kurdistan Region of today
that is personally secure and politically stable.
Any one of you, woman or man, can take the keys of
my vehicle in Erbil and move anywhere throughout the
Region, at anytime day or night, alone without armed
guards. I do, and have always done so. You will not
be harmed. We have virtually no crime. And we are
virtually drug-free. (And we have no taxes.) We have
other major issues to deal with, but not these
issues. Yet. So far.
Thousands of families have been fleeing their homes
in Baghdad, Mosul, and other threatening parts of
Iraq to the Kurdistan Region. They are not only
Kurds but also Arab. They are not only Muslim, they
are also Christian. They are not only Sunni, they
are also Shia. In the Kurdistan Region they have no
problem with each other; they live side by side;
their children play with each other and go to school
together.
Much of the Kurdistan Region is mountainous. During
the flaming furnace hot summer busloads of Arab
tourists from Mosul and other places outside the
Region flock to the Kurdistan Region to relax from
the prevailing oppressive threat of violence and
summer heat, camp out, walk the walk, drink the
drink, and breathe free, without guards, without
weapons. Because of all the tourists, since 2003
some of my favorite places have become unbearable.
In 2003 when General Petraeus was commander of the
101st Airborne (the Screaming Eagles) in Mosul,
which is less than an hour’s drive from where I
live, his soldiers would come to Kurdistan for R&R.
Touch wood, no American soldier, marine, seaman, or
airman has become a fatality in combat or in a
terrorist incident in Kurdistan, not even in an
accident. I have often observed American military
personnel in the markets of Kurdistan, in uniform
without weapons, out on picnics with local people,
and in the crowd at a trade fair.
I first went to Iraq in 1991 and have been there
ever since. Perhaps I am the longest serving
American in the country. I went there following 21
years in international relief and development work
in the in South Asia (India and Bangladesh) and in
East Africa (Somalia). During those 21 years,
personal security wasn’t much of an issue to be
concerned with. Though India and Bangladesh had
their unstable moments, personal security wasn’t an
issue even during the 1971 Indo-Pakistan War when
the USG tilted toward Pakistan. At the time, I was
in India up near the front lines where I had been
serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer and trainer.
Even in Somalia during the early 1980s personal
security wasn’t much of an issue. At the time, its
capital Mogadishu, where ‘Blackhawk Down’ occurred
some years later, was reputed to be among the safest
capitals in the world. With a 2,000-mile coastline
of endless beaches, and lobster most everyday, we
would get together with a few families, take our
LandCruisers way down or way up the coast and spend
overnights sleeping on the beach. Security just
wasn’t an issue.
Those 21 years followed early years here in Hilo
beginning at the former Hilo General Hospital near
Rainbow Falls, once a Peace Corps Training Center,
now the County Annex. I did not do my Peace Corps
training there, I was born there.
Schooling began at Keakealani School in Volcano
Village, then a 2-room schoolhouse with 2 teachers,
4 grades in 1 room, 2 grades in the other, and the
mobile library, the bookmobile, came around once a
week. It’s wonderful to see the school still
operating today as a Department of Education Outdoor
Education Center. It looks better today - well
maintained -- than I remember it. On the other hand,
the former Hilo General Hospital needs substantial
attention to restore its prominence.
My father was military and he was involved in
reopening Kilauea Military Camp (KMC) in Hawaii
Volcanoes National Park during the Korean War. Back
then I was the only kid at KMC where I wandered off
without permission and eluded supervision exploring
the forests and steam cracks and pushing the
envelope of my world. I really haven’t stopped.
Eventually, more children came to KMC and some were
older who needed to attend schools with grades
beyond Keakealani’s capacity and so we began
commuting to Hilo, up and down 32 miles everyday on
the twisting and narrow old Volcano Road that ran in
front of KMC and the park headquarters and by the
Volcano House, past the Volcano Store and “Hongo”
Store and the Girl Scout (Kilauea) Lodge to Hilo,
for me to St. Joseph’s School, for others to Hilo
High and other schools. The highway you know today
outside the park entrance and behind KMC did not
exist back then.
Between Kilauea Starbucks and the Hongwanji temple
there are two properties, one a financial services
office, the other today a parking lot. A few years
ago in that parking lot next to Starbucks there was
an old heritage house that, unfortunately, has been
torn down. It was known by many as "Termite Tavern"
from where on occasion singing could be heard --
something about eagles flying high.
My great great great grandfather, from China, died
in that house in 1895, still with his queue. He left
quite a paper trail about the earliest plantations
he started on this island (in Waimea, Kohala, and
Ponohawai), the first bowling alley, inter-island
shipping, and properties. He became a Catholic late
in life and it is said he donated some property to
St. Joseph’s.
Next door, next to the Hongwanji temple where a
financial services office stands tofday, was my
grandfather’s house. He worked for the then Hilo
Tribune-Herald from 1909 to 1959, yes, 50 years.
Legend has it he never took a day of sick leave. My
mother talks of going to the movies free with
siblings and others because her mother, my
grandmother, sold tickets for many years at the Hilo
Theater and Palace Theater.
My father was transferred to ROTC duty in Central
New York where we lived for some seven years. Later,
when he was assigned to Korea for a year we returned
to Hilo. That was 1959-1960, one full high school
year with that most awesome of eruptions at Kilauea
Iki, and the eruption at Kapoho that inundated Warm
Springs featured in the 1950s version of "Bird of
Paradise" starring Debra Paget, Louis Jourdan, and
Jeff Chandler.
And of course there was the 1960 tsunami that ended
across the street from my grandparents’ home on
Kilauea Ave, which was half as wide as it is today.
We were there at the time and took refuge in the
higher, stronger, cement Hongwanji temple next door.
I very well remember the post 2am tea prepared for
us on a wood stove.
Then it was back to Central New York where I
finished high school and attended the university of
Jimmy Brown, Ernie Davis, Floyd Little, Larry Czonka,
Dave Bing, and Jim Boeheim. Coincidently, Syracuse
is the home and headquarters of the Franciscan nuns
who run St. Joseph’s School here in Hilo and worked
with Father Damien on Molokai.
Remember 1968? After university graduation it was
Peace Corps and 40 continuous years (next year) in a
public service career in international relief and
development with NGOs (nongovernmental
organizations), the United Nations, and as a
government advisor and consultant. About in the
middle of those 40 years I decided to take a break,
get off the firing line, and go to graduate school.
And then I went to Iraq. It was the refugee crisis
following war over Kuwait in early 1991. I had
refugee logistics experience from Somalia and food
logistics experience from many years in India and
Bangladesh. A half million Iraqis fled to Turkey, a
million to Iran, perhaps another half million to
Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. Two million Iraqis
fled their country. Perhaps another million were
displaced within the country -- not refugees but
IDPs, internally displaced persons.
As I believe you know from incessant news articles
and other reports, the main ethnic groups in Iraq
are Arabs and Kurds. But there are also other
non-Arab and non-Kurd ethnic groups. There are the
Turkmen who came from Central Asia. There are
non-Arab and non-Kurd Christians who believe they
are descendants of the ancient Assyrian Empire. And
there are Armenians, Greeks, Palestinians, and other
minorities.
Kurds are mostly Sunni, but there are also Shia
Kurds (Failies). There are also Christian Kurds,
Yezidi Kurds, and Kaykayee Kurds. There were Jewish
Kurds. Most Iraqi Jews, including Jewish Kurds, have
long departed Iraq for Israel, the U.S., and other
countries. A former Israeli defense minister is a
Jewish Kurd.
When the British created Iraq following WW-I during
the 1920s they favored the minority Sunnis and put
them in charge. They even imported a Sunni from
outside Iraq and installed him as king. From its
beginning, Iraq was designated an Arab country even
though there were many in Iraq who were not Arab,
like the Kurds. This all occurred during the time of
Lawrence of Arabia and that amazing woman, Gertrude
Bell.
By the way, you may have read about the intrepid
British woman Isabella Bird who visited Hawaii in
the 1870s and wrote letters to her sister that were
published by UH, and others, in a book "Six Months
in the Sandwich Isle"? Ms. Bird visited the Big
Island, went to the top of Mauna Loa and rode the
gulches up the Hamakua Coast. No bridges back then.
She said, “Hilo is what Honolulu tries to be.”
Anyway, after she finished her
intrepidness/intrepidity in Hawaii she continued
being intrepid in the Rockies, China, and many other
places, including Iraqi Kurdistan.
No one welcomes being dominated by anyone else. The
Kurds certainly were not about to tolerate being
dominated by Arabs. Following WW-I, one
international treaty offered the Kurds a country of
their own. But later, another treaty that had more
to do with Turkey’s interests than Kurdish interests
took the offer off the table.
No country has had more difficulty accepting Kurds
as Kurds than Turkey. For decades, Turkey did not
tolerate the words Kurd, Kurdish, Kurdistan, the
Kurdish language, Kurdish dress, Kurdish music,
Kurdish radio and TV programs, even Kurdish names
for children. In Turkey, Kurds have been called not
Kurds, but mountain Turks. This has finally begun to
change, however, under pressure of the EU, which
Turkey wants to become a member of.
And so, from Iraq’s birth following WW-I began a
series of revolts, uprisings, and insurgencies (not
terrorism) by the Kurds against the
British-installed Baghdad government. This
opposition was largely led by Mulla Mustafa Barzani,
a legendary Braveheart and Kamehameha character. In
his book "The First Dissident," about the Book of
Job in contemporary politics, William Safire offers
the dedication to Mullah Mustafa Barzani. Safire
said Mustafa Barzani was the most Joban character he
had ever met.
Mullah Mustafa Barzani is the father of Masoud
Barzani, President of the Kurdistan Region. And he
is the grandfather of Nechirvan Barzani, Prime
Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government. Mulla
Mustafa Barzani came to the U.S. for cancer
treatment and died in McLean, Virginia in 1979.
In 1946, following dramatic events and threatened by
the governments of Iraq, Iran, and Turkey, Mulla
Mustafa Barzani fled across the mountains with 500
fighters (“peshmerga”, those who face death) to
Russia where he remained until the overthrow of the
Iraqi monarchy in 1958. He was welcomed back in
triumph by his followers and by the new government
that provided generous support and facilities. He
was the undisputed leader of the Kurds.
As Mullah Mustafa Barzani struggled to gain more
rights for his people who were being treated as
second-class Iraqis, relations with the Baghdad
government deteriorated and eventually broke down.
On September 11th 1961 Mullah Mustafa began the
Kurdish revolution that continued until the
overthrow of the regime of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Most of 1961 to 2003 was the Cold War period. Iraq
leaned toward the USSR and Iran leaned toward the
US. Iraq acquired Soviet military equipment and Iran
acquired American military equipment. Mullah Mustafa
Barzani led an insurgency against Baghdad to serve
Kurdish interests, and so the U.S. Government
(through Iran) provided him with support to serve
U.S. interests.
In 1975, the Shah of Iran and Saddam Hussein cut a
dirty deal in Algiers, known as the Algiers accords,
that pulled the rug out from under Mullah Mustafa
Barzani and the Iraqi Kurds. To this day, the
Kurdish leadership regards Henry Kissinger
complicitous in the treachery. When questioned about
this before a Senate committee, Kissinger retorted,
“Covert action should not be confused with
missionary work.”
As a result of the collapse of the Kurdish national
movement, tens of thousands of Kurds fled Iraq,
mostly to Iran where they lived as refugees for many
years. Some found their way to the United States,
others to the UK, Germany, Austria, France, Sweden,
Norway, even Finland, and many other countries. This
was the Kurdish Diaspora. Thirty years later, many
have returned to their destroyed communities in
Kurdistan. They have been rebuilding their homes and
continue to rebuild their lives. Home is always
home. Life goes on.
Throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and especially during
the 1980s, more than 4,000 communities throughout
the Kurdistan Region were completely destroyed,
flattened, made uninhabitable. Many communities were
quite small, like the smaller former plantation
communities on the Big Island; a few were larger
than Hilo. More homes and other structures and
facilities than exist on the Big Island today were
completely destroyed back then. That’s how I found
the Kurdistan Region in 1991.
The people of the Kurdistan Region were forced to
flee to neighboring countries as refugees, or to the
few larger cities, thus overburdening public
services. Other thousands of families were forced
into some 75 so-called "collective towns" located in
areas far from their ancestral communities where
they could be watched and controlled.
They were disconnected from their lands and
livelihoods. Being a native people, not unlike the
Hawaiian people in some ways, they were disconnected
from the roots of their culture. In concept,
Saddam’s collective towns were not unlike the
reservations for Native Americans established in
Oklahoma. The Kurds had many trails of tears.
As Saddam tied himself up in war with Iran during
the 1980s, the Kurds tried to take advantage of the
situation to claim their rights and win back their
homes and lands. When the war finally finished eight
years later, Saddam, especially his cousin known as
Chemical Ali, turned Iraq’s well-equipped and
battle-hardened military and security forces toward
Iraqi Kurdistan.
The G-word, “genocide,” is now applied to this
period, known locally in Kurdistan as the Anfal
Campaign, of systematic destruction and
disappearance. Atrocities were committed extensively
throughout the Region. More than 100,000 people
disappeared. As more and more communities were
destroyed, tens of thousands of families were forced
to migrate. Some fled to neighboring countries and
became refugees, others became IDPs within Iraq. For
decades, life was about constant oppression,
repression, fear, destruction, displacement,
disappearance, and disrupted lives. But life goes
on.
Halabja, which had about the same population as Hilo
(some 50,000 persons) is the most infamous incident
of chemical weapons being used against civilians in
Iraq, or anywhere for that matter. But it is not the
only incident. Chemical weapons were used all across
the Kurdistan Region, in dozens of locations, from
the northwest near the border with Turkey down to
the southeast near the border with Iran. I have been
to many of these sites when the remnants of the
bombs were still scattered around.
Iraq is an incredibly, unimaginably, terribly rich
country. It is commonly said that Iraq has the third
largest oil reserves in the world. But that’s based
on very old data. Little exploration has been done
in Iraq since that data was collected and analyzed
during the 1980s. And there have been significant
advances in oil exploration technology since the
1980s that have yet to be applied in Iraq. Iraq
might very well have the largest oil reserves in the
world.
Iraqi oil is shallow, sweet, very high quality, with
the lowest production costs in the world. Today,
only 1,500 wells in Iraq produce 2 million barrels
per day. And many of these wells are in poor
condition due to events since 1991 and the current
situation.
A well is a well. How many wells do American
companies have here in the United States? How much
oil are they producing?
I know one private company here in the states with
4,000 wells.
Due to current circumstances regarding security,
Iraq is having a hard time spending all the billions
it has been earning from its 1,500 poorly producing
wells. Imagine if the circumstances were different
and Iraq had 4,000 wells employing the latest
technology and producing optimally.
It is not only the oil, it is also the gas. Iraq has
tremendous gas reserves. And there are also
substantial sulphur deposits, and other minerals.
And it is not only the oil and gas and minerals.
Unlike most Middle Eastern countries, Iraq also has
good water. Coming down from the mountains of
Kurdistan are streams and rivers that flow into the
Tigris and Euphrates river systems.
Iraq also has great agricultural potential. The
tastiest fruits and vegetables I’ve ever eaten are
produced in Iraq -- apples and apricots, figs and
pomegranates, all kinds of melons, tomatoes and
cucumbers, all the fruits and vegetables you know.
Wonderful honeys, including unique high mountain
wildflower honeys, all organic of course.
Iraq’s economic growth potential is exponential. It
is relatively easy to produce oil, export it, and
take the cash to buy whatever you want. But Iraq
could add tremendous value to its oil by
establishing refineries and petrochemical
industries. Its gas could be used for power
generation. Producing and exporting petroleum
products and power to neighboring countries and the
rest of the world would only add more tremendous
wealth to the value of its tremendous oil and gas
and other natural resources.
But Iraq’s greatest resource of course is its people
-- educated, skilled, and hardworking. Iraq is a
country of about 27 million people, not
overpopulated. Proportionately, Iraq might very well
have more engineers than the U.S. Iraq probably has,
proportionately, more women engineers; about half
the engineers in Iraq are women.
Engineering and science have very high status in
Iraq. High school graduates take nationwide exams.
Those with the highest marks are entitled to study
in the status fields of medicine and engineering. No
need to apply; high marks virtually guarantee
admission. Women being better students (of course),
many shy away from blood and become engineers.
Iraq’s education is relatively weak in the important
social sciences. High school graduates with high
marks, due to the status of science and engineering,
would not normally be allowed by their families to
study political science or economics or education,
for instance. Iraq has many universities and
technical institutes. There are seven universities
plus technical institutes in the Kurdistan Region.
All Iraqi oil (and gas) belongs to all Iraqi people,
not to private companies. All natural resources
belong to the government and are under government
control. Thus, all the revenues from these resources
belong to the Iraqi people and are under the control
of the government.
In 1980, Saddam took the country’s oil wealth and
went to war with Iran. That failed. Then he took the
wealth and committed genocide against the Kurds in
the late 1980s. And then he invaded Kuwait in 1990.
This is the history that does not allow the
Kurdistan Region to accept excessively centralized
political and economic power. The Kurdistan
leadership believes, as do I, that over time such
centralization will be used against them and their
people. Instead, the Kurdistan Region has been
promoting federalism, not independence, since 1992
when the KRG was formed and they agreed to remain
part of Iraq. They adopted all the laws and
administrative structures of Iraq, except of course
for the laws and structures of oppression.
Iraq was the land of free lunch. Life’s necessities
were either free or heavily subsidized. The only
real essential thing Iraqis needed from their
parents was their birth. There were virtually no
taxes. Food and housing was subsidized. Water and
electricity and other utilities were almost free.
Education and health services were reputedly the
best in the Middle East, all free. All university
graduates got jobs in government if they did not go
into the private sector.
Government was expected to provide, and government
did provide. You can imagine what we are going
through to wean people away from this unrealistic
and socially harmful expectation.
Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 led to
war in early 1991 by a US-led coalition that left
him in power. President Bush Sr. gave the signal to
the Iraqi people for an uprising that was at first
quite successful, but then it was brutally crushed
sending thousands of families from the Kurdistan
Region into the mountains along the border with
Turkey and Iran during winter. Tens of thousands
suffered, and thousands died.
You may remember Secretary of State James Baker
finally visiting the refugee camps after incessant
media pressure that kept the heat on. I was here in
Hilo at the time trying to land a position in
Jakarta, one of the few places in developing
countries where there was a good international high
school for my children. The media drew me into Iraq
and I’ve been there ever since. I called a former UN
colleague and found myself in those camps within ten
days with UNHCR, the UN refugee agency.
Something very unique happened back then. The
international community got its act together and
performed the first humanitarian intervention, a
foreign intervention without the permission of the
host country. Credit goes to the media, UK Prime
Minister John Major, Turkish President Turgut Ozal,
and particularly Bernard Kouchner, a founder of the
NGO Medicines Sans Frontieres (MSF, Doctors Without
Borders) who is today the Foreign Minister of
France.
The U.S. led a military coalition of forces from
eleven countries to provide security and
humanitarian assistance to the refugees in the
mountains along the Iraq-Turkey border. I was
assigned by the UN to liaise with the coalition
forces headed by then Lieutenant General
Shalikashvili who went on to become the commander of
NATO forces and eventually replace General Colin
Powell as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
He was assisted by Major General Jay Garner who
headed Iraq reconstruction in 2003 before being
replaced by Jerry Bremer. There was also Brigadier
General Tony Zinni who collected three more stars
and went on to become CENTCOM commander, a position
held by General Schwarzkopf during the 1991 war.
It was an extremely hard and hectic time. I gained a
whole new appreciation of the U.S. military, its
super competence and
capabilities. They were on their way home when they
were diverted to implement this humanitarian
intervention. They
couldn’t do enough to turn over the program to the
UN and go home. I had any helicopter I wanted.
The Coalition established a no-fly zone to keep
Iraqi helicopters out and pushed the Iraqi military
and security forces out of a portion of the
Kurdistan Region to create a security zone. Tens of
thousands of refugees poured out of the mountains
and went home, perhaps the fastest refugee return in
history. It was no longer about fear and fighting.
It was almost hectic fun. Actually, at times it was
fun. Coalition forces had a satisfying and
successful time making it happen.
Saddam was weak but not out. With Coalition forces
in the Kurdistan Region, the Kurdistan leadership
began negotiating the future with Saddam.
Negotiations were somewhat progressing, but then the
Coalition pulled out and negotiations stalled.
Saddam was back in full control, though an
international embargo was placed on Iraq until he
complied with WMD requirements.
The war was early in 1991, January-February, the
refugees returned home by May, and Coalition forces
withdrew from Iraq by July. Iraq was back to being
all Iraqi.
In October, Saddam withdrew Iraqi central government
administration from only part of the Kurdistan
Region, established a militarized line separating
the region from the rest of the country, effectively
abandoning more than three million Iraqi citizens.
Food and fuel supplies were cut off and electricity
from the national grid was tuned off.
And in November 1991 more than 100,000 persons, more
than 20,000 families, were evicted from Kirkuk into
the Kurdistan Region. I was there with the UN and we
had to handle this additional crisis. Where do you
find and how do you provide housing and basic
services for 20,000 families, immediately?! What
about food and basic personal items? Winter was fast
approaching.
The successful humanitarian intervention by U.S.-led
coalition forces and the UN, and many NGOs, caused
many refugees who had fled Iraq ten or more years
earlier to return. It was the summer of 1991,
flaming hot and dry. From May to October there’s
hardly a drop of rain in Iraq, even in the northern
mountains. People were camped out everywhere along
the main roads.
Some were going back to their destroyed communities
in the secured areas. Some of the homes were still
in unsecured areas, like the homes of the 20,000+
families who were evicted from Kirkuk. What to do?
Again, winter was fast approaching.
In August, UNHCR formulated a plan to provide basic
shelter. In September, I was part of a procurement
team that went on a shopping spree next door in
Turkey. In October, 3,000 truckloads of building
materials arrived that were distributed throughout
the mountains -- roofing materials, a door, a
window, and some tools. The idea was for families to
build for themselves a one-room winterized shelter
from the rock and mud rubble of their destroyed
communities. Over 50,000 families did. In addition,
we imported 3,000 two-family fabricated winter
shelters from Turkey for those evictees from Kirkuk.
We also housed many families in former military
facilities and abandoned public buildings.
It was a terrible winter, the worst winter ever
since. I froze. One thing that helped me get though
the winter was a US military casualty bag (not a
body bag). Down-filled, huge, made for
seven-footers, top quality, completely opened up to
make a nice bed quilt, with a fur-lined hood. Not
for backpackers. They were made for field casualties
in the winter during the Korean War. Someone had the
spark to empty out the warehouse somewhere in the
States and send the contents to Kurdistan. We also
received 235,000 pairs of trousers and 95,000
shirts, high quality wool surge, size small.
The refugee crisis of the previous winter evoked a
tremendous outpouring of humanitarian supplies from
primarily America and Europe. Much of it came from
militaries -- military rations, Czech military
boots, Norwegian military tents. And there was an
enormous amount of winter clothing. Of course, by
the time it arrived winter was over.
In future, if you feel the urge to help in such
emergency situations, it is infinitely better to
send cash to a reputable NGO such as CARE. In-kind
donations cost a lot more to sort and pack and
transport and warehouse and distribute. They delay
distribution. Cash allows bulk procurement of only
essential items at best prices from the closest
sources, and greatly facilitate transport, storage,
and distribution.
The Kurdistan leaders, who had been leading full
lives of perpetual political maneuverings and
insurgency, without public service experience -- no
public policy, public management, public
administration experience -- were suddenly saddled
with governing a Switzerland-sized territory with
over 3 million people. Though he was not forced to
do so, Saddam threw down the gauntlet at them,
probably anticipating they would fail and the people
would come groveling, prevailing on him as supreme
leader to take them back.
Fat chance. This is what led to the very successful
regional elections of 1992. A separately
administered autonomous region finally began to take
shape, without violating the territorial integrity
of Iraq. It wasn’t about independence back then, and
it is not about independence now.
Turkey, Iran, and Syria had real problems with this
development and though they had serious problems
with each other they would hold joint meetings at
the foreign minister level to discuss the new fact
of a Kurdistan autonomous region on their borders.
Over the following years they would do their best to
undermine the region.
Throughout much of the 1990s the KRG was weak and
under development. There were explosions and
assassinations. There was a civil war that severely
destabilized the Region. The KRG had almost no
resources. If internal problems were not enough,
there were the “lovely” neighbors. At the time,
Syria was harboring the PKK, a Turkish Kurdish
insurgency group with a separatist goal, which was
fighting against Turkey. The PKK, also a threat to
Iraqi Kurds, had the run of Iraqi Kurdistan at the
time. Not so today.
Turkey invaded Iraq numerous times to attack the PKK.
The Turkish military often had a hard time
distinguishing Iraqi Kurds from Turkish Kurdish
insurgents. Shelling and military incursions by the
Turkish military continued throughout the 1990s.
Iran invaded the Region in 1996, supposedly chasing
after armed dissidents involved in cross-border
operations. And, despite the no-fly zone, which
wasn’t a no-drive zone, Saddam also invaded the
Kurdistan Region during the 1990s.
Within the three main Iraq groups – the Arab Sunni,
the Arab Shia, and the Kurds -- there are strong
divisions. Overall, Iraq -- politically, not
socially or culturally -- is a very deeply divided
country. These divisions are about political power,
about protection and privilege. It’s not about being
an individual. There are no individuals in Iraq,
only groups.
First loyalty is to the family, which is part of a
clan, which is part of a tribe or larger
ethno-religious group. No one can claim to be just
an individual human being without an ethnic or
religious background. In Iraq, his (or her) society
does not allow it. And in some areas of Iraq it is
this reality that determines whether they live or
die.
Most Iraqis are people we all would have absolutely
no problem with. Most easily understand and readily
accept that they want to live as they want to live,
and to let others live as they want to live. The
caveat is that no harm should be done.
But there are those who have huge problems with
this. And it is these people at the moment who have
the upper hand. Nothing stays the same, however.
This will change.
The Kurdistan Region is a strong indication of
abundant possibilities and tremendous potential
available, at least theoretically, to all Iraqis.
Throughout the 1990s the Kurdistan Region went
through a civil war and intense struggles and
uncertainty, with severely limited resources, in
isolation from the rest of the world, under a double
embargo, actively threatened by all four neighbors,
and with strong internal divisions.
Over time, the Kurdistan Region got its act together
more and more, warring parties eventually accepted
they were “condemned” to live with each other,
rivalries mellowed, there were the 1998 Washington
accords that helped halt armed conflict and promote
reconciliation that continues to this day. It is
indeed becoming better and better.
Life goes on. Sometimes it gets worse before it gets
better. There were periods in the Kurdistan Region
when people, especially young people, despaired that
they had no future. (Half the population of Iraq is
under 20.) But over decades they went through
struggles and sacrifices, community destruction,
dislocations and disappearances, and severely
disrupted lives. They went though it all, returned,
and are resuming and rebuilding their lives. The
evidence is everywhere today throughout the
Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
Reconstruction and resettlement have been the
central focus of my many years in Iraq. There are
many aspects to this -- health and education, water
and sanitation, utilities, agriculture, even
landmine related activities. There are more than 10
million landmines in the Kurdistan Region, mostly
along the border with Iran, from the Iraq-Iran War.
We received a great boost in developing long
neglected and under-developed public services with
the UN oil-for-food program, which is a huge story
that I will not get into here. This UN-managed
program earned $70 billion, 75 percent of which was
to have been spent on humanitarian benefits for the
Iraqi people.
Despite the program’s deficiencies and severe
shortcomings, about $10 billion was made available
to the Kurdistan Region. All the work being done and
goods provided substantially improved public
services and injected a lot of cash into the
regional economy through hundreds of infrastructure
projects that employed local expertise and labor.
Security continued to improve and life eventually
got better.
This went on for seven years until April 2003 when
the door to the world was blown open, literally. The
Kurdistan Region, which had long gotten its security
and political act together, aggressively pursued
commercial opportunities. Public services and
capital project activities expanded and accelerated
everywhere. On virtually every street new homes are
being constructed, or old homes are being renovated
and modernized. This of course required expanded
trade in building materials and provided more jobs.
And all of this was being done on a cash-only basis.
And so here we are today. This is the Kurdistan
Region with its engines running, on the runway
taking off. But the Kurdistan Region is not the rest
of Iraq that is of immense concern to us today.
How to consider this immense concern? I suggest that
you look at it not as a house fire where you call
911 and the fire department comes and douses the
flames. The rest of Iraq is really more like a
wildfire or forest fire or Waikaloa grassfire where
the best that can be done is to contain and limit
the destruction until it runs out of fuel and burns
itself out. Iraq’s insurgency will burn itself out.
It is not at all of course satisfying to know that
those fueling the violence in Iraq, if they are not
killed or captured, will get tired and wear
themselves out. Yes of course there will be
replacements. But as time goes on, the violence will
decrease and displaced Iraqis will return to their
homes.
The Kurdistan leadership has gotten its act
together. They are the graduates. The Shia
leadership is still in primary school, or to be more
charitable, they are going into middle school. The
Sunni leaders are the dropouts; in effect, there is
no Sunni leadership to lead the Sunnis.
Without personal security and political stability
Iraq cannot begin to meet its full potential where
all citizens live in peace and pursue a future of
great economic prosperity. There is nothing inherent
within the Iraqi people that indicates otherwise,
though some Iraqis would like to argue to the
contrary. The rapport and camaraderie among various
leaders and groups are real.
They understand each other quite well. They just
haven’t yet figured out how to live with each other
and handle rivalries for power in a manner that
serves the public interest. The sorting-out process
takes time, which can only occur at their own pace,
not on the US Government’s timetable.
There are increasing indications that tiredness is
just beginning to finally set in and the fuel
driving the violence is diminishing. These
indications are still very weak. There are various
sortings out going on amongst the Shia and amongst
the Sunni. It has started at the lower local level,
not at the upper central level. Marriages of
convenience are taking place and in some localized
situations the violence is indeed decreasing and
security is improving. Stability, however, is still
a very long ways off.
Is the situation in Iraq finally beginning to
improve? There is the Kurdistan Region’s experience
that clearly indicates the possibilities. But we
have to go back to the original three fundamental
questions:
Dear General Petraeus, Ambassador Crocker:
1. How many displaced Iraqis have gone home?
2. When are displaced Iraqis going home?
3. How many schools are operating normally, at or
near full attendance, on all school days, and where
are they located?
Thank you.
hawaiireporter com
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