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November 25, 2007
Word has it that the news slant you get in your part of the world about Iraq might be just a bit different than what we get from this part of the world. I thought it might be good to share what we see and hear on the ground.
Many Iraqis ARE returning to central and south Iraq. They are returning because they have to not because they want to. Many of them are returning from Syria and Jordan. For most, their savings have run out and they could not stay in either of these countries legally so they could not get work.
Arabs from central Iraq are really not welcome here. Even Arabs that come to visit have to have a sponsor who will vouch for them. Officially this is still so the Kurds are still subject to laws from the central government, but they kind of operate around the law, similar to how people in the US work around anti-discrimination laws.
Kirkuk is a mess. Arabs are being forced out or bribed out so Kurdish population can increase and they can claim it as theirs when the referendum for autonomy goes before the Iraqi Parliament. Incidents of violence and kidnapping are high in Kirkuk and Mosul.
When we talk with Kurds about Arabs, it becomes quite clear that the collective conscience here is still very traumatized by what happened to them during Saddam's genocidal Al-Anfal campaign. Now they are in the flip position of being in power in this part of the country. Kurds now have the power to grant or deny basic human rights to their Arab countrymen and collectively, when Kurds see Arabs, they see Saddam. There is a major need for some sort of collective reconciliation or they will do to the Arabs what the Israeli's are doing to the Palestinians. This is the piece that CPT hopes to help with. I will say this. From the few stories I have heard from the victims of the Anfal campaign, I am surprized that they have any sense of good will left. It was a brutal, brutal campaign which they still believe has not been heard by the rest of the world. They believe that the only reason the super-power nations of the west are interested now is for political interest and gain. There is a bit of a calm in Baghad. While much of the western news attributes this to the "military surge", most people here don't see it that way. Many believe there are other reasons for this quasi calm.
For the most part, the military action of the surge resulted in more neighborhoods being split up and the various religious and ethnic groups have been walled off from each other. These walls and the oppressive nature and violent tactics that went into walling each other off are another example of short term, brute force solutions.
Also, many believe that the surge only managed to relocate the "terrorists" and they now seem to be up north where incidents of violence have increased. Many believe it is a matter of time before they will return to central Iraq.
The fact that Muqtada Al-Sadrhas called a cease fire has also decreased the level of violence. I don't know what the conditions of his cease fire are but if Sadr decides to turn his army loose, it is believed that the violence will go way up.
An under reported story in your part of the world is that women in Basra are being executed, mutilated and their bodies left on their doorsteps so they can be viewed as an example, are occurring at a rate of 10 per month. This part of the country is heavily controlled by Iran and operates under Islamic law. The women are being executed because they work outside of their homes or because they refuse to abide by a very strict dress code. Many of the women are trained as professionals and work in law or medicine.
Another point made here is that unless there is a change in the Iraqi government, there is really no hope for a reconciliation process amongst the various religious and ethnic groups. The perception is that Washington supports the Iraqi government and therefore there is little incentive for political change.
It is well known here that Maliki's government is infiltrated with militias and heavily supported by Iran. What is also not talked about in your part of the world is the influence that US military policy coming out of Rumsfeld's Pentagon played in creating, supporting and training those very militias. The big difference now is that Pentagon policy is training, supporting and influencing Sunni factions in hopes of balancing out their previous mistakes.
Kurdistan, outside of their bad relations with Arabs, have a whole different set of problems. The region is controlled by 2 parties, PUK and KDP. Everyone is pressured to join a party. If they don't, they get no societal support particularly in the field of employment. The young people are particularly hit hard by this pressure. They liken the pressure to join either of these 2 parties to Saddam's pressure for Arabs to join the Ba'ath party. Remember, most Ba'ath party members were not Saddam loyalists but because they joined, they were the educated and established members of Iraqi society.
Anyway, back to Kurdistan. There is a very serious piece of legislation that is about to go before the Kurdish Parliament to be turned into law. Essentially this legislation is designed to silence the voice of the few independent journalists that exist here. I have spoken with one who was jailed and now lives with a death threat from the KDP for stories he published in the past. Our team met with a group of independents who are planning a demonstration to stop the passage of this law and are scrambling to get international support and recognition. If they go into this demonstration without international support, many believe they will be killed. Our team is trying to figure out how to help with getting them international visibility.
And that's the news, live from Saturday Night (only kidding). It's really Sunday afternoon here.
Peace,
Michele Naar-Obed
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