Kurdistan, the Other Iraq

Although Kurdistan does not officially exist it does in the harts and minds of the Kurdish people. Kurdistan borders Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey however Kurdish communities can be found in many countries around the world.

The beautiful landscapes of Kurdistan have a violent history under the rule of Saddam Hussein, a past full of death, destruction and human rights abuse. The al-Anfal Campaign is only one of many campaigns of terror launched against the Kurds and lasted from 1986-1989, it was a campaign of genocide conducted by Saddam's regime against the Kurds. According to some sources an estimated 180,000 Kurds died or went missing never to be seen again, with 5000 dying in the village of Halabja during gas attacks of 1988 alone. 5000 Kurdish villages were destroyed during this time. Those civilians who were captured were often taken to detention centers were the men and teenage boys (any male believed to be capable of holding a weapon) would be separated from the rest of the population. After several days of being beaten and housed in severally overcrowded conditions the men would be (without exception) loaded on trucks and taken away to be killed in mass executions. Many woman and young children also died as a result of gassing, starvation, exposure, and willful neglect. . In addition, 8000 Barzanis, a Kurdish clan led by Masoud Barzani in the Arbil province of the Kurdish north, were taken by Saddam's forces and have yet to be located. Saddam's troops sealed off villages went house to house and took away every Barzani male older than 10 that they could find.

It appears that prior to Saddam's invasion of Kuwait that the U.N. and indeed the world did little to stop the reign of terror in Iraq. In fact, many western countries and Russia continued to sell weapons, including WMDs, to Saddam.

Harman, a Kurd living in northern Iraq, tells me that under Saddam's rule Kurdish people had no rights. They could not be educated in there own language, it was illegal for them to give there children Kurdish names, they had no freedom of speech, and in fact did not have the right to their very lives. He goes on to tell me that during the al-Anfal Campaign Many Kurdish women and young girls were sold to night clubs in many Arabic countries where they were used as prostitutes.

In April of 1991, after losing control of Kuwait, Saddam's regime began a massive and ruthless crackdown against the Kurdish north and the Shia south to quell several uprisings. It is estimated that 20,000 to 100,000 Kurds and 60,000 to 130,000 Shiites died as a result.

This resulted in "operation safe haven", an operation designed to protect northern Iraq from persecution and provide humanitarian aid, eleven countries, including the United States participated in the operation. Harman tells me that this combined with the enforcement of no fly zones over Kurdish territories was the beginning of a free and democratic Kurdistan region. As is often the case there free society got off to a rough start as a civil war broke out between rival Kurdish political parties, Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) lead by Masoud Barzani and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) lead by Jalal Talabani. Fires raged throughout Hawler (the capital of Kurdistan) and the KDP was in danger of losing the war when Masoud Barzani asked for and received help from Saddam Hussein., apparently paying his soldiers to invade the north and fight for the KDP. In 1998 Washington intervened bringing about the signing of a cease fire agreement between the two parties. This resulted in the two parties uniting nearly completely and the democratic government you see in Kurdistan today.

Although protected from Saddam's attacks and human rights abuses by "operation safe haven" the Kurds could not be truly free as long he remained in power. When word of the pending 2003 invasion of Iraq aimed at removing Saddam from power reached the Kurdish people it was welcome news. According to some sources the Kurds welcomed the American invasion with celebrations, dancing and singing in the streets. When I asked Harman what his impression of the Kurdish reaction to the news was he said "Frankly speaking they felt so happy about the news, that the USA finally would free them from this Dictatorship, and it was a nice feeling.No one showed any objection or any rejection to it." And "In Kurdish History we have a proverb saying "Kurds don't have any friend only mountains", this proverb stands for the support of the mountains as a homeland to the Kurdish rebels against all regimes that suppress Kurds and the Kurdish nationality. When the USA decided to come to Iraq and put a stop to Saddam, Jalal Talabani, the leader of PUK and the current president of Iraq, said, the following words "We will not say any longer Kurds don't have friends only Mountain, now we have changed the proverb to Kurds don't have friends only Mountains and Americans". Do you need any more explanation?"

I recently heard it said that the Kurds are the only success story of the Iraq war. I don't believe they will be the only success story; however they do currently represent a large portion of the Iraqi population that have actual experience with self-rule, civil rights, and democracy.

I would like to express my deepest thanks to Harman for his assistance in writing this article.