Building new relationships between Iraq and Britain

Text of LFIQ leaflet to be distributed at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton

Iraq is on the mend but it will take a vast and continuing effort for some years to overcome the tragic physical and psychological legacies of one of the most vicious regimes in modern history. The potential for Iraq as a whole is shown by major progress in the Kurdistan Region which liberated itself from Saddam in 1991.

British troops have left Iraq but that shouldn’t end other links. Trade unions, women’s organisations and ministers in Iraq have told us of their desire to maintain and increase good relations to mutual benefit. A Labour Friends of Iraq (LFIQ) delegation to Iraqi Kurdistan met 22 leaders of the independent labour movement from across Iraq who told us that they wanted solidarity so “we can stand on our own two feet.”

Progressives should do much more to back their comrades in a country that is becoming more stable, democratic and peaceful but where progress is precarious. LFIQ was established five years ago to unite people who differed on the 2003 intervention but who united to provide urgent moral and material assistance to Iraqi reformers. We helped establish this as party policy.

Since then, we have organised many meetings with Iraqi groups and sent three fact-finding delegations to Iraqi Kurdistan and to Baghdad. Each trip sought to understand Iraq 'warts and all' – friends should tell it as it is.

Campaign for free trade unions and wider civil liberties

LFIQ urges progress towards full trade union rights in Iraq (as in Iraqi Kurdistan where unions are respected as social partners). Iraqi unions were once very powerful but were nearly liquidated by Saddam. They now seek to help build a thriving civil society and to bolster democracy. But the old ban on public sector organisation remains in place and their assets have been frozen. We have directly urged the Iraqi PM to reverse these restrictions and have been promised progress.

We fully back the TUC and others in assisting Iraqi unions to win freedoms consistent with Iraq’s obligations under International Labour Organisation rules.

Women’s Rights

Compared to the rest of the Middle East, women play a greater role in public life. There is a higher proportion, for instance, of women parliamentarians than here and a female union leader which is very rare in the region.

However, there are many so-called “honour” murders and attacks. Many women were murdered, beaten and intimidated when the militias controlled Basra. There is also a high incidence of rape in prisons. Women are imprisoned for adultery although men are not. Gay rights is another major concern, as it is in the rest of the Middle East.

We welcome various efforts to overhaul antiquated laws and practices and build a new judicial system in which Britain is already playing a positive role.

Support for women’s advocacy organisations in Iraq, which are stronger in the Kurdish north and supported by its government, is vital to effecting cultural and legislative change.

Making federalism work

Iraq’s sectarian divisions are deep. A major looming issue is the divide between Arab Iraq and the Kurdistan Region between which there are long-standing disputes over territory and the management and distribution of resources, chiefly oil on which the country relies for most of its income.

Having visited the Kurdistan Region, we are keenly aware of the history of relations between the Kurds and the previous regime in Iraq. Saddam Hussein conducted a genocidal onslaught against the Kurds over many years. Nearly 200,000 men, women and children were murdered – the mass graves are still being uncovered. Thousands of villages were razed to the ground, to the last brick, and agriculture was liquidated, despite its being the crucible of modern farming and a great natural resource. The historic Kurdish city of Kirkuk, for instance, was forcibly settled by Saddam and the Kurdish inhabitants expelled.

The Kurds rose up against Saddam in 1991 and forced his withdrawal at which point the current boundaries of the region were arbitrarily fixed with, the Kurds say, 40% of their territory placed outside the region. Procedures agreed in the Iraqi constitution, agreed by a majority popular vote across Iraq in 2005, have yet to be implemented. There is considerable tension between Baghdad and the Region although once ice-cold relations with Turkey are thawing considerably.

We support a federal, democratic and pluralist approach to solving the historic tensions in Iraq. The people of Iraq will negotiate their own solutions. However, its friends can help build democratic capacity so that politicians and others, new to democratic politics, can better make their new institutions work with necessary checks and balances on the powers of the state.

We believe that the UK should build deep and broad diplomatic and political relations. UK businesses and public institutions should seek opportunities to increase trade, investment and all forms of educational, cultural, sporting and social exchanges, including tourism, in Iraq, which is the common request of all those we have met there.

There is a very high regard for the UK in Iraq where English is widely spoken and where education and medicine are based on British models.

LFIQ co-operates with like-minded organisations such as the Iraqi trade union movement, the Iraqi Women’s League and the London-based Iraqi Association in the UK which promotes the interests of British Iraqis. We value our links with the Kurdistan Regional Government and other associations, the Islamic Dawa Party (with which we are sharing a stand at this conference) and with the Iraqi Communist Party.

We work with the Conservative Friends of Iraq to build relations on a bipartisan basis, although we emphasise supporting the Iraqi labour movement so that it can fight for greater social justice as Iraq uses its huge natural resources to increase its prosperity. We are open to working with other groups and individuals that wish to build ties of friendship.

We are a small group with limited resources but one that has done a fair amount to enable Iraqi voices to be heard in this country. Those voices have often been excluded and need to be heard as we build a long-term relationship with Iraq and its people. Both our countries, and wider peace and reform in the Middle East, could benefit from this.

Dave Anderson MP, Cllr Clive Furness and Gary Kent

You can subscribe to LFIQ for £30 a year or £15 for unemployed or students.

President Talabani at UN General Assembly

Iraqi President Talabani says that the real danger currently facing Iraq is outside interference in its internal affairs which has committed the worst crimes against innocent Iraqis.

The Virtual Museum of Iraq

Iraq is still a warzone and still unsafe for tourists to approach outside of Iraqi Kurdistan but the country is home to some of humankind’s greatest cultural treasures.

The Italian government recently funded the creation of a trilingual (English/Arabic/Italian) website
The Virtual Museum of Iraq, showing priceless cultural artifacts from Mesopotamia ranging from the prehistoric to the late Islamic.

No consensus over census in Iraq

Kurdistan Region rejects postponement of National Census

Press statement by Kurdistan Region Presidency (KRP)

In response to unfounded fears and doubts, on 2 September 2009 the Iraqi cabinet decided to postpone the general census for one year, from October 2009 to October 2010. This decision is detrimental to the development of the political process in the new Iraq and to the best interests of the Iraqi people.

The Iraqi Council of Representatives (the parliament) that represents the majority of the Iraqi people approved a census to be conducted on 24 October 2009. The parliament called for a countrywide census no later than 31 December 2009 through a provision in the federal budget law No. 6 for 2009. This decision commanded the approval of not only the parliament but also the leadership of the Kurdistan Region, and even the support of Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani.

The postponement decision comes following repeated reassurances by the Iraqi Ministry of Planning that it is fully capable of conducting the census in October 2009. Over an extended period, the Planning Ministry has put in place comprehensive procedures for a first-of-its-kind census in Iraq that aims to meet the highest international standards. By forming monitoring teams composed of all political parties the Ministry has professionally taken into account the concerns of those who fear irregularities.

How can the federal Iraqi cabinet encroach its powers? Regrettably, those opposed to the census are those who oppose the Iraqi Constitution, the principle of national consensus, and the will of the Iraqi people. Unfortunately, these limited opposition voices have found support within the cabinet of the federal government.

The parliament, the federal government's own Ministry of Planning, all political parties, and even the UN Mission in Iraq do not favour postponing the census.

We would like to know the real reason behind this decision by the Iraqi Cabinet, especially when we consider baseless and unconvincing reasons, like the possibility of irregularities, or putting off the census until after amendments are made to the Constitution. Have unfounded concerns and demands of a few compelled the Iraqi Cabinet to postpone this momentous exercise that aims to benefit all citizens?

There are clearly political motives behind the decision to put off the census. These motives are related to efforts to abandon Article-140 of the Iraqi Constitution and to abort Article-20 of the federal budget law of the 2009 fiscal year.

Iraq urgently requires a census to promote the political process and to better plan its progress and economic development. Postponing the census will only do harm to Iraq’s social, economic, and political development. Indeed, the census is being taken hostage by the unfounded fears and political motives of a few who do not have the best interests of Iraq at heart.

We again reiterate that we want the rights of all sides to be respected and protected. We are against the fabricated trepidations of a few as a pretext to deny others their rights.

Together we fought for Iraq and for its people. We shall remain committed to the Iraqi Constitution as we shall remain committed to oppose all who stand in the way of Iraq striving toward prosperity and reclaiming its future.

We call on the Iraqi Cabinet to reconsider its decision to postpone the census. Only the parliament has such authority. We call on the Iraqi parliament to consider this matter seriously and act accordingly.

We further call on all sides to object to this disruptive action which will undoubtedly add another blow to the political and democratic process as well as to diminish Iraq’s constitutional gains. Unless reconsidered, this decision will inhibit efforts being made to move Iraq farther along on its way to social, economic, and political development from its current sad state.

Meet the Neighbours

It is impossible to understand Iraqi politics without reckoning with the interests and actions of its many neighbours. Iraqis often talk about living in a neighbourhood from hell though they seek what are often called brotherly relations with each of them through economic, diplomatic and security co-operation. This essay by Ranj Alaldin examines the state of relations with Syria and, to an extent, Iran at his blog

Gary Kent

As the Iraq-Syria relationship continues to deteriorate further following the August 19 attacks in Baghdad (now dubbed “black Wednesday”), with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu heading to Baghdad and Damascus this week to cool things down, the matter requires attention.

The widely held belief is that this is merely a PM Maliki orchestrated show that puts the blame on the August 19 attacks on an easy-to-blame Syrian government that hosts Baath militants among its 1.5 million or so Iraqi refugees; Syria has for long been a hub of militant and jihadist activity that’s turned the country into a base for attacks across the border in Iraq.

Maliki certainly needed a scapegoat and he needed one fast. Elections loom around the corner and security is his main, if not only, credential. Syria was a convenient scapegoat.

This is not to say that Syria isn’t culpable in any way. It hosts militants. It argues that it never sanctioned the attacks. But that’s irrelevant. By virtue of the fact that it provides a launching pad for militants to carry out attacks on Iraqi soil Syria is culpable under international law unless it disarms the terrorists or militants, arrests them and disbands their bases or cells or unless it takes concrete and active measures to prevent them from crossing into Iraq to execute their operations (remember al-Qaida in Afghanistan and the Taliban’s refusal to take this course of action?). Iraq has a list of militants it has asked Syria to hand over – but to no avail.

Syria might argue it is unable to do so. But this would not suffice. If it is truly unable to police its borders then it must invite or allow other states to intervene on its behalf. Whether Syria has taken appropriate steps to prevent terrorists from planning their operations on Syrian land and then infiltrating Iraqi borders to execute the attacks isn’t clear; however, and to Syria's credit, attacks by militants who have come into Iraq from Syria have decreased over the past couple of years.

What’s interesting is that Iraq is seeking to establish an international tribunal that tries and, eventually, convicts those responsible for the attacks; a trial, that is, akin to the UN Rafik Hariri tribunal formed in 2007 to bring Hariri’s murderers to justice and investigate Lebanon’s broader culture of assassination. The tribunal met for the first time on March 1, 2009, in The Hague.

Where does Iran exactly fit into the picture though? Iraqi officials have already said on the record that they believe Iran may be complicit in the attacks. In any case, isn’t Iran responsible for backing, funding, sponsoring some of the worst atrocities committed by its proxies in Iraq? Why hasn’t Maliki been as vocal towards Iran as he has towards Syria? And is there any prospect of a tribunal that investigates any potential Iranian involvement in the umpteen terrorist attacks that take place and have taken place in Iraq? Iranian backed militants in Iraq roam with impunity and Iranian weapons caches, explosives and rockets are regularly found in the country.

The aforesaid questions would lead nowhere but to the unmatched influence that Iran now wields in Iraq, and worryingly so for an Obama administration that could soon be reviewing plans to withdraw from the country. As astute as ever, Iran sent its Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, to Iraq and Syria to ease the tensions in what could have been a counter measure against Turkish involvement in the affair (Iran is Turkey’s ideological and regional rival. Both states compete for the same sphere of influence in the region)

The US is still yet to comment on the dispute. What stance does it take? Iraq has for long been at the centre of US-Syria tensions. If the US takes Iraq’s position then it pushes Syria closer to Iran or isolates it to the disadvantage of recent attempts at rapprochement. Even if it says nothing at all, then Syria might feel the US has a hand in it all anyway. Many suggest Iran has asked Iraq to finger the Syrians just to send a message in response to overtures with the US and possible peace with Israel. But wouldn’t this backfire on them, given that a Syrian bust-up with Maliki would a good development from the US point of view?

Still, it is too early to make any meaningful analysis as it’s all too speculative right now. Tensions are likely to cool down, although nothing should be ruled out.