The Kurdistan Observer
Mar 15, 2001

Siamand Banaa

Exactly ten years ago today, the city of Erbil, oldest continuously lived in city in the world,
the provincial capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, was liberated by the spontaneous uprising of the
civilian population, aided by the partisans of the KURDISTAN FRONT, the umbrella group
for the Kurdish resistance movement. By 21st March almost all of Kurdistan was liberated
including Kirkuk, which was the prized fortress of the regime with the heaviest concentration
of elite army, intelligence and security units, which had been overseeing the methodical
destruction of the ancient Kurdish identity for the past two decades through a series of
premeditated and organised state acts of  torture, political assassination, indiscriminate
murder, mass deportation, enslavement, and the use of Internationally banned chemical
weapons, which culminated in the agonising death of more than 5000 civilians in the town of
Helebja on 16th march 1988, an anniversary that we Kurds can never forgive, and mankind
should never forget. The final act, in this genocidal campaign was the implementation of the
infamous Anfal operations, were 182,000 villagers, men women and children dragged away
screaming by special units of the republican guards, never to be heard of again, 4000
villages razed to the ground, and some of the larger towns like Qala Dize and Gellala blown
to bits, house by house and building by building by the special engineering units of the
‘’Victorious Iraqi Army’’. Ali Hassan Majid, a cousin of the president, the architect of the
final solution for the Kurds, later the governor of Kuwait, during the Iraqi occupation, is on
record saying to his commanders – that he would ‘’kill all the Kurds with chemical weapons.
Who is to say anything? The international community? F… them! “.

Tons of documents, captured during the uprising clearly prove that total -eradication of the
Kurdish identity through the physical destruction of life and property was the regimes
preferred solution to the Kurdish problem in Iraq,

The jubilation didn’t last long, the republican guards, supported by 1200 tanks and
helicopter gunships wrecked death upon the celebrating masses, nearly 2 million people fled
in panic from the vengeful retribution of a recently defeated vindictive army, and the rest is
history, for it was the first time that the pain and suffering of our people was to be vividly
projected to the world  through the media, creating a public outcry in the free and civilised
countries for a halt to the genocidal Iraqi campaign. SCR 688 obliging Iraq to respect
human rights for the Kurdish and other sections of the disadvantaged population was passed
and towards the end of April 1991, a 22,000 man force from the coalition, including
American, British, French, Italian , Luxembourg and Dutch  established the Safe Havens, a
proposal originally thought of by France and later the area above the 36 parallel, to enable
our civilians return to their homes, Iraqi warplanes were banned from flying
and strafing the population, and Iraqi army units warned against committing further
massacres, But  Iraqi administration was left intact, and in fact encouraged to govern and
administer to the returning population ,operation PROVIDE COMFORT, which established
the safe havens, was a pioneering initiative in international relations in so far as to cast doubt
on the traditional concept of state sovereignty as implying unlimited power over its population,
a concept that contravenes modern evaluation of international society as an organised and
integrated community of states.

On 22nd July 1991, operation provide comfort ended with the withdrawal of coalition forces
from Iraqi Kurdistan, and operation Poised Hammer, began by which warplanes would
monitor the safe havens from bases in Turkey and the Gulf to make sure that the Iraqi army
and air force would not commit further atrocities in Kurdistan.

In the end of September 1991, the regime withdrew its administration from the safe havens,
including all medical, judicial, postal, teaching , police and civil servants and state employees,
later it cancelled the existing currency and disallowed it as legal tender without any
compensation, further they declared strict sanctions against the safe havens, stopped all trade
and the flow of oil which was the only essential commodity still obtainable cheaply in the
country the scarcity of oil during the severe winter of 1991 created hardships to an already
devastated population, In fact the regime renounced voluntarily all the basic duties and
obligations that binds governments to their citizens since times immemorial, The aim was to
create chaos and anarchy and return as saviours and restorers of civil society, .

However the tenacity of our people, perseverance of their leaders and the support and
goodwill of International aid agencies and NGOs , and here I’m proud to say the British
ones were in the forefront of the massive relief operations that took place to save us from
certain calamity—carried us through, and in May 1992, free elections supervised by
international organisation, among whom was the British Royal Electoral Reform Society
took place , 1,100,000, adults turned out for the first time in their history to vote for the
Kurdistan Regional Assembly, a 105, man parliament of 5 Christians and 100, Muslims
were elected, which in its first session voted for the establishment of the Kurdistan Regional
Government to administer the safe havens and its 3.8 million population, so far four
coalition cabinets have taken power through a parliamentary majority, Assyrian, Islamist,
Communist, Turkmen and Independents are partners with the KDP, and it is hoped that the
PUK administration in Slemani would soon send its representatives to the capital Erbil to
join KRG.

Although KRG, has been undermined by factional fighting and rivalry between its two main
original components, KDP and PUK, and by isolation from the outside world, and hostility
of the regional powers who look upon the safe haven and our administration as the
embryonic future Kurdish state that would encourage their own Kurdish populations to
revolt, I say despite the tremendous odds against us , the region has been thriving, specially
since 1996 when SCR 986started, In cooperation with the UN agencies a comprehensive
programme of reconstruction and rehabilitation is in full swing, A third of the destroyed
4000, villages have been rebuilt and resettled, a 1000 miles of roads and highways, have
been layer, 2000 Schools, primary, intermediate and secondary, plus various institutions of
learning and two new Universities in Duhok and Slemani have been completed, sports
stadiums, medical centres, luxury hotels and two satellite T.V stations have been
inaugurated, Assyrians, Turkmen and Yezidis are developing their own schools and cultural
institutes at a fast pace, The energetic building programme, the expansion of towns and cities
are only paralleled by land reclamation and forestation , KRG inherited a devastated land,
and has managed with the help of UN, International NGOs and resilience of our people to
turn the tide and bring hope to country decimated by war, repression and despotism , There
is no shortage of food or medicines and the standard of living is one of the highest in the
Middle-East, in his inaugural speech in December 1999, our Prime minister Mr Nechervan
Barzani said:” We could sit on our haunches and bemoan our bad luck, turbulent history and
conflict ridden region, and hope against hope for peace and prosperity, But I’m for standing
up, for planting the seed of a plural, civil and prosperous society now, even while it rains
bombs and bullets, We have to convince the world that Kurdistan, the cradle of mankind is
alive and kicking, and its people are despite enormous injustices and isolation, still in the
forefront of human endeavour”.

Yet, distinguished assembly all these achievements, I’m proud to say pale besides the
greatest of them all, and I mean the restoration of Dignity, liberty and humanity to a
defenceless society that in an indifferent and feckless world suffered for more than two
decades the worst excesses of the regime, We have a free press and media, diverse political
parties and groups have their own broadcasting and T.V stations, an independent judiciary,
and although there are a great many social, religious and gender problems, a legacy of a
violent and enslaved society, we are confident that given a chance to carry on at the present
pace, ours will be the model for a future plural , democratic and free Iraq, Our Parliament
has voted unanimously for Federation within the Iraqi republic, and our region has
welcomed our Arab compatriots to help consolidate our experiment and help it to be the
window on the future.

Ladies and Gentlemen: I shall assume that our meeting here today is not gesture politics, and
that ours is not part of the great circus led by the likes of Zhirnovsky, Galaway, Von
Sponeck and the brother of the Emir of Qatar, who in solidarity with the starving children of
Iraq, flew a new Jumbo 747, which has been converted to a bedroom, a state room and a
lounge, as a personal present to the Iraqi president, I’m sure you agree that those Arab and
European businessmen attending £200 a plate dinners at the Dorchester for the lifting of
sanctions, are not really motivated by the plight of children or the state of the derange system
in Mosul or Kerbela, , I believe that before we embark upon a serious discussion of
alternatives to the sanctions we must be aware of the following facts:

1- Iraq one of the richest countries of the ME both in human and material resources, has
been plunged in a series of futile and costly wars initiated by the Baathist regime, which
came to power through a coup de’tat in 1968, The Kurdish wars of 1968-1989, The Ist Gulf
war 1980-1988, the 2nd Gulf war 1991,The suppression of the Shiite uprising in the
south,1991, the suppression of the Kurdish uprising in Kurdistan 1991,.

2- Since acceding to the cease fire terms by the coalition partners, and all relevant SCR
resolutions, The regime has not offered any suggestion for the alleviation of suffering by its
citizens all such suggestions and schemes have come from its detractors, and UN agencies,
including SCR 986,

3- The regime has in fact sought to sabotage all efforts at humanitarian relief, 986 was in
fact first proposed by the UN in 15/8/1991 as SCR 706, but was rejected by the regime, it
finally acceded in 1996 after 5 further years of suffering to our people.

4- Even the idea to repair the oil industry’s facilities, to enable it pump more oil, and get
more aid for the population had to be imposed by the UN, through SCR 1210 &1175, in
June of 1998.

5- The population is being held hostage by the regime, its misery and suffering has been
deliberately engineered as a clever ploy to return via the back door to the folds of the world
community.

6- No remorse, or responsibility, or even the slightest attempt at mending fences, with its
victims, or undertakings not to inflict further horrors, has been shown by the regime, its
mouthpieces continue to preach hell and damnation and sweet revenge against its detractors.

Continued commitment for the protection of the Kurds in Iraq, and a guarantee to maintain
the
safe havens, until a proper Internationally guaranteed solution is found based upon a federal
status for the Kurdish region within Iraq, Until then SCR 986must be maintained along with
the safe havens, Not only the US and UK, but the whole civilised world, and every
principled, democratic and free government and organisation must declare a stance on this
issue, SCR 688 calling upon Iraq to respect Human rights and better treat its Kurdish
population must not be forgotten, article 56 of the UN human rights charter explicitly states
that all the members pledge themselves to take joint and separate action in co operation with
U.N. organisations to accomplish the satisfaction of the obligation to the said charter.

A just solution of the Kurdish issue in Iraq must be contemplated now, rather than sideling it
for fear of upsetting other regional states, these states are not in a great hurry to let the Iraqi
issue be settled, each has their own agenda which does not include an equitable and
acceptable end to the Iraqi tragedy, The solution lies in Kurdistan, and it is about time the
Kurds were given a chance.

Thank you, for bearing with me , I hope that our meeting here today will genuinely be of
benefit to our suffering Iraqi people.

"A speech given by Mr. Siamand Banaa, Representative of the Kurdistan Regional
Government in the United Kingdom to the CASI,(campaign against sanctions in
Iraq), conference , held at Cambridge University ,10-11th march."
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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com