Monday, June 30, 2008

Finnish report about North Iraq

This text about a report of North Iraq was published in Xebat the 24th June 2008. It can be read in Kurdish here.

Finnish Immigration Service has made a report about North Iraq and put it to internet. The 42 pages long report is made by a fact finding team of three people. They collected information from various sources, like UNAMI and other international organisations. They also made a six days long journey to Iraqi Kurdistan Region last October.

Finnish Immigration Service is making decisions to asylum applications and information has been collected mainly for this purpose. As there is common information about KRG Region in the report, it can be used also by people who are interested in North Iraq for other reasons.

The report gives mainly a positive picture about life in KRG Region, especially it pays attention to the good security situation.

During the spring there has been in Europe quite lot criticism about the situation of Assyrians and other Christian minorities in Iraq. For example in the International Compact with Iraq Conference in Stockholm at the end of May some Assyrians raised their voices.

The Finnish team found the situation of Christian minorities to be normal in KRG Region. The report says:

"Due to the stable situation the three northern governorates have become a safe haven for internally displaced persons, for instance Christians, who told the fact finding team that the situation of Christians resembles something like a normal life in the KRG region. Christians have been welcomed by the local population in the three northern governorates. They have had a good relationship and are respected by their moderate Muslim neighbours, but consider radical Islamists a threat."

The team noticed last October that the Christians were worried about the PKK conflict, which touches areas near the border where Christian people are settled, and where shelling has occurred.

“Some informants pointed out, that the Turkish army has already for years had several outposts inside the KRG region, at least in Bamarne and Zakho districts of Dohuk governorate“, says the report.

The Finnish team did not visit Kirkuk last October as they found it too dangerous. They write that the security situation in Kirkuk was bad and say:

“Some informants thought that the resolving of the Kirkuk issue would take a long time. Ownership issues remain a large problem, as lost property such as houses have been sold several times over, and may have many claims of ownership by different people.”

The report draws a potential link between the increase of Islamic terrorism and the situation of Kurdish youth:

“During the fact-finding journey, no terror attacks were reported in KRG Region. Some informants mentioned that the youth in Kurdistan is at a critical stage, due to economic hardships, unemployment and the lack of meaningful activities. Due to these circumstances, some join mosques and become extremists. Youth care is needed, and informants suggested that the West help to set up activities such as youth centres.”

In the human rights situation the report does not find too many causes for criticism. Any way, the long waiting times for some detained persons before trial is not acceptable according to international standards. The report says:

"Pretrial detaining periods are long. There are some detainees who are from Mosul or Kirkuk. KRG courts claim that they have no jurisdiction to try them. These people are therefore in a legal limbo. They have been detained, but have not been charged of any crime, and there is no apparent solution to their cases."

The team found problems also with the trial process:

“Most of the detainees are not satisfied with the trial process, often they have no information on the appeals’ process, and many have had no access to a lawyer”, says the report.

It also states that according to UNAMI, prison conditions do not meet international standards.

One area of criticism is the situation of women. The report mentions that it is bad in many rural areas. The situation of honour related violence is very alarming. The amount of women’s suicides has doubled between 2002 and 2007.

“An important factor in the increase of honour related violence is the increasing use of mobile phones, as SMS-messages and the saved phone numbers of men reveal unacceptable relationships”, says the report. But it continues:

“At the same time, awareness of the situation has increased. Women today seek help against domestic violence more readily than before. However, available shelters are full, and women cannot often return from the shelters to their families. Some women have been killed after they have returned to their families.”

The report pays mainly attention to problems where improvement is necessary. But it says about mass media that there exists some degree of freedom of expression. Journals have been able to criticise the administration and to write articles on corruption, without having been charged.

It also says that the civil society in KRG Region is active.

The report gives detailed information about the health care and problems in it. When thinking about them it should be kept in mind that the problems are caused by the international sanctions which hindered development of health care system.

It is noteworthy that there exists no public psychological treatment in KRG Region. There are no government programmes for the treatment of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). This is a big problem when keeping in mind in how much Kurds have suffered for decades because of wars, Anfal and other Saddam’s atrocities. NGOs (non-governmental organisations) are too busy with helping internally displaced persons with basic necessities such as water and sanitation to concentrate on mental care issues.

The report tells about the housing problems in KRG Region. The number of internally displaced families is about 100 000 – 150 000. The future of displacement depends on the outcome of the Iraqi war. The report pays attention that Kurdish families flee violence to KRG Region from Mosul but not from Kirkuk.

The report is available in English language in internet here.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Kirkuk Citadel - 2

March 2007 I wrote about Serhat castles . Also South Kurdistan has rich cultural heritage with castles which are maybe thousands years old. They are not only Kurdish history, as there has been many other civilizations during the history.

These pictures are from Kirkuk Citadel. It is a peaceful oasis in the middle of the war zone. Just look at the pictures, while walking in the Citadel you could not imagine that the war with almost daily bomb attacks is just outside the Citadel walls.

Saddam destroyed the old town of Kirkuk during the 1990s. It is inside the Citadel but I do not have pictures of the centuries old houses which are now in ruins. Let us hope that the war will not cause more damage to Kirkuk Citadel. Instead there should be archaeological surveys and preservation. Kirkuk Citadel should absolutely be in the UNESCO World Heritage Program!

I am sure that in the future Kirkuk Citadel will be a popular target for tourists.

I know very little about Kirkuk Citadel. If some one has information about it, please let me know!








Friday, June 13, 2008

Kirkuk in pictures


UNAMI (United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq) has published an analysis how to resolve disputed internal boundaries.

I have not had time to go through it, so I do not comment it.

But here are some pictures from Kirkuk. I have been wondering why there are so few good pictures from Kirkuk available in Internet. Well, after visiting the town I understand the reason. The pictures are taken in April 2008.

At least the car windows should be clean when I go there next time!




Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Halabja: People who are stronger than chemical weapons


I visited Halabja during my journey to North Iraq. My feelings are quite confused so I can not write much about it before reading background information. Just look at the pictures which I took.

I went there expecting to see a living misery - 1988 there were about 70 000 people in Halabja and five thousand of them died in Saddam's attack by chemical weapons. How a town can come back to normal life ever after such a thing?

But what I saw was an active town just preparing the anniversary of one of its massacres. Because 16.3.1988 is just one example in the long line of massacres.

Many people left Halabja after the gas attack so the population is now under 70 000. But those who remained say they will never leave their home town because of respect to their ancestors who have been murdered.

It was my first visit to Halabja but very soon I felt like I had been there earlier. Or in a place which is similar to Halabja. Where? In Dersim, October 2005. When seeing the statue of Zilan opposite to the statue of Kemal Ataturk in Tunceli city centre one understands that the Dersim people have not given up.

And neither have the Halabja people done. They say that they are stronger than chemical bombs.

It is also amazing how quiet the liberators of Iraq, also Americans and Britons, have been about the Halabja massacre. It is the clearest evidence of Saddam’s atrocities towards Iraqi citizens - why the liberators do not make surveys about it and use this information for verifying the right of their crusade? Because the first question in any research would be that who gave Saddam the chemical weapons.

I visited both the mass graves of the 16.3.1988 victims and the Memorial Statue of the massacre.

There are three mass graves where the bodies have been counted but not identified.



This is a symbolic grave yard. The victims of Saddam’s atrocities are not buried here, but they lie in mass graves and in anonymous graves in villages around Halabja. Each stone represents one family, not one person.
For my big surprise I heard that the monument was burnt last year, but it did not became clear by whom it was done. But it seems that also other people than the Islamists are disappointed on the way how KRG has dealt the Halabja tragedy.

As you can see from the picture the monument the reparation goes on now.
The picture is bad because it was difficult to take pictures by a digital camera in the heat and heavy sunshine.


Here is re-cycling by the Halabja way: authentic chemical weapons á la Saddam styled in an artistic way:
Vice-mayor of Halabja, Mrs. Kwestan Akram. Also Tunceli’s mayor is a woman, her name is Songül Erol Abdil. So even in this aspect these two towns are similar.
After visiting Halabja I visited Medico Legal Institute Kurdistan which is part of Hawler Medical University.

Here is some statistics of their work:
Pathologist working in the institute: 10
Autopsy per day: 2 -3
Deceased waiting for identification in their morgue: 700
Deceased waiting for identification in mass graves around Iraq:
182 000

Due to poor security situation in the Iraq area controlled by Arabs the digging of the mass graves has been postponed.

Pictures by Kristiina Koivunen, Halabja, the 10th May 2008

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Vain hopes in ICI Stockholm Conference

The Stockholm International Compact on Iraq (ICI) Conference is over.

My feelings are confused. Did the ICI Conference reach anything?

There were big expectations to the Conference. International Community wants to end the Iraq war.

But before any problem can be solved it must be defined what is the problem. When listening the speeches of various foreign ministers in Stockholm about the economical improvements in Iraq one could think that the biggest problem in Iraq is economy. Does any one in Iraq agree with this?

Almost no one of the speakers mentioned the Kurdish autonomous area. Iraq was described in the speeches as one area where the chaos is similar every where.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan spoke in the conference about Turkey's efforts to assist Iraq during difficult times. Some hours after Babacan's speech Turkish air forces bombed North Iraq.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki spoke about peace and stability in the entire region.

"It is necessary to use opportunity provided by this conference to help stabilize the situation in Iraq, improve the living conditions there and contribute to the reconstruction of this country in a more responsible manner", Minister Mottaki said.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke also in this conference about how the weapons of mass destruction were the cause of the American military intervention.

Rice used several times words "the Iraqi people" despite there does not exist such a nation. Peter W. Galbraith has critized in his book “The End of Iraq” the American way to see Iraqi people as an unity despite there are three very different groups.

Several speakers spoke about the importance about national reconciliation in Iraq. The target can be achieved only by seeing the real facts, not speaking about one’s own dreams about one Iraqi nation. In reality such attitudes fuel the partition of Iraq despite the speakers claim they are against it.

Many speakers in the conference expressed their wish that refugees would return to Iraq. Also here reality is opposite: bombings to North Iraq by Iran and Turkey force more people to become refugees.

I believe that the international community really wants to find a solution to the Iraqi war. It is too expensive both in the economical cost and in the lost of lives of American and other foreign soldiers. The first thing to end this war is to see the real situation. If the peace is reached by some miraculous way under these false ideas there is a seed for the next conflict.

The speeches in the conference were polite and optimistic but they show how weak and helpless the international community is in front of this war.

One of the decisions of the ICI Stockholm Conference was to arrange a follow up conference next year in Bagdad. This in an ambitious decision. It is a good test for United Nations and the international community to show what they can do for this situation. Iraqi citizens will remember this decision.