Holiday In A
War Zone
By Dahr Jamail
08 June, 2004
The New Standard
While
a restful experience, driving around the mountains and green fields
of Kurdistan did not provide the complete escape from the troubles of
Iraq for which we had hoped.
The cousin of a
friend manages a hotel in Erbil... one of the nicer lodges in the city.
While dining with him in the empty restaurant he explained that there
are no guests due to the fact that the private security company Dyncorp
has been renting the entire place since January... so aside from when
their personnel stay in the 60-room hotel, it sits empty. They stay
at the hotel while training new Iraqi Police, among other things, and
he told us theyve signed a two year contract.
Each day of the
four spent in the north Id seen the armored GMCs with the
huge antennae used by these private security groups and the Secret Service
racing along the roads from time to time, their tinted windows reflecting
the beautiful countryside.
There are, of course,
loads of Peshmerga checkpoints -- since we hailed from Baghdad with
an Arab driver, we were searched at most of them.
Nevertheless, the
reprieve from Baghdad was long overdue. In Shaqlawa, a beautiful little
town on the slopes of a large ridge, we dined in the garden of a small
farm amidst cooler temperatures. Earlier that same day wed cooled
our feet in the water of a mountain spring while birds chirped. Periodic
views of snow-capped peaks in the distance had me longing for home;
from time to time I even forgot about things like Abu Ghraib, military
patrols in cities and the electricity shortage in Baghdad.
The opinions of
the few Kurds I spoke with ranged across the board -- those who are
doing better financially tended to favor the occupation, while others
who appeared to be suffering more were against it. A few refused to
talk politics altogether.
Life in a war-torn
country is never simple. Yesterday we drove to Sulemaniyah, a sprawling
city surrounded by rolling mountain ridges. After finding a hotel, Abu
Talat had parked his car amongst several others on a small street. Wed
checked in, had some chai and were venturing out to find an internet
café when he noticed his car was not where hed left it.
A traffic policeman
told him it had been towed. Hoping to just go pick up the car he hailed
a taxi and was off. Upon arriving at the impound, he found the car smashed
up, along with a few other cars with Baghdad license plates. He was
taken inside a house and interrogated by a Peshmerga officer, who asked
him many questions such as: What are you doing here? What is your tribe?
Why did you come to Kurdistan? When are you leaving?
After he was released,
he found his car -- the trunk smashed in and lock broken, driver's side
window smashed in, fuel line cut, battery cables cut, back seats torn
out and the antennae broken off. Apparently several Peshmerga, fearing
another bombing like that last winter in Kurdistan which killed so many
people in a mosque, were trying to prevent another attack.
The next day, after
having parked the car in a garage, when Abu Talat went to pick it up
he asked the watchman why his mouth was bloodied and swollen. The man
told him that late last night five drunk Peshmerga had come demanding
money, and when he wouldnt give it to them they pistol-whipped
him.
A local Kurdish
man at the hotel, upon hearing this story, said it is business as usual
in Sulemaniyah... that the Peshmerga are acting like the thugs of the
mob boss Talabani.
So even up in restful
Kurdistan the symptoms of war and unrest remain. One must be patient
at the checkpoints and be wary of where one parks the car.
We stop for lunch
at a friends place in Kirkuk. An older Turkman spoke of the growing
rift between the Kurds and Turkmen in the city. He told of how the Arabs
and Turkmen in Kirkuk are banding together against the Kurds there.
I asked him what the solution is, and he felt it was to go by the 57
Census in the city, where Turkmen were the majority. So, again I ask,
what is the solution? Each of the last few times Ive been through
Kirkuk the topic of the Turkmen vs. Kurds is the first thing that comes
up. It is tense there, and seems to be getting worse with time.
After a good meal
and chai we continued our dry, windy journey, still missing a window.
Exiting Kirkuk we passed the old Saddam portraits which have been blasted
into rubble.
The occupation forces,
having removed the regime of Saddam Hussein, now face the challenge
of sorting out the complex web of ethnic groups and tribes in the north;
a challenge that Hussein never could effectively manage. One way or
another, at some point, this situation will have to be resolved by the
occupiers.
The normalcy of
rural Iraq -- the green crops lined with date trees, tan homes blending
into the desert sands, and intermittent chai stands along the road we
take -- begrudgingly give way to occupied Baghdad. As summer temperatures
continue to rise, the setting sun bathes the destruction of bombed out
buildings, Dyncorp men aiming their guns at us as we pass their white
SUVs, long petrol lines, and polluted air a beautiful yet angry
orange.
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Dahr Jamail is Baghdad
correspondent for The NewStandard. He is an Alaskan devoted to covering
the untold stories from occupied Iraq. You can help Dahr continue his
crucial work in Iraq by making donations. For more information or to
donate to Dahr, visit The NewStandard.