09 December 2002
Baghdad Regime's Policies Continue to Shred Iraq's Social Fabric
(Brookings/SAIS report on internally displaced groups in Iraq) (1280) By C. David Noziglia Washington File Writer Washington -- Over one million Iraqis have been forced from their land and homes as a result of Saddam Hussein's state-sponsored political agendas, according to a recently released study by the Brookings-SAIS Project on Internal Displacement. "In a country of 23 million, Iraq's more than one million internally displaced persons constitute too large a group to be ignored, and the linkage between their plight and Iraq's deeper political, economic, ethnic, and social problems suggests that to try to ignore them could undermine any reconstruction effort in fundamental ways," the study cautions. It concludes that durable solutions to the multitude of problems can only be accomplished with new Iraqi leadership and significant international involvement. The Brookings Institution-SAIS Project on Internal Displacement is a non-governmental research program, supported by the United Nations, to shed light on situations of internal displacement that are closed off from international scrutiny. In addition to Iraq, the Project has examined issues related to displaced populations in the Russian Federation, Algeria, Burma and other nations. In its October 2002 report "The Internally Displaced People of Iraq," authors John Fawcett and Victor Tanner catalog the many ways that Iraq's Kurdish, Turkmen, and Assyrian minorities, as well as the Shia Arabs living in southern Iraq, have been victimized for decades by the regime's policies. According to the study, an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 persons are displaced in the north of the country and an estimated 300,000 in the center/south of Iraq and "the numbers of internally displaced persons have continued to grow." The report said most of Iraq's displaced families are living in makeshift "collective towns," barracks or other buildings not intended for permanent family accommodation. "U.N. reports and our own interviews consistently point to lack of good sanitation, water supply and overcrowding as being significant contributors to the poor health status of the displaced population," the report said. "Little effort has been made to direct assistance -- and, more importantly, protection -- to the most vulnerable population group in Iraq, the internally displaced," the report said. During the Iran-Iraq war and the Gulf War, Iraqi troops planted thousands of land mines, which have not been removed. U.N. agencies have tried to send de-mining missions, so that the people who lived on the land can return to their homes, but the regime has refused to allow the missions access, despite having signed agreements to cooperate with the international mine clearing missions. One outcome of the Iraqi regime's policies has been to starve its population, even though the country is capable of growing enough food to meet its needs, the report said. Because of their Kurdish ethnic identity or lack of support for the regime, people whose families have farmed the land around Kirkuk in northern Iraq for centuries have been forced off their land, the report said. The document added that the intention was to exploit the oil under this land for the benefit of the regime. Baghdad is not the only target of criticism in the study. "The international humanitarian community has given insufficient attention to assisting or protecting the displaced people in Iraq. It did not take steps to try to protect them from displacement in the first place. And, once they were displaced, its assistance has been limited and largely ineffective. This is true of both private aid organizations and U.N. agencies. Fearing violence, expulsion or other retaliation from Iraq and lack of backup from U.N. headquarters, U.N. officials have refrained from demanding access to the displaced or protesting their treatment, especially in the center/south," the report said. Factional fighting between rival Kurdish leaders has only added to the population of the displaced in the north of the country, the report said. Nevertheless, national authorities hold the primary responsibility for internally displaced people, says the study. "Of the 30 principles that make up the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement --international standards on IDPs published by the UN -- it is the authors' opinion that the present government of Iraq has failed to live up to any of them." Iraq has signed Memoranda of Understanding with the United Nations making its internally displaced population eligible for U.N. assistance but has from the moment it signed those agreements done everything in its power to obstruct the efforts of U.N. agencies to provide assistance to the displaced, the report said. It has even refused access to information on the numbers and locations of displaced communities in order to cover up its responsibility for their condition. "Over the last thirty years, there has never been a time when one group or another was not being expelled from their homes. It is not so much hatred of 'the other' that has driven the brutal repression of the past few decades as much as the regime's political and economic calculations. Resolution of their plight can come about only through a profound change in the attitude of Iraq's government," the report said. The Brookings report offers suggestions to redress the situation. "All levels of authority in Iraq, from Baghdad down to local districts, should officially recognize that the expulsion of people from their homes by previous governing authorities was a crime. This acknowledgement can be neither hesitant, nor partial, nor an exercise in window-dressing," it said. Other practical suggestions include the establishment of an official body with representative ethnic and religious makeup and international oversight to enable displaced persons to recover their land and property. The authors also see merit in creating a special task force to coordinate returns and adjudicate disputes, a move intended to prevent a rush on Kirkuk and other cities. And, finally, they hope the United Nations and other international agencies will have access to the settlements and leaders of the internally displaced population, without fear of reprisals. The report comes to a sobering conclusion that "the problems that led to the internal displacement of so many Iraqis are larger than merely the unacceptable behavior of the current regime in Baghdad. They go to the heart of the struggle for power in Iraq, to the fundamental issues of Iraqi politics: water, land, oil, minority and majority rights, citizenship and national allegiance." "In and of itself, a change of government will not result in the immediate resolution of the problems of the internally displaced. National authorities have the primary duty and responsibility for the care and well-being of internally displaced people, and therefore any Iraqi government will inherit the obligation to resolve these issues," the report said. Author John Fawcett, speaking with the Washington File December 7, said that he sees little evidence that Iraq will ever divide permanently along ethnic lines. He believes a pluralistic political order that respects everyone's rights is possible after Saddam Hussein has left the scene. For now, Fawcett hopes that the information in this report will stimulate international agencies, including those within the United Nations, "to break their silence" on the conditions of the internally displaced persons in Iraq and to pressure the current regime to act on behalf of its own people. Iraqi exiles will meet early in 2003 in Washington to discuss the social, political and economic status of the displaced. Their work, which is being facilitated by the State Department's "Future of Iraq Project," is linked to that of other working groups focused on Iraq's public health, infrastructure and the economic needs. The full text of "The Internally Displaced People of Iraq," (Occasional Paper, Brookings-SAIS Project on Internal Displacement) by John Fawcett, an adviser with the Center for Humanitarian Cooperation, and Victor Tanner, a professor in Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies is available at http://www.brook.edu/fp/projects/IDP/articles/iraqreport.htm (The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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