ePaper_2nd Edition_October 19, 2016

10
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2016
DT
World
INSIGHT
Iraq’s traumatised minorities: Test of unity
after Mosul offensive
• Reuters, Alqosh, Iraq
Behnam Abboush won’t feel any safer
if Iraqi forces drive Islamic State
out of their stronghold of Mosul.
That’s why he and 300 other Assyrian
Christians in the paramilitary
force under his command are taking
matters into their own hands.
Abboush says some members of
his community, one of Iraq’s many
religious and ethnic minorities,
were abandoned to their fate when
the jihadists swept through northern
Iraq two years ago.
Now his fighters are determined
to protect Christian towns and villages
in the Mosul region without
relying on anyone else, while Iraqi
government troops and other forces
launch their offensive to regain the
city nearby.
Ancient minorities have always
been an integral part of Iraq’s complex
social fabric. Their attitudes
towards the government in Baghdad
and their re-assimilation into
society after the upheaval caused
by Islamic State will test Iraqi leaders’
pledges to deliver stability after
the Mosul campaign.
The Shia-led government has
promised that the assault, which
started in the early hours of Monday,
will improve security and unite
a nation that has been in turmoil
since the US-led invasion in 2003.
But Abboush’s experiences illustrate
why so many of the minorities -
which range from the Christians and
Yazidis to Turkmens and the Shabak
people - have so little faith in the regional
and central governments.
He recalls the night of August 6,
2014, about two months after the
fall of Mosul, when he said Kurdish
forces stationed in the Christian
town of Karakosh suddenly announced
they were fleeing.
Many of the Karakosh’s 55,000
people managed to escape before
the militants arrived a few hours
later, but Abboush said the abrupt
departure of the peshmerga troops
controlled by the Kurdish regional
government showed how communities
have to defend themselves.
“They said to us ‘we will protect
you’. At half past ten in the evening
they said ‘we will go’. It was very
difficult, especially for the women
and children,” Abboush, an engineer
and former air defence officer
under Saddam Hussein, said at his
training base in the town of Alqosh,
50km from Mosul.
He is now the general of an Assyrian
force that he says received
only half the amount of weapons
it needs from authorities and relies
heavily on donations from Iraqi
Christians living abroad.
“If there was a strong central
government we would need nothing.
If you want to solve the problem,
we must have a protection
force,” Abboush, an intense, whitehaired
man, said shortly before
joining his officers for a lunch of
eggplant, stew and rice.
Abboush prepares his men at an
obstacle course on a tiny mountain
training ground, only about 13 km
from Islamic State fighters. Their
mission is to reassure local people
it is safe to return to their homes in
areas cleared of the militants.
Support for all Iraqis
Others say the drive for Mosul will
benefit Iraqis of all communities.
“The whole idea of this offensive
is to get people back to their
homes safely, not to abandon them
– Christians, Shias and Sunnis,
everyone,” said Hoshiyar Zebari, a
top Kurdish official.
Khisro Goran, a Kurdish member
of Iraq’s parliament, said
lightly-armed peshmerga forces
withdrew from Karakosh in 2014
because they were unprepared for
the Islamic State onslaught. However,
he sympathised with Abboush’s
views.
“I agree that minorities from
Yazidis, Christians or Shabak
should have their own local police
to protect their societies and this
is the ideal way to resolve a trust
Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters fire a multiple rocket launcher from the top of
Mount Zardak, about 25km east of Mosul on October 17
AFP
THE BATTLE FOR MOSUL
Advancing forces will likely
first try to surround the city
Qayyarah
Main points
of the offensive:
1
Government-held
territory
Makhmur
Iraqi ground troops left Monday
from key base of Qayyarah
with air support from warplanes
of the US-led coalition
issue,” he said.
In Baghdad, a military spokesman
rebuffed Abboush’s complaints
over a lack of support from the central
government, saying the budget
cannot be changed continuously to
accommodate the rising or dwindling
numbers of each force lined up
to fight Islamic State - known by its
opponents in Arabic as Dae’sh.
“The government is keen on providing
support to all those who are
fighting Dae’sh”, he said.
Iraq’s Sunni Muslims, the biggest
minority, dominated the country
until the fall of Saddam Hussein in
2003. Now Shias are in control, with
politicians from the majority community
running the government,
its militias ruling many streets.
Longing to be accepted
Abboush’s sentiments are echoed
at a church in central Erbil, capital
of the Kurdish region which has
become increasingly autonomous
since Saddam’s demise.
At evening mass, Father Salim
Saka told his packed congregation
to work with all communities in
Iraq. In private, he conceded those
wishes may be unrealistic.
“For two years the government
has been saying they will liberate
Mosul. It’s just talk. There can be no
harmony. We are not accepted,” he
said. “We feel left out.”
Outside the church, beside the
candle box, Evaan Khalas, 24, was
also sceptical. As a Christian, he
fought alongside the peshmerga for
1
2
To
Arbil
30km
20km
Mt Zardak
10km
Mosul
Mt Bashiqa
Held by IS
group fighters
2 Armoured columns seen advancing towards
Al Shura, 45km from Mosul
3 4,000 Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighers seize several villages as they
advance on Qaraqosh. Artillery support from Mt Zardak, coalition air support
4 Islamic State group supply route from territory they control in Syria
5 Turkish bases and troops (at least 500 soldiers) used to train Sunni volunteers
Forces
deployed
Al Shura
In and around Mosul
3,000 to 4,500 jihadists
Khazir
3
1.5 million
inhabitants
Qaraqosh
Advancing on Mosul
30,000 Iraqi soldiers and
police officers, Kurdish
fighters and tribal volunteers
five years against al-Qaeda, but is
no longer among the Kurdish ranks.
“Now they don’t accept me. I
wanted to fight with them against
Dae’sh,” he said. “As long as there is
Islam we can’t live here.”
Some of the worshipers are
Christians who fled to Erbil from
villages, towns and cities under Islamic
State. One such, Sobhi Abu
Fadel, recalled his family’s close escape
from Mosul when only about
800 militants seized the city as the
army collapsed.
Standing beside a statue of
the Virgin Mary as church guards
checked bags for explosives, he
pulled up a photograph of his mother
on his smart phone. She died
aged 90 because of the heat in the
car as they fled Islamic State, which
tells Christians to convert or die.
“We had neighbourhood watches
but not enough ammunition,” he
said.
Hundreds of thousands of Christians
have fled Mosul and other
cities in recent years in the face of
intimidation, death threats and violence.
The Yazidis have suffered particular
cruelty at the hands of Islamic
State, which regards them
as devil worshipers. Hundreds of
Yazidis were killed by the jihadists
in 2014 while thousands fled to
camps in the Kurdish region. Many
women who could not escape were
raped or turned into sex slaves.
These ordeals have led some
Yazidis to the conclusion that they
5
4
To Syria
Tall Kayf
Held by Kurdish
forces
Mosul
Dam
Across Iraq
+ 7,500 coalition troops (including
(+ 5,000 US and 500 French)
2,000 Turkish soldiers
SYRIA
Military base
Kurdish forces
Iraqi government
US and allies
Turkish troops
BAGHDAD
IRAQ
SAUDI
ARABIA
Mosul
too can depend only on themselves.
For example, one Yazidi militia
- the YBS or Sinjar Resistance
Units - is also only partially backed
by the state even though it is part
of the government-funded Popular
Mobilisation Forces, according to its
commander Saeed Hassan.
The fighters are 2,700 strong, yet
only 1,000 are getting salaries from
Baghdad, he said.
“An overwhelming majority of
the Yazidis want a self-rule administration
under international protection.
We have no trust in the provincial
administration,” said Haji
Hassan, a civilian member of the
YBS administration. “They have
been treating us badly even since
before Dae’sh took over.”
At a ramshackle camp near a
five-star hotel in central Erbil frequented
by Western executives,
other Yazidis said they rely on the
generosity of local tribes for supplies
such as rice and sugar.
Tables under a tent serve as
a classroom for children twice a
week. Young boys use dirty rags
from a plastic water bucket to wipe
the floor. Posters of sports like archery
and horse racing remind
them of the limitations of life in
their barren camp.
Ali Khalaf, a camp resident who
has occasional work as a labourer,
contemplated the future. “Yazidis
are alone. Even if Islamic State is
driven out of Mosul, we want an international
force to protect us from
genocide,” he said. •
N
200 km
IRAN
Sources: AFP bureaux,
@Lcarabinier, UNHCR,
US State Department,
US, Turkish media