Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

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Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basin Ozeti ffcrdS&rUnrae Wednesday, march 20, 2013 For Iraqis, no time for reflection BAGHDAD As their country is trying to cope, 10th anniversary of invasion means little BYTIMARANGO The war that arrived a decade ago is still too painful and too controversial to be taught to schoolchildren or subjected to serious academic study at universities, and the local news media are too busy reporting on the latest bombings, protests and political disagreements to care much about an anniversary. So as historians, pundits and former government officials in Washington and London produce a wave of reminis¬ cences on the occasion of the 10th an¬ niversary of the invasion of Iraq sym¬ posiums have been held, books written, studies published on the conflict's toll, human and financial Iraqis are more concerned with the present. On Friday morning at the pet market in the center of Baghdad, Hasim al-Shi- mari watched two roosters fighting it out and offered a rejoinder to those marking his war's anniversary. "You see these people," he said. "They are here to sell birds to earn some money to help them live. People are not interested in that. They are des- . perate and want to see real change, so they've stopped looking at the news or remembering past events." In recent interviews, most Iraqis, like Mr. Shimari, say they have given little or no thought to the looming an¬ niversary, which falls on Wednesday, though the sight of foreign television news crews conducting stand-ups in the city this week will remind them that the war, for the conquerors anyway, is something to be reflected upon. ' 'If our situation were better than this, we would surely remember that day when the Americans came to free Iraq and gave us the chance to build a better future," Mr. Shimari said. "But the Americans didn't give us that chance. They did all the things possible to en¬ sure that Iraq is going to be ruined." In Iraq, the war is not for the history books but rather an event whose out¬ come is still uncertain. "I don't even remember how old I :V1* *> ,. It ^ " 4 KARlMKADiM/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS An image of the ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is visible at the archaeological site of Babylon. For many Iraqis, the war is an event whose outcome is still uncertain. am," said Abdullah Fadil, who has sold tea since 1982 outside a mosque in Adhamiya, a predominantly Sunni neighborhood in the capital. "I wake up each day with a thousand problems, so why should I remember that?" The local news media are focused on the rise in sectarian tensions and protests that have spread in predomin¬ antly Sunni regions. "I know that among my journalist friends, no one is willing or has the at¬ tention to write about it or do any re¬ porting," said Naseer Awam, the direc¬ tor of the Iraqi News Agency. He expressed regret that Iraqis might not gain a proper historical perspective, saying the news media "should have prepared extensive reports and a nar¬ rative of events that began with the start of the U.S.-led invasion and its con¬ sequences." As a result, he said, Iraqis might not "understand what this brought to Iraq and the entire region." Another journalist, Sabah Sellawi, the editor of the newspaper Maysan, said, "The instability in Iraq is more impor¬ tant than this day." Besides, if any anniversary is impor¬ tant to Iraqis, it is April 9 the day Baghdad fell to American forces, and exuberant Iraqis, with an assist from American marines, pulled down a statue of President Saddam Hussein in a city park not the anniversary of the start of the bombing of Baghdad. The central legacy of the war, many experts say, is a political system mid- wifed by the United States in which the spoils of power are divided along sec¬ tarian and ethnic lines. As such, com¬ promise in the streets and in Parlia¬ ment has been nearly impossible. Today, the notion of a national identity "If our situation were better than this, we would surely remember that day when the Americans came to free Iraq." that supersedes the sectarian seems a fantasy. "What people used to dream about was an Iraq for all Iraqis," said Ahssan al-Shmmary, a political science profes¬ sor at Baghdad University. "What was a dream for Iraqis has become a night¬ mare for Iraqis." He added, "That's why people are not thinking of this." Mr. Shmmary's comments belie his own fate. As a Shiite Muslim, he has 49
50 Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basin Ozeti seen his life improve enormously as the war upended a social order in which the minority Sunni population held the levers of power. "Before 2003, 1 was like a slave, and nobody knew about me," he said. "Now I feel like I exist in this world." He said that he had "become a star political analyst." Sunni Muslims have not fared as well, and many Iraqis expressed a sense that sectarian tensions were worsening. On Thursday night, Mr. Fadil, the tea seller, sat at an outdooncafe across the street from the mosque in Adhamiya, which for months has been the site of demonstrations of which he has been an enthusiastic participant by Sunnis after Friday Prayer. A row of armored sport utility vehicles nearby indicated a visit from the ruling elite that, with its traffic-stopping convoys, its unkept promises to at least keep the lights on and the streets clean, not to mention what many characterize as its corrup¬ tion, seems ever more disconnected from ordinary people. Mr. Fadil, a Sunni who said he used to work in Mr. Hussein's secret police (he was only a cook, he insisted, and never carried a weapon), said he could not af¬ ford a house and was struggling to provide for his wife and four daughters. He said he used to earn extra money cleaning the streets in his neighbor¬ hood, but then the government gave the jobs to Shiites from other parts of the city. "The Sunnis are being neglected here," Mr. Fadil said. "They are not in the security forces. They are not in the government." In other words, he has more pressing concerns than remembering a day he would rather forget. "There was nothing accomplished, so why should I remember it?" he asked. At the pet market, Karrar Habeeb, a 22-year-old carpenter, paused, sur¬ prised to be asked about what was surely the defining event of his youth. "I didn't know about it," Mr. Habeeb said of the anniversary. "Are we still talking about the Americans? I don't think we need to do any kind of celebrat¬ ing or make an effort to remember that day. I think even the Americans wish they could forget it." Yasir Ghazi contributed reporting. . witEMnom H*ralfcÉJl!Ê$rU>uitt march is, 2013 Syrian general bolts, but reaction is muted BEIRUT Assad government goes on political offensive to shore up its position BY ANNE BARNARD A Syrian general who was in charge of military supplies and logistics an¬ nounced over the weekend that he had defected from the army after the rebels' top military commander again called for members of the Syrian armed forces to join the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, now entering its third year. But after the officer, Brig. Gen. Mo¬ hammed Nour Ezzedeen Khallouf, an¬ nounced his defection Saturday, there were no reports ofunusually widespread or decisive defections in response to a video address in English and Arabic re¬ leased Friday by Gen. Salim Idris. Gen¬ eral Idris defected in July andis now the leader of the Free Syrian Army's unified military command. Instead, Mr. Assad's government went on the political offen¬ sive, calling on Brazil, China, India and other developing powers to help stop the Syrian conflict and find a political solu¬ tion to the uprising. Protests across Syria to observe the uprising's two-year anniversary were small and muted compared with the ex¬ uberant demonstrations that initially set off the revolt, underscoring the growing sense that the war is nowhere near an end. The government remains dug in and is willing to use extreme force, and chances for a political solu¬ tion appear remote. The request for political support from developing nations came in a letter de¬ livered by an Assad adviser, Bouthaina Shaaban, to South Africa's president, Jacob Zuma, who will host a summit meeting next week of Brazil, Russia, In¬ dia, China and South Africa, the so- called Brics nations. As Europe and the United States weigh stronger action to aid the Syrian rebels, which could involve directly arming them, Mr. Assad appears to be appealing to the Brics nations' aversion to Western military interventions. Before the uprising, Ms. Shaaban por¬ trayed herself as an advocate for change and modernization, but she has rarely been seen since she offered her support for the security forces during the early days of the crackdown. The uprising began peacefully, but elements of the opposition eventually took up arms after security forces fired on protesters. General Khallouf appeared briefly Saturday in a broadcast on Al Arabiya, an Arabic television channel based in Saudi Arabia. "Arrangements for the defection from the currentAssad regime started awhile ago," the general said. "There was coor¬ dination with several sides from various factions ofthe Syrian revolution." Anti-government activists said that while his high rank was notable among defectors, his departure would not change things for the government, which could easily replace him. As the conflict continues, the Syrian "Tjfii * DANIEL ETTER FOR THE NYT Gen. Salim Idris, who defected in July, has called on his former colleagues tojoin him. Protests marking the second anniversary of the conflict failed to attract big crowds. government has increased its use of cluster bombs, which are widely banned becausethosethatdo not explode on im¬ pact often wound civilians who find them, the international watchdog group Human Rights Watch said in a report is¬ sued Saturday. In the past six months, the Syrian government has dropped cluster bombs 156 times in 119 places, Human Rights Watch said. Two recent strikes alone killed 11 civilians, including two women and five children, the group said. Hania Mourtada and Hwaida Saad con¬ tributed reporting.
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