Exode (des Kurdes d'Irak) - Institut kurde de Paris

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International Herald Tribune April 4, 1991
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The New Order Starts With a Betrayal-us-Usual.
4 4
By Jim Hoagland
ASHINGTON - Led by the
W helicopter gunships that the
Bush administration allowed back "Twice before in this century, an
into the air last week, Iraqi troops entire world was convulsed by war.
have driven the Kurdish forces of Twice this century, out of the horrors
Masoud Banani out of the major of war, hope emerged for enduring
towns in northern Iraq. In the south, peace. Twice before, those hopes
'Within striking range of a powerful proved to be a distant dream, beyond
American occupation army, Shiite the grasp of man ... Now we can
rebels have been crushed by Saddam . see a new world coming into view."
Hussein's soldiers. Those hopes suddenly seem to be
For the dispossessed of Iraq, the beyond Mr. Bush as weU. The Kurds
first days of the new world order and the Shiites of Iraq have no place
proclaimed by George Bush look in this new world of hope. For Amersuspiciously
like the old world of ican policymakers willing to accom.
betrayal and neglect that has been mod~te Iraq's atrocities against its
their lot throughout the 20th century. own. people, it is back to business as
Sixteen years ago this week, I usual. For Saddam Hussein, it is
watched terrorized Kurdish tribes- back to brutality as usual.
men and defeated soldiers trudge The White House is unable to exalong
the muddy roads of Kurdi- plain persuasively its mysterious restan.
fleeing the advance of a ruth. versal on the helicopters. Suspicions
less Iraqi army seeking vengeance. grow that political calculations about
Today those same roads are again preserving Mr. Bush's Gulliver-like
. awash with desperate Kurdish refu- standing in the polls dominate the
. gees. Their night repeats the 1975 decision making process now.
tragedy down. to the last detail. in- That is what General Norman
eluding the failure of the United . Schwan.kopf seemed 10 be hinting
States to help Kurds after American at in his candid remarks to the interleaders
encouraged them to take up viewer David Frost. Before he was
arnlS against Saddam Hussein. silenced by the White House, Star-
This is a part of thç .new world min' Norman suggested that his
order that President Bush did not battlefield decisions were not re-
,;~çiver:tise-in-hi sGulf-victol)'-speech---sponsi bidor the appalling slaughc
. 10 Congress on March 6. In that ter that American forces have to
address, he promised to succeed tolerate in Iraq today.
wilere his predecessors had. failed. Th6 people who are being slaughthe
Iraqi anny. closed in on his
. " mountain fortress, the embittered
tered by the helicopters and by the. old warrior appealed in his last intertanks
that General Schwankopf was view inside Iraq for American praordered
not to pursue are the same tection for the Kurds. This was igpeople
Mr. Bush urged to rise up nored by the Ford administration.
against Saddam during the war. Such (Mustafa Banani died in lonely exile
callousness dishonors the lofty argu- in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1979.)
ments of morality and humanity that The Kurds see themselves as his.
Mr. Bush used during the war. He tory's victims. They are also the
casts those principles aside when victims of leaders. After their 1975
they are no longer useful to him. experience, the Kurds expected lit-
That is politics in its crassest form. tle of George Bush, and he has ful-
For Kurds, the world's largest state- filled those expectations.
less minority, it is betrayal as usual. But ML BuSh risks betraying his
I carne to know and admire the own hopes td change the Middle
Kurds in 1973 when I met Masoud East. HIS inaation in Iraq speaks
Barz.ahi and his father, the legendary louder than words, showing Arabs
Kurdish chieftain Mulla Mustafa and Israelis that he is not convinced
Ban.an.i, in the remote Zagros Moun- that a new situation that requires'
tains. The Bananis, targets of assa~- bold new respon"es has in fact been
sination attempts by Saddanl, were created in the Middle East. How
preparing for the uprising against can he expect these ancient ad ver-
Baghdad that began a year later. saries to be convinced that a new
Iran wa~ arming the Kurds gener- era has arrived when he slides so
ausi)', but the elder Barzani used that quickly back into the habits and
interview to appeal for direct Ameri- assumptions of the old world order?
can aid. "We do not trust the Shall," The prC$ident's retreat on the
he told me. "(tnlst America. Ameri' Kurds and Shiites risks undermining.
ca is too great a power to betray il the opportunities for significant pra- .
small people li.ke the Kurds." Wess on ~ce, and on human rights, ,
He learned otherwise in 1975. The lß the MIddle East that his own bold'
Linited States joined the shah in ~ar policies had created. By selling
_5huiling off arms Sl!RRU_es_and~I1ing __J1imself and the U.S. forces h~ comout
the Kurds to get a border treaty mandssnort;tne preSiôen:tiswalking
that Saddam later tore up. Whel! I away fro(l1 his own success.
went back to see the elder Barz.ani as The Washington Post.