In
the end it is the Iraqi people who will suffer
Millions of people demonstrated last Saturday against a threatening war
in Iraq. TU/e employee S. left that country more than ten years ago. Even
today he is afraid to publish his name in Cursor. Many of his relatives,
including his mother, still live in Baghdad.
No, S. prefers not to say anything about how he ended up in the Netherlands
at the time. Nor about the position he once held in Iraq. What S., who
has worked at the TU/e for four years now, does want to talk about are
the consequences of a war for his former country and his amazement at
the view adopted by the Dutch government in this matter. If the
Dutch population pronounces a clear no against a war, then surely a democratically
elected government cannot as yet render assistance to this? S. says
with indignation. I was surprised that Balkenende responded so quickly
to a request for support from the United States, without so much as consulting
the Lower House.
In broad outlines S. tries to sketch the situation in Iraq: Iraq
is an exceptional country in the Middle East also. It has many different
cultures and religions. Within the Islamic faith there are also different
schools. Until World War II there were still Jews living in Iraq. I myself
am a Kurd, a people that has already suffered greatly under the regime
of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Even in 1988 Kurds in Iraq were attacked by
Saddam and murdered with chemical weapons. At the time hardly any attention
was paid to this worldwide, for that matter. What the outside world needs
to see clearly, however, is that there is a huge difference between the
Iraqi people and the Iraqi government. With his Baath party Saddam
has absolute power. If you want to get a good job or a position at a university,
you must be a member of that party. That is the only reason why so many
people are members. It is not a membership that people enter into with
their hearts.
Not the solution
S. would also like to see Saddam go today rather than tomorrow. A
large-scale attack by the United States is not the solution, in any case
not for the people of Iraq, who are bound to suffer most. As far as that
is concerned the USA has already caused a great deal of misery with its
blockade of medicines, among other things. The enormous
monetary depreciation that resulted from this has made bad blood as well.
According to S. the blockade should be resolved as soon as possible and
the United Nations should get control of what can and cannot enter the
country. An action like Oil for food is useless. It
was fully controlled by the government.
The image of Iraq sketched by the media S. finds extremely annoying. Whenever
I see anything about Baghdad on TV, it looks like a Third World country.
It is not the Baghdad that I know and that is full of beautiful buildings
and parks as well. In this way you get a totally distorted idea of what
Iraq is really like.
The Iraqi population is also under heavy internal pressure, says S. resignedly.
The media are totally controlled by the regime. Displeasing reports
are simply banned from the country. Satellite dishes are strictly forbidden.
The secret service in Iraq has supreme power. All of this implies that
Iraq is actually not involved in the world.
S. hopes that the conflict will be resolved through diplomatic channels.
Let the weapons inspectors do their work, do not hold the population
accountable for the acts perpetrated by Saddam. At this moment the Iraqi
people is having to cope with two Saddams: one in Baghdad and one in the
White House./.
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