My Interview with the Iraqi Government Spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh

A part of my Interview with the Iraqi Government Spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh:

- B Back to domestic affairs. As you know supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr, the Iraqi Shia leader, have demanded that the government hold a public referendum on a long-term security agreement with the US. The country is much more secure than it was a year ago and the Iraqi forces are stronger than they ever were before. Do you think the Iraqis have the right to decide if they want a foreign force in their country or is this a need beyond democratic rights?

Dabbagh- "The agreement with the United States will not be signed unless it protected Iraq and its sovereignty. The government of Iraq is still in its early stages in negotiation with the United States. We have a different draft from what the United States has. Still we are far away from having an agreement with the United States. So, there is no way that any part or a person or any political group could sign without the approval of the Iraqi people, without protecting the Iraqi people's rights. This is no way. We do believe that every Iraqi is concerned that if a superpower, United States, is going to have an agreement with Iraq, we do need to deal with them as we are a sovereign country. Iraq has got its full sovereignty to accept or reject whatever items which is not workable, which is not accepted by Iraqis. This is the main issue which we are dealing."

Answering a question about his thoughts on the need for more transparent debate on the agreement, al-Dabbagh said, "It is an idea being projected not only by Moqtada al-Sadr but by many people. But in the end, we have a constitution. Constitution shows how we will work on having such an agreement with any other country. It shows that it should be referred to Council of Representatives, which they have to approve or disapprove. This is up to them. I think being the representative of the people, they are elected members, they have the full authority from the Iraqi people to do whatever Iraqi people felt. It should be subjected to all Iraqis, so that they could understand. It should have a national debate. This is a very important agreement between this country and the United States."

Sulaiman al-Furaiji´s (the religious leader in Sadr city) statement in this issue was quite interesting.
Angry about the idea that US forces would stay in Iraq due to an agreement with the Iraqi government he said: "Americans want this agreement to be signed for a longer stay in our country. It is already made between two groups which excluded Iraqi parliament, NGOs and religious leaders. Iraqi and US government did not work for any public or political compromise. This agreement will be a catastrophe for the nation because a superpower, not bound by the Iraqi laws, will be allowed to do anything in Iraq. Nobody knows the content of the agreement, made behind the closed doors. If our government thinks the agreement is for the benefit of Iraqis, they should declare its content. The government should show Iraq's sovereignty by refusing this agreement."

Interviews with Nouri al-Maliki, Djelal Talabani and Tarek al Hashimi are planned... I will write parts of these Interviews into my blog.

Your opinion is important to me.

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Homeless People in Arab Jubbur (South of Baghdad)

Operation "Iraqi Freedom"

Fotos: Alper Taparli

This is Baghdad. I dare say that the sandstorms that make it difficult to breathe are only a matter of habit. What is not a matter of habit are the homicides every day. Being an Iraqi civilian is a shirt of fire. Either you make yourself ready to be a victim of the bombs that explode all-around your city or you hide. Hiding… The word sounds cowardly but when you live in Baghdad cowardice is nearly the only way to survive.

US soldiers told me that they are here to protect their country and to give the Iraqis their freedom. That is what they believe. But is this what the Iraqis believe too? It obviously isn’t, because the hundreds of Iraqis I have had the opportunity to talk with, advance the view that the USA does not intent to help their country or the people living in it. One sentence was almost standard in my interviews: “They killed one Saddam Hussein but brought us hundred new Saddams, now we miss our deceased leader.” The common belief in Iraq is that the US Forces are in their country to control and dominate the oil market.

The fact is that the Iraqis want the US Forces to leave their country. As an American, you can ask “Why? We gave them their freedom!” and of course you are right in your point of view, but please consider that there is a lack of information about this war in the US Media. I would like to bring up a few examples:

- There are 25.000 being held in Iraqi prisons. Most of these young men were not given a trial.

- According to the World Health Organization, more than 150.000 people died because of violent acts during the occupation.

- American soldiers have a right to shoot anyone they see as a threat and they definitely make use of this right.

- Iraqi families are tired of nightly raids. In these raids, male members of the family often get arrested without reason.

- Nothing in Iraq belongs actually the Iraqis. US troops can even search a police station and arrest policemen, if they want to.

… These are only a few of the reasons. Let´s face the truth! You don´t really believe that the US government spends billions of Dollars in Iraq because of its good spirit.

It was Rear Adm. Gregory Smith who gave us journalists the operational update of the MNF-I (Multi National Forces Iraq). Now it is Rear Admiral Patrick Driscoll. Talking about democracy and security in Iraq, telling us where the last strikes were and who they captured or killed, these updates are really very helpful assuming that the MNF-I is the “non plus ultra” in keeping the world secure and democratic. These two names have one in common: They both talk much but say actually nothing.

“Answer the questions you like and leave the rest unanswered.” is the code of the Combined Press Information Center (CPIC) in Baghdad. The CPIC is a complex machinery, built for propaganda purposes only, and is the only contact point for journalists inside the Green Zone. Being embedded in the US Army is a dream for many journalists who actually believe that they will be taken to the places where they can witness the Iraqi reality. I must confess, in my first week in Baghdad, I had the same illusion. After the first embedded mission I realized that it is nothing other than a play.

This giant performance called “Operation Iraqi Freedom” is a mess and nobody knows when or if it will end. Rear Admiral Patrick Driscoll would say: “We are determined to clear this area from Al Qaida and all kinds of terrorists in order to make it possible to live in peace for the Iraqi people. There is no timetable for this.” According to US declarations, Al Qaida is an organization consisting of the worst serial killer-monsters of the world, using methods even a sick mind can hardly imagine. I tried to interview an Al Qaida member myself (Putting my CPIC ID in danger) and was nearly killed. I realized that all foreigners in Iraq are seen as a member of the occupying forces and this makes you a target for everyone.

Of course nobody can fight against terror using a time schedule. But don´t we have to ask ourselves why terror exists? How dare we call some of them freedom fighter and the rest devils? Whose interests are dominating? There are too many questions unanswered…

But at the moment I am focusing on only one of them. “Why are the people on the streets full of hatred against the USA?”

Is it because of the kind of “Freedom” that the USA brings to Iraq?!

The Children Of Sadr City

Photo by Alper Taparli

I know that it´s going too fast. I wanted to write my time in Baghdad day by day or, at least, weekly but there is so much happening that I had to start from the end. Sadr City is in the east of Baghdad. As the name says, with more than 2.5 millon Shia population it is called the stronghold of the religious leader Mukteda El Sadr which has called his followers to protest against the gouvernment politics.
The reasons for this calling were obvious. Hundreds of joung people in Iraq are being arrested everyday, only because of suspicions and they usually don´t get a fair trial. I know some Iraqi young men who were detained for more than 2 years with no chance to fight their case. People are afraid of nightly searchings of the Iraqi and the American army because when they come, they come with humiliation and violance. In many of my interviews, the victims said that the Iraqi soldiers stole their money.

Mukteda El Sadr, who does not want to get into a conflict with the Iraqi gouvernment declared ceasefire for more than 7 months. It is just a logical conclusion that he called his followers to insurgency because of the bottom-up pressure that lasts on him. However, this situation and the still continuing fight between The Mahdi (Mukteda El Sadr´s militant armed forces) on one side, the Iraqi Army and the American Forces of the MNF-I (Multi National Forces-Iraq) on the other side showed that Mukteda El Sadr still has a remarkable army.
The US Forces, together with the Iraqi army try to force the militants on their knees for more than one month now but success is far away. The Gouvernment Spokesman Ali al Dabbagh, declares the civil deaths as "evils attendant on war" blames the Mahdi army for hiding between civillians.

But let´s not talk about what officials say and do, the war in Iraq has actually been going on for 5 years now and more than %80 of the victims are civillians. Nobody asks for these people anymore but their realtives in Iraq, fraught with hatred. The real victims of the air raids on Sadr City are the children. As many Iraqis say, this country is nothing but a wrack and hope is not in sight.

Sons of Iraq (The Sahva)

This boy, only 13 years old, has already killed 8 Al Qaida members. He does not know that children his age go to school and cry when they fall because he never went to school or had somebody who held him when he cried. Just 20 m away, American soldiers who tell him to be brave and to go on killing. This is life, at least in southern Baghdad. Even I get used to these pictures.

Photo by Alper Taparli

A journalist, working in Baghdad... It´s difficult to tell what I see and what I sense

Before 6 months I came to Baghdad. Dreams in my pocket, to tell the world what really goes on in Iraq. All TV stations, at least all in Europe, get their news about Iraq from Associated Press (AP) or Reuters and both of these agancies have their headquarters in countries which are a part of the war down here. Telling the world the truth meant to write things as they are realized by the people who are affected. I wanted to be here and I jeopardized my life for the ideal of "telling the truth".

Living in Germany and used to a good social life, I thoght that I would come to a hotel full of foreign journalists. I hoped to meet new people and call the best journalists in the world my friends. I report for Ihlas News Agancy (IHA), which is the biggest one in Turkey. They guaranteed me, that I would be free in choosing my topics and in my diction. I began working right after I got out of the plane and this didn´t change untill now.

It already has been 6 months, my time in Baghdad is not easy and it seems that life in Iraq has never been.

I came in winter, in the beginning of December and was surprized when I saw the German autumnal weather here. Most of the Arabs don´t know what real winter is, the heat of their latitudes is in their heart although I believe that it burned some brains away.

In this Blog, I will tell about my days in Baghdad. How I came to work here and what I see here each day.