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ONE MAN'S BATTLE
TO STOP IRAQ
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Peter
Galbraith is son of famed Canadian economist
John Kenneth Galbraith.
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Advocate for the Kurds
Few Americans know - or care - as much about the plight
of the Kurds as Peter Galbraith.
A former ambassador to Croatia from 1993 to 1998 he
documented the Iraqi authorities' attacks against
the Kurds in the late 1980s when he served as senior
advisor to the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee
(1979-1993). He was one of the first to witness the
genocide of the Kurds by the Iraqi government during
a trip he made to the region in 1987.
Peter Galbraith: "As
we traveled from the Iraqi area to the Kurdish
area, we were stunned to see that the villages
were gone. These were places that had been inhabited
for millennia. The graveyards were removed, the
mosques, all the wire had been taken down form
the electric poles. It had become a desolate region.
And we could see where the people had been moved.
Iraq called them victory cities but in reality
they were a kind of concentration camp."
Bob
McKeown: "At
that time had you had any inkling that this was
going on?"
Peter
Galbraith: "I had no idea."
Bob McKeown: "Would
you have used the word genocide, looking at that
then?"
Peter Galbraith: "At
that time, no, because there had been no signs
of killing people."
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Peter
Galbraith has traveled to Kurdistan several
times.
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Saddam's
Master Plan
Peter Galbraith saw the countryside but was not yet
aware of Saddam's master plan to bring the Kurds to
their knees.
Some time later Galbraith read a small news clipping
about gassing and concluded he had earlier witnessed
the signs of a mass genocide.
"It
was a moment of recognition. And I put together
the use of chemical weapons against villages far
from the Iranian border in places that could have
nothing to do with the Iran/Iraq war and put that
together with the systemic destruction of villages
that I’d seen before. The conclusion was
that this regime was committing genocide. And
I felt that we had to do something about it."
Within days, he travelled to the Turkish side of
the Turkey-Iraq border and interviewed 100s of survivors
who had come into Turkey as refugees.
But on March 16, 1988 Saddam's horrific plan became
clear to the entire world. Saddam's helicopters
swept over the Kurdish city of Halabja leaving clouds
of chemical gas behind. Five thousand innocent civilians
died in the first few hours. The images of bodies
piled on the streets were broadcast around the world.
(read more)
Galbraith
went to northern Iraq to document the terrible toll.
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After
the attack many bodies were buried in mass
graves.
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This
was not the first time the Iraqi had used chemical
weapons against its own people. It's estimated that
30,000 Kurds lost their lives to Saddam Hussein's
chemical weapons.
A Response to the Chemical Attack
Galbraith rushed to Capital Hill to set in motion
a blistering response to the atrocity. One that
he hoped would alter the course of world events.
"I
sat down and dictated, in about an hour, a bill
to my secretary. I imposed every sanction on Iraq
that I could think of. The legislation banned
oil sales, required U.S. to oppose loans, cut
off $700 million in agricultural and export credits
and banned any export requiring a licence. I drafted
this, and said what should we call it?
The
Bill was called the Prevention of Genocide Act (download
the Act). It
would have imposed the harshest American economic
sanctions against any country in twenty years. But
Galbraith had to move quickly because Congress was
about to adjourn and if he didn't get Senate and
House Approval the Bill would die. 
The sanctions bill won Senate approval in just 24
hours.
"For
a major piece of legislation to pass the Senate
in a day is virtually without precedent. I think
the Senators who looked at this, responded from
their hearts."
Barham
Salih, the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional
Government--Sulaymania was thrilled with the response.
"It
meant a lot. I remember actually doing the translation
from English to Kurdish myself . We were all excited.
The United States Senate speaking with one voice
calling for sanctions against tyranny."
American Capitalism
Peter Galbraith couldn't believe his luck and hoped
the Bill would soon become law. Instead he found
himself up against American capitalism.
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Bill
Frenzell was the only one who publicly opposed
the Bill.
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Bill
Frenzell, then a Congressman from
Minnesota took a public stand against the Prevention
of Genocide Act.
"It’s
very hard to be FOR genocide, or against people
who are against genocide, but I couldn’t
see anything in that resolution that could prevent
any single drop of blood being shed. All I could
see was that it was doing harm to the U.S., rather
than to the perpetrators of the alleged genocide."
Lobbyists
took this message into the corridors of congress
and warned that the Bill would only punish Americans
who were doing business with Iraq. Galbraith found
himself facing farmers, bankers, exporters and oil
men.
"They
included the agriculture lobbyists – the
Rice Millers Association. Being from New England,
I thought rice came from South East Asia and I
was surprised to learn that ¼ of rice grown
in Arkansas was being exported to Iraq. In fact
in all these messages, and the people I spoke
with, there was no interest in what was happening
to the Kurds. It was purely about their economical
interests and the problems this legislation would
cause for them."
Economic
Sanctions 'Premature'
In the end, the Prevention of Genocide Act ran into
its stiffest opposition at the White House. The
Reagan administration believed that the sanctions
were 'premature'. Galbraith was stunned.
"What
would have made it ripe for action? The killing
of all the Kurds? It was an absurd statement."
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The
Prevention of Genocide Act was never passed.
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President
Ronald Reagan thought that Saddam would respond
better to a carrot than a stick. He was prepared
to use his presidential veto to kill the Bill. The
House and the Senate haggled over it until Congress
adjourned and the Prevention of Genocide Act disappeared.
The
Kurds were disappointed; Saddam Hussein would go
unpunished. In fact, within the next year business
with Iraq increased. Barham Salih the Prime Minister
of the Kurdistan Regional Government--Sulaymania
feels that at the time Saddam thought he could get
away with just about anything.
"I’m
sure that Saddam Hussein would have been very
concerned about that document. Because sanctions
at that time would have meant considerable uneasiness
and a considerable setback to his policies. But
when the resolution was vetoed I’m sure
that he felt vindicated. He felt that he could
get away with murder, which he did."
After
the First Gulf War
But it wasn't the first or last time the Kurds would
be let down by the American government.
After the first Gulf War, George Bush - the father
- called on them to stand up against Saddam. They
answered his call and on March 6, 1991 there was
a major uprising in the north of Iraq.
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Galbraith was with the Kurds during their
uprising after the first Gulf War.
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Peter
Galbraith was invited to witness their triumphant
rebellion against the Iraqi dictator. Instead he found
himself trapped in a desperate Kurdish convoy escaping
northern Iraq. They were pursued by Iraq's troops
flying in helicopters Saddam had purchased from the
West.
"Bush
then did nothing to help. He allowed Iraq tanks
and Republican Guard units to move, to put down
the rebels, IN SPITE of ceasefire conditions in
which he was not allowed to move those units.
In the north, he allowed Iraq to use helicopter
gun ships, even though there was a ban on flights.
These were not accidental decisions of the Bush
administration. This was a conscious decision
that it was better for Saddam Hussein to remain
in power than for the Shiites in the south to
succeed or for Kurds in north to succeed because
they might be separatists and annoy Turkey."
A
Second Gulf War
He says the experience affected him profoundly and
set the stage for events today.
"That’s
why we’re in the situation which we are
in today.This rebellion could have succeeded.
Saddam could have been gone in March 1991 and
we could have had a very different history. We
would not be having 300,000 coalition forces in
the Gulf, we would not be seeing the loss of life
that we’re going to see, and we wouldn’t
be seeing the huge cost."
Twelve
years later the Kurds now find themselves in the
unlikely position of being cast as one of the reasons
for the second war with Iraq. But history has shown
the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government--Sulaymania
that promises can be broken.
"Don’t
ask a Kurd about morality. We have been a victim
of duplicity. By double standards in international
politics. More often than not the plight of the
Kurdish people was subordinated to the interests
of others and the world was indifferent to the
plight of my people when we were gassed."
Even
as the U.S. opens up a northern front in Iraq, Salih
says his people won't be lured into a false sense
of security again.
"I
am a freedom fighter. We have been fighting for
our freedom for decades. We have fought this terror
at the time when the United States was supporting
this tyranny. That’s important to understand.
We’re fighting for our liberation on our
own terms and on our own turf in a way in our
own country."
NOTE:
Peter Galbraith is now a professor at the National
Defense University in Fort McNair, near Washington.
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