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THE fifth estate: The Forgotten People
One's Man Battle to Stop Iraq> Printer Version

Broadcast March 26, 2003

ONE MAN'S BATTLE TO STOP IRAQ

Peter Galbraith is son of famed Canadian economist John Kenneth Galbraith.

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."

"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.

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.

"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."

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.

"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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CBC: the fifth estate - The Forgotten People
Broadcast March 26, 2003 on CBC News: the fifth estate
UPDATED in February 2004

The Chemical Attack at Halabja - The U.S. Iraq Alliance
One Man's Battle to Stop Iraq
Transcripts & Resources

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