23.04.1998

Iraqi Kurdistan: Fight for separation

Following the latest near war between the USA and the regime of Saddam Hussein, comrade Tahir Hassan of the Worker-Communist Party of Iraq visited several European countries including Britain. Comrade Hassan - who has special responsibility for work among Kurds - spoke to Ian Farrell

In the recent US-Iraq confrontation, what was the real motivation of imperialism?

This was a continuation of the chain of events since the 1991 Gulf War. The US is in its weakest position at the moment. All its policies in the Middle East have failed. In Palestine, Iraqi Kurdistan, Iran, south and middle Iraq, the no-fly zone, all its policies have failed. The latest conflict is the final stage before removing sanctions from Iraq. The US knows sanctions have caused suffering to the people of Iraq and strengthened the regime. The pressure of world opinion, even the UK, is against sanctions. This makes another US military attack unlikely.

During the years since the Gulf War, the Iraq-US conflict over sanctions has been one of the determining factors of the political situation. The recent crisis was a last step in the process. The US cannot remove sanctions quietly: it needs to make a big fuss. It needs to create a crisis for a few months before finally removing them.

Tell us about the situation in Iraqi Kurdistan and your proposals.

The WCPI organises in all parts of Iraq, not only in Kurdistan. Our aim is to lead the opposition of the people of the whole of Iraq to overthrow the Baath regime and establish a workers’ state. As a serious political party, we are also endeavouring to put an end to the tragedies that the people are facing in Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan.

Our current effort in these visits outside Iraq is not simply to show the world the atrocities of the Iraqi regime and the plight of the people of Iraqi Kurdistan, who are supposedly under UN protection but are suffering the terrible effects of the economic blockade. Nor is it to expose the role of the US in the region. We want to bring to light the reality of the Iraqi opposition and gain solidarity for our party’s alternative proposals for self-determination for the people of the UN-controlled area, north of the 36th parallel.

After the Gulf War, US policies were imposed through the UN, in the name of defending the people of Iraqi Kurdistan. The area was separated from the rest of Iraq and placed under the control of nationalist tribal parties. Since then Iraqi Kurdistan has been transformed into a huge refugee camp. Right now there is not any kind of law operating. The people are deprived of the simplest rights which normally come from being part of a state.

Is there a solution to the Kurdish question both in Iraq and as a whole?

Any solution to the situation in Kurdistan must deal with two issues: the uncertainty of living like refugees, and the question of Kurdish national oppression. These issues are linked.

The Kurdish national question in Iraqi Kurdistan is different to Palestine or to Kurds in Turkey or Iran. In Iraqi Kurdistan there is no law or state to provide political, civil or cultural rights, not even a backward or regressive law. For example, if workers want to strike against low wages, there is no state which can determine wages. There is no definite border to this geographical region, and every now and then Iran attacks, Turkey attacks, the Baath regime attacks. During the last seven years this has resulted in the most severe cultural and material regression.

Nationalist, tribal and religious parties control the area. These armed parties are the ones who determine economic and political rights, in addition to terrorism, hunger, poverty, the killing of women or children, the selling of children, and so on.

What we have been campaigning for over the past four years is the right of the people to determine their own destiny. We are campaigning to gain support for our proposals for ending this situation, by putting pressure on the UN. The armed forces of all the political parties must withdraw from the populated areas and allow six months for all political parties to express their views. Then a free referendum must be held for the people of Kurdistan to decide whether they want to remain a part of the Baath regime - with all their rights protected - or whether they want a separate state. The UN must recognise the people’s decision and give it legitimacy.

What does the CWPI want the people to decide?

Under present conditions, because the regime in Iraq is a national-fascist regime with laws based on an Arabic nationalist definition of Iraq, any linking of Kurdistan to this regime would mean accepting second class citizenship. Therefore the least painful and most humanitarian solution for the people of Iraqi Kurdistan is to establish an independent, non-national, secular state. We would not call for separation if there was a change in the regime, if Iraq became a secular, non-nationalist state. As there is no immediate prospect for such a change in Iraq, and because the current situation in Iraqi Kurdistan cannot continue, we call for this solution right now.

What do you think are the implications of your solution for other Kurdish areas, in Turkey, Iran and Syria?

It will obviously have an effect, but what we are proposing is not a Kurdish state. A certain geographical area, not controlled by the Baath regime, is living in uncertainty. We want to make it into a state. That geographical area does not include all the Kurdish areas within the Iraqi borders.

Imperialism created this area ‘to protect the Kurdish people’. What are the real reasons?

It was one of the things used by the US to put pressure on the Baath regime to make it comply with UN resolutions. The nationalist parties believed the US would create a state for them, so they established a Kurdish parliament in 1992. However, the US did not recognise their parliament. Fighting began, leading to the current situation.

What about other areas? Is it possible to organise political support for this or other campaigns in the middle and south of Iraq?

Our activity in Iraqi Kurdistan, where most of our members are, is different from our activity in the rest of Iraq. But we are still active in the middle and south of Iraq. Many of our comrades are in the Baath regime’s prisons.

We see the UN as an imperialist instrument. How do you deal with the contradiction of appealing to imperialism to solve this problem?

We too regard the UN as an imperialist agency. We have written many articles against the UN and its role in the Gulf War, and particularly against the UN policy of economic blockade, which has resulted in the death of more than 1.5 million Iraqi people since 1991. But, like it or not, today the UN is a recognised international organisation that determines geographical boundaries. We are not expecting that the UN will come forward and listen to us. The UN would be obliged to listen to what the four million people of Kurdistan say. I wish there was a communist international which we could approach. But in its absence we must approach the UN and force it to listen. This is not diplomacy, but struggle.

Besides the Kurdish question, what are the other main political questions in Iraq, and what are the other weak points of the Baath regime?

A major issue is the economic blockade. In contrast to the US claim that the blockade would weaken the regime, it has weakened people’s morale and helps the regime to suppress protests against poverty, hunger, unemployment, and even the lack of electricity or water supplies. Eight years of economic blockade would ruin any society. All bourgeois Iraqi opposition groups, from far left to far right, hoped that economic sanctions would weaken the regime and enable them to take control. This shows an inhuman stance.

What attitude do the bourgeois opposition take to your proposals on Kurdistan?

All bourgeois organisations and groups oppose separation and the referendum plan. All the nationalist parties in Kurdistan have the same strategy as the US. They are against the removal of national oppression. What they want is to share power in the regime.

The history of Kurdish nationalism has been a cycle of wars and negotiations, as with nationalists everywhere, like the PKK or Arafat. When they have support, they fight. When they are weak, they negotiate and sell out.