US weapons will not help the Iraqi government improve the country’s security situation. Instead, Iraq needs to gain the trust of the people by ending violence against them, Kurdish novelist Haifa Zangana told RT.
October was the bloodiest month in Iraq in five years. Data from
the country's authorities puts the death toll at over 1,000
people. Ninety percent of those were civilian casualties.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has arrived in Washington to
request US hardware to tackle Al-Qaeda in the country. Iraq is
asking for Apache helicopters, F-16 fighter jets, and air-defense
systems.
But Guardian contributor and former prisoner of Saddam Hussein's
regime, Haifa Zangana, believes the many factions in the
country’s government don’t care about the safety of citizens.
Instead, he believes they are only interested in fighting each
other for power.
RT:You must have been greatly relieved back in 2003
when the intervention began and US forces effectively won your
freedom?
Haifa Zangana: No, no. I mean, we understood from the
beginning – many Iraqis did, including myself – that this isn’t
really liberation as it’s being claimed. This is an invasion. And
there’s a difference between opposing Saddam [Hussein]’s regime
and the occupying of your own country.
RT: Ten years on, what is your assessment of the
security situation right now?
HZ: It’s absolutely terrible because it’s affecting daily
life from morning until night. And every single hour of the day,
people are unsafe to do anything. Whoever goes out, they don’t
know whether they [will] come back safely or not. There is
distrust of the regime and terrorist attacks - mostly targeting
innocent people rather than other forces. So it’s a huge decline
in the security. And the feeling of unsafety is driving people
mad on the human level.
RT:Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has asked the
US for help. Could that mean a second intervention?
HZ: He’s asking to be supplied by more advanced technology
in order to, he says, fight Al-Qaeda. But what he’s not
mentioning is that it’s not just Al-Qaeda that is active in Iraq.
Terrorist acts are part and parcel of the regime itself. There
are about six other organizations or militia - they are attached
to the political process and the regime itself – that are acting
in a very violent way against Iraqi civilians. There’s the
al-Mahdi Army militia. There’s the Badr Brigade. I can go on and
on and continue counting many others. So asking for extra weapons
is in fact adding to the crimes of the US since the occupation of
2003 that was committed against the Iraqi people.
Until now, the weapons available for the regime - the Maliki
regime - have been used in a big way against the civilians
themselves when they are demonstrating and when they are in
vigils. We saw that clearly in April in Hawijah, north of
Baghdad, where a vigil camp was attacked by security forces.
Fifty-one people were killed. They were demonstrators. And many
others - like three times that figure - were wounded. And as we
know, because of the lack of health service in Iraq, many of the
wounded will usually end up dead.
RT:Why can't the government cope on its own?
HZ: The government doesn’t represent the people. The
government is quite busy with squabbling among the alliance –
it’s a form of alliance or some political parties. Most of them
have got militias and they are very busy fighting each other.
This inter-fighting is causing a lot of the horrendous violence
against civilians. It’s not the lack of weapons, it’s the trust
of the people. It’s the real intention and the work of the regime
itself and the many political parties there in order to ensure
the security of the people. The only safeguard for any government
in the world to reduce terrorism – whatever that is – is to build
up the trust with their own people. And the Maliki regime with
all its militia has failed tremendously in that aspect.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.