Enough is enough; the situation has become unbearable! Last week there was a conference held in Baghdad hosted by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki. It will rank alongside all of the many other conferences which go nowhere, of which there have been many. It stands out, though, because of the individual hosting it; Al-Maliki has been involved in documented and proven crimes that go beyond the ordinary and include an accusation of genocide being handled by the International Criminal Court, in reference to the very important intelligence information leaked by the journalist Anwar Malik which confirms Al-Maliki’s relations with Al-Qaeda and Daash. In short, this conference on combating terrorism was hosted by a serial terrorist.
Those who took part did not risk travelling to Iraq and being in the Green Zone in order to enrich the conference with effective solutions for the difficult security situation in Iraq that has existed for years. They don’t care about the tragic situation of the people in Iraq; they went to Baghdad for commercial reasons, in search of the big deals on offer, not a commitment to principles and morality.
Many countries, especially the permanent members of the UN Security Council, are looking forward to decades of arms sales after Al-Maliki made billion dollar deals with the US, Russia and China. Their excuse is that the weapons are being used to combat the terrorism committed by Al-Qaeda and Daash only, regardless of who will be using these weapons, even if they are terrorists of another kind. The latter include, inter alia, gang militias, the Badr Brigades, Hezbollah, the Revolutionary Guards and Al-Battat. These groups and factions do not perpetuate less “terrorism” than Al-Qaeda and Daash, but they are not all classified as terrorists, despite their bad record. This is yet another example of the West’s double standards in such matters.
Some of the Arabs, including those from the Gulf, participated in the conference despite calls for a boycott. This is unfortunate, as well as surprising, after Al-Maliki made an unprecedented and explicit accusation against Saudi Arabia and Qatar regarding their alleged involvement in terrorism in Iraq. These participants have lost a lot and have angered their Arab brothers who are being persecuted by Al-Maliki and who had hoped for them to take a position that reinforces their perseverance and gives them hope. This is especially true of the Sunni Arabs from the Anbar tribes in Ramadi and Fallujah who are being targeted by Al-Maliki’s weapons and war planes day and night. In the case of such countries, fear drove them to attend the conference and please Al-Maliki instead of sympathising with the tribes and people who are being exposed to his discriminatory and sectarian policies.
The conference, in terms of appearance and content, did not present anything new; even its final recommendations were merely a regurgitation of exhausted proposals and ideas. As such, it can be said that the get-together was just a public relations exercise with specific objectives, beginning with whitewashing Al-Maliki and his fascist regime’s criminal record, but he was unable to achieve this. The second objective was to gather as much international support as possible in order to back him in his failed military campaign in Anbar. Thirdly, it was intended to silence the opposition abroad because any opposition to Nouri Al-Maliki is classified as “terrorism” by him. Finally, it was intended to create some hope that he will not be prosecuted for the crimes he has committed in the past and continues to commit, including crimes against humanity. There are increasing complaints from international human rights organisations and the EU about his actions.
The cost of the conference was high, at around $100 million, according to many parties concerned with the Iraqi situation. This is an astronomical sum, and it is not unlikely in light of the actions of a government classified by Transparency International as the worst in terms of corruption. We must keep in mind that now is the best time to make illegal profits in Iraq as the parliament’s monitoring system is paralysed at the moment and the Budget Law has not been passed yet. Nouri Al-Maliki is squandering the money of the deprived and the poor despite the fact that the budget is facing a $30 billion deficit, about which we still do not know what the solution will be. So $100 million was spent on a conference that has done no good and has fed no one. Iraq’s poor will now be deprived of tens of thousands of new housing units, 400 schools in disadvantaged areas where children are still learning in mud buildings and sitting on the ground, or helping 100,000 internally displaced people with $1,000 each to help them buy their necessities. That is the real cost of the conference, but does Nouri Al-Maliki worry about this?
The decline in the security situation in Iraq has occurred as part of the general decline in different aspects of life. If a government official is to be held accountable, then it should be Al-Maliki due to his wide constitutional power. The first step towards genuine change has to be the departure of Al-Maliki to allow someone more qualified to tackle the security issue head-on. That person needs to believe in peace and be willing to make tough decisions affecting every aspect of life, including the political, economic ,social, cultural and legal.
What the security issue really needs is a package of reforms, rather than showy conferences. I remember a meeting held by the political committee after the serious attack on the foreign ministry in 2009, which was known as Black Wednesday. It was attended by leaders and heads of parliamentary blocs. I addressed the participants and asked why all of the world’s capitals are safe except Baghdad; why aren’t any of Iraq’s governorates safe and are instead subject to terrorist attacks apart from Kurdistan, even though it is not geographically isolated nor is it separated from the surrounding regions by a sea, desert or mountains? Everyone was surprised by my question and they did not comment, but I insisted that this is proof that there is objective imbalance in the government and administration, and we must address it through revision and reconsideration. These comments were lost, along with others, in the midst of unrelenting events that are continuing to push my country towards the unknown.
Translated from Al-Sharq newspaper, 16 March, 2014
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