Iraqi Kurds will back a US overthrow of Saddam, but want cast-iron post-war assurances, one of their leaders, Barham Salih, writes fromSulaymaniyah.
No one wants a war in Iraq less than the Iraqi people. But we don't have the luxury of being anti-war. For the last 35 years the Baathist regime has been waging war against Iraqis. We know that there can be no peace without the military liberation of Iraq. The brutality of Saddam Hussein's regime leaves Iraqis and the civilised world with no other option.
And so, not for the first time, a persecuted people is asking for help in dislodging a dictatorship. But we also ask that the US protect and nurture a post-war Iraqi democracy. The US-led campaign must be about more than simply eliminating weapons of mass destruction and forcing a regime change. Rather, the use of force must yield a clear political gain: the foundation of a democratic state that will be at peace with its own people and with the Middle East.
It is too often forgotten that Iraq is the ultimate failed state, the twisted product of British colonialism. From its beginning, the Iraqi state brutalised its Kurdish minority and excluded the Shia majority. Although uniquely brutal, the present Baath dictatorship is also a symptom of the closely interwoven political and military structures that evolved from the colonial era. With little base of support, Baghdad regularly used force to impose its will.
The transition from the status quo to a democratic state is a process in which the US and the international community will have to play a pivotal role.
But peace in post-war Iraq, much less democracy, cannot be established without the full participation of the nation's secular democratic movements and other indigenous political groups, including religious establishments and even tribes. Iraq has a long history of both political and social opposition to the Baath regime, and the regime's diverse opponents will all want to play a role in shaping a post-war Iraq.
A national transitional authority, drawing from these domestic political movements and aided by the US-led coalition and the UN, must be quickly put into place. A delay in handing over power to a national authority will play into the hands of undemocratic anti-Western forces in Iraq and the wider Islamic world.
During the transition de-Baathification (like de-Nazification in the period following the second World War) will be a vitally important, if complicated, undertaking. As a first step, the regime's much-feared security services must be dismantled. The military must be demobilised to facilitate the purging of Baathists and human rights violators, and then restructured to serve the peace and security of the people. New decentralised and accountable institutions with proper checks and balances must be set in place.
De-Baathification also means reforming the economy. State control and centralisation foster corruption while millions live in poverty. The oil industry needs to be de-monopolised and its revenues devoted to the well-being of the population and economic revival.
Within the structures that maintain the Baath dictatorship lies a deeper problem. What Iraqis call a Baath mentality permeates the educational system, warps social services and dominates a greatly weakened civil society. It values obedience over initiative, deference to authority over critical thinking, loyalty over ability and violence over conflict resolution.
This Baath mentality will take a while to eradicate, but the process must begin immediately. This will require reforming the educational systems and establishing methods of identifying and rewarding talent, merit, ability, independent thinking and service to the community in newly constructed institutions.
A vigorous truth and reconciliation process must be instituted to begin to heal the wounds and instil a meaningful sense of justice among the people. The top leadership of the Baath party must be tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The 40-year ethnic cleansing campaign that has displaced hundreds of thousands of Kurds, Turkomans and Assyrian Christians from Kirkuk, Khanaqin and Sinjar must be reversed. Successive Iraqi governments have sought to alter the demographic characteristics of these parts of Kurdistan through a violent policy they have called "Arabisation". For the new Iraq to be peaceful and stable, it must facilitate returning victims to their homes if they choose and they must be compensated for their loss of businesses, property, jobs, homes and farms.
The transitional authority must organise and hold elections for a constituent assembly, preferably within a year.
Regional and international powers agree that Iraq cannot be divided and affirm the need to maintain Iraq's territorial integrity. The various religious and ethnic communities will have to live together, and the new Iraqi political system must embrace this diversity. A federal democratic framework, therefore, is the only system that can accommodate these needs.
Recently, the Kurdistan National Assembly, the only elected body in Iraq today, completed a draft constitution for a Kurdistan region within a federal Iraq.
Federalism has been endorsed at every opposition congress and was reaffirmed at the meeting in London in December 2002. Each of these Iraqi opposition meetings has taken place with US support and participation. It was most welcome to hear President Bush's envoy to the Iraqi opposition, Zalmay Khalilzad, affirming to delegates at the Iraqi opposition meeting in Salahuddin last week that the US will respect the choice of the Iraqi people for a federal democratic system of government.
This transition process will be greatly complicated if neighbouring countries attempt to intervene militarily. The presence of regional troops in Iraq may open a Pandora's box of historical sensitivities that has been contained thus far.
Turkey helped Iraqi Kurdish refugees in 1991, and it has been facilitating the US-British air patrols protecting Iraqi Kurdistan from aggression. Turkish secular democracy offers positive examples that can be invaluable as we contemplate the building of a democratic Iraq. However, recent news of a US deal that would allow Turkish military to be deployed inside northern Iraq is disconcerting. The tactical military imperatives of a northern front must not compromise the stated political mission of the US-led coalition, namely freedom for all Iraqis. In addition, a Turkish, or for that matter, an Iranian military presence will bring other regional players into the fray and further complicate an already complicated Iraqi situation. Their military involvement is not needed.
Eleven years ago, the people of Iraqi Kurdistan embarked on pioneering experiments in democratic self-government in the heart of the Islamic Middle East. The success of the Kurdistan Regional Government stands to prove that Iraq need not be ruled by tyranny and illustrates that despite all the impediments democracy in Iraq is possible.
With international assistance Iraq can become a country its citizens will want to live in. It can become a country that stands for peace over aggression and terrorism, democracy over dictatorship, and secularism over theocracy.
None of this will be easy, but doing nothing will ultimately prove more costly and more difficult. With the United States by our side, Iraq can become a beacon of hope in the Middle East.
Barham Salih is prime minister of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan