Little ethnic trouble in Iraq

[London Review of Books; Diary by Patrick Cockburn: April 2006]

In the centre of Kirkuk there is a building that seems quite imposing compared to the ramshackle houses all around: this is the Republican Hospital. It is here that most of the casualties from gun battles, bombings and assassinations are taken. In 2005, some 1500 people were killed or injured in Kirkuk province. Large numbers of those taken to the hospital died, and there turned out to be an extraordinary reason for this. Some time earlier, the hospital had recruited an enthusiastic young doctor called Louay, who was always willing to help. What the other doctors didn’t know was that Louay, an Arab, was a member of an insurgent cell of the Ansar al-Sunna group. He used his position to make sure that soldiers, policemen and government officials died of their injuries. A police inquiry found Dr Louay guilty of killing 43 patients. He doesn’t seem to have found this very difficult. Many of the injured were bleeding when they reached the hospital and, according to Colonel Yadgar Shukir Abdullah Jaff, a senior policeman, ‘Louay would inject patients he wanted to kill with a high dose of a medicine that made them bleed more.’

This is an interesting article about relations between different communities in Iraq. It really does not matter whether one calls it a civil war or sectarian violence, the fact remains that people are getting killed because of their religion/ethnicity. Ethinic cleansing is gathering pace as old scores are being settled, while at the same time, sides prepare for the moment when Americans are not around any more. This is actually quite similar to what happened in Bosnia where Serbs and Croats were trying to get as much territory as possible before the peace treaty was signed. Possession, of course, being 9/10th of the law.

The tragic thing about all of this is that Sunnis, who have the most to lose if Americans bail out, are the heart of the insurgency. If Americans leave, the Shias and Kurds will get all the oil, and Iraqi Sunnis will end up in living in conditions not much better than Palestians Sunnis who live in Gaza.

If US works with Iran (a big if), then steps can be taken that will benefit all the parties in this conflict, except one, and will allow US to save face and claim victory. The one exception is the Iraqi Sunnis. I can't think of a scenario where they will come out of this on top.

Oh well, there goes another generation..