The betrayal of the
Kurdish rebellion
International Viewpoint #222 • February 17, 1992
IRAQ revolt spread from town to town. It was a spontaneous rising." • But were there no groups organizing the rebellion once it got started?
"At first, small left groups were the
"asses" [that is, donkeys, used in a pejorative sense] took over", Saman answers.
"All regimes have tried to recruit Kurds
WHILE US imperialism and its allies claimed and continue to claim to fear the ambitions of Iraq's dictator Saddam Hussein, they were and are far more afraid of the effects of any successful movements of revolt by the oppressed masses of
Iraq, and in particular by the Kurds. This was shown at the end of Operation Desert Storm, when Saddam Hussein's regime was given a free hand to suppress rebellions in southern Iraq and among the Kurds.
Saman, an Iraqi Kurdish socialist, visited his homeland last summer and on his return described the course of the Kurdish rebellion to Internationalen, the paper of the Swedish Socialist
Party (Swedish section of the Fourth International).
IT WAS wonderful to come
, Saman suddenly says, as we talk about his voyage home to the liberated areas of Iraqi Kurdistan last summer. "Wonderful"
— a big contrast with and the Kurdish defeats he
But maybe it is not so strange. Apart from the understandable joy that this Iraqi Kurd and socialist felt on returning to the country that he fled 15 years ago, there is also the joy of knowing that at last something has happened in Kurdi-
At the end of the war with Iran and the peace agreement of August 1988, the Iragi regime launched a big offensive against the Kurds. Now, for the first time since then, there are Kurdish liberated areas in Iraq. At that time the Iraqi military forces annihilated 4,000 Kurdish villages and 20 medium size towns. On 60 different occasions gas was used against the Kurds. The armed Kurdish movement, as well as many civilian Kurds, was put to flight over the mountains into
Today, the Kurds control about two thirds of Kurdistan, according to Saman.
Since he left the region, the cities of
Erbil and Sulaimaniya have been recaptured by the Kurds.
"Among those I talked to, there was a feeling that something can be done, that something can be built. Imagine, only a few months earlier, all of Kurdistan was free. Then the Kurds had all the possibilities. But it is not only Kurdistan that has
"People all over Iraq are more courageous than before, the repressive appara-
Saddam's police and armed forces no longer have control. When people occu-
4 pied the buildings of the police during the rebellion, they burned all the old files with data on dissidents. It will take a long time to recreate those files.
"It is a regime built on the repressive system. Just remember what happened to Ceaucescu once his security forces col-
Saman himself knows first hand about the collapse of the security apparatus. During the month he spent in the liberated parts of Kurdistan he was personally in touch with no less than 200 relatives and friends. Many of them travelled all the way from Baghdad northwards to the liberated parts of Kurdistan, passing the frontier without confronting the authorities. Before the war it would have been
The war waged by the US alliance against Iraq last year had less grave direct effects in Kurdistan than in the
"There are no strategic targets and the military bases are situated outside the big towns. On one occasion the town of Kirkuk was bombed, however, after the military had moved planes into the streets. Hundreds died, but the attacks were less intensive than in the south.
"Really I had to force people to talk about the war itself. This people has been so severely hit, before and after, that the 'threshold' is very high."
In the first days of March, as it became clear that Saddam Hussein had been defeated, the Kurdish rebellion started.
"It was in the town of Rahnia. I have heard people say that there were a few, maybe tens of demonstrators taking to the streets, as soon as they heard of Saddam's defeat. It was said that a small Communist group took the initiative.
"Within a few hours the whole town was in rebellion and the population had occupied the nearby army barracks; the for their purposes. During the war against Iran many Kurds preferred to desert into the mountains rather than joining the military forces. Saddam offered them an escape, allowing them to join the Kurdish militias, which we call the 'asses', instead
"This meant that before the rebellion there were up to 300,000 men in arms in Kurdistan. Their leadership were followers of Saddam. But the rank-and-file were only boys who wanted to get away from
"Thus when the revolt started many of them turned the regime's
"In the next phase, the leadership of the asses also sided with the people. The explanation is simple: in all Iraq there was the same feeling 'Saddam does not exist any more.' rebellion developed quickly. Towards the end of March Kirkuk, the biggest city fell. Kurdish armed forces were approaching Kirkuk. At the same time the town rose. The government soldiers threw down their arms and fled.
"In many towns, people formed committees with elected representatives, to lead the street fights and control distribution of food rations."
Saman stresses that the big established Kurdish organizations had no influence on the rebellion at that stage. The organizations he refers to are the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) led by Mahmoud Barzani, and the Patriotic Front of Kurdistan (PUK) led by Jalal Talabani. These organizations have traditionally led the armed struggle. Saman's bitterness about their actions during and after the rebellion
"They did not return until more than half of Kurdistan was already liberated.
"First when the people took over Kirkuk, Barzani and Talabani came back and tried to gather people to mass rallies. They had almost nothing left. No armed forces and an even weaker popular base. Their first aim was to regain control over
"They fought the committees, instead of building them to strengthen the rebellion. They saw them as competitors
"In Sulaimaniya the big organizations even used weapons to attack the committees. The PUK is reported to have closed down committee premises.
"Besides they completely trusted the US alliance to 'arrange' a Kurdish state of federation for them."
Saman is perhaps most critical of the