Publication:Chattanooga Times Free Press
Date:Monday, April 25, 2005
Section:Front Page; Page:1

DISPATCH Iraq

Learning to Live Together

By Edward Lee Pitts Military Affairs

HALABJA, Iraq — During a weekend called historic by members of the 278th Regimental Combat Team, traditionally hostile Arab and Kurdish leaders came together at the site of one of Saddam Hussein’s deadliest atrocities against the Kurdish people.

A step toward new relationships in a new Iraq occurred Friday about 60 miles into Iraqi Kurdistan at ground zero of the Kurdish people’s own Sept. 11, 2001,-style attack during which Iraqi military jets dropped chemical bombs, leaving more than 5,000 dead and more than 10,000 wounded on March 16, 1988.

"We are here to try and prove the Arabs and Kurds are working very hard to be one nation," said Mohammed Authman Ismael, speaking through a translator. Mr. Ismael is the Arab mayor of As Sa’diyah, one of the more unstable cities in the sector monitored by the 278th’s 3rd Squadron out of Forward Operating Base Cobra.

Part of As Sa’diyah’s volatility is blamed on the uneasy relations between the city’s majority Arab and minority Kurdish populations. Capt. Matt Smith of the 278th said city leaders came up with the weekend trip north after tensions boiled over two weeks ago when rumors swirled about a Kurdish plot to assassinate the Arab mayor.

The trip showed progress is being made, according to Capt. Smith. The 278th agreed to accompany the Iraqis as security escorts for the Arabs willing to venture into Kurdistan, an autonomous region not officially recognized by the U.S. government but protected by U.S. jets enforcing the no fly zone after the end of the 1991 Gulf War. "This is not about us being here. It is about them being together," said Capt. Smith, 35, of Nashville. "A month ago this wouldn’t have happened."

Soon after dawn Friday about 20 area Iraqis, roughly evenly split between Kurds and Arabs, piled into vehicles and drove about 77 miles northeast. Among those visiting with the mayor were the deputy mayor of As Sa’diyah, the city’s police chief and head of the City Council as well top area sheiks, or village leaders. Kurdish officials from the area came, too, providing the Arabs and Kurds sharing the same city an opportunity for understanding and a chance to put behind them the reign of Saddam Hussein.

"Many Arabs have never been here," Mohammed Kider, a member of As Sa’diyah’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, or PUK, political party, said through a translator. "Saddam Hussein told them, ‘You go north and the Kurds will kill you.’"

SIGN OF DIVISION

At the entrance of the Halabja Memorial, a sign in several languages, including English, reads, "It is not allowed for Baaths to enter." The blunt message referring to Mr. Hussein’s former ruling party provided the visiting Arabs a clear reminder that the anger is still fresh here more than 17 years after the chemical attack. But inside the memorial’s parking lot, a blue-eyed representative of Halabja’s chapter of the PUK tried to ease tensions as he greeted the visiting Arabs and Kurds.

"The regime for 35 years, all they did was try to create hate between the Arabs and the Kurds," said Ata Mohammed Faraj. "Today we are showing you we are not the kind of people Saddam taught you about."

Walking side by side, the group entered the museum where a woman led them on a one-hour tour of the circular building’s exhibits.

The visit began with a room of black-and-white photos depicting an idyllic life in Halabja before the gas attack. This gallery’s adjoining room used mannequins and elaborate set designs to re-create some of the more memorable photos of the carnage from the gassings. One display featured a dead man holding his dead infant son and surrounded by dead animals. According to the museum’s brochure, the gas felled many where they stood, ate or slept.

Later rooms displayed gruesome photos from the attack showing scores of sprawled-out bodies as well as survivors suffering from grotesque swollen, burned and deformed faces or limbs.

A darkened rotunda included the names of all 5,000 killed inscribed on black stone tablets reaching nearly to a ceiling about 1,988 centimeters high, signifying the year of the attack, and draped with a Kurdish flag. The tablets served as the memorial’s centerpiece.

DOUBTS ERASED

Several of the Arabs said the visit erased any doubts they had about what happened here. Many Arabs, they said, do not believe the gassing took place.

Mr. Ismael, the mayor of As Sa’diyah, told the Kurdish representatives not all Arabs — just "Saddam and his bad party" — were behind the atrocities committed here.

"Saddam Hussein killed a lot of Kurds here," he said. "Nothing in Islamic religion allowed what he did in this city. We will pray for all this sacrifice."

After posing for pictures beside the museum’s water fountains, the group convoyed to a nearby memorial gravesite. There the Arabs and Kurds shared a prayer before walking toward a collection of 1,100 symbolic graves laid out in neat rows around a white statue of a person looking toward the sky with hands in a pleading position.

Salman Mohammed, a Kurdish village elder from Jalula, a town near As Sa’diyah, said giving the Arabs an up-close view of Halabja’s loss would send a clear message.

"Enough blood," he said through a translator. "We are tired of it. Lets talk to each other."

Mr. Mohammed blamed most of the terrorism of the last two years on former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party desperate to regain power. A bombing of his house killed one of his sons.

"I don’t want your son to go through the same thing," Mr. Mohammed said to the Arabs. "So let’s work together to stop the terrorists."

A MEAL FOR PEACE

The visiting Arabs said thanks for the invitation by bringing food for a meal at a popular mountainside park. The Arabs slaughtered two sheep along a riverbank, the blood flowing into the water while they skinned the carcasses and began roasting the flesh on an open fire for the picnic entree.

"This brings a whole new meaning to packing a lunch," said Capt. Alan Mingledorff of the 278th. During the several hours spent on the mountain, once a military stronghold for the Kurdish pesh merga fighters resisting the old Iraqi army, the Arabs and Kurds talked about politics and working together. But they said they mainly spent the day laughing and developing friendships that may pay off during more formal future meetings, according to Mezban Howart Shoshuk, As Sa’diyah’s deputy mayor.

"Today is like a big college party for us," he said.

The men said they did not discuss a Kurdish desire to have an independent nation, a fear of many Arabs in Iraq and neighboring counties, nor did they discuss property disputes stemming from Kurds heading south to reclaim land taken from them when the former regime expelled the Kurds north.

But Mr. Faraj, of Halabja, said he made sure to tell the Arabs why the U.S.-led coalition forces need to be in Iraq.

"We have been fighting the Iraqi government for democracy, and now you guys are here to bring freedom," Mr. Faraj told a group of 278th soldiers through a translator. "We worked so hard. But right now the revolution is in politics. We don’t have to fight. We don’t have to carry weapons." Capt. Smith said the bridge building begun Friday with Arabs and Kurds working as one on the simple but symbolic task of preparing a meal ultimately may span the gap between the two groups and drive out the insurgency in the south.

"We are concerned guys here have ties to the AIF (anti-Iraqi forces)," said Capt. Smith. "We may have broken them today."

The Arabs said goodbye to the Kurds by promising to return soon.

"I have three wives, and I will bring all three of them here on my next visit," Ratha Hussan Asakra, the sheik of the largest Arab tribe in As Sa’diyah, said through a translator.

The Arab and Kurdish leaders of As Sa’diyah said they want their city to enjoy the freedoms found in Kurdistan.

"Today is the first meeting, but it won’t be the last one," said Mr. Kider of As Sa’diyah’s PUK party. "We can only build this country as brothers and friends." Before the evening ended, a Kurdish family also visiting the mountain park invited two Arab sheiks to share cups of hot tea. The Arab village leaders accepted.

E-mail Lee Pitts at lpitts@timesfreepres.com

ON THE WEB: Photos by U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Russell Lee Klika of the 278th Regimental Combat Team are available on the Times Free Press Web site. Visit http://www.timesfreepress.com/kp.

U.S. Army Photo by Staff Sgt. Russell Lee Klika - Two Iraqis and an unidentified 278th Regimental Combat Team soldier walk through a museum room that re-creates the aftermath of the March 1988 chemical weapons attacks on Kurds.

U.S. Army Photo by Staff Sgt. Russell Lee Klika - A tour guide leads Arabs and Kurds through a memorial museum’s room of modern art inspired by the gassing of Kurds in March 1988. Story Copyright to Chattanooga Times Free press