Democratization of Iraq

Contents

1 Introduction

2 The Situation in Iraq under Saddam Hussein
2.1 Saddam the tyrant

3 Contemporary Situation in Iraq
3.1 A state of terrorism and occupation
3.2 Human rights
3.3 Freedom of speech/ Freedom of press
3.4 Elections and the plebiscite over the constitution

4 The Future of Iraq
4.1 Minorities in the future Iraq
4.2 The two U.S. Options
4.3 Is a democracy possible?
4.4 The risk of a forced democracy

5 Summary

6 Bibliography

1 Introduction

The news about the Iraq seem to be always the same. In the former empire of Saddam Hussein dominates terrorism, destruction and death.

Positive news of Iraq are neither in the newspaper nor in television. This inappropriates the reality. In Iraq there exist also positive occurrences. Indeed it is true that these are mostly only small successful stories for example a reopening of a school or a hospital or maybe only new medical equipment. But such events have not any space in the news. It´s seems to be to nonrelevant and these news do not represent the picture of the Iraq that the people have or want to have. Anyhow these prosperities are a step into a better future.

However we also have to contemplate the Iraq with a view on the former days. There was a dictator, Saddam Hussein, a tyrant who controlled everybody, who eliminate the Schiites and Kurds, who let rape the women of his opponents, who demolished houses and at last executed thousands of people. And he did not only tyrannize his own country, he was also a big danger for the rest of the world.

The first pictures after the conquest of Baghdad from the US-armed forces showed a population felt that their suffering under Saddam is over. There was a folk which celebrated the release from a brutal dictator.

Also in 2005 the majority of the Iraq thinks still in the same way. There is a folk who sees a better future. 67 percent of the population have the opionion that their country will turn to a better route. Before the elections January 2005 67 percent of the population supported the elections and 88 percent reported that they will take part in the votings. At the end 58 percent of the whole population voted, which is a good result for a country which makes it´s first experiences with democratic principles.

But of course it´s no question that the USA pursued a very high and difficult aim with the democratization of the Iraq and it is also beyond discussion that it will take a lot of time to democratize the Iraq, which was three years ago a dictatorship.

In the following essay I would like to discuss the opportunity for the democratization-process in Iraq. But at first the essay begins with some aspects about the situation under the Saddam regime, because we can only appreciate the future options when we know something about the history. After this I go on with the contemporary situation in Iraq, with positive and negative aspects about the present democratization process. At last I will debate the the opportunities and future steps into a maybe democratized Iraq.

2 The Situation in Iraq under Saddam Hussein

2.1 Saddam the tyrant

The attacks on September 11th on the United States prompted the president to find out the ”axis of evil”. This axis consists of these states which posses weapons of mass destruction, which support terrorism and which are a threat against the rest of the world. Indeed it is true that Saddam Hussein or the Iraq neither owned weapons of muass destruction nor supported Al Qaeda, but Saddam Hussein built up an violent and totalitarian regime against the people of the Iraq and the rest of the world. Saddam Hussein tortured the own population. He imprisoned, shot and gassed innocent people.

Saddam Hussein was born on April 28th in 1937 in a small poor and muddy village near Tikrit. His uncle Khayrallah Tulfah brought him from Tikrit to Baghdad. Tulfah was the writer of a book with the title “Three Whom God Should Not Have Created: Persians, Jews and Flies”. This title reflects the attitude of Saddams uncle and the education he gave to Saddam. Saddam followed in his uncle´s footsteps and so attended in Baath cell meetings. In this time Saddam spent a lot of time in prison.

In the age of 22 Saddam tried to shot down the prime minister of Iraq, Abdul Karim Kassin, but he failed. The next three years he spent in exile. In 1963 when he came back to Iraq he brought the Baath Party after a coup to power. But very quickly there followed another coup which put him down and into prison. Saddam escaped from prison two years later. After his escape he worked in the underground of the Baath organization and joined the party security force, Jehaz Haneen. Jehaz Haneen was the Iraqi equivalent of Hitler´s Brown Shirts.

In 1968 the Baathists sized power again. From this time the Hehaz Haneen and Saddams strategies became official policy. Later Jehaz Haneen became the Mukhabarat, the intelligence and security force. From this time on Mukhabarat terrorized the Iraqi population. Immediately after its rise the terror machine began to work. They hanged 14 of so called “Zionist spies”, who were mostly Jewishs, in a crowd of thousands of people in Baghdad. In the following times they executed thousands of people, Jewishs, Communists and als Muslims who seemed to be linked to the spies.^[1] Saddam got rid of everybody who stood in his way.

Saddam was present all over the country. Portraits of Saddam as a soldier hung in every school, in every other public building and above every village entrance. He existed in every corner.^[2]

Saddams regime created a “state of fear”. He let marched his army through the streets, schools and companies to show his power.

The death penalty was used on a massive scale in Iraq and covered a wide range of criminal and political offences. Hundreds of executions were reported every year. The people who were against the regime he registrated as dissenters and let these people execute as examples for the rest of the population. Saddam also charged out three security services to find out the dissenters.^[3]

The biggest wave of recent executions was reported in November 1997. In this time the authorities ordered the execution of hundreds, most of whom were members of opposition groups. These people had been sentenced to death or life imprisonment after unfair trials before special courts. Also in Abu Ghraib Prison mass executions were carried out in 1998. At this time the prisons were overcrowed with political prisoners. So the government implemented the operation “cleaning up of prisons” which had been sentenced thousands of prisoners to death.^[4] The houses of the familiy of the political prisoners were demolished, the women of the family were often raped and sometimes every male member of the family were executed too.^[5]

Particular against some Iraqi ethnic and religious groups his regime was very brutal. He tried to get the country free of Shiites and Kurds. The reason of the extermination of the Shiites was the hostility against the Iran, most of whose citizens are Shiites. When Saddams forces got into Iran in 1980 the Shiites in Iraq became immediately suspect. In 1980 the Saddam regime started a program of deportation of the Shiite population. 35 000 Shiites were expelled out of Iraq. In the same year Mohammed Baqr al-Sadr, the leading Shiite cleric of the Iraq was arrested and killed by the Mukhabarat. They burned his beard and hammered nails into his head. Such things happened to other Shiite clerics too. In 1988 the war against Iran ended. In this eight years Saddam´s regime executed tens of thousands innocent Iraqis because of their “wrong” religion.^[6]

With the Kurds the same happened. The Kurds constitute a non Arab ethnic and religious group which is stateless and was tortured by their host countries for centuries. Because of that they have no special relationships to other countries, like the Shiites, who can protect them.^[7] Thousands of Kurdish families have been forcibly expelled by the security forces from their homes in the north to areas controlled by the two Kurdish political parties in Iraqi Kurdistan on the basis of their ethnic origin. The Saddam regime burned children and women, they raped women and gassed whole villages of Kurds.^[8]

3 Contemporary Situation in Iraq

3.1 A state of terrorism and occupation

In every news the headlines over the Iraq are the same: bomb attacks, decapitations and kidnappings.

The ratings about the rebells fluctuate from 20 000 to 40 000. But only 10 percent of them are islamists. 90 percent are members of the fallen Baath regime which are mostly Sunnite Iraqis who were privileged under Saddam and now they are the losers. The majority of the rebells come from the Sunnite triangle Falludscha-Ramadi-Samarra and also from some areas of Baghdad. They also try to win influence in the areas of the Kurds in the north of the country and in the stronghold of the Shiites.^[9]

Especially in Baghdad the situation is very dangerous. A murder spree has erupted in countless neighborhoods across Baghdad. Death squads, which drive in cars, are entering what once were tight-knit communities and killing ordinary citizens, apparently to stir up sectarian hatred. The goal: to incite a civil war that each side hopes will give its dominance over the other. Averagely between 800 and 1000 violent deaths are listing in Baghdad every month. But these statistic excludes these people who killed by car bombings and suicide attacks. Most of the victims are fall by gunshots. Some were beheaded. Few of the murderers have been captured.^[10] In addition there are the killings of the members of mercenary enterprises, like the U.S. security company Dyn Corp, which are also not officially registratet.

Particular these people with exposed jobs like the U.S.-forces, police men, security services and the politicians are in big danger.

[...]

^[1] Kaplan/ Kristol 2003, pp.3-4.

^[2] Amnesty International 1999 [WWW document].

^[3] Kaplan/ Kristol 2003, pp. 6-7.

^[4] Economic and Social Council of the UNO 1999, [WWW document]. pp. 3-4.

^[5] Kaplan/ Kristol 2003, pp.7-8.

^[6] Kaplan/ Kristol 2003, pp.10.

^[7] Kaplan/ Kristol 2003, pp.11.

^[8] Amnesty International 1999 [WWW document].

^[9] Gehriger 2005, [WWW document].

^[10] McGirk 2005.