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How to get out of Iraq

At last in Iraq the point has been reached where, ostensibly, everyone wants the same thing - for the Coalition forces to leave Iraq. The only question is how.

As long as the Coalition forces stay, violence is likely to escalate. But if they leave, it will escalate extremely fast. So how to get to the point where Iraq has a police force and army that can be trusted to maintain law as well as order across the country? Anyone with contacts in present day Iraq knows how much ground needs to be covered to get to that point. Notwithstanding the courage of Iraqis who join either the army or the police, no-one should be surprised if some have motives that are less than pure. Certainly in Northern Iraq old scores are being settled and de facto ethnic segregation being introduced into areas such as Irbil that were traditionally diverse. In other areas of the country, de facto sharia law is being introduced by force. So how to create uniformed services that can be trusted to enforce the law effectively and impartially, without consideration of ethnicity, religion and gender? The traditional answer is to recruit and then to train, and to instil ‘the right values’ through training. It would be wonderful if we had the time – decades probably rather than years – to create such a value system. But we don’t. So other ways have to be found. If we look bottom up, rather than top down, different possibilities appear. In the absence of a deeply instilled value system, Iraq needs grass roots civil society organisations that will hold police and army to account. These could take different forms, but what is important is that they are truly inclusive at a local level, and that they get support from district regional and national power structures when they highlight abuses – of which, to begin with, there will be a fair few. If there is local scrutiny, and national reinforcement and recognition of the value of that scrutiny, then most members of the uniformed services are likely to behave appropriately. Those that don’t can be more easily identified and dealt with. The Coalition for Peace and Unity in Afghanistan –CPAU – whose Director Muhammed Suleman recently met with Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence officials in London – provides a model of how this can be done. In Afghanistan, as in Iraq, ordinary people’s highest priority has been to achieve a reduction in violence. CPAU has worked across the country in the last three years to set up District level Peace Committees, supported by satellite Peace Councils in villages. The initiative is up against a culture where violence is so deeply embedded that children learn arithmetic by counting numbers of dead Soviet soldiers. The Committees therefore seek to bring together all sections of the community – including teachers, tribal leaders, religious leaders, women, police and army, judiciary and business – to develop ways of resolving conflict non-violently. Although monitoring has not been a formal part of the role of the Committees up till now, (it is planned for the future), the mere fact that police, army and judiciary are part of the Committee brings them into contact with the rest of the community, provides feedback and starts to build trust. And some of the results are remarkable. In one workshop, the local military commander came for a couple of hours, as a courtesy, and ended up staying for the whole week. At the end he apologised for his violent past and made a commitment to disarm his 2,000 strong private army. He now visits the Committee offices regularly. In Iraq, projects such as the Humanitarian Liaison Centre in Kirkuk are starting to fulfil a monitoring function, by offering the local population of diverse ethnic groups the opportunity to bring grievances and get help in having them resolved. But too often even if a court rulings is made, it is not enforced because of intimidation. On the positive side, however, much good work on strengthening civil society has already been done, by US as well as UK forces. We don’t hear about the workshops for women’s empowerment, the successful organisation of small scale local elections across the country, but Lesley Abdela, founder of the 300 Club, who was attached to the CPA, has expressed her admiration for their work in these areas. Nevertheless, mobilising civil society as has been done in Afghanistan is hugely challenging, particularly when, as in Iraq, it needs to be done on a large scale and very quickly. Soft power of this kind will still need to be reinforced with hard power, with incentives to disarm, and with the prospect of economic opportunities that will be more fruitful than crime and extortion.

But, finally, it’s cheap. You can build an awful lot of civil society capacity for a few million pounds. The Humanitarian Liaison Centre, serving the whole of Kirkuk, costs £45,000 a year to run. Replicate it 100 times and you still have change from £5m. The challenge is to commit to this approach, to scale up and to support up to the hilt the brave people who take on the challenge of holding power to account. Otherwise the Iraqi people are unlikely to get the security that, after so many years of suffering, they richly deserve.

Carolyn Hayman
Chief Executive, Peace Direct