CPTers serving in Iraq during this time were Anita David, Peggy Gish, and Chihchun Yuan

Main Areas of work:

1.              Documenting Turkey's and Iran's military attack on border village areas inside northern Iraq.  The team spent a major amount of time compiling a report of human rights violations from these attacks.  Team members made several trips to border areas to interview villagers and public officials and gather information for their report.

Saturday and Sunday, 5 & 6 December in the Soran district, Erbil governorate, the Mayor of the Choman sub-district gave Yuan and Gish a tour of the Soran Association for Care of Handicapped, which developed in response to the high incidences of land mine injuries along the border areas. He believes that in the past two years, Turkey used chemical bombs, since after bombings groups of animals died suddenly, without any visible injury, and animals developed diseases uncommon to animals in this area.  Describing the physical hardships and economic effect of the attacks, he said, "When people had to leave their homes and villages, they left agricultural land, bees, orchards, nuts, vegetables.  Now our society imports these goods, which hurts the economy.  If they need to move into town, they often find no work and need aid from the government. The average family displaced from the bombings loses $15-20,000 a year.  The Kurds have lost a trillion dollars from this."

In the village of Wasan, a political leader described seeing burned land that remained white after the Turkish bombings in December 2007, possibly from phosphorus ordinance.  About the Turkish rebel groups, he said, "We don't support them, but we don't call them terrorists. They have the right to fight for their human rights."

The next day, the Darawu village teacher talked about Iranian shelling on 16 October when twenty rockets exploded around the Sidakan area.  A villager lost twenty-forty sheep and goats.  On 21 October 2009, Turkish airplanes flew low over the village and school for about an hour.  "We did not know if they would drop bombs, children were terrified," he said.  In the village of Zhelia, 20-year-old Sabir told about his injuries from Iranian shelling on 18 July 2009. (See: 21 December CPT Iraq reflection: "Sabir's Story.")

On 10 December, Gish met in Erbil with the U.S. Embassy representative for northern Iraq about the physical, psychological, and economic consequences of Turkish and Iranian bombing for the people in the border village areas. They expressed their concern about the U.S. giving Turkey military intelligence to assist their bombing which mainly target the villages further inland from the border.  He maintained that collaborating with Turkey, a U.S. ally, to fight the PKK, (Kurdistan Worker's Party) is important.  He believed this effort would make those areas safe for the displaced people to return. "We cannot expect Turkey to negotiate with terrorists," he said. Gish told him the Kurdish people believe the real purposes of the attacks are to destabilize and weaken Kurdistan's limited autonomy and permanently clear the village areas.

2.        Monitoring U.S. troop reduction plans and tensions along the current Arab-Kurd ceasefire line.

In the meeting with the U.S. Embassy representative, Gish asked how the U.S. administration relates to the political and social situation in Iraq.  He said the big priority now is the elections. After the elections, the U.S. plans to push for settlement of whether Kirkuk and other disputed areas become part of the KRG (Kurdistan Regional Government) and work toward reconciliation between Arabs and Kurds.  Discussing what "withdrawal of U.S. troops means," he said,  "it means preparing Iraqi military and police to take over security oversight by 30 June when U.S. troops leave the cities." Current U.S. military patrols will be reduced. Within the first 60 days after the elections, while the new government forms, they will monitor the situation as they move out 50,000 of the current 120,000 soldiers.  They will have a more concentrated presence in the corridor (disputed) areas while they work to build trust between Peshmerga and Iraqi army.  By 2011 no more U.S. troops should be in Iraq.  As far as bases remaining, he said that decision is up to the Iraqi government and forces.  The U.S. plans a long-term diplomatic presence in Iraq. 

At another meeting that day, Yuan and David met with a Kurdish director of an NGO that offers material aid to IDPs.  He told CPTers that the Iraqi government and the KRG's requests to Turkey to stop the bombing are not serious.  But he said that there is some progress in Turkish-KRG relations.  Turkey's Foreign and Foreign Trade Ministers met for the first time in Erbil, and the PKK peace delegation was significant.  He believes the European Union may influence the Turkish Parliament to recognize the Kurds.  He believes that U.S. continued presence is needed to help northern Iraq carry out the 2010 census and settle the issues of implementing Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution and help prevent fighting between Kurdish and Arab forces.