ROSS COULTHART, REPORTER: In blistering 40-degree heat on a desolate dry plain near the Iraqi
town of Al-Hillah Mu'teez Hussein is searching for his brothers. Both
disappeared in 1991, taken off the street by Saddam's security force as it
crushed an uprising by the majority Shi'ite population.
MU'TEEZ HUSSEIN - MASSACRE VICTIMS' BROTHER (Translation): I'm trying to find them using the identification
card numbers, the picture, the clothes. Like this.
ROSS COULTHART: And so have you found anything yet?
MU'TEEZ HUSSEIN (Translation): No. Nothing yet. He was innocent, what did he do? Like all these
innocent people there was no reason for it.
WAILING WOMAN (Translation) : Oh, Nabil. Oh, my mother, oh, my father. Look at
this horror.
ROSS COULTHART: Across Iraq
at numerous sites like this now being uncovered, many grief-stricken people
are asking themselves that same question.
WAILING WOMEN (Translation): Oh poor people. My dear ones. What terrible things happened to you?
WAILING WOMEN 2 (Translation): Not even stray dogs die like this.
…
ROSS
COULTHART: This farmer
witnessed the killings here at Alhalar twelve years ago.
JABER MOHSIN AL-HUSSEINI, FARMER (Translation): They brought them alive and shoved them into the
pits. Then they shot them in group. When there were more than five or six
down there they shot them. These people were imploring Almighty God to help
them.
Track
11 Sonoton Music
Tragedies SCD
458 LC 07573 GF Narholz
Dur:
1:12
|
ROSS COULTHART: There is
great concern in Iraq that no effort has been made by the US Army or the
United Nations to secure and properly investigate massacre sites like these.
DR AHMAD CHALABI, IRAQI NATIONAL CONGRESS: I am downcast by this, I am disappointed and I
think that the response has been dismal and inappropriate, as if Iraqis are
not human beings and that they - that Saddam's killing of them was something
that was par for the course. I think the world should be much more concerned
with this. I think the United Nations should be ashamed of themselves.
ROSS COULTHART: These
concerns aren't just moral. There's a risk of the majority Shia Muslim
community exacting revenge on the mainly Sunni leaders of the ruling Baath
Party. As this farmer told us, the names and addresses of the Baath Party
officials and soldiers who committed this horrible crime are well known. They
live just up the road in Babylon.
MU'TEEZ HUSSEIN (Translation): They will not get away with this. For us, spilling blood can never be
forgotten. We must find the guilty one and kill him.
ROSS COULTHART: If there is
no proper trial, there will be retribution?
MU'TEEZ HUSSEIN (Translation): Of course, an eye for an eye.
ROSS COULTHART: In Baghdad,
the revenge killings are already happening. The driver of this car, a former
Baath Party official, was
shot in broad
daylight as he waited for petrol. America is only beginning to realise the
scale of what it will take to rebuild Iraq. US combat soldiers, who were led
to believe they'd be going home as soon as Saddam's regime was toppled, now
find themselves stuck indefinitely in Baghdad as policeman.
US SOLDIER: Over here. I wish
these people would learn how to run their own gas station so that we can
catch looters and all that other stuff. The Iraqi police should be doing
this. We should not have to do this. It's a shame that they can't even run
their own gas station.
Trk 1 Sonoton Music Drones and Beats SCD 488 LC07573 W Plass/H Treiber/T Tape Dur: 0:44
|
ROSS COULTHART: Suspicion of
America's motives runs deep here in the Shia holy city of Najaf. Back in
1991, President George Bush Sr incited the Shia uprising against Saddam. But
because America feared it could lead to an Iran-backed Islamic state, US
troops were ordered not to intervene as thousands of Shiites were
slaughtered.
Library
footage Najaf rally with al-Hakim (April?)
|
Now 12 years later,
the powerful Shia Ayatollah Muhammad Bakr al-Hakim has returned to Najaf.
Much to the concern of his rivals, he brought his 10,000-strong
Iranian-backed Badr Brigade militia with him. Yet he's claiming he wants
democracy.
AYATOLLAH MUHAMMAD BAKR AL-HAKIM (Translation): There's no doubt that I desire an Islamic
Government for Iraq. But we have agreed with the political powers that there
should be a democratic government which respects Islam.
ROSS COULTHART: To Western
journalists, the Ayatollah presents a moderate face, but since he returned
here to Najaf in April, what has won him rapid acclaim from the crowd is his
condemnation of America as an enemy and his insistence that coalition forces
leave Iraq.
Do you think that
if an election was held, you would have the numbers and that an Islamic state
would be supported by the people of Iraq?
AYATOLLAH MUHAMMAD BAKR AL-HAKIM (Translation): We do not believe that the successful politician
is the one with the highest numbers. But rather, the one who pleases Almighty
God. That's our opinion. There's a big difference between the people of
Australia and the people of Iraq.
…
Library
footage Kurd soldiers ..
|
ROSS COULTHART: Another
potential flashpoint is the insistence by the Kurdish militia groups that
they should be allowed to keep their weapons because they fought with the
coalition to liberate Iraq. Jalal Talabani, the leader of the Patriotic Union
of Kurdistan Party, dismisses Shiite calls for his militia men to be disarmed ..
JALAL TALABANI, PATRIOTIC UNION OF KURDISTAN: No, I think this is nonsense because the Kurdish
forces were partner with the coalition, with the United States and the United
Kingdom. They were part of this coalition. They were part of the fighting.
They fought against the dictatorship.
ROSS COULTHART: If the Kurds
don't disarm, then the Shi'ite militias won't either. ..
DR ABDUL MEHDI, SUPREME COUNCIL FOR ISLAMIC REVOLUTION: If one party will keep the weapons, then all the
parties will keep it some way or the other…
ROSS
COULTHART: When Dr Ahmad
Chalabi was triumphantly returned to Iraq by his Pentagon supporters, he was
widely touted as a leader-in-waiting. From dawn till dusk his day consists of
endless meetings. These tribal leaders from Baghdad and Najaf pledged
support, but demanded he do something about the crime problem. But Chalabi
also has his detractors in the US camp, especially in the CIA and State
Department. His enemies point to the fact that he fled Jordan after being
accused, and later convicted in his absence, of a serious bank fraud.
Are you a crook?
DR AHMAD CHALABI: My
behaviour, my public actions, my record completely belies this. These things
are being put forward to stop a democratic movement from taking root in Iraq.
ROSS COULTHART: And for the
moment, Chalabi is also claiming he doesn't want to ever lead Iraq. But
no-one doubts that this wily politician is doing anything other than keeping
his powder dry. It's better for him to let the American regime take the blame
for Iraq's current woes. It's clear that among the old opposition leadership,
Chalabi is seen as a palatable figurehead for the new Iraq.
Is Dr Chalabi a
worthwhile candidate?
JALAL TALABANI: If Dr
Chalabi will candidate himself, I personally will vote for him.
ROSS COULTHART: But is Dr
Ahmad Chalabi the US lackey that he's commonly accused of being?
FRANCIS BROOKE, I.N.C. POLITICAL ADVISOR: Dr Chalabi is a free and independent actor. He is not buyable, which is
an important fact in the intelligence world. Some people are buyable. Dr
Chalabi is not buyable. He also doesn't take orders from anybody. It's one of
the reasons I like him. I think that, you know, people like that are
admirable.
ROSS
COULTHART: On the edge of
Baghdad, the huge burning gas flare from the Daura Oil Refinery is a potent
and constant reminder of the untold riches at stake here for those now
jostling for power.
DATHAR AL-KASHAB, GENERAL MANAGER, DAURA OIL REFINERY: Our main concern was to keep this refinery in one
piece and if they get in to steal, the result, we know, the result is burning
the refinery.
ROSS COULTHART: For the
refinery's general manager, Dathar al-Kashab, keeping this flame alive for
the people of Baghdad during the American invasion became a life and death
struggle against marauding looters.
DATHAR AL-KASHAB: When they
see the flare on, they are relieved. They think that the refinery is running,
meaning that there is gasoline, fuel is coming up. If they see the flare is
off, they will be in a very bad state you know.
ROSS COULTHART: In early
April as Iraqi forces collapsed, he found his refinery under attack from
armed local looters. American troops had rushed past to take Baghdad, leaving
the refinery unprotected. So Mr al-Kashab handed
weapons out to his workers.
DATHAR AL-KASHAB: We had to
fight it off and sometimes they shot, and during the shooting I got one of my
crude tanks on fire and I had to fire-fight at the same time, fire-fight also
outside.
..
ROSS
COULTHART: Iraq has the world's second largest proven
oil reserves. It also has the largest probable oil reserves. When that oil
begins to flow onto the world market in several years, its impact on the OPEC
oil cartel - controlled by the world's main oil-producing nations - will be
dramatic, perhaps slashing the world price of crude oil.
DATHAR
AL-KASHAB: I mean, once you're talking about getting the
second reserve in the world, obviously the result is to control the prices,
or at least you can control the prices when you like. Iraq will be a very big
contender to the Saudi portion of production.
ROSS COULTHART: When Saddam
Hussein's Iraq was hit with sanctions after it invaded Kuwait in 1990, Saudi
Arabia - the world's biggest oil producer - picked up the bulk of Iraq's oil
quota.
Is there any possibility that Iraq
would consider taking itself out of OPEC?
FRANCIS BROOKE: Yeah, I think there probably is. You know, again,
that's a decision that Iraqi people are going to have to take for themselves.
But there certainly is a strong moral argument that OPEC nations who absorbed
Iraq's production capacity and turned it into their own production capacity
over the intervening 10 or 12 years, have some responsibility to Iraq and I
would be surprised if there isn't a mechanism whereby they can all come to a mutual agreement. But if there was no mutual
agreement, I think Iraq would be well within its rights and only would
be serving the interests of its own people to go ahead and set production
levels in their own interests.
Trk
1 Sonoton Music Drones and Beats
SCD 488 LC07573 W Plass/H Treiber/T Tape Dur:1:57
|
ROSS COULTHART: Since President Bush declared the end of major combat
here at the beginning of last month, these American troops know 43 of their
comrades have died in attacks or accidents. By comparison, 138 were killed
during the entire war.
Today,
the 2nd Armoured Cavalry's Lightning Troop is patrolling here to scare away
gun dealers who have been selling weapons. The US knows now that it's going
to have to stay in Iraq for years to clean up Saddam's legacy. It seems inevitable
that many more young American men and women will die
in that time.
DR AHMAD CHALABI: More that
the Iraqi people feel they have been denied the right to exercise sovereignty
and be their own masters. The more negative they become, the more violence
against coalition forces will take place, the more restrictive the coalition
forces will be and then that cycle will feed on itself.
ROSS COULTHART: As those
deaths mount, the American public will soon be asking if Iraqi freedom is
worth the cost.
================ ENDS
==================
|