Published: 14 October, 2008, 05:56
Edited: 14 October, 2008, 05:56
Ukrainian military officer and journalist Dmitri Timchuk spent more then a year in Iraq with the Ukrainian troops stationed there. RT is the first to publish his observations of daily life in the country in English. (Part XII)
Not the right desert (Part II)
Americans happy to sleep with bugs (Part III)
Building the future: brick-by-brick (Part IV)
Don’t worry, they won’t shoot! (Part V)
The vampire gets stung (Part VI)
Every soldier’s fundamental – messing (Part VII)
T-shirts for Americans only (Part VIII)
Leaflets for the illiterate (Part IX)
It’s scary without the Ukrainians (Part XI)
It’s a 140 km-ride from the Delta base camp in al-Kut to the Zulu camp in as-Suwayr, a town situated on the very border of Ukraine’s responsibility zone. It’s only 60 km to Baghdad from here, which is the main reason that as-Suwayr is the hottest place in the whole of Wasit province. Rebels conducting large-scale military activity in the neighbouring “US” Baghdad Province, do not bother showing up here. As a result, bombardment with mortars, attacks on the outposts and patrols and landmines are regular things.
Initially, however, the Ukrainians in as-Suwayr had even tougher problems, which were caused by the situation after the victory over Saddam Hussein. Local clans immediately began their struggle for power, and the presence of the peacekeepers permanently hindered the feud.
The main players were the powerful Sunni clan of Jugeishi and the Shiite clan of Zubeidi, the latter having nearly 1.5 million Shiites residing both in Iraq and in neighbouring countries. The head of the clan, “emir” Maat Zubeidi, resides in as-Suwayr. Our servicemen had no doubt that it was the lack of mutual understanding with local sheikhs that creates such an aggressive attitude of the locals to the peacekeepers.
However, the standoff between the local Sunnis and Shiites is a thing of the past. The first attempt to find a common ground was made when the 7th mechanised brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces was stationed in the region. Sources in the command of the 72nd mechanised battalion deployed in the area say this was no easy task. When the first sheikhs came on the invitation of the peacekeepers, it didn’t lead to a dialogue. The Arabs showed indifference, if not contempt, for the Ukrainians’ appeals to be friendly. But, most importantly, they came, making the first step in the peaceful communication.
The second step was when the sheiks realised they needed Ukrainian help in the post-war restoration of Iraq. Although all the projects are carried out on U.S. money, national contingents are implementing them in their zones of responsibility. Struggle among clans, for fairly clear reasons, cannot be the only entertainment for the sheiks. They should think about increasing their fortunes and about the prosperity of their clans. That was the reason why the head of the Sunni clan Adnan Dzhugeishi turned to the peacekeepers for help.
The Sunnis need a school. A áÆÃœÆá department (civil-military relations according to NATO standards, a structure responsible for implementing projects of restoration of civil facilities) suggested rebuilding a school in the city, the headquarters of the international force gave its consent and allocated the money. The Sheik contributed his personal funds to erect a building for the school’s security guards and laid out a garden in front of it. “Joint voice unites” is the best phrase to describe this project.
After the school restoration, the relations between the local Sunnis and the Ukrainians became much friendlier. It was then that the foundation was laid for a true friendship between the Sunni Sheik Adnan Dzhugeishi and the Shi’ite Emir Maat Zubeidi. The heads of the clan finally understood that Iraq would never be the one it once used to be and that it’s necessary to get adjusted to new conditions. Hostility is not the best way to multiply the clan’s fortune. Besides, the people are simply tired of war and enmity.
However, a truly constructive dialogue began in the run-up to the elections that were held in Iraq last January. They also became a litmus test for the sincerity of the sheiks who are set to normalise the situation and build what the Western world calls democracy through joint efforts. Both the Ukrainians and local clans were facing a problem.
As the elections were approaching, more attempts were being made by visiting militants to destabilise the situation and sow panic. They operated (and are still operating today) predominantly from Baghdad province, which had for long been the scene of a large-scale guerrilla warfare against the Americans (it’s their zone of responsibility). In as-Suwayr, a military unit of Iraqi guards was attacked. The militants seized the barracks of the 4th company of the 403rd battalion of the guards (four soldiers died) and a local station of the Iraqi police (six policemen headed by their chief were shot dead). The city centre was regularly shelled from mortar launchers located in the city outskirts.
In these conditions, the Zulu camp turned into a kind of joint election headquarters. Representatives of clans, force structures and the Ukrainian battalion headed by the battalion commander Lieutenant-Colonel Oleg Matizhev who later died together with another seven Ukrainian soldiers in an air bomb explosion in January this year got together at one table.
A lot of questions were discussed at that gathering. For example, the tightening of measures against the militants caused protests among the local population: the guards (the Ukrainians are responsible for their training and control over their work and activities) at checkpoints began searching women and young girls, which is totally inadmissible in a Muslim society and is regarded as an insult to an entire clan. Since representatives of the local clans serve in the guard, such insults were perceived as the settling of scores with clans. So, it was decided to allow clan representatives to be present at the checkpoints to control the actions of the police and the guards. The problem was instantly solved.
The elections showed that the common language had been found. Let me give you such an example: at a time when the Sunnis in the rest of Iraq were boycotting the elections, representatives of this trend in Islam gave about 70% (!) of the votes in al-Suwayr. That was a true victory for the Ukrainians.
Power to the Iraqis
When you find yourself at the Delta base in al-Kut, you come to understand how the troops in Ukraine deprived of adequate combat training and pre-occupied with “secondary tasks” which become their main tasks from units that carry out combat tasks. When you get into a Zulu camp, you see a radically different type of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. This is how real hostilities can change the military.
Together with the guys from the 81st tactical group that has just arrived in Iraq, I am riding in an armoured personnel carrier. A soldier named Sergei from the Ivano-Frankovsk region, tells me how he has found himself in Iraq:
“Everybody asked me: ‘are you going to earn money?” I was offended and asked: “Why do you immediately start thinking about money?” Then they would say: “then you must be bored and you are longing for a war?” I replied: “I am not going to fight – it’s not Afghanistan, I am going to help another people and its country. I am a peacekeeper!”
Our armoured personnel carrier which is part of a convoy of the 81st tactical group which is to replace the 7th brigade turn off from the main road to an earth-road which is leading to an outpost in front of the “security zone” around a camp. Its diameter is less than five kilometres, all that territory surrounded by barbed wire is a wasteland without a single tree. All the buildings here had been destroyed. The territory is being swept with fire by our 120-mm 2B11 mortar guns with a firing range of more than seven kilometers. The militants have 82-mm mortar-guns at best. Their firing range is two kilometres shorter.
On our way we meet several armoured vehicles of the local 72nd battalion. Our soldiers who served in Iraq for seven months are waving hands and are filming the convoy on a video camera: the relief has come! It means that in a couple of days the same kind of convoy will escort them to al-Kut, to the Delta base camp and then a plane will take them home to Ukraine.
The battalion commander Major Oleg Gulyak is meeting us. He has replaced the dead Matizhev. Despite his young age – Oleg is 32 years old, he is the battalion commander with experience: in Ukraine, he commanded an airborne battalion in Bolgrad.
“It became much calmer after the elections,” Oleg Gulyak goes on to say. “The fact that we’ve managed to find a common language with the local sheiks is beginning to tell. It was hot here when we arrived last October. We even learnt the ”day schedule" of the militants. They shelled the camp from mortar launchers from 6:30 in the morning until 10:00 in the morning,
Nevertheless, in the Zulu camp, the battalion’s headquarters, the barracks and the canteen, all the buildings- are encircled with massive three-meter high concrete slabs. Eighty-two metre mines can’t pierce them.
The tensest service used to be at the outposts near bridges across the River Tigris and the central canal of the irrigation system. This section is very important. If all the bridges were blown up, Baghdad would have been cut off from supplies coming from Kuwait from where food, equipment and ammunition are streaming into the Iraqi capital. That would have put coalition forces in a very difficult situation. The militants know it only too well and they’ve attacked those outposts more than once.
However, the strategy of international forces in Iraq allowed the Ukrainians to gradually limit their presence here. It is a known fact that the recently arrived tactic group number 81 has 690 less than the specialised motorised brigade number 7. But it does not mean that some areas in the territory monitored by the Ukrainians will be left uncovered. Having trained the locals, now Ukrainians delegate many things in the Ukrainian zone to them. For several months now the bridges around as-as-Suwayr have been monitored by Iraqi guards (Iraqi National Guard (ING) has been recently renamed, now it is Iraqi Army, IA).
Our guys have a friendly nickname for them, the reds, besides the out-of-date American desert uniform, donated by the U.S. contingency, these guards also wear a field uniform of reddish colour. They still need constant care. Every once in a while Ukrainian “mentors” pay a surprise visit, and prevent Iraqis from slacking on the job. But, as our officers say, Iraqi guards really grow in their professional skills. Undoubtedly, by the end on the year, when all Ukrainian forces leave the area completely, local police will be able to do the work on their own.
“The main problem at the moment is creation of a strong government,” says battalion commander Oleg Gulyak, who is also the resident diplomat. He stays in constant touch with Iraqi police and army as well as the authorities. As far as professional skills, the Ukrainians did a great job training them!
The need for a strong government is not an exaggeration. There is constant competition here, not just between local clans, but also between federal structures. At first, Iraqi Police (IP) significantly outnumbered all other entities, and its bosses were very influential in the political arena. Then the Ukrainians began “mass production” of the guards, and they became a greater force, playing a more important role. In these conditions there is an urgent need for a “strong hand”, capable of managing these structures.
Story courtesy of Dmitri Timchuk