Going home

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 XIV)

“I bet every camel knows you in Wasit now!” says Major Yuri Karin, head of the press centre of the 81st tactical group of the Ukrainian armed forces in Iraq. My former fellow student from the military college makes a joke as he meets me at the landing strip of Delta camp. The purpose of the current trip is to make a 620 kilometre journey together with our peacekeepers to Kuwait and to return to Ukraine on the last peacekeeper plane.

It is much nicer in Iraq in winter than in spring or autumn, not even mentioning the crazy temperatures of summer. However, even now the daytime temperature reaches +25 degrees Celsius. And +10 degrees at night combined with the dry climate makes our guys shiver and put their jackets on as they are not used to this weather. For Iraqis such cold weather is almost a catastrophe. Schools and markets close down when it’s not warmer than +10 degrees during the daytime.

“Let’s pick up my machine gun and body armour first thing,” I suggest to Yuri.

“Do you really need it?” he asks me lazily, “You can pick up any rifle from the gun rack in my office. Haven’t you done enough shooting?”

They have obviously relaxed at the base. Or perhaps they are just fed up with the war.

Delta camp is ready to set off. The guys are literally sitting with their bags packed. The commanders talk unwillingly about the upcoming journey. The 81st tactical group hasn’t managed to avoid casualties, so they don’t want speak too soon. However, it is obvious that both soldiers and officers trust their commander, Major-General Sergei Goroshnikov, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, during which was awardedtwo Red Stars. Such orders were given in the Soviet Union for really significant reasons. (By the way, after this journey to Kuwait the General will be told that he’s been awarded the 3rd rank Order of Bogdan Hmelnitsky for service in Iraq. The Americans promise to cover the departure of the Ukrainians. But Delta camp is full of disturbing rumours that they have to rely on their own forces, as the Americans are having a rotation now which means they have enough problems of their own.

What are we leaving in Iraq? This question is not a rhetorical one. Kiev has stated that the Ukrainians are not escaping from the country as some other contingents have done. But they are gradually leaving the country after delegating authority in the Wasit province to the Iraqi officials who have been trained by them. Will a precedent be created? For the first time since the victory of the Americans, one of the Iraqi provinces will be in control of the Iraqi army, not by coalition forces. Just how prepared is it?

“The brigade that we’ve trained is not an infantry brigade in our understanding,” Colonel Petr Skiba, commander of the group of our councillors and councillor to the Chief of Staff of the Iraqi brigade, tells me. “These guys will definitely lose a linear battle with the regular army troops of an adversary. We’ve trained them for totally different tasks: to perform the so-called stabilising operations, to disarm rebel groups, to carry out mop-up operations and to serve at checkpoints. They know how to so such things.”

I feel somewhat dubious. I still remember the events of the times of the 6th and 7th brigades when the proud Arab warriors would throw down their machine guns without hesitation and demonstrate enviable running skills during a fight. The Ukrainians would end up handling the situations for them.

“The brigade is really ready,” Petr continues, “Lately the Iraqis have been going out to operations, with our officers just observing their actions. Brigadier General Muhhamed Djuad Huwaidi has already proved that he’s quite capable of resisting the rebels with his soldiers. Armoured vehicles are a different matter, especially the Armoured Reconnaissance vehicle-2 which we’ve left for them. I have a feeling that these vehicles will last for a couple of months at the most; the Arabs are bound to destroy them.”

The Colonel knows what he’s talking about. A little more than a year ago I had a chance to witness a ceremony of presenting 50 new Chevrolet jeeps from the Americans to the Iraqi officials. In just two months all of those jeeps were destroyed.

However, not much will change in Wasit province after the Ukrainians leave. Even though the ceremony of delegating authority to the Iraqis took place, it’s nothing but a formality. They don’t have the real power in Iraq yet. The multinational forces battalion has remained at Delta base. It will be in control of everything here. This is a Polish battalion but it includes Latvian and Armenian troops. They both wear the American desert battle uniform which differs only by chevrons and cloth badges in the form of their national flags. The Armenians are very friendly and they don’t hide the fact that they know Russian. However, the Latvians keep reserved and pretend not to understand us. The brave Iraqi infantry brigade will act only as assistants for now and in the near future.

However, after the departure of the Ukrainians a rather unpleasant surprise is awaiting the Arabs of Wasit province. The coalition command has decided to send more than 400 Salvadorans from Hillah to enforce the Polish battalion. Our guys are convinced that this will make the local Iraqis learn about real trouble. They’ve had experience of working together with soldiers of the Salvador contingent in joint operations. As our special reconnaissance guys say, “those people are afraid of themselves”. It means that they start shooting to kill for whatever reason even more so than the Americans. The Al Kutians will have a chance to compare them with the friendly Ukrainians who were giving out food and water, and using their machine guns only in case of urgency.

Cedar-2 terminal base

Early in the morning the column of 41 vehicles, APCs mostly, leaves Delta camp. We’ve been feeling a bit uncomfortable for the Poles over the last days. Even though things have been developing in accordance with the international agreements and arrangements, we are actually leaving them in a warring country. However, they’ve figured out long ago that the Poles are not much different from the Ukrainians; they understand Ukrainian and enjoy Horilka, the Ukrainian vodka, and salo, or fatty pork bacon. They belong with us, in other words.

And suddenly the Poles make a nice surprise for us by going out to say goodbye. They rolled out two fire engines to the sides of the road leading from Delta camp. Then they made a water “arch” with two powerful hoses, through which the column drove away. In the rays of the rising sun the arch turned into a sparkling colorful rainbow. Our guys were waving back at them.

The road to southern Iraq in the direction of Kuwait lies through infinite desert. At first it’s reddish black but then the soil slowly becomes sandy. The Iraqis coming from the opposite direction are pulling their cars to the roadside and stop. No one tries to outrun us. The locals have learnt the rules established by the coalition forces.

We keep meeting endless columns of trucks which are dashing by at a speed of 100 kilometres per hour under the cover of armoured Hummers. A regular rotation of coalition forces is under way, and the Americans are moving the vehicles and other hardware towards Baghdad. The Tampa route which we are taking is a vital artery for delivering supplies from Kuwait to the American area of responsibility in northern Iraq. Huge trucks are carrying M1 Abrahams tanks, M2 Bradley fighting vehicles and self-propelled artillery installations. The impression is that here in Iraq the Americans are fighting against at least a million-strong regular army with heavy weapons rather than against lightly-armed insurgents. They fight only with standard weapons. They cannot bring in all military hardware and weapons into one area, like we do, and then carry out only regular staff rotations. During each rotation the Americans run up terrible expenses. All the tanks have to be taken away and replaced with new vehicles. At first, the tanks are delivered to Kuwait by sea and then they are driven hundreds of kilometres through the desert to Baghdad. In the meantime, the Pentagon keeps moaning that it doesn’t have enough money for the war in Iraq.

We stop for the night at the Cedar-2 terminal base. It is situated on our way to the Kuwaiti border not far from Tallil. It’s an Italian area of responsibility. The Italians at the outposts are waving their hands in a friendly manner. Their uniform is quite unusual with bunches of long black feathers attached to their helmets. There is something chivalrous in their look.

Cedar-2 terminal base is just enormous. Endless rows of trucks, logistics refrigerators and vans are huddled on a small parking place in the centre of the base. Temporary houses are scattered all around. Visiting guests like us are offered accommodation in tents. One camp can provide a night shelter for thousands of soldiers. Truck convoys stop at the base every day, and everybody needs shelter. But the better half of the base is just an encircled territory around the “living sector”. The troops have to protect a very long perimeter, but during mortar fire shells don’t reach the base’s centre.

Our base comes under fire at night but there are no casualties.

We leave Cedar-2 the next morning. It’s another one hundred kilometres across the desert. Finally, we see rows of barbed wire in the distance. This is the border with Kuwait.

Virginia Base Camp

The border is an straight row of posts that flank the road to the horizon. Arab Kuwaitis and Americans are standing at the border checkpoint.

We are talking with Jimmy, an American Sergeant:

“There used to be a continuous earthen row here,” says Jimmy, “but the Emir of Kuwait ordered us to pull it down and replace it with an electric fence. Video cameras and infra-red sensors were installed on every metre of land. The Kuwaitis are afraid not so much of terrorists (the situation in this part of the country bordering on Iraq is relatively calm) but of drug traffickers. Drugs, like alcohol, are forbidden in Kuwait, and those who sell, store or use them face the death penalty.”

We are approaching al-Kuwait already at night. At night it looks like an oasis of dazzling lights in the midst of a desert. The country produces much more electric energy than it can consume and this can be noticed at first glance. Even suburban gardens have lamp posts and street curbs along the road are decorated with electric lamps.

First, we will visit the Port of Shuwaikh near al-Kuwait. There, we will load the equipment onto a ferry that will then take it to Ukraine. The port is simply enormous and it’s also a sea of light. Right near the berth we see gas flames. These are oil wells. Oil is produced, processed and poured in tankers straight in port. “Black gold” accounts for 90 per cent of Kuwait’s export revenues.

All the workers in the port are Indians. In fact, most workers in Kuwait are foreigners. You will hardly see a Kuwaiti who sweeps streets or works as a freight handler. Out of a population of two million, the Kuwaitis account for only one million. It’s very hard to get Kuwaiti citizenship. A thoroughbred Kuwaiti is a person whose ancestors lived in the country before 1920.

It’s still a 90-minute ride to Virginia Camp. The camp itself is multinational. The Poles, Japanese and oreans prepare for rotation there. But most of the servicemen are certainly Americans. They put us in tents because all the warm places in houses are occupied by permanent personnel. We will leave for home in four days. Our guys got accustomed to American whims at Delta base (for example, Americans preferred buying Coca-Cola in a shop, although the canteen offered it free of charge and in unlimited quantities). However, what we saw here was even funnier.

“Look at this for a joke?” Major Vova Lukyanov from the headquarters of the 81st says to me, pointing to a sign near a canteen. This is a …McDonalds!" A food package includes a hamburger, potatoes and Coca-Cola. It costs almost seven bucks. (You can have all of it in the canteen). A pizza house and a restaurant are nearby. They also serve food that one can get for free several steps away.

You can buy a cigarette pack for two or three dollars from the Arabs in Iraq. But here one box of Malborough costs $US 3.30. The prices are definitely not for visitors. But they are quite moderate and acceptable for a country where the minimal wage stands at 300 Kuwaiti dinars ($US 1,000). Those who earn less are even exempt from taxes because they are considered to be very poor. Well, soon we’ll be at home and there we will smoke as much as we want.

Our departure day finally arrives. Our guys can’t help cursing when the flight is delayed at first for an hour and then for two hours, and all because an American transport plane S-130 blocks the way to our Tu aircraft on the runway. Instead of towing it away, they repair it on the runway. So, we have wait.

Our plane takes off at long last. Below the wings, the Persian Gulf and al-Kuwait are lying in all their beauty: skyscrapers in the form of wine-glasses of blue Martini. Goodbye al-Kuwait, the gates through which the Ukrainians left Iraq.

Al Kut, Delta camp base – Kuwait, Virginia base camp. December 2005
Story and pictures courtesy of Dmitri Timchuk

Things to do in Iraq (Part I)