At the intergovernmental conference in Sana’a, Yemen, organised in January of this year by No Peace Without Justice, Iraqi ministers invited Emma Bonino to Baghdad. Yesterday a delegation of Radical MEPs - Bonino herself, Marco Cappato and Gianfranco Dell’Alba - arrived in Iraq for a three-day visit. First stop, Nassiriya.
I am in Iraq. We set out at dawn from Kuwait City, with an Airforce C130 which flew zigzag to reduce the risk of being hit by portable missiles: the Bedouins sometimes fire them at passing planes. Finally the plane touched down on the runway at the Italian base in Nassiriya, at the centre of a wide area assigned to Italy. It was the region most badly hit by Saddam’s oppression, to the extent that I was not allowed to visit during my last trip to Iraq as European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid in 1997. Waiting to welcome the Radical delegation is the commander of the 132nd Ariete armoured brigade, General Gian Marco Chiarini, and all his Staff.
Chiarini immediately gives us a general picture of the situation on the ground: 2,893 Italian troops, and over 600 Romanians and Portuguese, to control an area as big as Kosovo, sparsely inhabited and marshy - with problems of pillaging, theft, and assaults on trains - to the South; more densely populated to the North, with problems of religious fundamentalism linked to Iranian infiltration. From the General’s words there emerges an awareness that the Italians are trying their best in fulfilling their job: to protect the institutions of the coalition and of the provisional government (also by means of a telephone emergency service), to train the local forces, and to reconstruct and begin to operate basic infrastructures and services, beginning with schools and hospitals.
The Italian contingent - the Army and the Carabinieri - has to deal on a daily basis with the three main actors who are attempting, also by means of violence, to fill the void created by the fall of Saddam: tribal chiefs (so powerful that they supply the police with men), political parties (over 20, devoid of any real programme), and Shiite religious leaders, particularly strong in the South (and the ‘owners’ of the only means of mass communication: Friday prayer). After an excellent espresso we begin the meetings scheduled. The Governor of the province of Dhi Qar, Ramadi - “When he wants he can speak English,” the General tells us, mischievously - describes a situation of extreme hardship, inherited from the period of the regime. Four hours of electrical power a day during the time of Saddam’s regime, two asphalt roads in the whole of Nassiryia, a dramatic health situation. Things are now improving (the Governor acknowledges the work of the Italians), but not fast enough: “I am not happy, there is not much time left before the transfer of power on 30 June.”
Next I meet Widad Kareem, the President of the association most committed to the promotion of women’s rights: 10 women in Nassiryia, and 85 in the whole province, to distribute food and medicines and to help women finally to play a leading role in civil society. The General trusts her: “With her I know where our aid is going.”
After Iraqi women, the Italian women in Nassiryia: the soldiers and Red Cross volunteers who we meet in the camp used for operational meetings. I had met some of them in Kosovo and Bosnia, others are veterans from Afghanistan, together they convey their enthusiasm for their mission.
The lunch break in the brand-new camp refectory is also a chance to greet the many soldiers present, rather surprised and curious, though ultimately, I think, happy to see us here. There is also Colonel Burgio, Commander of the Carabinieri regiment that paid such a heavy toll in human lives in the performance of its mission.
Our visit to Nassiryia ends with a meeting that foreshadows the future political debate in a society that has suddenly become freer, but at the same time full of tensions and contradictions. We spend over three-quarters of an hour with a dozen Iraqi women from a whole range of professions: an engineer, a primary school teacher, a provincial councillor, and so on. Five of them are close to the most fundamentalist Islam; they are also the ones who believe the time has come for power to be handed over to the Iraqis. The others, more open-minded, are more cautious about the transition, like the Governor: “The next time we meet will be for a conference in Baghdad,” I say as we are about to leave. The almost unconscious expression of a hope. And of a promise, made to women who want to look to the future at a decisive, delicate moment for the fate of Iraq.


Leafleting village by village to announce the forthcoming elections

Day two of the visit to Iraq by the Radical delegation made up of MEPs Emma Bonino, Marco Cappato and Gianfranco Dell’Alba: after the journey from Nassiriya to Baghdad, via Kuwait City, a meeting with the American Governor Paul Bremer.
The days begins with a meeting with the team of civilian workers of the Research Triangle Institute, which operates in Nassiriya under the direct control of Barbara Contini, the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority for the Region. The team leader is another woman, the courageous and determined Belgian Caroline Roufosse. Caroline and her team talk to us about the question of security, linked to common crime, terrorism and the funding of terrorism. One of the most serious problems is the kidnapping of children for the purpose of extortion mostly to finance terrorist organisations. The general elections, planned to be held by January 2005, will be crucial. Caroline Roufosse stresses the importance of the painstaking work in the small towns and villages which has allowed, and will allow, the election of local representatives. It may well be them, the local representatives gathered together in an assembly, who will appoint the new government.
The legitimacy and authority of political representatives: this must be the starting point to deal with unemployment. In a country in which there are provinces like Nassiriya where 60% of the population are uneducated, the citizens are involved by direct contact - as the Italians do by handing out leaflets village by village - or via TV and radio, as the Japanese do. The Japanese government has acquired TV slots on the two most important Arab-language satellite channels, Al Jazira and Al Arabja, to explain to the Iraqis the purpose of the Japanese presence, especially after the offer of a further $260 million in humanitarian aid.
We depart for Baghdad from Kuwait City. We travel in a British Airforce plane with government officials, NGO technicians and experts, and a platoon of rather bewildered Malayan soldiers. We fly over Iraq without any hitches, and are welcomed on our arrival in Baghdad by the Italian Ambassador Gianludovico de Martino. On the drive from the airport we come across marines jogging with machine-guns and the remains of Saddam’s monumental buildings. At the check-point, the guard looks at our documents and quips: Smile, guys, you're in Baghdad. We smile.
The first meeting in Baghdad is with Governor Paul Bremer, who has put a sign on his desk: “Success has a thousand fathers”. Bremer lists the figures of the achievements since the fall of Saddam: over 200 newspapers and 180 politic parties set up, and above all a Constitution that is “revolutionary for the Muslim world, from Casablanca to Kuala Lumpur”. From an economic point of view, unemployment has fallen by 60% compared to the pre-war situation, per capita income has increased by 33% and the gross domestic product by 60%: the real problem, with the injection of $18 billion in the next 15 months, will not be growth, but inflation.
Great stress is placed on the development of democracy, for which over $500 million have been set aside. On the other hand Bremer does not hide from the difficulties: it will be extremely difficult not only to manage the process of transition but also to create the necessary checks and balances in the future institutional framework. Bremer hopes for greater involvement from the international community and believes that a new United Nations resolution would be useful, especially as a political acknowledgement of the institutional and electoral deadlines set out in the provisional Constitution. Precisely what Ayatollah Al-Sistani turns down bluntly later in the day in a fiery statement: “If the United Nations serves to legitimise this Constitution, it would do better not to come.”


In Baghdad, in the (former) house of big brother

Day three of the visit to Iraq of the Radical delegation made up of MEPs Emma Bonino, Marco Cappato and Gianfranco Dell'Alba. After Nassiriya and the meeting with Bremer, talks with the members of the Governing Council.
We spend our first night in Baghdad in the headquarters of the Coalition Provisional Authority: Saddam's imposing Republican Palace, or rather the gardens of the building now used as a camp. Our accommodation is a prefabricated block surrounded by a wall of sandbags. "Every now and then mortars are fired, so if they hit one block the others are protected": with these words Colonel Bloise, the Italian co-ordinating officer, bids us goodnight.
We begin the following day with a meeting at the side of Saddam's luxurious pool with some of the Italian officials working for the Coalition and the Iraqi ministerial departments. Each of them gives us an enthusiastic and detailed account of their jobs in the various sectors, an activity which is too often overshadowed by the more sensational tragic events.
In the health sector, the job is to provide the Iraqis, by as early as April, with a system capable of functioning thanks to the high quality of local medical staff, although it is proving difficult to find enough nurses. In the IT sector, the outlook is bleak, with huge problems of training and practically no Internet facilities. As for industry and infrastructures, despite the enormity of the job to be done it has to be acknowledged that the Iraqis have shown remarkable ability in keeping the basic infrastructures working. There has been progress in the creation of a prison system that respects the fundamental rights; in the protection of the immense archaeological heritage, now pillaged or abandoned; in the re-organisation of the Navy, also to include coast-guard duties; in the supply of water; in the integrated transport system; and in the process of liberalisation of the economic and financial system in a county that in recent years, they tell us, has lived as if in "the house of Big Brother".
From 1 July the responsibility for all this will lie in the hands of the transitory government. Our day continues with a meeting with some of the key figures in the new Iraqi politics: Adnan Pachachi, the leading exponent of the more liberal wing of the diaspora; the Turkoman representative Singol Chabook; Rajaa Khuzai, who has fought more than anyone else for women's rights in the Provisional Constitution; Al-Rubei, who is very close to Ayatollah Al-Sistani.
There are differences and worries about the method of composition of the future government after the hand-over of power. Among the various options is the idea of extending the present Governing Council - which all our interlocutors are members of - to make it more representative, or to convene a National Conference to appoint the members of government. In any case decisions will have to be made very quickly, with the hehlp of the arrival next week of the United Nations representative Lakhtar Brahimi.
The role of the UN is considered fundamental for the completion of the constituent phase and the election of a parliament with full powers by the end of 2005. But opinions already differ on the legitimisation of the provisional Constitution by the UN: some consider it to be a starting point to work on, while others - like the followers of Al-Sistani - are completely against it, viewing it as an American imposition. Together with the rediscovery of democracy - "I am happy when citizens criticise the government of which I am a member," says Pachachi - there is extreme uncertainty, only 100 days before 30 June, on the method of composition of the legitimate government of the new Iraq.
It is essential, therefore, that the hand-over is not perceived as the beginning of international disengagement, but as a moment of more intense co-operation on the part of the international community. There are, however, forces working for a different scenario, one which we must do everything in our power to ward off.
Next we meet the Minister of Justice, Al-Shibli, in his office, with its magnificent view over the Tigris. He tells us of the difficulties of re-establishing a judicial system controlled for too long by the Ba'ath party, and says he is extremely interested in the program for the training of new judges in which the Radical association No Peace Without Justice is involved. We ask him about the trial of Saddam and the other leading members of the regime, and he replies that it should be held before an Iraqi court, once the constitutional rules have been defined. On the subject of the death penalty he confirms that the Provisional Authority has decreed a moratorium. Let’s hope it becomes a permanent ban.


A reception with the Peshmerga and a meeting with Rajaa, a symbol of hope for the future of Iraq

What follows is the fourth and final part of the Diary from Iraq by Emma Bonino, the Radical MEP who, together with her colleagues Marco Cappato and Gianfranco Dell'Alba, has just undertaken a three-day mission to Nassiriya and Baghdad. Before returning to Italy, during the last stage of the journey in Kuwait City, Emma Bonino yesterday announced her availability and interest to co-organise a conference to promote the civil and political rights of women in the countries of the Gulf. The conference could be held in the autumn in the Kuwaiti capital.
We are suddenly woken up by a hissing sound. A missile flies over our camp and crashes, we learn later, into the Sheraton Hotel. A siren warns everyone to go to the shelters. And yet the evening had begun with a series of celebrations. The farewell party for Sir Jeremy Greenstock, Head of the British Forces in Iraq, who is returning to London after six months. Then a party in our honour, offered by the representatives in Baghdad of the Kurdish minority, the first to free itself of Saddam’s regime. The party takes place in a hotel in the centre of Baghdad, guarded by dozens of armed men, the famous Peshmerga.
The Kurds welcome us warmly; with them there are many members of the community of diplomats, functionaries and experts of the Coalition and soldiers trying, despite everything, to enjoy moments of normal life. The Kurds tell us of a country whose fate is still in the balance. “Every day,” says Baktiar Amin, a member of the Governing Council, “around 10,000 Iranians cross the border claiming to be pilgrims to the holy places of Shiite Islam, and who knows how many of them will go back.
From Syria, too, and probably from Jordan and Saudi Arabia, armed groups are infiltrating the country continually and unchecked. There are two major branches of international terrorism operating in the country, each with its own galaxy of groups and movements: Sunnite fundamentalism, also linked to groups loyal to Saddam, is close to Al Qaeda and other terrorist organisations, while Shiite fundamentalism is funded by the Hezbollah and influenced by Iran. The stakes are high, and after being oppressed for thirty years by Saddam the Kurds, who have taken important decisions in the field of the fundamental rights and freedoms - with regard to women, for example - are clearly not willing to give up their freedom in a State dominated by the Mullahs.”
During the day we had visited the burns ward in the hospital run by the Italian Red Cross. They operate in a high-risk zone, and we arrive accompanied by the Ambassador de Martino and the highly efficient Carabinieri of the Tuscania division. The premises are clean and tidy - a different world compared to the Saddam Hospital which I visited in 1997 - and the highly qualified staff are working miracles, though they are unable to cope completely, with over 100 patients on the waiting-list for the most serious cases. They ask me to convey an appeal to the Italian regions to help out.
At the Embassy I meet painters, sculptors, archaeologists... a society waking up, with all sorts of expectations. They want to promote projects on “art and democracy”, above all to help children to express themselves. They are thinking of painting murals to embellish the city, they show us photos of their works and would like to establish contacts with Europe.
I find the possible future of Iraq, multiethnic and tolerant, in the words of Rajaa Kuzai, the women who, as a member of the Governing Council, has shown most determination in defending the draft transitory Constitution from the inclusion of articles inspired by fundamentalism. Her account of whole days spent in the Council to thwart the Islamist boycotts reminded me of the many Radical battles in the Italian parliament. I hope that her plan to establish a cross-ethnic “liberal” group - bringing together Shiites, Sunnites and Kurds who oppose fundamentalism - will immediately become an objective shared by our Transnational Radical Party.