Kurdisk människorättsaktivist försvarar Bush

New Majority gör här en intressant iakktagelse: förra veckan besökte en delegation från den tyska Riksdagen (Bundestag) den kurdiska provinsen i Irak. Ledare för den tyska delegationen var Herta Däubler-Gmelin som 2002 gjorde ett uttalande där hon jämförde Bushs metoder inför irakkriget med Hitlers (ett sätt att fokusera på externa problem för att undvika uppmärksamhet på interna problem). Hon var dock snabb med att påpeka att hon inte jämförde Bush som person med Hitler som person (det har dock många andra därefter gjort). Att dock ens antyda att Bushs intervention i Irak skulle vara jämförbar med någon av Hitlers interventioner, är dock inte långt ifrån lika absurt som att faktiskt jämföra Bush med Hitler.

På besöket i Iraks kurdiska provins kritiserade hon situationen för mänskliga rättigheter i norra Irak. En kurdisk människorättsaktivist - Falah Muradkhin Shakaram - ansåg dock att hon i egenskap av sina tidigare ställningstaganden och uttalanden, inte hade rätt att säga speciellt mycket om situationen i Irak, skrev därför en respons på den tyska riksdagsledamotens kritik och skrev bl a följande:

"I must admit that I was astonished when I recently read in the newspaper that a German parliamentary delegation was visiting Iraqi Kurdistan and that the head of the delegation, Herta Däubler-Gmelin, had made critical remarks about the situation of human rights in the region. I was equally astonished that our Kurdish politicians accepted this criticism without protest.

As someone who survived the Iraqi army’s poison gas attack on Halabja and who has been working for a German aid organization for the last eleven years, I may be permitted to make some comments on Ms. Däubler-Gmelin’s visit.

As a human rights activist, I welcome practically all foreign criticism dealing with issues like the situation of women or of prisoners or the media. I am convinced that such criticism is important and helps our society to develop in a positive direction. But we should also be aware of just who is criticizing us. Are they persons who support our efforts, who are truly concerned about the human rights situation and feel sympathy for the victims of political persecution: persons, then, who rejoiced with us at the overthrow of a brutal dictatorship and the birth of a new Iraq?

If Ms. Däubler-Gmelin had had her way, Saddam would still be sitting safe and sound in one of his palaces in Baghdad and no changes would have been possible in this country. For the woman who led the German parliamentary delegation is the very same person who as the then German Minister of Justice in September 2002 sharply attacked the later liberator of Iraq, George W. Bush, and even compared him to Hitler. The object of Ms. Däubler-Gmelin’s criticism was Bush’s plans to intervene in Iraq. Her remarks even led to an international scandal at the time.

When this episode occurred, the Baath Party was still in power and the Iraqi population was suffering terribly under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. But Ms. Däubler-Gmelin evidently did not think for a second of the liberation of Iraq from this dictatorship. And after 2003, it was people like her – and so many others in Europe – that showed no concern for the changes and developments underway in Iraq. We did not have the impression that the terror unleashed by Al-Qaeda upon the people of Iraq gave them any sleepless nights either. On the contrary, for years they seemed to welcome the suffering of the Iraqis as proof that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein had been a mistake.

Despite all this we say to such people: Welcome to the new, democratic Iraq! We are glad if your views have changed somewhat. But we would still like an apology for your earlier stance. At the very least, we would have expected that you pay a visit to Halabja, as, for instance, Colin Powell did in 2003.

Since you did not, we have to wonder: How can you claim the right to criticize our present situation without saying anything about our past? We have not forgotten that Germany helped Saddam Hussein to build the chemical weapons that were used against us in Halabja and elsewhere. For many years now, Kurdish organizations have been demanding that Germany at least offer an official apology for this crime. No such apology has been forthcoming..."

Och lite längre fram:

"I would like therefore to say to the people of Iraqi Kurdistan that the comments of Ms. Däubler-Gmelin should not be regarded as criticism, but rather as one last dose of poison administered by people who evidently have still not come to terms with the new situation in Iraq."

I samband med USA:s invasion av Saddam Husseins Irak 2003, minns jag att en kurdisk kvinna intervjuades på TV, och som lycklig över att Saddam Husseins terrorvälde hade nått sin ände, förklarade att hon skulle ge sin son namnet George Bush. Tanken slog mig att det vore kul att veta om hon verkligen gjorde det - och om killen i så fall blev mobbad i skolan pg a sitt namn? Eller om han kanske bytt namn igen, till Ali eller något annat i sammanhanget mer neutralt namn? Nåväl, hursomhelst så visade kvinnans spontana reaktion, precis som Falah Muradkhin Shakarams insändare, att det finns ett irakiskt perspektiv på Irakkriget, som kritikerna i Europa väldigt länge varit väldigt blinda för.