“IRAQ’S SECURITY SITUATION HAS DETERIORATED DRAMATICALLY”

Bomb Attacks as in London are ordinary for Iraqis. Suicide assassins cost only $15,000.

Interview with Andre Brie

[This interview published in Junge Welt, 7/21/2005 is translated from the German on the World Wide Web www.jungewelt.de/2005/07-21/022.php . Andre Brie is a PDS (Democratic Socialist party in Germany) delegate in the European Parliament.]


Q: You have returned from Iraq. What has changed since your last visit four months ago?

Andre Brie: Firstly, the security situation has deteriorated dramatically, above all in the Sunnite part of the country. But it is even worse in other regions. Death squads and all possible militias wreck havoc. There are many murders. Secondly, the social and economic situation for women and children has worsened. The unemployment is still extremely high.

Q: There are reports of attacks in Iraq almost every day. Did you witness any?

Andre Brie: Not personally. On Tuesday I was in Khalis. Shortly afterward there was a murder of 13 civilians. I didn’t see the ten attacks committed on Sunday evening in Baghdad.

Q: Ix the U.S. firmly in control in Iraq?

Andre Brie: In my opinion, breakdown is imminent. There are signs that the U.S. wants the Shiite South and the Kurdish North under its control. The oil reserves are there. They obviously will abandon the rest of the country to civil war.

Q: How would you describe the attacks? Are the assassins criminal bands or a politically motivated and militarily organized resistance?

Andre Brie: A mixture of contradictory elements exists. On one hand, there is obviously genuine resistance against the occupying powers. On the other hand, more and more death quads appear with different goals. Here I include Kurdish extremists acting outside the large Kurdish parties. The Shiite fundamentalists intent on taking over the whole country are the most important. Many attacks have a criminal background.

Q: Are the Shiite fundamentalists supported by neighboring Iran?

Andre Brie: Massively and partly very openly – financially, politically and also militarily. The Badr-camp for example, a large military organization that seeks to control all Iraq is clearly supported by Iran.

Q: One hears again and again of religiously motivated attacks. Isn’t that geared to further escalation of the situation?

Andre Brie: A European can hardly answer that. A mixture of religious and political motives exists. One can even buy a suicide assassin for $15,000. The assassin has no life-perspective in Iraq anyway. With the money, his sister or his whole family could be maintained to the end of their lives.

Q: Does the country face a civil war or is a civil war already occurring?

Andre Brie: What happened in London on July 7 with the bomb attacks happens every day in Iraq. However the European media do not report about all the strikes or the many political murders. For example, 160 officers of the former Iraqi army including pilots were killed. Iraqi forces taking revenge for the bomb attacks in the 1980-1988 Iranian-Iraqi war were behind the murders.

Q: What is the situation of women and children?

Andre Brie: Baghdad has become a conglomeration of slums and waste dumps. The electricity constantly breaks down; where there is water, it is hardly drinkable. More children than before are sick; education possibilities become increasingly worse. The Shiite fundamentalists increasingly repress women from public life.

Q: Is there a positive perspective for Iraq?

Andre Brie: There is still a strong civil society with unions, women’s organizations, cultural associations, student organizations and so forth. There are also democratic parties that are not instruments of the Shiite fundamentalism of Iran. However they are all deserted by the UN, the EU (European Union) and the international community.