Building Bridges in Iraq
By: Dr. Salah Aziz
Published By the Jordan Time - Regional Section - August 19, 2004
A 250lb man stood from his seat to take part in a
Kurdish traditional folkloric dance in Sarseer, a
tourist resort 20 miles north of Sulaymania in Iraqi
Kurdistan. The man was a Shiite Arab from the holy
city of Karbala, about 70 miles southwest of Baghdad.
He said that it was his "second time dancing; the
first being during [his] brother's marriage". The man
was Hussein Mohammed, the director of the Society For
Human Rights Monitoring in Iraq and he came to
Sulaymania to learn how to manage a newly-founded
Non-Government Organization (NGO).
Mr. Mohammed was one of the ten executive directors of
selected NGOs from Central and Southern Iraq who
participated in a pilot project called "Building
Bridges" during June-July 2004. The project was
conducted by the American Society for Kurds (ASK) with
funding from the National Endowment for Democracy
(NED). The trainees attended two workshops in
Sulaymania and Arbil; learning about the role of NGOs
in civil society, NGO transparency, prioritizing local
issues, and networking/cooperation with regional and
international NGOs.
Throughout the workshops, Sunnis and Shiites, Kurds
and Arabs, worked, slept, ate, and socialized
together. The participants shared jokes and stories
during off time. Knowing that this was the first time
for the Arabs to travel to Kurdistan since it was
banned by the late dictator, Saddam Hussein, and the
first time that the Kurds are in a position to help
their countrymen, it is hard to believe the oft-hyped
saying that Iraqis cannot live or work together.
It is true that there were issues which reflected the
different cultures and priorities (and even
terminologies) among the Kurds and Arabs. Kurds called
their region Kurdistan while the Arabs referred to the
region as "Northern Iraq" like many Arab Nationalists.
Arab women were more conservative than their Kurdish
peers. The participating Kurds believed that the
priority for Iraq was to establish a "Democratic
State" while the Arabs wanted to first end the
"Foreign Occupation". On the other hand, the majority
of participants agreed that the current political
parties that have a role in the governing of Iraq are
out-of-date and non-democratic. Also, they agreed that
in the new Iraq, local and regional NGOs must play a
major role in the institutionalizing of the democratic
system.
In a recent political development in Iraq, about 1,300
Iraqi delegates started a three-day national
conference in Baghdad in Aug. 15, 2004. The delegates
represent various political and religious factions.
Their main aim is to select a 100-member national
council which will act as a "legitimate parliament" to
oversee a democratic transition of governing in Iraq
within the coming two years. One of the major
challenges facing the delegates is to overcome their
ethnical, religious, and political differences and
focus on a united national agenda. And now we know, it
can be done.
Salah Aziz, Ph.D.
American Society for Kurds
www.askurds.org
Tel. (850-339-3344)
askurds@yahoo.com
