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Corruption stains renewal of Iraq
Bestun spent two years working as an interpreter in his Kurdish homeland after Saddam Hussein was toppled from power, but now he fears for the future. Chris Bond reports.
THE gravity of the news bulletins streaming out of Iraq appears to increase each week.
And as the death toll rises among soldiers and civilians, so does the level of bitterness and anger.
Not just against the occupying forces, but also among the Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds and their numerous factions.
Official statements emanating from the corridors of power in London and Washington deny that Iraq is in the throes of a bloody civil war, despite the fact that nearly every image filtering out of the country suggests otherwise.
As many as 100,000 Iraqis have died since the Allied invasion in 2003 and at the last count some 2,471 US and 113 British soldiers and military personnel have lost their lives.
The removal of Saddam Hussein and his brutal regime from power was supposed to herald a new democratic start for a country brought to its knees by decades of conflict.
Instead, the country has been ripped apart by warring factions and there is no sign of an end to the bloodshed.
Bestun is a 42-year-old Kurd who returned to his homeland after an 18-year exile in 2003, intent on playing a part in rebuilding his shattered homeland.
But he returned to the UK little over two years later, disillusioned by the corruption which he claims is rife and fearful that his country is sliding inexorably into civil war.
"What I saw doesn't give me hope," says Bestun, who asked not to give his surname for fear of reprisals against his family still living in Iraq. "Millions of dollars have gone missing, the corruption is everywhere and that is why life is getting worse."
Bestun, one of eight brothers and sisters, returned to his family home in Sulaimany, in northern Iraq, to help rebuild the city.
"When Saddam was forced out, I decided I must go back. I hadn't seen my family in 17 years so I bought a one-way ticket. I was hoping I could do something, make a change for the better."
His story, though, goes much further back, rooted as it is in the Kurds' desperate struggle against successive Iraqi governments.
He was 16 when he joined the Peshmerga, or freedom fighters, who found themselves caught in the middle of the Iran-Iraq war during the 1980s.
Chemical weapons were used against them during Saddam's genocidal al-Anfal campaign, which, according to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, claimed 182,000 Kurdish lives.
Bestun was injured twice during skirmishes and in 1986 he applied for refugee status, first in Iran and then Syria, where he was tortured by the secret police, before finally escaping to the UK two years later.
He arrived in London where he learned to speak English while working as a waiter, before going to live in Holland in the mid-1990s where he was granted EU citizenship.
When he returned to Kurdistan, he began working as an interpreter for the US army in Sulaimany.
His boss was the Kurdish representative of CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority) chief Paul Bremner, which meant he was frequently working alongside some of the US military's top brass.
The situation in Kurdistan at the time, he claims, was desperate.
"There was a shortage of electricity and water so I had to find people who could help, because the pipes were very old and sometimes you turned on
the tap and just mud would come out.
"Many people were having problems with their kidneys so I had to show the delegations the conditions of the hospitals and the generators," he says.
Since the collapse of Saddam's regime, millions of pounds have been pumped into Iraq to help rebuild its crippled economy, but Bestun says little has changed.
"All the money coming from other countries, billions of dollars, which should have been used to help people and improve education, you can't find it.
"Young people are escaping from Kurdistan now because they don't think they have a future there."
Bestun claims that corruption among politicians, businessmen and the police is to blame.
"The (US] army is doing a very good job in Kurdistan about reconstruction, about taking care of the people and building hospitals and sewers.
"But once these projects are handed to the Iraqis, you see a lot of stealing.
"Corruption is everywhere, for example, those projects that are helping with the reconstruction of Iraq are all controlled by businessmen and politicians and people loyal to them."
And it is the ordinary people, he says, who are suffering.
"Instead of serving people and providing clean water and health services, the money just disappears.
"They have all these millions of dollars coming in but there are still many areas of Sulaimany that don't have proper roads, proper sewage systems and there are other levels of people, politicians, living a very good life. They are driving very nice cars and always have clean water and electricity."
The short-term presence of US troops is welcomed by many Kurds who see them as a safeguard in a turbulent political arena.
"Our stability depends on how long the British and American troops are staying in the country. The political situation in Kurdistan is very different compared to the rest of Iraq.
"The Kurds are threatened by Turkey, Iran and Syria and these countries don't want an independent or strong Kurdistan," he says.
"People can't find oil for heating, our oil goes to Turkey and comes back double the price. I don't understand why in three years we couldn't build a refinery in Kurdistan? Kurdistan is safe, there are no security reasons, the problems are all political."
Compared to elsewhere in Iraq, the Kurdish region is relatively stable but fear and hatred still simmer beneath the surface.
"We had chauffeurs who took people from Sulaimany to Baghdad and many of them were scared to go there because they thought they would be killed just because they were Kurds.
"And in Sunni areas the same thing is happening with the Shias, this is a civil war."
The situation now contrasts sharply with the euphoric scenes that greeted Saddam Hussein's capture. "I remember when they brought Saddam Hussein from his rat hole, people were out in the street drinking, everyone was blowing their horns in their cars.
"Saddam Hussein was a monster and the British and Americans have done a very good job getting rid of him. The problem is Iraq doesn't work, but they don't admit that."
Bestun also worked with international police advisers to create a training centre in Kurdistan for new officers which has helped make the region safe.
But elsewhere in the country police officers have been targeted by insurgents determined to inflame an already combustible situation.
In March last year, he joined the Iraqi army as a soldier but after five months without being paid he returned to the UK through his EU citizenship. He now works as a part-time interpreter for a refugee organisation in Yorkshire and hopes his wife and their nine month-old daughter will be able to join him.
If they stay in Kurdistan, he fears what will happen to them.
"I think the future of the country is not clear but I fear there will be much more bloodshed – Iraq has never been safe and I don't think it ever will be safe."
chris.bond@ypn.co.uk
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