Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basm Özeti
Mter Saddam • By Nicholas D. Kristof
Iraqi democracy is a pipe dream
KUWAIT of theruling Sabah c1an,it is also a
Listen to the hawks after a few family-run venture that falls well
glasses of wine and you might short ofbeing a full-fledged democrabe
seduced into thinking that cy.
. after overthrowing Saddam In the immediate aftermath of the
Hussein, we Americans are going to Gu1fWar, the fmt Bush administration
turn Iraq into a flourishing democracy. leaned on the Sabahs, and the result
But I'm afraid it's a pipe dream, a was a restoration of a Parliament that
marketing ploy to sell a war. . the emir had dissolved in 1986. The
We haven't even been able to nur- Parliament has since grown more imture
full democracy in modern, bust- portant, with members periodically
1i1ig Kuwait, where women still can- trying to do their best to embarrass
not vote, or in Saudi Arabia, which is cabinet members in the fmest tradition
more egalitarian - where neither of democratic i'ule. But the United
men nor women can vote. I had a nice States soon lost interest in prodding
insight into the limits of democracy in the Sabah family, and so 11years after
Kuwait the other night when I was at the war progress has been modest
the palatial home of a Kuwaiti sheikh. Then there's Iraq. A central chal-
A .cell phone rang, and my hosts lenge is that democracy would effecbeamed
and informed me of the arrest . tively take power from the 16 percent
of Mohammed Mulaifl, a young gov- Sunni Muslim minority that has alernm:ent
official who had been quoted ways run Iraq and hand it to the 60
in The New York Times a few days percent Shiite population, and this
earlier as gushing sympathetically transfer could be very bloody.
about two terrorists who had shot an "You can't expect to have a real de- .
American marine to death and mocracy in Iraq, such as we're dreamwounded
another. I asked the sheikh ing 01;" notes Abdullah Sahar, a politicwhat
the charges were against Mu- al scientist at Kuwait University. BuildlaifL
. ing a democracy in Kuwait is "very
Speaking too openly to'an American easy," he says, compared with doing the
journalist? Insulting the Great Father same in Iraq. (Perhaps it's a bit odd for
Across the Sea?
the not entirely democratic Kuwaitis to
The arrest underscored the risks of scoff at prospects for democracy in
expressing a dissident view publicly at their neighbor, but most do So.)
a time when Kuwait was shocked and Even if we could fmd an Iraqi verembarrassed
by the killing of the mar- sion of Hamid Karzai (no, no, Ahmed
. ine. The episode is a reminder that Chalabi, don't leave London yet), and
while Kuwait is one of the freest coun- even if Iraq were ready for democracy,
tries in the Gulf region, with a lively there would be another huge obstacle
press that dares scold e~n members - the neighbors.
"There will not be a democracy in
Iraq, not a real democraCy," said Mohammed
Jassem, editor of the newspaper
Al Watan in Kuwait "That would
mean allowing a Shiite state. America
and the GUlf countries cannot afford
that." The rise of a Shiite state in Iraq
could strengthEm Iran and lead to
èlashes with Shiite minorities in
Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and other countries,
he warned.
Actually,. it seems to me that the
risks of democracy are smaller than
the risks of military rule. But that may
be academic, because odds are that
the neighboring governments would
do their best to block popular rule
from ever emerging in Iraq.
Kuwaiti rulers seem to think, based
on assurances from U.S. officials, that
Shiite domination is potentially so destabilizing
that democracy is not even
an option for Iraq.
As Kuwait sees it, the possibilities
range from a Tommy Franks viceroyalty
to the. installation of a Sunni
Hashemite king, some relative of
Jordan's King Abdullah II. Jordan
already seems to be quietly lobbying
for this outcome.
"Democracy is just not in the cards
there," one Kuwaiti official said.
Of course, even a nicer tyrant -
Saddam Lite - would be a huge improvement
for the Iraqis. But I'm
afraid that the prattle about creating a
democratic modelon the Tigris is just
a shrewd White House marketing attempt
to bait and switch.
1be New York TImes
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AMNISTIE
Changement de tactique
L
'"amnistie générale" qui vient d'être décrétée par Saddam
Hussein pour les Irakiens détenus ou condamnés pour des
crimes de droit cômmun et pOurdes raisons politiques est loin
de convaincre les observateurs que l'on assiste à un changement
du régime irakien en matière d~ droits de l'homme, A peine'
le décret promulgué et les images de prisonniers libérés apparues
sur le petit écran, l'opposition irakienne affichait son scepticisme.
Pour Ezzedine~I-Majid, le cousin exilé de Saddam Hus..
sein, "personne ne peut ga'!lntir que les opposants politiques
en exil de retour ~ Bagdad ne seront pas exécutés", C'est ce
qu'il a déclaré à Al Hayat, faisant allusional,lXdeuxgendres déser:
teurs de SaddamHussein assassinés dès leur retour à Bagdad,
alors que le dictateur irakien leur avait pourtant promis la vie
sauve. Cette amnistie survient juste, après la déclaration du vice-
Premier ministre irakien Tarek Alii faite la semaine .demière à
Beyrouth: "Nous avons commis l'erreur d'entrer en conflit avec
les mouvements nationalistes. de gauche ou islamistes, et nous
n'avons pas suffisamment prêté attention ~ notre ennemi commun
que sont les forces impérialistes et sionistes. " La réplique
de l'opposition irakienne ne s'est pas fait attendre. Dans les
colonnes d'An Nahar, plusieurs opposants notent que èet
"aveu est bien tardif et ne résulte pas de sérieuses cqnvictions".
Il est vrai qu'en matière de répression l'Irak détient
l'un des plus tristes records du monde. Le régime ne sévit
pas' s~ulement contre les opposants, mais aussi contre le~rs
familles. Amnesty International elte les cas de 56 femines
. décapitées en 2001, "probablement en raison de leur parenté
avec des opposants". Dans un long reportage sur les réfugiés
irakiens en Jordanie, le Jordan T;;nes raconte comment Jutyar
al-Sallhi, frère du sosie du fils dè Sadd~m Hussein, a été kidnappé'au
cœur d'Amman par les services secrets irakiens et
ramené à Bagdad.
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