II. Background

Inhabited by Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians, Yazidis, and Shabaks for centuries, Nineveh province is a communal mosaic. The plethora of ancient temples, churches, and mosques in close proximity to each other in neighboring villages in the plains north and east of Mosul (the provincial capital) testify to the province’s rich ethnic and religious diversity.

Arabization

Since the 1930s, and particularly in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, Iraqi central governments have attempted to change the ethnic composition of northern Iraq by expelling hundreds of thousands of Kurds and other minorities from their homes, and repopulating the areas with Arabs transferred from central and southern Iraq.[28] The government policy, known as “arabization” (ta'rib), intensified in the second half of the 1970s with the aim of reducing minority populations whom authorities considered to be of questionable loyalty in this strategic area. The government responded to Kurdish insurgencies by mounting a concerted campaign to alter the demographic makeup of northern Iraq, especially in areas bordering Turkey and Iran (see map). The government used military force and intimidation as the primary methods. These policies completely depopulated entire non-Arab villages that authorities then bulldozed. By the late 1970s the Iraqi government had forcibly evacuated as least a quarter of a million Kurds and other non-Arabs.

The government followed up these brutal expulsions with legal decrees aimed at consolidating the displacement. First, the government invalidated property titles of the displaced non-Arabs, most frequently with nominal or no compensation. The government nationalized agricultural lands, making them the property of the Iraqi state. The government then embarked on a massive campaign to resettle the formerly non-Arab areas with Arab farmers and their families from elsewhere in Iraq, completing the arabization process.  Finding recruits for the settlement was not difficult: southwest of Mosul is the large al-Jazira desert, then home to hundreds of thousands of nomadic Sunni Arab tribespeople who largely supported the government. The al-Jazira tribespeople, enticed with free, irrigated land, and encouraged by their tribal sheikhs, abandoned their difficult lives in the desert and moved north en masse. Although the land was declared government property, it was leased on annual contracts only to the new Arab farmers.

Anfal Campaign

In the late 1980s, near the end of Iraq’s eight-year war with Iran, Iraqi forces launched their infamous Anfal campaign against a Kurdish insurgency—an operation that reached genocidal proportions.[29] The campaign included the use of aerial bombardment, ground offensives, destruction of villages, mass deportation, and chemical weapon attacks. Anfal resulted in the “disappearance” of about 100,000 Kurds; since the overthrow of the former government, many of their bodies have begun to be recovered from mass graves in different areas in Iraq. The Anfal operation, which was declared over by a September 1988 amnesty, devastated Iraqi Kurdistan. A large proportion of the population was displaced, with survivors not allowed to return to their destroyed villages.

After the amnesty, some minority members who had fled alongside Kurds surrendered to Iraq forces only to be “disappeared”—presumably sharing the same fate as those bused out during Anfal to remote desert sites, executed en masse, and buried in mass graves.[30] Iraqi officials considered them to be traitors who were “worse than Kurds”—not only did they act like Kurds but they also refused to accept the government’s attempts to designate their ethnicity as “Arab.”[31]

Continuing Arabization post-1991, including Nationality “Correction”

With the majority Kurdish areas of northern Iraq effectively beyond Baghdad’s control from the end of the first Gulf War in 1991, arabization continued south of the unofficial line of demarcation known as the Green Line: the government of Iraq expelled about 120,000 persons from Kirkuk and other areas under Iraqi government control during the 1990s. The policy continued up to the fall of Saddam Hussein’s government in April 2003.

Another of the pillars of arabization was a Baath Party policy, formally introduced in 1997, whereby the government pressured Kurds and other non-Arabs living in government-controlled areas in Kirkuk, Khaniqin, Makhmour, Sinjar, Tuz Khormatu, and other districts to “correct” their ethnicity by registering as “Arabs” on so-called nationality correction forms distributed by the government. The Iraqi government also refused to register newborns with Kurdish or other non-Arabic ethnic names.[32] Those who “corrected” their nationality were also forced to engage in loyalist activities, such as volunteering for paramilitary forces. For families who resisted the government’s demands, officials simply issued expulsion orders requiring them to leave their homes for the Kurdish-controlled areas.

Enduring Legacy of Displacement

The families expelled under the arabization policies and displaced by the Anfal campaign and other acts of violence mostly ended up living in squalid poverty in overcrowded camps in what is now the KRG region. The plight of the displaced Kurdish families, many of whom continue to hope to return to their ancestral villages, remains a powerful symbol of the injustices suffered by the Kurds during the previous Iraqi regimes, and a nationalist rallying point to reclaim the lands they lost.[33] The failure of the Iraqi, Kurdish, and international authorities to address the aspirations and grievances of these thousands of displaced Kurds has greatly added to the tensions in northern Iraq.

Invasion and Civil War

Following the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Kurdish fighters (known as peshmerga), in tandem with US forces,moved into Nineveh province, south of the Green Line.[34] Most Arabs who had moved to the area as part of the “arabization” campaign quickly fled their homes, leading to thousands displaced. In villages where Sunni Arabs stayed (including villages where they had traditionally lived), ethnic tensions flared.

A brutal civil war soon broke out in central and southern Iraq, mainly in the form of a sectarian conflict between Sunni and Shia. At the same time, the Kurdish leadership quietly strengthened its military, political, and cultural hold on the disputed territories in northern Iraq, using peshmerga forces to provide security and building Kurdish political and administrative structures in the area (the KRG’s courting of minorities with patronage is discussed below).

With a reduction of sectarian violence across Iraq after 2007, Sunni and Shia leaders realized that while they were battling each other, the Kurdish leadership had established itself in control over much of the disputed territories, including Nineveh province. An emboldened Kurdish leadership seeks to take much of Nineveh into the semiautonomous region of Kurdistan in the referendum mandated by article 140 of the constitution (see chapter I).[35] The December 31, 2007, deadline for the article 140 referendum has long passed. The Kurdish leadership, with its formidable political and security presence in the area, believes it is poised to win such a referendum, and is growing increasingly impatient given that there are no plans on the horizon for holding it.[36] Sunni Arabs see Kurdish claims and initiatives as expansionist and illegitimate, and a threat to a unitary Iraq state.[37] The struggle has also fueled the insurgency in the north, where groups like al Qaeda in Mesopotamia as well as Iraqi insurgents seek to exploit Sunni Arab anger and find recruits among the Arabs displaced by the reversal of arabization.

Political Developments and the Situation in Nineveh

In the first years after the overthrow of the Saddam Hussein government, many of the previously dominant Sunni Arabs refrained from engaging with the new political system, with many opting instead to support the insurgency or remain on the sidelines. By default, Kurds acquired political and security dominance in Nineveh, where they are a minority: Sunni Arabs and minorities mainly boycotted the 2005 provincial elections in Nineveh, and a large Kurdish turnout allowed the Kurdish list to win. Kurdish authorities then used this leverage to consolidate Kurdish control there.

The balance of formal political power changed dramatically as a result of Nineveh’s provincial council elections in January 2009. Riding a wave of resentment against the Kurds, the Sunni Arab nationalist party, al-Hadba (named after the leaning minaretthat is Mosul’s landmark), won 19 of the governorate’s 37 seats. The Kurdish (and pro-KRG) coalition, the Nineveh Fraternal List, took 12 seats; the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party won three. As required under election law quotas, Christian, Shabak, and Yazidi candidates received one seat each.

Al-Hadba’s victory in the polls led to a dangerous stand-off in Mosul. The Nineveh Fraternal List boycotted the provincial council after al-Hadba froze Fraternal List officials out of all key positions in Nineveh’s new administration. Kurdish officials have tried to portray al-Hadba as being a front for terrorists and Baathists, and have threatened to resort to military force to annex Kurdish-majority areas in Nineveh unless they are offered senior posts.[38] Sunni Arab leaders have stated that they will not negotiate until the Kurds recognize Nineveh’s administrative borders and pull their security forces north of the Green Line.[39]

Kurdish authorities have blocked Arab officials from carrying out their duties in Kurdish-controlled areas of Nineveh province, and they pressured districts under their control to boycott the new Arab governor.[40] Sixteen disputed towns and districts under Kurdish control have severed contact with the provincial government and announced plans to form their own administration to run local affairs.[41]

On June 24, 2009, the KRG parliament further raised the stakes in the conflict after passing a draft regional constitution in which it laid claim to areas within Nineveh and other disputed territories, and asserted the KRG’s right to deploy peshmerga outside of the region (the constitution is subject to ratification by popular referendum—see below).[42] The move provoked outrage from minority groups[43] and the central government, and further united Sunni and Shia politicians. In the days that followed, 50 Iraqi MPs from different political parties signed a petition criticizing the new regional constitution.

The move also increased the wedge between the KRG and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who has demanded that Kurdish fighters withdraw from areas outside the KRG’s borders.[44] Al-Maliki has called for amendments to the Iraqi constitution to concentrate more power with the central government.[45] His previous efforts to strengthen Baghdad’s hand at the expense of the country’s 18 provinces has alarmed the KRG leadership, who have benefited from the decentralization that they helped negotiate into Iraq’s 2005 constitution.[46] Tensions calmed between the two sides only after al-Maliki made a rare visit to the Kurdish region in August. However, the situation remains precarious, with neither side apparently having much appetite for compromise.

After initially paying scant attention to the tensions in northern Iraq, US officials are now wary of becoming immersed in a new armed conflict in Iraq, this time between the Kurds and Arabs. The deteriorating security situation in Nineveh in August 2009 forced Washington to step up its engagement on the issue of the disputed territories. The commanding general of US forces in Iraq, Gen. Ray Odierno, met separately with KRG president Massoud Barzani and Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki after three massive bombings within a week killed over 90 people (see chapter III) to propose reintroducing US troops in Nineveh’s disputed territories.[47] The proposal is to deploy US troops among fixed formations of Iraqi troops and peshmerga. After the KRG parliament passed the draft constitution in June, US Vice-President Joe Biden rushed to Baghdad and helped persuade the KRG to defer a referendum on the new constitution that had been due to go to voters at the end of July.[48]

The United Nations has also tried to help the parties navigate a path out of the dispute after Iraq failed to meet its December 2007 constitutional deadline to implement article 140.[49] UN Security Council Resolution 1770 (August 2007) gave the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) a mandate to “advise, support and assist” the central government to resolve the internal boundary question.[50] The UN reports, which are not public, were delivered to Prime Minister al-Maliki and the Presidency Council, and to KRG President Barzani in April 2009. The result of more than a year’s work by a 15-member team of diplomats, academics, negotiators, and constitutional experts, the reports included separate studies of 15 disputed districts in which UNAMI recommended local confidence-building measures on issues such as security and development.

Kurdish Patronage and Control

Losing the 2009 provincial elections in Nineveh was a significant setback for the KRG, which had flooded minority communities in the Nineveh Plains—long neglected by the central government—with money to win their support. The KRG finance minister, Sarkis Aghajan, himself a Chaldean Catholic, reportedly spent millions of dollars in the disputed territories.[51] The cash infusion has left its mark on villages across the plains in the form of new housing construction, refurbished churches, aid distribution, and newly formed youth sports clubs and cultural associations. Aid is distributed through the local “Christian Affairs Committee,” a network established by Aghajan.[52]

“Before 2005, no one cared about our communities or churches and then overnight we started to receive funding,” a priest in the town of Qaraqosh told Human Rights Watch.[53] “The Kurds have a hidden agenda and are using money to co-opt Christians—it’s not because they want to help our people ... I believe that anyone who disagrees with their agenda puts their life at risk.” Other Christian representatives in Arbil and Tal Usquf told Human Rights Watch that they too are wary because they know the money comes with strings attached. They accuse the KRG of buying the allegiances of tribal leaders through a patronage system that fosters political divisions within minority communities by creating and funding alternative civil society organizations that favor Kurdish rule, while blocking those that do not. They also complained about the bankrolling of clergy and religious sites in order to buy the support of minority religious establishments.[54]

Christian churches and aid organizations have complained that the KRG denied them funding for assistance programs geared to internally displaced persons because they have not pledged support to the KDP. A Christian advocacy organization also reported that the KDP has been pressuring Christians to sign forms pledging their support for the Nineveh Plains area to be annexed to Kurdish areas and placed under KRG rule.[55]

Muhammad Ihsan, the KRG minister for extra-regional affairs, acknowledged to Human Rights Watch that KRG policy was to use the region’s finances strategically to win favor among minority groups in the disputed territories. “We are not angels, we are politicians, and this is politics,” he said. “‘Join with me and I will give you this and that.’” However he denied the KRG had engaged in pressure tactics or threats.[56] When Human Rights Watch asked KRG Minister of the Interior Karim Sinjari about the financial support provided by Aghajan to Christian communities, Sinjari replied, “This isn’t Aghajan’s money, but KRG money ... [he] didn’t build anything by himself, he did it through the KRG. The [Kurdish] prime minister ordered him to do so.”[57]

Sheikh George Kako, a pro-Kurdish Christian leader, told Human Rights Watch that the KRG is trying to “overwhelm” the Chaldo-Assyrians with money to keep them on their side. “I wish the area remains disputed for 100 years because we will continue to receive support from both sides. Let them both nurture us.”[58]

The Kurds have also invested significantly in the cultural and religious activities of Yazidis, and pay the salaries of the employees of the Lalish Cultural Center, which has branches in most Yazidi towns.[59]

In a move that disturbingly echoes the “nationality correction” policy of the former Baathist government, minority groups have reported that their members were forced to not identify themselves as a member of a minority community (the two registration options given are Kurd or Arab), in order to get access to education or healthcare.[60] “During the former regime, the census had only two categories: Arab and Kurd. Shabaks were not recognized as a separate ethnicity. We were the victims of arabization,” Qusay Abbass, the elected member of the Shabak quota seat on the Nineveh provincial council, told Human Rights Watch.[61] “After 2003, we have been subjected to another injustice, this time at the hands of Kurds through their Kurdisization policy. The KRG has a right to form an independent state but not at the expense of other communities.” For the Yazidis, instead of fostering a greater sense of Kurdish identity, the patronage system has increased discontent with Kurdish rule: many reportedly feel the money has come at the expense of independent Yazidi political groups.

Some Christian representatives said that KRG money also finances private militias in villages under the pretext of providing protection, but in reality extends Kurdish influence by creating a local armed group that is ultimately loyal to its paymaster.[62] Critics argue that the militias are another means of KRG control on the region. At the entrance of each Christian village that Human Rights Watch drove by in the Nineveh Plains, Christian militiamen, knows as the “Churches’ Guardians,” guarded checkpoints. The militia, funded by Aghajan, has 1,200 members deployed in Qaraqosh and surrounding villages.[63] Kurdish authorities insist that if there were no Christian militia and Kurdish peshmerga forces to secure Nineveh’s disputed territories, Sunni Arab armed groups would have an easier time launching devastating attacks against minorities. KRG Interior Minister Sinjari noted that the peshmerga initially entered Nineveh at the request of the US Army and Iraqi central government, who needed help securing the area in 2004.[64]  The KRG-funded militias do not play a police role besides offering the communities protection, he said, also remarking: “The reality is the people living in the disputed areas want to be with the KRG and they have asked for our protection. If they choose, they can have their autonomy inside the Kurdish region.”[65]

Bassem Bello, the Christian mayor of Tel Kaif, a mixed Sunni Arab-Christian town near Mosul, and other community leaders see the KRG-funded Christian militia as illegitimate since it falls outside the structure of official Iraqi government security forces. Such a group, they say, is more likely to support certain political parties and their KRG paymaster rather than uphold the rule of law.[66] Bello and other representatives of minorities also say that peshmerga forces and asayesh (agents of the primary Kurdish intelligence agency operating in the Kurdistan region) should not be allowed to operate in the Nineveh Plains because of their role in intimidating political opponents, restricting access to services, and engaging in extrajudicial detentions.[67] “They detain people without any arrest warrant or judicial proceeding,” Bello said. “Why are the asayeshandpeshmerga even here in Iraqi territory? There’s no reason for it. They want to show they have power and control of our areas.... The security forces that the Kurdish authorities now have in place get their orders from the KRG, not the central government.”[68]  (Incidents of abuses in which peshmerga are implicated are discussed in chapters III and IV.)