Taliban

- ṭālibān, also anglicised as Taleban) are a Sunni Islamist and Pashtun nationalist movement^[2] that ruled most of Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, when their leaders were removed from power by a cooperative military effort between the Northern Alliance and NATO countries. Committed fundamentalist insurgents, often described as "Taliban" in the media, originating^[3] in the Frontier Tribal Areas of Pakistan, are currently engaged in a protracted guerrilla war against the current government of Afghanistan, allied NATO forces participating in Operation Enduring Freedom, and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.^[4]

The Taliban movement was headed by Mullah Mohammed Omar. Beneath Mullah Omar were "a mixture of former small-unit military commanders and Madrasah teachers"^[5] and then a rank and file most of whom had studied in Islamic religious schools in Pakistan. The overwhelming majority of Taliban movement were ethnic Pashtuns from southern Afghanistan and western Pakistan, along with a smaller number of volunteers from elsewhere, for example Europe or China. The Taliban received valuable training, supplies and arms from the Pakistani government, particularly the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)[23], and many recruits from Madrasahs for Afghan refugees in Pakistan, primarily ones established by the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam JUI.

Although in control of Afghanistan’s capital (Kabul) and much or most of the country for five years, the Taliban regime, or "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan," gained diplomatic recognition from only three states: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Human rights abuses denied it United Nations recognition and most of the world’s states, including Iran, India, Turkey, Russia, USA and most Central Asian republics opposed the Taliban and aided its rival (Afghan Northern Alliance).

While in power, the Taliban implemented the "strictest interpretation of Sharia law ever seen in the Muslim world,"^[6] and became notorious internationally for their mistreatment of women.^[7] Women were forced to wear the burqa in public.^[8] They were allowed neither to work nor to be educated after the age of eight,^[7] and until then were permitted only to study the Qur’an.^[7] Women seeking an education were forced to attend underground schools, where they and their teachers risked execution if caught.^[7] They were not allowed to be treated by male doctors unless accompanied by a male family member or husband chaperone, which led to illnesses remaining untreated. They faced public flogging in the street,^[9] and both men and women faced public execution for violations of the Taliban’s laws.^[10][11]

 

 

Etymology

The word Taliban is from the Arabic طالبان ṭālibān, " students", loaned from Arabic, طالب ṭālib, the Arabic plural being طلاب‎ ṭullāb. Since becoming a loanword in English, Taliban besides a plural noun referring to the group is also used as a singular noun referring to an individual. For example, John Walker Lindh has been referred to as "an American Taliban" besides the more correct "an American Talib".^[12]

Origin

The Taliban initially had enormous goodwill from Afghans weary of the corruption, brutality and incessant fighting of Mujahideen warlords. Two contrasting narratives of the beginnings of the Taliban^[13] are that the rape and murder of boys and girls from a family traveling to Kandahar or a similar outrage by Mujahideen bandits sparked Mullah Omar and his students to vow to rid Afghanistan of these criminals.^[14] The other is that the Pakistan-based truck shipping mafia known as the "Afghanistan Transit Trade" and their allies in the Pakistan government, trained, armed and financed the Taliban to clear the southern road across Afghanistan to the Central Asian Republics of extortionate bandit gangs.^[15]

Though there is no evidence that the CIA directly supported the Taliban or Al Qaeda, some basis for military support of the Taliban was provided when, in the early 1980s, the CIA and the ISI (Pakistan’s Interservices Intelligence Agency) provided arms to Afghans resisting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the ISI assisted the process of gathering radical Muslims from around the world to fight against the Soviets. Osama Bin Laden was one of the key players in organizing training camps for the foreign Muslim volunteers. The U.S. poured funds and arms into Afghanistan and "by 1987, 65,000 tons of U.S.-made weapons and ammunition a year were entering the war".^[16]

The Taliban were based in the Helmand, Kandahar and Uruzgan regions, and were overwhelmingly ethnic Pashtuns and predominantly Durrani Pashtuns. They received training and arms from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia as well as other Middle Eastern countries who had been recruited by the U.S. to thwart the Soviet invasion of this region.

The first major military activity of the Taliban was in October-November 1994 when they marched from Maiwand in southern Afghanistan to capture Kandahar City and the surrounding provinces, losing only a few dozen men.^[17] Starting with the capture of a border crossing and a huge ammunition dump from warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a few weeks later they freed "a convoy trying to open a trade route from Pakistan to Central Asia" from another group of warlords attempting to extort money.^[18] In the next three months this hitherto "unknown force" took control of twelve of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, with Mujahideen warlords often surrendering to them without a fight and the "heavily armed population" giving up their weapons.^[19] By September 1996 they captured Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul.

Taliban ideology and its application

The Taliban’s extremely strict and "anti-modern" ideology has been described as an "innovative form of sharia combining Pashtun tribal codes",^[20] or Pashtunwali, with radical Deobandi interpretations of Islam favored by members of the Pakistani fundamentalist Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) organization and its splinter groups. Also contributing to the admixture was the Wahhabism of their Saudi financial benefactors, and the jihadism and pan-Islamism of sometime comrade-in-arms Osama bin Laden.^[21] Their ideology was a departure from the Islamism of the anti-Soviet mujahideen rulers they replaced who tended to be mystical Sufis, traditionalists, or radical Islamicists inspired by the Ikhwan.^[22]

Sharia law was interpreted to ban a wide variety of activities hitherto lawful in Afghanistan, see below. Critics complained that most Afghans were non-Pashtuns who followed a different, less strict and less intrusive interpretation of Islam. Despite their similarity to the Wahhabis, the Taliban did not eschew all traditional popular practices. They did not destroy the graves of pirs (holy men) and emphasized dreams as a means of revelation.^[23]

Taliban relationship with ethnicity was mixed. Following Deobandi and Islamist anti-nationalist belief, they opposed "tribal and feudal structures," and eliminated from "leadership roles" traditional tribal or feudal leaders.^[24] On the other hand, since they were very reluctant to share power and their ranks were overwhelmingly Pashtuns, their rule meant ethnic Pashtuns controlled multi-ethnic Afghanistan, where Pashtuns made up only 42% of the population.^[25] At the national level, "all senior Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara bureaucrats" were replaced "with Pashtuns, whether qualified or not. As a result of this loss of expertise, the ministries by and large ceased to function."^[26] In local units of government like city councils of Kabul^[27] or Herat,^[28] Taliban loyalists, not locals, dominated, even when the Pashto-speaking Taliban could not communicate with the local Persian-speaking Afghans (roughly half of the population of Afghanistan spoke Dari or other non-Pashtun tongues.)^[28] Critics complained this "lack of local representation in urban administration made the Taliban appear as an occupying force."^[29]

Like Wahhabi and other Deobandis, the Taliban strongly opposed the Shia branch of Islam. The Taliban declared the Hazara ethnic group, which totaled almost 10% of Afghanistan’s population, "not Muslims."^[30]

Along with being very strict, the Taliban were adverse to debate on doctrine with other Muslims. "The Taliban did not allow even Muslim reporters to question [their] edicts or to discuss interpretations of the Qur’an."^[31]

As they established their power the Taliban created a new form of Islamic radicalism that spread beyond the borders of Afghanistan, mostly to Pakistan. By 1998-1999 Taliban-style groups in the Pashtun belt, and to an extent in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, "were banning TV and videos …. and forcing people, particularly women to adapt to the Taliban dress code and way of life."^[32]

Governance

The Taliban did not hold elections, as their spokesman explained:

The Sharia does not allow politics or political parties. That is why we give no salaries to officials or soldiers, just food, clothes, shoes and weapons. We want to live a life like the Prophet lived 1400 years ago and jihad is our right. We want to recreate the time of the Prophet and we are only carrying out what the Afghan people have wanted for the past 14 years.^[33]

Instead of an election, their leader’s legitimacy came from "Bay’ah" or oath of allegiance in imitation of the Prophet and early Muslims. On 4 April 1996, Mullah Omar had the "the Cloak of the Prophet Mohammed", taken from its shrine "for the first time in 60 years." Wrapping himself in the relic, he appeared on the roof of a building in the centre of Kandahar while hundreds of Pashtun mullahs below shouted `Amir al-Mu’minin`! (Commander of the Faithful), in a defacto pledge of support.

Also in keeping with the governance of early Muslims was a lack of state institutions or "a methodology for command and control," standard today internationally even among non-Westernized states. The Taliban didn’t issue "press releases, policy statements or hold regular press conferences," and of course the outside world and most Afghans didn’t even know what they looked like since photography was banned.^[34] Their regular army resembled "a lashkar or traditional tribal militia force" with only 25,000 to 30,000 men, these being added to as the need arose. Cabinet ministers and deputies were mullahs with a "madrassa education." Several of them, such as the Minister of Health and Governor of the State bank, were primarily military commanders who left their administrative posts to fight when needed. If and when military reverses trapped them behind lines or led to their deaths, this created "even greater chaos" in the national administration.^[35] In the Ministry of Finance there was no budget or "qualified economist or banker." Cash to finance Taliban war effort was collected and dispersed by Mullah Omar without book-keeping.

Consistency

The Taliban ideology was not static. Before its capture of Kabul members of the Taliban talked about stepping aside once a government of "good Muslims" took power and law and order were restored. The decision making process of the Taliban in Kandahar was modeled on the Pashtun tribal council (jirga), together with what was believed to be the early Islamic model. Discussion was followed by a building of a consensus by the believers.^[36]

However, as the Taliban’s power grew, decisions were made by Mullah Omar without consulting the jirga, and without Omar’s visiting other parts of the country. He visited the capital, Kabul, only twice while in power.

Decisions are based on the advice of the Amir-ul Momineen. For us consultation is not necessary. We believe that this is in line with the Sharia. We abide by the Amir’s view even if he alone takes this view. There will not be a head of state. Instead there will be an Amir al-Mu’minin. Mullah Omar will be the highest authority and the government will not be able to implement any decision to which he does not agree. General elections are incompatible with Sharia and therefore we reject them.^[37]

In 1999, Omar issued a decree stating the Buddha statues at Bamyan would be protected because Afghanistan had no Buddhists, implying idolatry would not be a problem. But in March 2001 they were destroyed after the previous decision was reversed with a decree stating "all the statues around Afghanistan must be destroyed."^[38]

Criticism of ideology

The Taliban were criticized for their strictness toward those who disobeyed the (Bid‘ah) rule. Some Muslims complained that many Taliban prohibitions - such as bans on clapping during sports events; kite flying; beard trimming; or sports for women - had no validity in the Qur’an or sharia. Another source of objection was that the Taliban called their 20% tax on truckloads of opium "zakat," when zakat is limited to 2.5% of the zakat-payers’ disposable income.^[39]

The bestowing of the title of Amir al-Mu’minin on Muhammad Omar was criticized on the grounds that he lacked scholarly learning, tribal pedigree, or connections to the Prophet’s family. Sanction for the title required the support of all of the country’s ulema, whereas only some 1200 Pashtun Taliban-supporting Mullahs had declared Omar the Amir.^[39] "No Afghan had adopted the title since 1834, when King Dost Mohammed Khan assumed the title before he declared jihad against the Sikh kingdom in Peshawar. But Dost Mohammed was fighting foreigners, while Omar had declared jihad against other Afghans."^[40]

Explanation of ideology

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) was important to the Taliban because the "vast majority" of its rank and file and most of the leadership, (though not Mullah Omar), were Koranic students who had studied at madrassas set up for Afghan refugees, usually by the JUI. The leader of JUI, Maulana Fazl ur-Rahman, was a political ally of Benazir Bhutto. After Bhutto became prime minister, Rehman "had access to the government, the army and the ISI" whom he influenced to help the Taliban.^[41]

Journalist Ahmed Rashid suggests that the devastation and hardship of the war against the Soviet Union and the civil war that followed, was another factor influencing the ideology of the Taliban.^[42] The young rank and file Taliban were Koranic students in Afghan refugee camps whose teachers were often "barely literate," let alone scholars learned in the finer points of Islamic law and history. The refugee students brought up in a totally male society, not only had no education in mathematics, science, history or geography, they had no traditional skills of farming, herding or handicraft-making, nor even knowledge of their tribal and clan lineages.^[42]

In such an environment peace meant unemployment, and domination of women was an affirmation of manhood. Rigid fundamentalism was a matter of political survival, not just principle, Taliban leaders "repeatedly told" Rashid "that if they gave women greater freedom or a chance to go to school, they would lose the support of their rank and file."^[43]

Life under the Taliban regime

Sharia law was interpreted to ban a wide variety of activities hitherto lawful in Afghanistan: employment and education for women, movies, television, videos, music, dancing, hanging pictures in homes, clapping during sports events. One Taliban list of prohibitions included:

pork, pig, pig oil, anything made from human hair, satellite dishes, cinematography, and equipment that produces the joy of music, pool tables, chess, masks, alcohol, tapes, computers, VCRs, television, anything that propagates sex and is full of music, wine, lobster, nail polish, firecrackers, statues, sewing catalogs, pictures, Christmas cards."^[44]

Men were required to have a beard extending farther than a fist clamped at the base of the chin. On the other hand, they had to wear their head hair short. Men were also required to wear a head covering.^[45]

Possession was forbidden of depictions of living things, including photographs of them, stuffed animals, and dolls.^[45]

Rules which according to some Muslims had no validity in the Qur’an or sharia included a ban on clapping during sports events, kite flying, beard trimming, and sports for women.

These rules were issued by the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Suppression of Vice (PVSV) and enforced by its "religious police", a concept thought to be borrowed from the Wahhabis. In newly conquered towns hundreds of religious police beat offenders — typically men who shaved and women who were not wearing their burqa properly — with long sticks.^[46]

Theft was punished by the amputation of a hand, rape and murder by public execution. Married adulterers were stoned to death. In Kabul, punishments were carried out in front of crowds in the city’s former soccer stadium.

Treatment of women

Women in particular were targets of the Taliban’s restrictions. They were prohibited from working; from wearing clothing regarded as "stimulating and attractive," including the "Iranian chador," viewed as insufficiently complete in its covering); from taking a taxi without a "close male relative"; washing clothes in streams; or having their measurements taken by tailors.^[47]

Employment for women was restricted to the medical sector, since male medical personnel were not allowed to examine women. One result of the banning of employment of women by the Taliban was the closing down in places like Kabul of primary schools not only for girls but for boys, because almost all the teachers there were women.^[48]

Women were also not permitted to attend co-educational schools; in practice, this prevented the vast majority of young women and girls in Afghanistan from receiving even a primary education.

Women were made to wear the burqa, a traditional dress covering the entire body except for a small screen to see out of. Taliban restrictions became more severe after they took control of the capital. In February 1998, religious police forced all women off the streets of Kabul and issued new regulations ordering "householders to blacken their windows, so women would not be visible from the outside."^[49] Home schools for girls, which had been allowed to continue, were forbidden.^[50] In June 1998, the Taliban stopped all women from attending general hospitals,^[51] leaving the use of one all-women hospital in Kabul. There were many reports of Muslim women being beaten by the Taliban for violating the Sharia.

Prohibitions on culture

Movie theaters were closed and music banned. Hundreds of cultural artifacts that were deemed polytheistic were also destroyed including major museum and countless private art collections.

A sample Taliban edict issued after their capture of Kabul is one decreed in December 1996 by the "General Presidency of Amr Bil Maruf and Nahi Anil Munkar" (or Religious Police) banning a variety of things and activities: music, shaving of beards, keeping of pigeons, flying kites, displaying of pictures or portraits, western hairstyles, music and dancing at weddings, gambling, "sorcery," and not praying at prayer times.^[47] In February 2001, Taliban used sledgehammers to destroy representational works of art at the National Museum of Afghanistan.^[52]

Non-Western festivities were not exempt from bannings. The Taliban banned the traditional Afghan New Year’s celebration of Nowruz as anti-Islamic, and "for a time they also banned Ashura, the Shia Islamic month of mourning and even restricted any show of festivity at Eid."^[53] The Afghan people were not allowed to have any cultural celebrations if the women were there. If there were only men at the celebration it would be allowed to go forth, so long as it did not go over the curfew time of 9:00 pm.

Taliban official Mullah Mohammed Hassan explained that "of course we realize that people need some entertainment but they can go to the parks and see the flowers, and from this they will learn about Islam." The Education Minister Mullahs Abdul Hanifi told questioners that the Taliban "oppose music because it creates a strain in the mind and hampers study of Islam."^[53]

Ethnic massacres and persecution

The worst attack on civilians came in summer of 1998 when the Taliban swept north from Herat to the predominantly Hazara and Uzbek city of Mazar-i-Sharif, the largest city in the north. Entering at 10 am on 8 August 1998, for the next two days the Taliban drove their pickup trucks "up and down the narrow streets of Mazar-i-Sharif shooting to the left and right and killing everything that moved — shop owners, cart pullers, women and children shoppers and even goats and donkeys."^[54] More than 8000 noncombatants were reported killed in Mazar-i-Sharif and later in Bamiyan.^[55] Contrary to the injunctions of Islam, which demands immediate burial, the Taliban forbade anyone to bury the corpses for the first six days while they rotted in the summer heat and were eaten by dogs.^[56] In addition to this indiscriminate slaughter, the Taliban sought out and massacred members of the Hazara, a mostly Shia ethnic group, while in control of Mazar.

While the slaughter can be attributed to several factors — ethnic difference, suspicions of Hazaras loyalty to their co-religionists in Iran, fury at the loss of life suffered in an earlier unsuccessful Taliban takeover of Mazar — takfir by the puritanical Sunni Taliban toward the Shia Hazaras was instrumental. It was expressed by Mullah Niazi, the commander of the attack and governor of Mazar after the attack, in his declaration from Mazar’s central mosque:

"Last year you rebelled against us and killed us. From all your homes you shot at us. Now we are here to deal with you. The Hazaras are not Muslims and now have to kill Hazaras. You either accept to be Muslims or leave Afghanistan. Wherever you go we will catch you. If you go up we will pull you down by your feet; if you hide below, we will pull you up by your hair.";^[30]

Hazara also suffered from a siege by the Taliban of their Hazarajat homeland in central Afghanistan and the refusal of the Taliban to allow the UN to supply food to Hazara to the provinces of Bamiyan, Ghor, Wardak and Ghazni.^[57] A month after the Mazar slaughter, Taliban broke through Hazar lines and took over Hazarajat. The killing of civilians was much less common there than in Mazar, but occurred nevertheless.^[58]

During the years that followed, rapes and massacres of Hazara by Taliban forces were documented by groups such as Human Rights Watch.^[59]

Economy

Peace did bring economic development to Afghanistan. The so-called "transportation mafia" operating out of Pakistan "cut down millions of acres of timber in Afghanistan for the Pakistani market, denuding the countryside as there was no reforestation. They stripped down rusting factories, … even electricity and telephone poles for their steel and sold the scrap to steel mills in Lahore."^[60]

Conscription

According to the testimony of Guantanamo captives before their Combatant Status Review Tribunals, the Taliban, in addition to conscripting men to serve as soldiers, also conscripted literate and numerate men to staff its civil service. Ironically, given the derivation of their name for themselves, some of the Taliban leaders were illiterate.

War with the Northern Alliance

Taliban’s strict policies and condescending behavior toward their local allied troops caused an uprising in which thousands of the Taliban’s best troops were killed.

In 1997, Ahmad Shah Massoud devised a plan to utilize guerrilla tactics in the Shamali plains to defeat the Taliban advances. In collaboration with the locals, Masoud had deployed his forces to be stationed at civilian dwellings and other hidden places. Upon the arrival of the Taliban, some locals, who had vowed pacts of peace with the Taliban, as well as Masoud’s forces came out of hiding and in a surprise attack captured the north of Kabul. Soon after, the Taliban put a major effort into taking control of the Shamali plains, indiscriminately killing young men, uprooting and expelling the population. Kamal Hossein, a special reporter for the UN, had written a full report on these and other war crimes that further insinuated and inflamed the issue of ethnicity.

In August 8, 1998 the Taliban again took Mazar-i-Sharif this time avenging their earlier defeat and creating more international controversy with mass killings of thousands of civilians and several Iranian diplomats. This offensive left the Northern Alliance in control of only a small part of Afghanistan (10-15%) in the north. The Taliban retained control of most of the country until the 2001 9/11 attacks. On September 9, 2001, a suicide bomber, posing as an interviewer and widely thought to be connected to Al-Qaeda, assassinated the Northern Alliance mujahideen military leader Ahmad Shah Massoud. Despite his removal, the Taliban were driven from most of Afghanistan by American bombing and Northern Alliance ground troops a couple of months later in the 2001 War.

International relations

During its time in power, the Taliban regime, or "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan," gained diplomatic recognition from only three states: the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia all of whom also provided aid. Most states in the world, including Russia, Iran, India, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, and later the USA, opposed the Taliban and aided their enemy the Northern Alliance.

Officially Pakistan denied it was supporting the Taliban, but its support was substantial — one year’s aid (1997/1998) was an estimated US$30 million in wheat, diesel, petroleum and kerosene fuel, and other supplies.^[61] The Taliban’s influence in its neighbour Pakistan was deep. Its "unprecedented access" among Pakistan’s lobbies and interest groups enabled it "to play off one lobby against another and extend their influence in Pakistan even further. At times they would defy" even the powerful ISI.^[62]

Foreign powers, including the United States, were at first supportive of the Taliban in hopes it would serve as a force to restore order in Afghanistan after years of division into corrupt, lawless warlord fiefdoms. The U.S. government, for example, made no comment when the Taliban captured Herat in 1995 and expelled thousands of girls from schools.^[63] These hopes faded as it began to be engaged in warlord practices of rocketing unarmed civilians, targeting ethnic groups (primarily Hazaras) and restricting the rights of women.^[64] In late 1997, American Secretary of State Madeleine Albright began to distance the U.S. from the Taliban and the next year the American-based Unocal oil company withdrew from a major deal with the Taliban regime concerning an oil pipeline.

In early August of 1998 the Taliban’s difficulties in relations with foreign groups became much more serious. After attacking the city of Mazar, Taliban forces killed several thousand civilians and 10 Iranian diplomats and intelligence officers in the Iranian consulate. Alleged radio intercepts indicate Mullah Omar personally approved the killings.^[65] The Iranian government was incensed and a "full-blown regional crisis" ensued with Iran mobilizing 200,000 regular troops,^[66] though war was averted.

A day before the capture of Mazar, affiliates of Taliban guest Osama bin Laden bombed two U.S. embassies in Africa killing 224 and wounding 4500 mostly African victims. The United States responded by launching cruise missiles attacks on suspected terrorists camps in Afghanistan killing over 20 though failing to kill bin Laden or even many al-Qaeda. Mullah Omar condemned the missile attack and American President Bill Clinton.^[67] Saudi Arabia expelled the Taliban envoy in Saudi Arabia in protest over the Taliban’s refusal to turn over bin Laden and after Mullah Omar allegedly insulted the Saudi royal family.^[68] In mid-October the UN Security Council voted unanimously to ban commercial aircraft flights to and from Afghanistan and freeze its bank accounts world wide.^[69]

The regime’s isolation grew in March 2001 with the destruction of Afghanistan’s most significant archeological treasures, the 1500-year-old giant Buddha statues, (the two largest were 55 and 37 meters high) in Bamiyan. That month the Taliban also issued a decree ordering non-Muslims to wear distinctive yellow patches.

Relations with the United Nations and aid agencies

A major issue during the Taliban’s reign was its relations with the United Nations (UN) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Twenty years of continuous warfare, first with the Soviets and then between mujahideen, had devastated Afghanistan’s infrastructure and economy. There was no running water, little electricity, few telephones, motorable roads or regular energy supplies. Basic necessities like water, food and housing and others were in desperately short supply. In addition, the clan and family structure that provided Afghans with a social/economic safety net was also badly damaged.^[31][70] Afghanistan’s infant mortality was the highest in the world. A full quarter of all children died before they reached their fifth birthday, a rate several times higher than most other developing countries.^[71]

Consequently international charitable and/or development organisations (NGOs) were extremely important to the supply of food, employment, reconstruction, and other services in Afghanistan. With one million plus deaths during the years of war, the number of families headed by widows had reached 98,000 by 1998.^[72] Thus Taliban restrictions on women were sometime a matter not only of human rights, but of life and death. In Kabul, where vast portions of the city had been devastated from rocket attacks, more than half of its 1.2 million people benefited in some way from NGO charity, even for water to drink.^[73] The civil war and its refugee-creation processes continued during the entire time the Taliban were in power. During that time, more than three-quarters of a million civilians were displaced by new Taliban offensives in the north around Mazar, on the Herat front, and in the fertile Shomali valley around Kabul. The offensives used "scorched-earth" tactics to prevent civilians from supplying the enemy with aid.^[74]

Despite the receipt of UN and NGO aid, the Taliban’s attitude toward the UN and NGOs was often one of suspicion, not gratitude or even tolerance. The UN operates on the basis of international law, not Islamic Sharia, and the UN did not recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. Additionally, most of the foreign donors and aid workers, who had tried to persuade the Taliban to change its strict policies and allow women more freedom, were non-Muslims.

As the Taliban’s Attorney General Maulvi Jalil-ullah Maulvizada expressed it:

Let us state what sort of education the UN wants. This is a big infidel policy which gives such obscene freedom to women which would lead to adultery and herald the destruction of Islam. In any Islamic country where adultery becomes common, that country is destroyed and enters the domination of the infidels because their men become like women and women cannot defend themselves. Anyone who talks to us should do so within Islam’s framework. The Holy Koran cannot adjust itself to other people’s requirements, people should adjust themselves to the requirements of the Holy Koran.^[75]

Frustrations of aid agencies were numerous. Taliban decision-makers, particularly Mullah Omar, seldom if ever talked directly to non-Muslim foreigners, so aid providers had to deal with intermediaries whose approvals and agreements were often reversed by Taliban higher-ups.^[76] In September 1997, the European Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs, Emma Bonino, and 19 Western journalists and aid workers were arrested and held for three hours by the Taliban religious police in Kabul when photographs were taken of women patients.^[77] Around the same time the heads of three UN agencies in Kandahar were expelled from the country after protesting that a female lawyer for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was forced to talk to Taliban officials from behind a curtain so her face would not be visible.^[78]

When the UN increased the number of Muslim women staff to satisfy Taliban demands for Muslim staff, the Taliban then insisted "all female Muslim UN staff traveling to Afghanistan to be chaperoned by a mahram or a blood relative."^[51] In July 20, 1998, the Taliban closed "down all NGO offices by force" after those organization refused to move to a bombed out former Polytechnic College as ordered.^[79] One month later the UN offices were also shut down.^[80]

As food prices rose and conditions deteriorated, the Taliban Planning Minister Qari Din Mohammed explained the Taliban’s indifference to the loss of humanitarian aid:

We Muslims believe God the Almighty will feed everybody one way or another. If the foreign NGOs leave then it is their decision. We have not expelled them.^[81]

Relationship with Osama bin Laden

In 1996, Osama bin Laden moved to Afghanistan from Sudan. He came without any invitation from the Taliban, and sometimes irritated Mullah Omar with his declaration of war and fatwa to murder citizens of third-party countries, and follow-up interviews,^[82] but relations between the two groups became closer over time, and eventually bonded to the point where Mullah Omar rebuffed its patron Saudi Arabia, insulting Saudi minister Prince Turki and refusing to turn over bin Laden to the Saudis as Omar had reportedly promised to earlier.^[83]

Bin Laden was able to forge an alliance between the Taliban and his Al-Qaeda organization. It is understood that al-Qaeda-trained fighters known as the 055 Brigade were integrated with the Taliban army between 1997 and 2001. Several hundred Arab Afghan fighters sent by bin Laden assisted the Taliban in the slaughter at Mazar-e-Sharif.^[84] Taliban-al-Qaeda connections, were also strengthened by the reported marriage of one of bin Laden’s sons to Omar’s daughter. During Osama bin Laden’s stay in Afghanistan, he may have helped finance the Taliban.^{[85] [86]} Perhaps the biggest favor al-Qaeda did for the Taliban was the assassination by suicide bombing^[52] of the Taliban’s most effective military opponent mujahideen commander and Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud shortly before September 9, 2001. This came at a time when Taliban human rights violations and extremism seemed likely to create international support for Massoud’s group as the legitimate representatives of Afghanistan.^[52] The killing, reportedly handled by Ayman Zawahiri and the Egyptian Islamic Jihad wing of al-Qaeda, left the Northern Alliance leaderless, and removed "the last obstacle to the Taliban’s total control of the country …"^[87]

After the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Africa, Osama bin Laden and several al Qaeda members were indicted in U.S. criminal court.^[88] The Taliban protected Osama bin Laden from extradition requests by the U.S., variously claiming that bin Laden had "gone missing" in Afghanistan,^[89] or that Washington "cannot provide any evidence or any proof" that bin Laden is involved in terrorist activities and that "without any evidence, bin Laden is a man without sin… he is a free man."^[90][91] Evidence against bin Laden included courtroom testimony and satellite phone records.^[92][93] Bin Laden in turn, praised the Taliban as the "only Islamic government" in existence, and lauded Mullah Omar for his destruction of idols like the Buddhas of Bamiyan.^[94]

Taliban in Pakistan

See also: 2004-2006 Waziristan conflict and Wana conflict

Closely tied with JUI party in Pakistan, the Taliban received manpower from Madrasahs in Pakistan’s border region. After a request for help from Mullah Omar in 1997, Maulana Samiul Haq shut down his 2500+ student madrassa and "sent his entire student" body hundreds of miles away to fight alongside the Taliban. The next year, the same religious leader helped persuade 12 madrassas in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province to shut down for one month and send 8000 students to provide reinforcements for the Taliban army in Afghanistan.^[95]

The Taliban returned the favor, helping spread its ideology to parts of Pakistan. By 1998 some groups "along the Pashtun belt" were banning TV and videos, imposing Sharia punishments "such as stoning and amputation in defiance of the legal system, killing Pakistani Shia and forcing people, particularly women to adapt to the Taliban dress code and way of life."^[96] In December 1998 the Tehrik-i-Tuleba or Movement of Taliban in the Orakzai Agency ignored Pakistan’s legal process and publicly executed a murderer in front of 2000 spectators Taliban-style. They also promised to implement Taliban-style justice and ban TV, music and videos.^[97] In Quetta, Pashtun pro-Taliban groups "burned down cinema houses, shot video shop owners, smashed satellite dishes and drove women off the streets".^[98] In Kashmir Afghan Arabs from Afghanistan attempted to impose a "Wahhabi style dress code" banning jeans and jackets. "On 15 February 1999, they shot and wounded three Kashmiri cable television operators for relaying Western satellite broadcasts."^[99]

As of early 2007, Taliban influence in Pakistan continues in conjunction with the Taliban insurgency. Citing a suicide bombing of a restaurant in Peshwar in retaliation for the arrest of a relative of Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah, the Associated Press states "… in Pakistan’s frontier regions, … scores of people have been executed over the past two or three years apparently for being too aligned with the Pakistani government or America — allies in the U.S.-led war on terrorism."^[100]

Buddhas of Bamiyan

In March 2001, the Taliban ordered the demolition of two statues of Buddhas carved into cliffsides at Bamiyan, one 38 metres (125 ft) tall and built in CE 507, the other 53 metres (174 ft) tall and built in CE 554. The act was condemned by UNESCO and many countries around the world.

The intentions of the destruction remain unclear. Mullah Omar initially supported the preservation of Afghanistan’s heritage, and Japan linked financial aid to the preservation of the statues.^[101] However, after a few years, a decree was issued claiming all representations of humans and idols, including those in museums, must be destroyed in accordance with Islamic law which prohibits any form of idol worship.

The government of Pakistan (itself host to one of the richest and most ancient collections of Buddhist art) implored the Taliban to spare the statues. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates later denounced the act as savage.

Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi, a senior representative of the Taliban designated as the roving Ambassador visited the US in March, 2001. He represented the Taliban’s action not as an act of irrationality, but as an act of rage over UNESCO and some western governments denying the Taliban use of the funds intended for the repairs of the war-damaged statues of the Buddha. He contended that the Taliban intended to use the money for drought relief.

Opium

Opium poppies have traditionally been grown in Afghanistan, and, with the war shattering other sectors of the economy, it became the number one export of the country.

The Taliban have provided an Islamic sanction for farmers … to grow even more opium, even though the Koran forbids Muslims from producing or imbibing intoxicants. Abdul Rashid, the head of the Taliban’s anti-drugs control force in Kandahar, spelled out the nature of his unique job. He is authorized to impose a strict ban on the growing of hashish, "because it is consumed by Afghans and Muslims." But, Rashid told me without a hint of sarcasm, "Opium is permissible because it is consumed by kafirs in the West and not by Muslims or Afghans."^[102]

But in 2000 the Taliban banned opium production, a first in Afghan history. In 2000, Afghanistan’s opium production still accounted for 75% of the world’s supply. On July 27, 2000, the Taliban again issued a decree banning opium poppy cultivation. According to opioids.com, by February 2001, production had been reduced from 12,600 acres (51 km²) to only 17 acres.^[103] When the Taliban entered north Waziristan in 2003 they immediately banned poppy cultivation and punished those who sold it.^{[citation needed]}

Another source claims opium production was cut back by the Taliban not to prevent its use but to shore up its price, and thus increase the income of poppy farmers and revenue of Afghan tax collectors.^[104]

The official verdict of the Taliban however was otherwise. Mullah Amir Mohammed Haqqani, the Taliban’s top drug official in Nangarhar, said the ban would remain regardless of whether the Taliban received aid or international recognition. "It is our decree that there will be no poppy cultivation. It is banned forever in this country," he said. "Whether we get assistance or not, poppy growing will never be allowed again in our country."^[105]

However, with the 2001 US/Northern Alliance expulsion of the Taliban, opium cultivation has increased in the southern provinces liberated from the Taliban control,^[106] and by 2005 production was 87% of the world’s opium supply,^[107] rising to 90% in 2006.^[108]

U.S.-led invasion and displacement of the Taliban

Prelude to invasion

After the September 11 attacks and the PENTTBOM investigation, the USA delivered this ultimatum to the Taliban:

1. Deliver to the US all of the leaders of Al Qaeda;
2. Release all imprisoned foreign nationals;
3. Close immediately every terrorist training camp;
4. Hand over every terrorist and their supporters to appropriate authorities;
5. Give the United States full access to terrorist training camps for inspection.^[109]

On September 21, 2001, the Taliban responded that if the United States could bring evidence that bin Laden was guilty they would hand him over, stating there was no evidence in their possession linking him to the September 11 attacks.^[91]

On September 22, 2001, the United Arab Emirates and later Saudi Arabia withdrew their recognition of the Taliban as the legal government of Afghanistan, leaving neighboring Pakistan as the only remaining country with diplomatic ties. On October 4, 2001, it is believed that the Taliban covertly offered to turn bin Laden over to Pakistan for trial in an international tribunal that operated according to Islamic Sharia law.^[110][111] Pakistan, recently recast as an ally of the west, is believed to have rejected the offer (even though they still recognized the Taliban).

On October 7, 2001, before the onset of military operations, the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan offered to "detain bin Laden and try him under Islamic law" if the United States made a formal request and presented the Taliban with evidence.^[112] This counter offer was immediately rejected by the U.S. as insufficient.

Bin Laden for his part, maintained America’s attack on the Taliban after 9/11 was motivated only by its hatred for Islam.^[113]

American attack

Shortly afterward, on October 7, 2001, the United States, aided by the United Kingdom, Canada, and supported by a coalition of other countries including several from the NATO alliance, initiated military actions in Afghanistan, and bombed Taliban and Al Qaeda related camps.^[114][115] The stated intent of military operations was to remove the Taliban from power because of the Taliban’s refusal to hand over Osama bin Laden for his alleged involvement in the September 11 attacks, and disrupt the use of Afghanistan as a terrorist base of operations.^[116] No proof of Bin Laden’ involvement was provided to the Taliban Government. On October 14 the Taliban offered to discuss handing over Osama bin Laden to a neutral country if the US halted bombing, but only if the Taliban were given evidence of Bin Laden’s involvement in 9/11.^[117] The U.S. rejected this offer as an insufficient public relations ploy and continued military operations.

The ground war was mainly fought by the Northern Alliance, the remaining elements of the anti-Taliban forces which the Taliban had routed over the previous years but had never been able to entirely destroy. Mazari Sharif fell to U.S.-Northern Alliance forces on November 9, leading to a cascade of provinces falling with minimal resistance, and many local forces switching loyalties from the Taliban to the Northern Alliance. On the night of November 12, the Taliban retreated south in an orderly fashion from Kabul. This retreat was so orderly, that on November 15, they released eight Western aid workers after three months in captivity (see Attacks on humanitarian workers). By November 13 the Taliban had withdrawn from both Kabul and Jalalabad. Finally, in early December, the Taliban gave up their last city stronghold of Kandahar and retired to the hilly wilderness along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, where they remain today as a guerrilla warfare operation, drawing new recruits and developing plans for a restoration of power.

Resurgence of Taliban

As of 2007, the insurgency, in the form of a Taliban guerrilla war, continues. However, the Pashtun tribal group, with over 40 million members, has a long history of resistance to occupation forces in the region so the Taliban themselves may comprise only a part of the insurgency. Most of the post-invasion Taliban fighters are new recruits, drawn again from that region’s madrassas. The more traditional village schools are the primary source of the new fighters.

Before the summer 2006 offensive began, indications existed that Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan had lost influence and power to other groups, including potentially the Taliban. The most notable sign was the rioting in May after a street accident in the city of Kabul. The continued support from tribal and other groups in Pakistan, the drug trade and the small number of NATO forces, combined with the long history of resistance and isolation, led to the observation that Taliban forces and leaders are surviving and will have some influence over the future of Afghanistan. A new introduction is suicide attacks and terrorist methods not used in 2001. Observers^[118] have suggested that poppy eradication policies, which destroy the livelihoods of rural Afghans, and civilian deaths caused by the bombing campaigns of international troops, are linked to the resurgence of the Taliban. These observers maintain that counter-insurgency policy should focus on the battle for the hearts and minds of the Afghan people and on the reconstruction of the Afghan economy, which could profit from the licensing of poppies to make medicine rather than their eradication.^[119]

In September 2006, the Islamic Emirate of Waziristan, an association of Waziristani chieftains with close ties to the Taliban, were recognized by the Government of Pakistan as the de facto security force in charge of North and South Waziristan. This recognition was part of the agreement to end the Waziristan War which had extracted a heavy toll on the Pakistan Army since early 2004. Some commentators viewed Islamabad’s shift from war to diplomacy as implicit recognition of the growing power of the resurgent Taliban relative to American influence, with the US distracted by the threat of looming crises in Iraq, Lebanon, and Iran.

Other commentators view Islamabad’s shift from war to diplomacy as a means to appease growing discontent in Pakistan.^[120] Because of its leadership structure, the assassination of Mullah Dadullah in May 2007 will not significantly affect the Taliban, but it may set-back the incipient relations with Pakistan.^[121]

Human rights violations

According to Human Rights Watch, bombings and other attacks which have led to civilian casualties are reported to have "sharply escalated in 2006" with "at least 669 Afghan civilians were killed in at least 350 armed attacks, most of which appear to have been intentionally launched at non-combatants."^[122][123]

Timeline

2006

During the summer of 2006, the Battle of Panjwaii took place.

• June 6: A roadside bombing leaves 2 American soldiers killed, the attack took place in the province of Nanghar. Also a separate suicide bombing in Khost leaves three US soldiers wounded.^[124]

• June 15: A bus carrying workers to an American base explodes killing 10 and wounding 15. The explosives were placed on the bus.^[125]

• July 1: 2 British soldiers are killed when their base came under small arms fire including rocket propelled grenades.^[126]

• August 8: 4 Canadian NATO soldiers are killed in two separate attacks. And a suicide bomber targeting a NATO convey detonates killing 21 people.^[127]

• August 20: 3 American soldiers are killed and another 3 are wounded in a battle with Taliban militants after a roadside bomb hit an American patrol.^[128]

• September 8: A major suicide car bombing near the US embassy in Kabul kills 18 including 2 US soldiers.^[129]

• September 10: The governor of Afghanistan’s southeastern Paktia province is killed alongside his bodyguard and nephew when a suicide bomber detonates himself beside the governor’s car.^[130]

• October 14: A suicide attack in Kandahar city leaves 8 dead including one NATO soldier.^[131]

• October 15: 2 Canadian soldiers were killed when Taliban militants attacked NATO troops using small arms fire and rocket propelled grenades.^[131]

• December 6: A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a security contractor’s office killing 7 including 2 Americans, the attack took place south of Afghanistan in Kandahar.^[132]

• December 19: Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Osmani, reportedly number 4 in the Taliban shura, is killed by an American airstrike in southern Afghanistan.^[133]

2007

• January 23: A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a US base in eastern Afghanistan killing 10 people who were waiting outside the base.^[134]

• February 2: Taliban forces raided a southern Afghan town destroying the government center and briefly holding some elders captive.^[135]

• February 19: The Taliban briefly seized a small town in western Afghanistan after police fled the town, the Taliban forces moved in for 30 minutes and seized three vehicles.^[136]

• February 20: A suicide bomber blew himself up during an opening hospital ceremony injuring 2 NATO soldiers and a hospital worker.^[137]

• February 27: 23 people are killed when a suicide bomber attacks an American military base, Bagram Airfield (BAF) in Bagram District, Parwan Province. The attack took place while US vice president Dick Cheney was in the compound, Cheney was unhurt in the attack and was the intended target of the attack as claimed by the Taliban. The dead included an American soldier, a Korean soldier, and an American contractor.^[138]

• March 4: A suicide bomber attacks an American convoy which leaves 16 civilians dead in the aftermath as the American convey begins to sporadically fire at civilian cars around them. In a separate incident, two British soldiers were killed when a Taliban rocket was fired on them during clashes in Southern Helmand Province.^[139]

• March 17: A suicide bomber targeting a Canadian military convoy leaves one dead and three injured, including one NATO soldier. The attack took place in Kandahar.^[140]

• March 19: A car bomb blew up near a three-vehicle US embassy convoy injuring many in the convoy.^[141]

• March 27: Four police officers are killed in the southern Helmand province after a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a police station.^[142]

• March 28: A suicide bomber killed a top intelligence officer and three others in the capital Kabul.

• April 6: A suicide bomber struck a police checkpoint in Kabul leaving four dead and four others wounded. ^[143].

• April 9: Six Canadian soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan when they struck a roadside bomb. A separate roadside bombing, also in south Afghanistan, left another NATO soldier dead and one wounded. In another incident, a statement from the Taliban’s spokesperson claimed that they had beheaded a translator for a kidnapped Italian journalist.^[144]

• April 15: A suicide bomber struck a US-private security firm, killing four Afghans working for the company. ^[145]

• April 16: A suicide bomber ran onto a police training field and detonating his explosive device, killing 10 police officers and wounding dozens of others. The attack took place in the relatively quiet city of Kunduz. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.^[146]

• April 20: Separate explosions in Southern Afghanistan leave two Nato soldiers dead. ^[147]

• April 22: A suicide bomber blew himself up an eastern city of Afghanistan, killing six. A roadside bomb also hit an Afghan intelligence service vehicle, killing all four who were inside.^[148]

• April 30: Hundreds of Afghans took to the streets in western Afghanistan, accusing US soldiers of killing scores of civilians in fighting which the coalition said killed 136 Taliban in a three-week operation.^[149]

• May 13: Mullah Dadullah, the Taliban’s top military commander in Afghanistan, is killed in fighting in the south.^[133]

• May 23: The Taliban’s newly-named top field commander, Mullah Bakht Mohammed, brother and replacement of deceased field commander Mullah Dadullah, makes his first public statement, saying the Taliban will "pursue holy war until the occupying countries leave."^[150]

• July 19: The South Korean hostage crisis involved the hostage taking of twenty-three South Korean Christian aid workers in the Ghazni Province which resulted in the death of two. The crisis ended on August 30 with the release of the remaining hostages as part of a deal with the South Korean diplomats of government.

• August 31: A suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vehicle after ramming three military vehicles at the military gate of the Kabul International Airport. Two Afghan soldiers were killed and ten people were injured.
• September 29: In an effort to reach a compromise with the Taliban leaders, the president, Hamid Karzai would make a quid quo pro by allowing millitants to have a place in government if they stopped fighting. Taliban leaders replied by saying there would be no compromise unless intervening forces such as Nato and the U.S. left.^[151]

• November 2: Mawlawi Abdul Manan, an important Taliban figure, is killed by Afghan Security forces. His death is confirmed by the Talib

2008

• February 24: Poor military intelligence leads to conflicted reports of a possible Taliban spring offensive.^[153][154]

جمهورية العراق
Jumhūriyatu l-ʿIrāq (Arabic)
كۆماری عێراق
Komarê Iraq (Kurdish) Official languagesDemonymGovernmentIndependenceAreaPopulationCurrencyTime zone

Flag Coat of arms
Motto: الله أكبر   (Arabic) "Allahu Akbar"  (transliteration) "God is [the] Greatest"
Anthem: Mawtini  (new) Ardh Alforatain  (previous)1
Capital (and largest city)		Baghdad2 33°20′N, 44°26′E
Arabic, Kurdish
Iraqi
Developing parliamentary republic
-	President	Jalal Talabani
-	Prime Minister	Nouri al-Maliki
-	from the Ottoman Empire	October 1, 1919
-	from the United Kingdom	October 3, 1932
-	Total	438,317 km² (58th) 169,234 sq mi
-	Water (%)	1.1
-	2007 estimate	29,267,0004 (39th)
-	Density	66/km² (125th) 171/sq mi
GDP (PPP)		2006 estimate
-	Total	$89.8 billion (61st)
-	Per capita	$2,900 (130th)
Iraqi dinar (IQD)
GMT+3 (UTC+3)
-	Summer (DST)	not observed (UTC+3)
.iq
+964
1	The Kurds use Ey Reqîb.
2	The capital of Iraqi Kurdistan is Arbil.
3	Arabic and Kurdish are the official languages of the Iraqi government. According to Article 4, Section 4 of the Iraqi Constitution, Assyrian (Syriac) (a dialect of Aramaic) and Iraqi Turkmen (a dialect of Southern Azerbaijani) languages are official in areas where the respective populations they constitute density of population.
4	[CIA World Factbook]

Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq (Arabic: جمهورية العراق (help·info) Jumhūrīyatu l-‘Irāq), is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.^[1] It shares borders with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to the south, Jordan to the west, Syria to the northwest, Turkey to the north, and Iran to the east. It has a very narrow section of coastline at Umm Qasr on the Persian Gulf. There are two major flowing rivers: the Tigris and the Euphrates. These provide Iraq with agriculturally capable land and contrast with the desert landscape that covers most of Western Asia.

The capital city, Baghdad, is in the center-east. Iraq’s rich history dates back to ancient Mesopotamia. The region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers is identified as the cradle of civilization and the birthplace of writing. During its long history, Iraq has been the center of the Akkadian, Assyrian, Babylonian and Abbasid empires, and part of the Achaemenid, Macedonian, Parthian, Sassanid, Umayyad, Mongol, Ottoman, and British empires.^[2]

Since an invasion in 2003, a multinational coalition of forces, mainly American and British, has occupied Iraq. The invasion has had wide-reaching consequences: increased civil violence, political breakdown, the removal and execution of former authoritarian President Saddam Hussein, and national problems in the development of political balance, economy, infrastructure, and use of the country’s huge reserves of oil. According to the 2007 Failed States Index, produced by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Foreign Policy magazine and the Fund for Peace, Iraq has recently emerged as the world’s second most unstable country,^[3] after Sudan.^[4] Under the control of the U.S. military, Iraq is developing a parliamentary democracy composed of 18 governorates (known as muhafadhat)

 

Name

The origin of the name Iraq (Arabic: العراق ‘al-‘Irāq, Turkish: Irak, Assyrian: ܥܪܐܩ, Kurdish: عيَراق) is disputed. There are several suggested origins for the name. One dates to the Sumerian city of Uruk (or Erech)^[5] ; another maintains according to Professor Wilhelm Eilers, The name al-‘Irāq, for all its Arabic appearance, is derived from Middle Persian erāq "lowlands".^[6]

Under the Persian Sassanid dynasty, there was a region called "Erak Arabi," referring to the part of the south western region of the Persian Empire that is now part of southern Iraq. The name Al-Iraq was used by the Arabs themselves, from the 6th century, for the land Iraq covers.

The Arabic pronunciation is [ʕiˈrɑːq]. In English, the name is pronounced as either [ɪ.ˈɹɑ(ː)k] ( the only pronunciation listed in the Oxford English Dictionary) or [ɪ.ˈɹæk]] (listed first by MQD).

Geography

Iraq is located at 33°00′N, 44°00′E. Spanning 437,072 km² (168,743 sq mi), it is the 58th-largest country in the world. It is comparable in size to the US state of California, and somewhat larger than Paraguay.

Iraq mainly consists of desert, but between the two major rivers (Euphrates and Tigris) the area is fertile, the rivers carrying about 60 million cubic metres (78 million cu. yd) of silt annually to the delta. The north of the country is mostly composed of mountains; the highest point being at 3,611 metres (11,847 ft) point, unnamed on the map opposite, but known locally as Cheekah Dar (black tent). Iraq has a small coastline along the Persian Gulf. Close to the coast and along the Shatt al-Arab (known as arvandrūd: اروندرود among Iranians) there used to be marshlands, but many were drained in the 1990s.

The local climate is mostly desert, with mild to cool winters and dry, hot, cloudless summers. The northern mountainous regions have cold winters with occasional heavy snows, sometimes causing extensive flooding.

Comprising 112 billion barrels (17,800,000,000 m³) of proven oil, Iraq ranks second in the world behind Saudi Arabia in the amount of Oil reserves; the United States Department of Energy estimates that up to 90% of the country remains unexplored. These regions could yield an additional 100 billion barrels (16,000,000,000 m³). Iraq’s oil production costs are among the lowest in the world, but only about 2,000 oil wells have been drilled in Iraq, compared with about 1 million wells in Texas alone.^[7]

History

Ancient Mesopotamia

The region of Iraq was historically known as Mesopotamia (Greek: "between the rivers"). It was home to the world’s first known civilization, the Sumerian culture, followed by the Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian cultures, whose influence extended into neighboring regions as early as 5000 BC. These civilizations produced some of the earliest writing and some of the first sciences, mathematics, laws and philosophies of the world; hence its common epithet, the "Cradle of Civilization".

In the sixth century BC, Cyrus the Great conquered the Neo-Babylonian Empire, and Mesopotamia was subsumed in the Achaemenid Persian Empire for nearly four centuries. Alexander the Great conquered the region again, putting it under Macedonian rule for nearly two centuries. A Central Asian tribe of ancient Iranian peoples known as the Parthians later annexed the region, followed by the Sassanid Persians. The region remained a province of the Persian Empire for nine centuries, until the 7th century.

Islamic Caliphate

Beginning in the seventh century AD, Islam spread to what is now Iraq during the Islamic conquest of Persia, led by the Muslim Arab commander Khalid ibn al-Walid. Under the Rashidun Caliphate, the prophet Mohammed’s cousin and son-in-law Ali moved his capital to Kufa "fi al-Iraq" when he became the fourth caliph. The Umayyad Caliphate ruled the province of Iraq from Damascus in the 7th century. (However, eventually there was a separate, independent Caliphate of Cordoba.)

The Abbasid Caliphate built the city of Baghdad in the 8th century as their capital, and it became the leading metropolis of the Arab and Muslim world for five centuries. Baghdad was the largest multicultural city of the Middle Ages, peaking at a population of more than a million, and was the centre of learning during the Islamic Golden Age. The Mongols destroyed the city during the sack of Baghdad in the 13th century.

Mongol Conquest

In 1257, Hulagu Khan amassed an unusually large army, a significant portion of the Mongol Empire’s forces, for the purpose of conquering Baghdad. When they arrived at the Islamic capital, Hulagu demanded surrender but the caliph refused. This angered Hulagu, and, consistent with Mongol strategy of discouraging resistance, Baghdad was decimated. Estimates of the number of dead range from 200,000 to a million.

The Mongols destroyed the Abbasid Caliphate and The Grand Library of Baghdad (Arabic بيت الحكمة Bayt al-Hikma, lit., House of Wisdom), which contained countless, precious, historical documents. The city would never regain its status as major center of culture and influence.

In 1401, warlord of Turco-Mongol descent Tamerlane (Timur Lenk) invaded Iraq. After the capture of Bagdad, 20,000 of its citizens were massacred. Timur ordered that every soldier should return with at least two severed human heads to show him (many warriors were so scared they killed prisoners captured earlier in the campaign just to ensure they had heads to present to Timur).^[8]

Ottoman Empire

Later, the Ottoman Turks took Baghdad from the Persians in 1535. The Ottomans lost Baghdad to the Iranian Safavids in 1609, and took it back in 1632. From 1747 to 1831, Iraq was ruled, with short intermissions, by the Mamluk officers of Georgian origin who enjoyed local autonomy from the Sublime Porte.^[9] In 1831, the direct Ottoman rule was imposed and lasted until World War I, during which the Ottomans sided with Germany and the Central Powers.

During World War I the Ottomans were driven from much of the area by the United Kingdom during the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. The British lost 92,000 soldiers in the Mesopotamian campaign. Ottoman losses are unknown but the British captured a total of 45,000 prisoners of war. By the end of 1918 the British had deployed 410,000 men in the area, though only 112,000 were combat troops.

During World War I the British and French divided Western Asia in the Sykes-Picot Agreement. The Treaty of Sèvres, which was ratified in the Treaty of Lausanne, led to the advent of modern Western Asia and Republic of Turkey. The League of Nations granted France mandates over Syria and Lebanon and granted the United Kingdom mandates over Iraq and Palestine (which then consisted of two autonomous regions: Palestine and Transjordan). Parts of the Ottoman Empire on the Arabian Peninsula became parts of what are today Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

British Mandate of Mesopotamia

At the end of World War I, the League of Nations granted the area to the United Kingdom as a mandate. It initially formed two former Ottoman vilayets (regions): Baghdad, and Basra into a single country in August 1921. Five years later, in 1926, the northern vilayet of Mosul was added, forming the territorial boundaries of the modern Iraqi state.

For three out of four centuries of Ottoman rule, Baghdad was the seat of administration for the vilayets of Baghdad, Mosul, and Basra. During the mandate, British colonial administrators ruled the country, and through the use of British armed forces, suppressed Arab and Kurdish rebellions against the occupation. They established the Hashemite king, Faisal, who had been forced out of Syria by the French, as their client ruler. Likewise, British authorities selected Sunni Arab elites from the region for appointments to government and ministry offices.^{[specify][10]}

Hashemite monarchy

Britain granted independence to Iraq in 1932, on the urging of King Faisal, though the British retained military bases and transit rights for their forces. King Ghazi of Iraq ruled as a figurehead after King Faisal’s death in 1933, while undermined by attempted military coups, until his death in 1939. The United Kingdom invaded Iraq in 1941, for fear that the government of Rashid Ali al-Gaylani might cut oil supplies to Western nations, and because of his strong ideological leanings to Nazi Germany. A military occupation followed the restoration of the Hashemite monarchy, and the occupation ended on October 26, 1947. The rulers during the occupation and the remainder of the Hashemite monarchy were Nuri al-Said, the autocratic prime minister, who also ruled from 1930–1932, and ‘Abd al-Ilah, an advisor to the king Faisal II.

Republic of Iraq

The reinstated Hashemite monarchy lasted until 1958, when it was overthrown by a coup d’etat of the Iraqi Army, known as the 14 July Revolution. The coup brought Brigadier General Abdul Karim Qassim to power. He withdrew from the Baghdad Pact and established friendly relations with the Soviet Union, but his government lasted only until 1963, when it was overthrown by Colonel Abdul Salam Arif. Salam Arif died in 1966 and his brother, Abdul Rahman Arif, assumed the presidency. In 1968, Rahman Arif was overthrown by the Arab Socialist Baath Party. This movement gradually came under the control of Saddam Hussein ‘Abd al-Majid al Tikriti, who acceded to the presidency and control of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), then Iraq’s supreme executive body, in July 1979, while killing many of his opponents.

Saddam Hussein

In 1979, Saddam Hussein took power as Iraqi President, after killing and arresting his leadership rivals. Shortly after taking power, the political situation in Iraq’s neighbour Iran changed drastically after the success of the Islamic Revolution of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, which resulted in a Shi’ite Muslim theocratic state being established. This was seen as a dangerous change in the eyes of the Iraqi government, as Iraq too had a Shi’ite majority and was ruled by Hussein’s government which, apart from having numerous Sunnis occupying leading positions, had a pan-Arab but non-religious ideology. This left the country’s Shiite population split between the members and supporters of the Ba’ath Party, and those who sympathised with the Iranian position. In 1980, Hussein claimed that Iranian forces were trying to topple his government^{[citation needed]} and declared war on Iran. Saddam Hussein supported the Iranian Islamic socialist organization called the People’s Mujahedin of Iran which opposed the Iranian government. During the Iran-Iraq War Iraqi forces attacked Iranian soldiers and civilians with chemical weapons. Hussein’s regime was notorious for its human rights abuses; a well-known example is the Al-Anfal campaign^[11][12][13] as well as attacks on Kurd civilians inside Iraq, such as the Halabja massacre, as punishment for elements of Kurdish support of Iran. The war ended in stalemate in 1988, largely due to American and Western support for Iraq. This was part of the US policy of "dual containment" of Iraq and Iran.

In 1977, the Iraqi government ordered the construction of Osirak (also spelled Osiraq) at the Al Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center, 18 km (11 miles) south-east of Baghdad. It was a 40 MW light-water nuclear materials testing reactor (MTR). In 1981, Israeli aircraft bombed the facility, in order to prevent the country from using the reactor for creation of nuclear weapons.

In 1990, faced with economic disaster following the end of the Iran-Iraq War, Saddam Hussein looked to the oil-rich neighbour of Kuwait as a target to invade to use its resources and money to rebuild Iraq’s economy. The Iraqi government claimed that Kuwait was illegally slant drilling its oil pipelines into Iraqi territory which it demanded be stopped, Kuwait rejected the notion that it was slant drilling and Iraq followed this in August 1990 with the invasion of Kuwait. Upon successfully occupying Kuwait, Hussein declared that Kuwait had ceased to exist and it was to be part of Iraq, against heavy objections from many countries and the United Nations.

The UN agreed to pass sanctions against Iraq and demanded its immediate withdrawal from Kuwait. Iraq refused and the UN Security Council in 1991 unanimously voted for military action against Iraq. The United States, which had enormous vested interests in the oil supplies of the Western Asia led an international coalition into Kuwait and Iraq. The coalition forces entered the war with more advanced weaponry than that of Iraq, though Iraq’s army was one of the largest armed force in Western Asia at the time. Despite a large arsenal of military forces, the Iraqi army stood no match to the advanced weaponry of the coalition forces and the air superiority which the U.S. Air Force provided. Iraq responded to the invasion by launching SCUD missile attacks against Israel and Saudi Arabia. Hussein hoped that by attacking Israel, the Israeli military would be drawn into the war, which he believed would rally anti-Israeli sentiment in neighbouring Arab countries to support Iraq. However Hussein’s gamble failed as Israel reluctantly accepted U.S. demand for Israel to remain out of the conflict to avoid inflaming tensions. Iraqi armed forces were quickly destroyed and Hussein eventually accepted the inevitable and ordered a withdrawal of Iraqi forces from Kuwait, but before they were to do so, he ordered them to sabotage Kuwait’s oil wells, which resulted in hundreds of wells being set ablaze causing an economic and ecological disaster in Kuwait.

The aftermath of the war saw the Iraqi military, especially its air force, destroyed. In turn for peace, Iraq was forced to accept "no-fly zones", the dismantlement of all chemical and biological weapons it possessed, and end any attempt to create or purchase nuclear weapons, to be insured by the allowance of UN weapons inspectors to evaluate the dismantlement of such weapons. And finally, Iraq would face sanctions if it disobeyed any of the demands. Shortly after the war ended in 1991, Shia Muslim Iraqis engaged in protests against Hussein’s regime, but Hussein responded with violent repression against Shia Muslims and the protests came to an end. After the war, Iraq on a number of occasions through the 1990s was accused of breaking its obligations including the discovery in 1993, of a plan to assassinate former President George H. W. Bush, and the removal of UN weapon inspectors in 1998 (the Iraqi government claimed that it suspected that some inspectors were spies for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency), in which sanctions were imposed and military action was taken by U.S. forces against Iraq.

Critics estimate that more than 500,000 Iraqi children died as a result of the sanctions.^[14] Other critics, especially neoconservatives in the United States after 1998 claimed that containment of Iraq through sanctions without weapons inspectors in the area, was not capable of avoiding a rebuilding of "weapons of mass destruction" and demanded a hardline approach to Iraq, demanding compliance on inspections or face war. In January 2002, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq was declared part of the so-called "Axis of Evil" by U.S. President George W. Bush - a loose term defining key enemies to US international interests. A number of incorrect and false allegations were made against Iraq such as accusations that Iraq was acquiring uranium from Niger and that Iraq had secret weapons laboratories in trailers and isolated facilities throughout Iraq.^{[citation needed]} Eventually all of these were proven false. However Saddam Hussein, under pressure from the U.S. and the U.N., agreed to allow weapon inspectors to return to Iraq in 2002.

Invasion by American-led Coalition forces

Further information: Iraq War

20 March 2003, a United States-organized coalition invaded Iraq, with the stated reason that Iraq had failed to abandon its nuclear and chemical weapons development program in violation of United Nations resolution 687. When Iraq invaded Kuwait during the first Gulf War, the United Nations Security Council, under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, adopted resolution 678, authorizing U.N. member states to use "all necessary means" to "restore international peace and security in the area." After Iraq was expelled from Kuwait the United Nations passed a cease-fire resolution 687. The agreement included provisions obligating Iraq to discontinue its nuclear weapons program. The United States asserted that because Iraq was in "material breach" of resolution 687, the armed forces authorization of resolution 678 was revived.

The United States gave further justification for the invasion of Iraq in claims that Iraq had or was developing weapons of mass destruction and the opportunity to remove an oppressive dictator from power and bring democracy to Iraq. In his State of Union Address on 29 January, 2002, the American President George W. Bush declared that Iraq was a member of the "axis of evil", and that, like North Korea and Iran, Iraq’s attempt to acquire weapons of mass destruction gave credence to the claim that the Iraqi government posed a serious threat to America’s national security. He added, "Iraq continues to flaunt its hostilities toward America and to support terror. The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax, and nerve gas, and nuclear weapons for over a decade… This is a regime that agreed to international inspections—then kicked out inspectors. This is a regime that has something to hide from the civilized world… By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes [Iran, Iraq and North Korea] pose a grave and growing danger. They could provide these arms to terrorists, giving them the means to match their hatred."^[15] However, according to a comprehensive US report no Iraqi weapons of mass destruction have been found since the invasion.^[16] Yet, there are news reports which contradict this. .^[17]

Post-invasion

Following the invasion, the United States established the Coalition Provisional Authority to govern Iraq.^[18] Government authority was transferred to an Iraqi Interim Government in June 2004 and a permanent government was elected in October 2005. More than 140,000 Coalition troops remain in Iraq.

Studies have placed the number of civilians deaths as high as 655,000 (see The Lancet study), although most studies have put the number much lower; the Iraq Body Count project has a figure of less than 10% of The Lancet Study, though IBC organizers acknowledge that their statistics are an undercount as they base their information off of media-confirmed deaths. The website of the Iraq body count states, "Our maximum therefore refers to reported deaths - which can only be a sample of true deaths unless one assumes that every civilian death has been reported. It is likely that many if not most civilian casualties will go unreported by the media."^[19].

After the invasion, al-Qaeda took advantage of the insurgency to entrench itself in the country concurrently with an Arab-Sunni led insurgency and sectarian violence.

On December 30, 2006, Saddam Hussein was hanged.^[20] Hussein’s half-brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Hassan and former chief judge of the Revolutionary Court Awad Hamed al-Bandar were likewise executed on January 15, 2007;^[21] as was Taha Yassin Ramadan, Saddam’s former deputy and former vice-president (originally sentenced to life in prison but later to death by hanging), on March 20, 2007.^[22] Ramadan was the fourth and last man in the al-Dujail trial to die by hanging for crimes against humanity.

At the Anfal genocide trial, Saddam’s cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid (aka Chemical Ali), former defense minister Sultan Hashim Ahmed al-Tay, and former deputy Hussein Rashid Mohammed were sentenced to hang for their role in the Al-Anfal Campaign against the Kurds on June 24, 2007^{[citation needed]}.

Acts of sectarian violence have led to claims of ethnic cleansing in Iraq, and there have been many attacks on Iraqi minorities such as the Yezidis, Mandeans, Assyrians and others.^[23]

In 2007 Foreign Policy Magazine named Iraq as the second most unstable nation in the world after Sudan.^[24]

Although violence has declined from the summer of 2007,^[25] the U.N. reported of a cholera outbreak in Iraq.^[26]

Iraqi diaspora

The dispersion of native Iraqis to other countries is known as the Iraqi diaspora. There have been many large-scale waves of emigration from Iraq, beginning early in the regime of Saddam Hussein and continuing through to 2007. The UN High Commission for Refugees has estimated that nearly two million Iraqis have fled the country in recent years, mostly to Jordan and Syria.^[27] Although some expatriates returned to Iraq after the 2003 invasion, the flow had virtually stopped by 2006.^[28]

In addition to the 2 million Iraqis who fled to neighbouring countries, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre estimates the number of people currently displaced within the country at 1.9 million.^[29]

Roughly 40% of Iraq’s middle class is believed to have fled, the U.N. said. Most are fleeing systematic persecution and have no desire to return.^[30] Refugees are mired in poverty as they are generally barred from working in their host countries.^[31][32]

In recent times the Diaspora seems to be reversing with the increased security of the last few months, and the Iraqi government claims that so far 46,000 refugees have returned to their homes in October of 2007 alone.^[33].

Government and politics

Government

The federal government of Iraq is defined under the current Constitution as an Islamic, democratic, federal parliamentary republic. The federal government is composed of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, as well as numerous independent commissions. Aside from the federal government, there are regions (made of one or more governorates), governorates, and districts within Iraq with jurisdiction over various matters as defined by law.

Regions, governorates and districts

Currently, Kurdistan is the only legally defined region within Iraq, with its own government and quasi-official militia, the Peshmerga. Iraq itself is divided into eighteen governorates (or provinces) (Arabic: muhafadhat, singular - muhafadhah, Kurdish: پاریزگه Pârizgah). The governorates are subdivided into districts (or qadhas).

Baghdad Salah ad Din Diyala Wasit Maysan Al Basrah Dhi Qar Al Muthanna Al-Qādisiyyah	Babil Karbala An Najaf Al Anbar Ninawa Dahuk Arbil At Ta’mim (Kirkuk) Sulaymaniyah

The following governorates are within the region Iraqi Kurdistan:

• Dahuk
• Arbil
• Sulaymaniyah

Politics

Iraq was under Baath Party rule from 1968 to 2003; in 1979 Saddam Hussein took control and remained president until 2003 after which he was unseated by a US-led invasion.

On October 15, 2005, more than 63% of eligible Iraqis came out across the country to vote on whether to accept or reject the new constitution. On October 25, the vote was certified and the constitution passed with a 78% overall majority, with the percentage of support varying widely between the country’s territories.^[34] The new constitution had overwhelming backing among the Shia and Ķurdish communities, but was overwhelmingly rejected by Arab Sunnis. Three majority Arab Sunni provinces rejected it (Salah ad Din with 82% against, Ninawa with 55% against, and Al Anbar with 97% against).

Under the terms of the constitution, the country conducted fresh nationwide parliamentary elections on December 15 to elect a new government. The overwhelming majority of all three major ethnic groups in Iraq voted along ethnic lines, turning this vote into more of an ethnic census than a competitive election, and setting the stage for the division of the country along ethnic lines.

Iraqi politicians have been under significant threat by the various factions that have promoted violence as a political weapon. The ongoing violence in Iraq has been incited by an amalgam of religious extremists that believe an Islamic Caliphate should rule, old sectarian regime members that had ruled under Saddam that want back the power they had, and Iraqi nationalists that are fighting the U.S. military presence.

Iraq has number of ethnic minority groups in Iraq: Kurds, Assyrians, Mandeans, Iraqi Turkmen, Shabaks and Roma. These groups have not enjoyed equal status with the majority Arab populations throughout Iraq’s eighty-five year history. Since the establishment of the "no-fly zones" following the Gulf War of 1990–1991, the situation of the Kurds has changed as they have established their own autonomous region. The remainder of these ethnic groups continue to suffer discrimination on religious or ethnic grounds.

Economy

Iraq’s economy is dominated by the oil sector, which has traditionally provided about 95% of foreign exchange earnings. In the 1980s financial problems caused by massive expenditures in the eight-year war with Iran and damage to oil export facilities by Iran led the government to implement austerity measures, borrow heavily, and later reschedule foreign debt payments. Iraq suffered economic losses from the war of at least US$100 billion. After hostilities ended in 1988, oil exports gradually increased with the construction of new pipelines and restoration of damaged facilities. A combination of low oil prices, repayment of war debts (estimated at around US$3 billion a year) and the costs of reconstruction resulted in a serious financial crisis which was the main short term motivation for the invasion of Kuwait.

On November 20, 2004, the Paris Club of creditor nations agreed to write off 80% ($33 billion) of Iraq’s $42 billion debt to Club members. Iraq’s total external debt was around $120 billion at the time of the 2003 invasion, and had grown by $5 billion by 2004. The debt relief will be implemented in three stages: two of 30% each and one of 20%.^[35]

At the end of 2005, and in the first half of 2006, Iraq implemented a restructuring of about $20 billion of commercial debt claims on terms comparable to that of its November 2004 Paris Club agreement (i.e. with an 80% writeoff). Iraq offered to its larger claimants a U.S. dollar denominated bond maturing in 2028. Smaller commercial claimants received a cash settlement of comparable value.

Reconstruction

Demographics

An April 2008 estimate of the total Iraqi population is 28,221,181.^[36]

Seventy-five to eighty percent of Iraq’s population are Arabs; the other major ethnic groups are the Kurds at 15-20%,^[37] Assyrians, Iraqi Turkmen and others (5%),^[38] who mostly live in the north and northeast of the country. Other distinct groups are Persians and Armenians. About 20,000 ^[39] Marsh Arabs live in southern Iraq.

Arabic and Kurdish are official languages. Assyrian and Turkmen are official languages in areas where the Assyrians and Iraqi Turkmen are located respectively. Armenian and Persian are also spoken but to a lesser extent. English is the most commonly spoken Western language.

Religious composition includes:

• Muslim, 97%; Christian or other, 3%.^[40]

There are no official figures available, mainly due to the highly politically charged nature of the subject. Two estimates of the Muslim proportions of the population are:

• Shi’a as much as 60%, Sunni about 40% (source: Britannica, Religion section of Iraq article).

Shi’a 60%-65%, Sunni 32%-37% (source: CIA World Fact Book).

The Shi’a are mostly Arabs, some are Turkmen and Faili Kurds, and almost all are Twelver school. Sunnis are composed of Arabs, Turkmen who are Hanafi school and Kurds who are Shafi school.

According to most western sources the majority of Iraqis are Shi’ite Arab Muslims (around 60%), and Sunnis represent about 40% of the population made up of Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen. Sunnis hotly dispute these figures, including an ex-Iraqi Ambassador,^[41] referring to American sources.^[42] They claim that many reports or sources only include Arab Sunnis as ‘Sunni’, missing out the Kurdish and Turkmen Sunnis.

Ethnic Assyrians (most of whom are adherents of the Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church and the Assyrian Church of the East) account for most of Iraq’s Christian population, along with Armenians. Bahá’ís, Mandaeans, Shabaks, and Yezidis also exist. Most Kurds are Sunni Muslims, although the Faili (Feyli) Kurds are largely Shi’a.

As of November 4, 2006, the UNHCR estimated that 1.8 million Iraqis had been displaced to neighboring countries, and 1.6 million were displaced internally, with nearly 100,000 Iraqis fleeing to Syria and Jordan each month.^[43] A May 25, 2007 article notes that in the past seven months only 69 people from Iraq have been granted refugee status in the United States.^[44]

Culture

In the most recent millennium, what is now Iraq has been made up of five cultural areas: Kurdish in the north centered on Arbil, Sunni Islamic Arabs in the center around Baghdad, Shi’a Islamic Arabs in the south centered on Basra, the Assyrians, a Christian people, living in various cities in the north, and the Marsh Arabs, a nomadic people, who live on the marshlands of the central river. There are also the Bedouin tribes primarily in southern and western Iraq, with smaller groups scattered throughout the country. Markets and bartering are the common form of trade.

Music

Iraq is known primarily for an instrument called the oud (similar to a lute) and a rebab (similar to a fiddle); its stars include Ahmed Mukhtar and the Assyrian Munir Bashir. Until the fall of Saddam Hussein, the most popular radio station was the Voice of Youth. It played a mix of western rock, hip hop and pop music, all of which had to be imported via Jordan due to international economic sanctions. Iraq has also produced a major pan-Arab pop star-in-exile in Kathem Al Saher, whose songs include Ladghat E-Hayya, which was banned for its racy lyrics.

Cuisine

Main article Cuisine of Iraq

The Iraqi cuisine is generally a heavy cuisine with more spices than most Arab cuisines. Iraq’s main food crops include wheat, barley, rice, vegetables, and dates. Vegetables include eggplant, okra, potatoes, and tomatoes. Beans such as chickpeas and lentils are also quite common. Common meats in Iraqi cooking are lamb and beef; fish and poultry are also used. Soups and stews are often prepared and served with rice and vegetables. Although Iraq is not a coastal area, the population is used to consuming fish, however, freshwater fish is more common than saltwater fish. Masgouf is one of the most popular dishes. Biryani although influenced by the Indian cuisine, is much milder with a different mixture of spices and a wider variety of vegetables including potatoes, peas, carrots and onions among others. Dolma is also one of the popular dishes. The Iraqi cuisine is famous for its extremely tender kabab as well as its tikka. A wide verity of spices pickles and Amba are also extensively used.

Sport

See also

[hide] Major topics in Iraq

Geography	Governorates • Districts • Notable Places • Syrian Desert • Zagros Mountains • Euphrates • Tigris • Umm Qasr • Al-Faw Peninsula • Shatt al-Arab • Al-Jazira • Lake Hammar
History	Ancient Mesopotamia (Fertile Crescent) • Sumer • Akkadian Emipre • Babylonia and Assyria • Chaldea • Nebuchadrezzar II • Persian Empire • Islamic conquest of Persia and Arab Empire • Ottoman Empire • British Mandate • Saddam Hussein • Persian Gulf War • Invasion of Kuwait • Sanctions • 2003 invasion • Post Invasion (Insurgency)
Government	Constitution • Legislative branch (Speaker) • Executive branch (President · Council of Ministers · Prime Minister) • Judiciary • Government since 2006
Politics	Political Parties • Minority Politics • Elections • Security Forces (Army · Navy · Air Force · Police) • Foreign relations • Human Rights • Foreign aid • War Conflicts • Weapons of mass destruction • Democracy • Flag
Economy	Iraqi Dinar • Stock Exchange • Central Bank • Oil • Communications • Transportation • Reconstruction
Society	Demographics • Religion (Islam · Christianity · Judaism · Tribes) • Language (Arabic · Kurdish · Turkish · Assyrian) • Education • Health • Diaspora • Postage stamps • Sports • Music • Cuisine • Gay rights • Mass graves
Portal

The rice shortage
By Isagani A. Cruz
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:57:00 05/11/2008

I DON’T BELIEVE THERE’S A REAL RICE crisis in this country. It’s bugaboo created by the administration to divert attention from the real problem of the nation. It’s not the alleged shortage of rice that should alarm us; it is the appalling shortage of sincerity and honesty in the government.

I used to pass by a big store or bodega in Las Piñas where columns of sacks of rice were stacked from floor to ceiling to nobody’s surprise. What surprised me later—and I suppose others too—was that the place suddenly became completely empty overnight. Where the rice went, I cannot tell although I would unsuspectingly say it went for some valid purpose.

Others would more cynically conjecture that the announcement of the supposed rice shortage by the government might have prompted some greedy businessmen to hide and hoard their rice for heavier profits as the artificial emergency gets more serious. Already the price of a kilo of rice has risen astronomically like the price of gasoline, which threatens to soar even more.

The oil companies must have bought their present stock for less than what they are charging now with the successive increases in the price of gasoline, no less than 10 times during the past several days. The profits they must be raking in must be tremendous, but the public has no choice but to submit to the plunder permitted by the government. There were announced plans to inspect the books of the oil companies but Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes must still be crooning.

To go back to the rice problem, I think it is not as serious as the government would overstate it. I know there is a food crisis all over the world, but the Philippines is not as hardly hit as the other developing and really starving countries. At least not yet. We were moribund during the Japanese Occupation when we could afford rice, if at all, only as thin lugaw, and most of us had to make do with castañog and camote. But somehow we survived.

We have not yet come to similar suffering, at least not in the less disadvantaged places in Metro Manila. Recently I had lunch in one of the turo-turo eateries in Makati offering fixed meals for various prices, depending on your appetite and wallet. My choice that cost only P99 consisted of a leg of roast chicken, one fresh lumpia, and plenty of white rice.

What impressed me was the generous quantity of the rice that to me was the best argument against its claimed shortage. In fact, the other meals offered included not only plain but fried rice, and the price was not only for the elite gourmet.

Elsewhere in the slums, the government has started selling quality rice for a reduced price but for a limited amount only per family. The parish priests have been asked to assist in its distribution although, as my good friend Antonio C. Abaya recently observed in his column, only the Catholic Church has been entrusted with the task. Are the other Christian groups, and the Muslims as well, only good for election campaigns?

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s solution to the so-called rice problem is straight from the Brothers Grimm, except that it’s grimmer. She would grant P500 a month to each of the 300,000 neediest families in the land to be determined by the barangay heads in their sole discretion. That discretion is presumed to be above board, based on their superior knowledge of who are the most impoverished residents in their community.

The first among the neediest will have to be the barangay head himself; that’s a given. The rest of the beneficiaries will have to be chosen on the strength of their connections with the political parties under Ms Arroyo. This qualification is likely to create disputes among the neighbors, but that is to be expected for this is a democracy. That is how it works in this country.

And how long will this bonanza continue?

By expressing my doubts about the gravity of the rice crisis, I do not mean to minimize the present food problem threatening the whole world, including the Philippines. But it is not my purpose either to maximize that difficulty as requiring our total attention to the neglect of other difficulties also demanding our serious concern. After all, man does not live by rice alone. There are goals we must also pursue like compassion for the poor, the protection of human rights, and the end of corruption in our government.

Have you noticed how, with the alarums raised by the administration about the rice problem, public interest has died down on the ZTE contract and its protected “Greedy People + + ”? Jonas Burgos is still missing after more than a year since his seizure in broad daylight by armed men. There is no more news either about the furtive delivery of enormous cash doles to selected beneficiaries in the halls of Malacañang itself.

Valid or not, the rice problem has proved the expertise of the GMA spinmasters in manipulating public opinion to suppress further exposés of government venalities. The Senate has meekly thrown in the towel although the Neri case has yet to be finally resolved by the Supreme Court. Have the Garci tapes been erased forever? What about the silenced Jocelyn “Jocjoc” Bolante on the fertilizer fund? And are the plunder charges against the AFP generals moving at all? Ho-hum. Meanwhile, the media have nothing more serious to headline than that Cory is in the pink of health.

Soaring rice prices grip Mindanao folk

Staple sold at P45-P51 per kilo

Mindanao Bureau
First Posted 21:01:00 06/01/2008

MANILA, Philippines—(UPDATE) Mindanao, the country’s food basket, is going hungry, as the price of rice soared to levels beyond the reach of many residents.

Polished rice is retailed at P45 to P51 a kilo, more than twice the government-subsidized rice that is not available to most consumers.

"It will be difficult for us to budget our daily expenses, especially now that my children will be going to school," said Cynthia Tuario, a resident of Kidapawan City in North Cotabato province.

The "milagrosa" variety, for instance, is sold at P47 a kilo in Kidapawan. In the cities of Cagayan de Oro, Cotabato and Zamboanga, the price of rice ranges from P40 to P50.

In Davao Oriental province, residents literally saw price tags change daily — P38 on Thursday to P40 on Friday and P42 on Saturday.

The price of rice continues to go up despite assurances from the government that the country has enough supply.

Rice prices in the world market hit record highs in April because of tight global supplies and partly due to the huge orders from the Philippines, the world’s biggest rice importer.

Difficult

Tricycle driver Reynaldo Pandi, 40, of Tagum City voiced worries on how to budget his P120 daily "take-home earnings" as he can only manage to buy two kilos of "good quality rice" for his wife and their four children, two of whom will go to school next week.

"Lisod na kaayo (Life has become difficult these days). You have to budget everything — pedicab rent to pay, rising price of gasoline amid dwindling number of passengers. Then this rising price of rice. Asa na man atong gobyerno (Where is now our government)?" Pandi asked.

Alfonso Doguil, a resident of San Isidro town in Davao Oriental, said: "We should start eating camote (sweet potatoes)."

On Friday, the government said it would give the poor subsidies worth up to P93.6 billion to help them with the rising prices.

Some 23.5 million Filipinos, or 26 percent of the population who earn P67 or less a day, have been hardest hit by high rice and fuel prices.

More sink into poverty

Some 2.3 million more Filipinos fall into poverty for every 10-percent increase in food prices, according to a new study by an Asian Development Bank economist.

If the price of rice alone rises by the same rate, expect 660,000 people to swell the ranks of the poor, ADB economist Hyun Son earlier said.

Food prices rose by an average of 12 percent in April compared with only 8.4 percent in March, said the National Statistics Office.

The price of rice, which accounts for nearly a third of the food expenditures of the poorest households, jumped in April by nearly 25 percent from its level a year ago.

Even a known rice-producing town in Davao del Norte felt the crunch of rising price of rice.

In Kapalong town where expanding banana plantations have been eating up vast rice lands, prices of commercial rice range from P41 to P50 a kilo, with the "cheapest variety" of "poor quality."

NFA outlets

The town’s three National Food Authority (NFA) outlets are not enough so consumers who cannot be accommodated go to commercial rice retailers, Mayor Edgardo Timbol said.

"Retailers here buy their stocks from traders at an already high price, forcing them to sell the product to the consumers at much higher cost," Timbol said.

He said he had met with NFA officials in the province on Friday to ask for additional outlets to be put up in some of the villages.

"The NFA promised to allocate new outlets in eight of our barangays when we have completed the requirements. That could help lower rice prices here as the demand for commercial rice will go down, with the public already having an alternative," Timbol said.

In Tagum City in Davao del Norte, "organic rice" sells for P46 a kilo at market stalls while the cheapest varieties range from P40-P41. Other varieties also hit the P50-mark, unimaginable two years ago.

In Digos City in Davao del Sur, polished rice is sold at P51 per kilogram.

Corn grits

A lot of people have opted to buy corn grits. First class (white) corn grits are sold at P31.50 a kilo, and yellow corn grits at P18.50.

Joseph Omero, a rice trader in Digos’ public market, said he could do nothing about rising prices of rice since "big rice traders sold their rice at a higher price."

The same is happening in the Socsksargen (South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, General Santos City) area.

Girl collapses at queue

The high price of the staple is forcing people to queue to buy NFA rice.

In Alabel town in Sarangani province, 13-year-old girl Precy (not her real name) on Friday collapsed while she lined up to buy cheap NFA rice.

She and her uncle Ricardo Tumbocon failed to buy NFA rice for dinner that day as she was taken to the nearest hospital.

Tumbocon, who brought his niece to the hospital, said, "Ugma na lang mi mopilag balik (We will take the line again tomorrow)."

In General Santos City, NFA rice buyers start lining up at 10 p.m. at the city public market.

Rosemarie Pascua-Paz, a rice trader at the public market, said she had no choice but to increase the price of commercial rice. "If we will not increase, we will have no income," she said.

But the NFA office in Central Mindanao said that by the second week of the month, the subsidized rice sold at P18.50 a kilo would no longer be available in the public market.

Thai rice at P25/kilo

Art Aller, NFA regional operations chief, said the cheaper NFA rice would be replaced by Thailand rice.

Thai rice is priced a bit higher at P25 per kilo.

Aller said the P18.50-NFA rice would be pulled out from the public market and would be sold at the "Tindahan Natin" in different barangays.

The NFA in Central Mindanao expects 216,000 metric tons of Thai rice to arrive in the early part of June.

Beef and pork, too

Prices of meat are also soaring. Beef and pork prices have already doubled this year and with rising oil prices, increasing freight costs and a weakening peso, are set to rise again, according to an importers’ group.

Meat prices are expected to increase by August or September.

Jun Lim, vice president of the Cold Chain Association of the Philippines, said 90 percent of the country’s beef supply was imported, mostly from Brazil.

The price of imported beef in January was $2.65 a kilo, and in May it was $4.50 a kilo. Pork was $1.90 a kilo in January and $2.50 in May.

"The effect is not yet felt immediately because a lot of what is being sold in the market are meats that came in two to three months ago and were in storage," he said. "But once those stocks are depleted, price increases will hit the consumers." Reports from Frinston Lim, Julie S. Alipala, Aquiles Zonio, Rolando Pinsoy, Ma. Cecilia Rodriguez, Eldie Aguirre and Edwin Fernandez, Inquirer Mindanao; and Agence France-Presse