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Back to Choike in-depth report GENERAL INFORMATION
The State
Official Name: Al-Jumhuriyah al'Iraqiyah. Administrative divisions: 15 provinces and 3 autonomous regions.
Capital: Baghdad 4,689,000 people (1999).
Other cities: Mosul 1,099,700 people; al-Basrah 1,004,800; Irbil 692,100; Karkuk (Kirkuk)
688,500 (2000).
Government: Saddam Hussein, President since July 1979, re-elected in 1995 and Prime Minister since May 1994.
Parliament: The Majlis Watani (National Assembly) has 250 members but the 30 seats of the Kurdish region remained vacant.
National Holidays: July 14, Proclamation of the Republic (1958); July 17, Revolution Day (1968).
Armed forces: 380.000 troops(1997)
Demography
Population: 24,246,000 (2002)
Annual growth: 2.7 % (1985-2000)
Estimates for year 2015: 33,550,000(2000)
Annual growth to year 2015: 2.5 % (2000) Urban population: 76.8 % (2000)
Urban growth: 2.6 % (2000)
Children per woman: 5.1 (2000)
Health
Life expectancy at birth: 65 years (2000-2005
male: 63 years (2000-2005)
female: 66 years (2000-2005)
Infant mortality: 105 per 1,000 (2000)
Under-5 child mortality: 130 per 1,000 (2000)
Daily calorie supply: 2,446 per capita (1999)
55 doctors per 100,000 people (1998)
Safe water: 85 % (2000)
Education
Literacy: 58 % (2000)
male: 71 % (2000)
female: 45 % (2000)
School enrolment (net):
Primary total: 93 % (1994/2000)
male: 98 % (1995/99)
female: 88 % (1995/99)
Secondary (gross):
male: 51 % (1995/97)
female: 32 % (1995/97)
Tertiary (gross): 13 % (1998)
Primary school teachers: one for every 22 pupils (1998)
Communications
19 newspapers (1996),
222 radios (1997),
83 TV sets (2000) and 29 main telephone lines (2000) per 1,000 people.
Economy
Annual growth: -52.1 % (1991)
Currency: 0.3 dinars = $ 1 (03/2002)
Cereal imports: 4,229,169 metric tons (2000)
Fertilizer use: 782 kg per ha (1999)
Energy
Consumption: 1,342.4 Kgs of oil equivalent per capita yearly (1998); -357.5 %
imported (1999)
Environment
The Mesopotamian region, between the rivers Tigris (Dijlah) and Euphrates (Al-Furat) in the center of the country, is suitable for agriculture, and contains most of the population. In the mountainous areas in the north, in Kurdistan, there are important oil deposits.
In Lower Mesopotamia, on the Shatt-al-Arab channel, where the Tigris and the Euphrates merge, 15 million palm trees produce 80 per cent of the world's dates sold worldwide, before the blockade. The war's devastation included the destruction of the major part of the country's infrastructure. Tank and troop movements caused
major damage to road surfaces and soil, especially in the environmentally sensitive area along the Saudi Arabian border.
Peoples:
Three fourths of the population are Arabs. In the north there is a significant Kurd minority (20 per cent) and the rest are small minorities of Syrians, Armenians and others.
Religions:
Mostly Muslim. About 62 per cent of the population is Shi'a, concentrated in the south. Most of the political élite is Sunni. Northern Kurds also share this religious option (Sunnis amount to 35 per cent of the population), together with their traditional religion, Yezidi. There is a Christian minority.
Languages:
Arabic (official and predominant); in Kurdistan it is taught as a second language, after Kurdish.
Political Parties: The Arab Ba'ath Socialist Party has been in power since 1968; Out of Parliament: Democratic Party of Kurdistan, Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and Christian Union.
Social Organizations:
General Federation of Trade Unions is the single labor confederation; General Union of Students of the Republic of Iraq; there are opposition groups among the swamp Arabs in the south, such as the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution,
a Shia resistance group. |
Source: Third World Guide
>> See a map of Iraq
The territory of present-day Iraq is roughly equivalent to that of ancient Mesopotamia, where the world's 'classic' civilization developed. Around 5000 BC in the southern region of Iraq flourished the Sumerian civilization; in 2371 BC, King Sargon Of Akkad asserted control of the region and established the first Assyrian dynasty.
The Assyrian empire expanded its dominion to include modern Turkey, Iran, Syria and Israel. The empire collapsed with the fall of its capital Nineveh (modern day Mosul) in 612 BC and was followed by the Babylonians. King Hammurabi (reigning circa 1792-50 BC), made Babylon the capital and established the first Code of Laws.
King Nebuchadnezzar II (c. 605-562 B.C.), a splendid builder, developed hanging gardens that made Babylon the greatest city of the ancient world.
The Babylonian era came to an end when the Persian ruler Cyrus the Great invaded in 539 BC. and Persia ruled until Alexander the Great's conquests in 331 BC.
His successors, the Seleucids, ruled for 175 years, until new Persian invasions under the Parthi'ans and later the Sassanids established a new capital at Ctesiphon near the midpoint of the Tigris. Persians constructed many irrigation systems and canals.
In the 7th century the Arab conquest transformed Mesopotamia into the center of an enormous empire (see Saudi Arabia). A century later, the new Abbas dynasty decided to move the capital east from Damascus. Caliph al-Mansur built the new capital, Baghdad, on the banks of the Tigris and for three centuries the city of the ‘thousand and one nights’ was the center of a new culture.
This culture led to the greatest flourishing of the arts and sciences in the Mediterranean region since the days of the Greeks. The empire began to fall apart after the death of Harun al Raschid. The African provinces were lost (see Tunisia: Islam in North Africa), and the region north and east of Persia won independence under the Tahiris (the Kingdom of Khorasan). The caliphs depended increasingly on armies of slaves or mercenaries (Sudanese or Turks) to retain their grip on an ever-shrinking empire. When the Mongols assassinated the last caliph in Baghdad in 1258, the title had already lost its political meaning.
The conquests of Genghis Khan devastated the region's agricultural economy, and the region was subsequently ruled in whole or part by Seleucids, Ottomans, Turks, Mongols, Turkomans, Tartars, and Kurds. The movement of steppe peoples (see Afghanistan), brought great instability to the fertile crescent, which finally achieved unification under the Ottoman Turks in the 16th century, having repelled an attack by Timur Lenk (Tamburlaine) in the 14th century.
In the early 20th century, Arab Renaissance movements were active in Iraq, paving the way for the rebellion that rocked the Turkish realm during World War I (see Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria).
The British already had a foothold in the region and were keen to expand their influence. With the defeat of the Turks, Iraq entertained hopes of independence. These however were dashed when the revolutionary Soviet government revealed the existence of the secret Sykes-Picot treaty (signed in 1916), whereby France and Britain divided the Arab territories between themselves. Faisal, son of the shereef Hussein, had proclaimed himself King of Syria and occupied Damascus. However, since this territory belonged to the French, who had promised nothing to the Arabs, he was forcibly evicted. In 1920, Britain
was awarded a mandate over Mesopotamia by the League of Nations, triggering a pro-independence rebellion.
In 1921, Emir Faisal ibn Hussain was appointed King of Iraq, in compensation for his previous bad treatment. In 1930, general Nuri as-Said was appointed Prime Minister, signing a treaty of alliance with the British, under which the country would become nominally independent on October 3 1932.
That year, the Baghdad Pact was founded, making Iraq part of a military alliance with Turkey, Pakistan, Iran, Britain and the US. This pact was resisted by Iraqi nationalists. In July 1958, anti-imperialist agitation resulted in a military coup led by Abdul Karim Kassim, bringing about the execution of the royal family.
In 1959 the regime tried to forge a union with Syria, but the Communist Party - one of the most important in the East - and the democrats, whose model was the European parliamentary system, opposed the move. In July, in an attempt to consolidate the regime, Kassim banned all olitical parties and proclaimed that the emirate of Kuwait belonged to Iraq. The Arab League, dominated by Egypt, authorized the deployment of British troops to protect the oil rich enclave.
Kassim's over-exaggerated ties with the Soviet Union and China fomented predictions that Iraq could become a new Cuba. In the summer of 1960 the country suddenly moved towards the West. Steps toward economic change were taken, a land reform program was implemented, and the profits of the Iraq Petroleum Company were severely restricted. In 1963, Kassim was deposed by pan-Arabian sectors within the army. Several unstable governments ensued until July 17 1968, when a military coup placed the Ba'ath party in power.
Founded in 1947, the Arab Ba'ath Socialist Party (ba'ath meaning renaissance) was inspired by the ideal of Pan-Arabism, regarding the Arab World as an indivisible political and economic unit where no country can be self-sufficient. The Ba'athists proclaimed that socialism is a need which emerges from the very core of Arab nationalism. It is organized on a national (Arab)level, having several regional leaders in each country.
Iraq nationalized foreign companies, and Baghdad defended the use of oil as a political weapon in the struggle against imperialism and Zionism. It insisted on protected prices and the consolidation of OPEC as an organization which would support the struggle of the Third World for the recovery and enhancement of its natural resources. A land reform program was decreed, and
ambitious development plans encouraged the reinvestment of oil money into national industrialization.
In 1970, the Baghdad Government gave the Kurdish language official status, and granted Kurdistan domestic autonomy. However, abetted by the Shah of Iran, and fearful of land reform, the traditional regional leaders rose in armed confrontation. In March 1975, the Iran-Iraq border agreement deprived the Kurds of their main foreign support and the rebels were defeated. The Baghdad Government decreed the teaching of Kurdish in local schools, greater state investment in the region, and the appointment of Kurds to key administrative positions.
On July 16 1979, President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr resigned because of ill-health. He was replaced by Vice-President Saddam Hussein.
Saddam Hussein tried to establish himself as leader of the Arab world. He was one of the most outspoken critics of the 1979 Camp David agreements between Egypt, Israel and the US, but Iraqi relations with other Arab countries still worsened. A branch of the Ba'ath party took power in Syria in 1970, but its discrepancies with Baghdad led to rivalry and some border disputes.
Saddam wanted to reassert Iraq's sovereignty over both banks of the Shatt al-Arab waterway that historically had been the border with Iran. He was also concerned about attempts by Iran's new Islamic revolutionary government to incite rebellion among Iraq's Shi'a majority. These issues spurred Saddam to make a preemptive strike on Iran. By attacking when it did, Iraq took advantage of the apparent disorder of Iran's new government and demoralization of its regular armed forces. The Iraqis were confident of a quick victory but in the event the war lasted for 8 years.
During the war, the Saudis and Kuwaitis - like others who had benefited from Iraq acting as a bulwark against Iranian fundamentalism - granted Baghdad many loans which were used both in the conflict and for strengthening the country's infrastructure. An oil pipeline was built through Turkey as an alternative to the one which crossed Syria to the Mediterranean; Syria had closed this in sympathy with Iran. The roads to Jordan were also improved.
In November 1984, 17 years after they had broken off diplomatic relations, official links with the US were re-established.
The 1988 armistice meant that Iraq retained 2,600 square kilometers of Iranian territory with its powerful and skilful army. Neighboring Kuwait was extracting more oil than allowed from deposits under the border and refused to establish export quotas. As the US hinted that they would remain neutral in the event of conflict, Baghdad thought that it would be able to take the neighboring territory and exploit its wealth. On August 2, Iraq invaded Kuwait and took thousands of foreign hostages.
Four days later the UN decided on a total economic and military blockade until Iraq retreated unconditionally from the occupied territory. Withdrawal was rejected, but a proposal for an international conference to discuss the Middle East issue was submitted. When Iraq started to release the hostages and to make new attempts at negotiating, the US refused to talk and demanded an unconditional surrender.
On January 17, 1991, an alliance of 32 countries led by the US started the attacks on Iraq. When the land offensive began in March, Saddam Hussein had already announced his unconditional withdrawal. The Iraqi army did not resist the offensive and hardly attempted to stage an organized withdrawal, yet it suffered great losses. The war ended early in March, with the total defeat of the Iraqis.
At the end of the offensive, the US encouraged an internal revolt of the southern Shi'a and of the northern Kurds so that Saddam Hussein would be deposed. However, the political differences between these factions made an alliance impossible, and Washington abandoned the rebels to their own fates, whereupon they were crushed by the still powerful Iraqi army. Over one million Kurds sought refuge in Iran and Turkey to escape the Baghdad forces, and thousands starved or froze to death when winter came.
Between 150,000 and 200,000 people, mostly civilians, died in the war. As a result of the blockade - still in force - some 70,000 more may have died in the first year, among them 20,000 children.
At the end of 1991, both the Turkish and Iraqi armies were continuing to harass the Kurds in the border area.
The conditions stipulated for lifting sanctions became even more demanding with the increased determination on the part of the US Government to bring down Hussein. In addition, The New York Times and the London Sunday Telegraph reported that the United States had introduced huge amounts of counterfeit dinars (Iraq's currency), smuggled across the Jordanian, Saudi Arabian, Turkish and Iranian borders. Baghdad established the death penalty for anyone participating in these operations.
Toward the end of 1991, the Iraqi Government authorized UN inspections of military establishments. In 1992, Iraq was found to have a uranium enrichment project, which had been developed using German technology. UN inspection teams destroyed 460 x 122 mm warheads armed with sarin, a poisonous gas. They also dismantled the nuclear complex at al-Athir, the uranium enrichment installations at Ash-Sharqat and Tarmiuah, and the chemical weapons plant at Muthana.
In 1994 a frontier crossing was opened with Turkey to allow certain UN authorized foodstuffs and medicines to enter the country -the only exceptions to the trade embargo. However a few months later in March 1995, Turkish troops invaded Iraqi Kurdistan -under the military protection of allied- basically US troops to repress members of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) which was launching attacks from there on Turkish troops stationed in Turkish Kurdistan.
Baghdad's international isolation deepened in 1996, when Jordan distanced itself from Saddam's Government, having improved its relations with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. However, the UN Security Council voted for the partial lifting of the blockade, allowing for a restricted sale of crude oil, in order to buy food and medicines for the Iraqi population.
A UN report revealed in April 1997 that the number of dead due to hunger or lack of medicines arising from the embargo exceeded one million people, of which 570,000 were children. UNICEF claimed that 25 per cent of children below 5 had severe clinical malnutrition.
A new crisis unfolded in October concerning Iraq: the Security Council threatened to enforce new sanctions if a new inspection was not allowed to verify that the Saddam administration was not able to develop chemical and biological weapons. Iraq rejected the presence of US inspectors, which hardened US President Clinton's stance. Coinciding with the beginning of the debate leading to his impeachment by Congress, Clinton, with the sole support of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, launched a missile attack on several Iraqi cities. From December 16, Operation Desert Fox killed hundreds of civilian and military Iraqis. France, Russia and China - all of them members of the UN Security Council - denounced this British-US offensive and criticized the role played by Richard Butler, chief of UNSCOM, the UN commission in charge of supervising Iraq's chemical and nuclear disarmament.
By a slight margin, in December 1999, the Security Council approved resumption of the weapons inspections in Iraq and the suspension of the economic sanctions in case Baghdad decided to cooperate. Russia, France, China and Malaysia abstained in the vote, which was a harsh blow to the interests of the US and UK. They had tried to send Saddam a clear signal but the resolution was a minority choice even among permanent members of the Security Council. Iraq, which had already announced it would reject the resolution, alleging it was an attempt by the US to impose its will on the Security Council, refused to co-operate and demanded all sanctions be lifted.
In July 2000 Communications Minister Ahmad Murtada opened the country's first internet center and promised three more would soon open in Baghdad. The Minister stated the center had been created in spite of obstacles brought about by US and British authorities in the UN Sanctions Committee, which had tried to prevent Iraqi acquisition of information technology, even though this had been approved under the oil-for-food program, which allowed Baghdad to export oil for food, medicines and basic products.
Baghdad airport reopened in August, receiving several international flights which, in the guise of humanitarian missions, were supported by countries (some of them, like France, members of the anti-Iraq coalition during the Gulf War) and organizations that had campaigned against the sanctions. In November, for the first time in nine years, the Iraqi national airline operated within the country. That month, Iraqi deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz rejected a new proposal of weapons inspection.
When George W. Bush took office as US President in January 2001, he announced a tough policy and the fortification of sanctions against Iraq. The attacks against Washington and New York in September put Iraq directly in the Pentagon's sights.
The US tried to pressure - unsuccessfully - the alliance it had formed to fight global terrorism into making Baghdad its target. However, the allies' reluctance, including Britain's, led the White House to seek new ways of putting an end to Saddam Hussein. Meanwhile Saddam regained popularity in the Arab world by supporting the second Palestinian intifada and proposing that Muslim countries pursue their common interests, foremost being the Palestine cause, through a control of oil prices.
In January 2002, in his State of the Union speech, Bush aligned Iraq, Iran and North Korea as an axis of evil which, he claimed, sought weapons of mass destruction and sponsors international terrorism. These statements were criticized by his global allies and democratic opposition. In April, The New York Times reported that the Bush administration was planning an attack on Iraq, which would involve 250,000 soldiers.
Bush kept proclaiming the need to attack Iraq, emphasizing that the danger of Saddam Hussein's regime lay in his potential to develop weapons of mass destruction. This potential was later compounded by another unproven claim: that Baghdad had a relationship with Islamic terrorists. In August, Blair and other leaders talked Bush into taking the US' case for attacking Iraq to the UN. Meanwhile Saddam agreed to the resumption of UN weapons inspections.
In September, during the 57th General Assembly of the UN, Bush asked a skeptical audience of world leaders to confront the serious and growing threat to peace posed by the Iraqi regime, or else step aside and let the US take the necessary actions. The following month, Baghdad agreed to let the UN weapons inspectors visit dozens of sensitive locations. However the UK and US rejected this as they wanted the Security Council to approve a new resolution which would authorize military attacks if Iraq did not comply with the demands. A resolution was passed in October which some people interpreted as giving the US the go-ahead to attack if weapons were found; others saw in it that the US and allies would have to go back to the UN for approval before any strikes on Iraq took place. The resolution threatens serious consequences if Iraq is in material breach of its terms. The weapons inspections resumed in November 2002.
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