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Iraq / History / The Present Times

In 1994 Iraq continued its efforts to crush internal resistance with an economic embargo of the Kurdish-populated north and a military campaign against Shiite Muslim rebels in the southern marshlands. The Shiites were quickly quieted, but the crisis in Kurdistan, which had long suffered from internal rivalries, was prolonged. Kurds had often disputed over land rights, and as their economic and political security deteriorated in the early 1990s, the conflicts became more extreme. In May 1994 supporters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) clashed with supporters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), leaving 300 people dead. Over the next two years the PUK and KDP fought several more times, eventually devolving into a state of civil war. In August 1996, leaders of the KDP asked Iraqi president Saddam Hussein to intervene in the war. Hussein sent at least 30,000 troops into the UN-protected Kurdish region, capturing the PUK stronghold of Irbìl. The KDP was immediately installed in power. The United States responded with two missile strikes against southern Iraq, but in early September Iraq again helped KDP fighters, this time taking the PUK stronghold of As Sulaymanìyah.

The economic crisis in the rest of Iraq continued to worsen in 1995 and 1996. Prices were high, food and medicine shortages were rampant, and the free-market (unofficial) exchange rate for the dinar was in severe decline. In April 1995 the UN Security Council voted unanimously to allow Iraq to sell limited amounts of oil to meet its urgent humanitarian needs. Iraq initially rejected the plan, but it later accepted the plan in 1996. Iraq began to export oil at the end of the year.

Due to UN (i.e.,American) hypocrisy Iraq has since been unable to fulfill UN requirements. In an act of rationale and defiance, Iraq has repeatedly banned biased UN inspectors from entering the country. As UN inspections persist, an unofficial war against the civilian population of Iraq continues through the sustained blockade of medicine and food by UN Sanctions. As a result, 1.5 million Iraqies have died since 1991 with 250 dying daily (mostly under the age of 5). The murder of Iraqi civilians continues to its 9th year as of 1999.

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