It seems I'm a Zionist

That last post prompted a few responses from people. I must stress that I was just reporting my host's views, not in any way endorsing them. One reader questioned the Ben Gurion reference, and I can't authenticated it. Another reader, who is an Iraqi exile in the UK, said that story about Hallabja was a lie propogated by the mukabarat (secret police). He said that even if the Iranians had captured Hallabja, it would not have been a threat to Baghded (400km to the south). That was my own response when I was told the story.

Anyhow, what is interesting is the difficulty many Iraqis have in discerning the truth. I don't mean that offensively, I'm sure I would be the same if I'd lived for decades under the brainwashing of an oppressive regime which controlled most of the flow of information, and required citizens to accept the official line or risk persecution. When I was living in Jordan a few years ago I met many very intelligent Iraqis who sincerely believed the most bizarre conspiracy theories - no event is straightforward it seems, there must always be hidden causes, usually involving the dreaded trio of Zionists, Americans and freemasons. The inteligence agencies certainly have meddled in other countries' affairs for decades, and sometime quite significantly, but they are only one component of the complex myriad of factors determining world events. I guess in some ways its comforting to people to believe in a big conspiracy - at least someone is in charge!

As it happens I was suspected of being a Zionist today. What started out as one of my most promising meetings ended in horrible confusion. I was meeting with the Democratic and Peace Front, a grouping of 18 small parties, one of whom, the Iraqi Peace Party, had invited me along to their gathering. Representatives from every party were sitting around a couple of plastic tables in the White Palace (a former royal residence which now seems to be a kind of civil society convergence centre). It was quite exciting to see this grassroutes democracy in action.

I handed around my usual Jubilee Iraq intro sheet (translated into Arabic by Wajeeh Elali, a lovely Iraqi-Canadian economist), with a few bullet points of data about the debt and some questions about which types of debt and reparations they think should/shouldn't be paid, how claims should be negotiated and so on. Unfortunately one of the delegates appointed himself as my translator, and it seems he didn't do a very good job, as the discussion rapidly decended into heated exchanges between him and the other 17 people in the room in arabic, with only the odd phrase or two getting translated to me.

The loudest voice was the chairman's and, piecing together later what when wrong, I think he misunderstood my question about the best way of negotiating with the creditors. His view (a fairly common one) was that Iraqis are not responsible for any of Saddam's debt or reparations whatsoever and, therefore, if I was asking questions about a negotiation process, then I must be wanting to try and make Iraqis pay something. Ergo I'm probably some kind of Israeli agent disguised as a humanitarian NGO. Of course my aim is quite the reverse, but unfortunately a nerve had been struck, translation had broken down, and I didn't have a clue what was going on until after I'd left and my Iraqi guide explained what had transpired. I think part of the problem is that Iraqis have little experience of NGOs, and have a conditioned distrust of people - essential for survival under Saddam. Other NGO friends have also told me that people assume they are agents of some kind. This doesn't prevent Iraqis from treating us with warm hospitality, but it does mean that we have to earn their trust not take it as a given.

Riverbend mentions Muqtada Sadr's new shadow government. This has been the main topic of conversation in Baghdad today, and I'm also surprised it hasn't had wider coverage. I was hoping to meet Sadr in Najaf last week, but it didn't happen. I'm going to try and track down his new shadow finance minister tomorrow to see what he thinks about the debt.