Who are we helping, are we sure of Kurdish peshmerga?

20/01/16

Since March 2015 in Erbil, the Italian soldiers of the "Prima Parthica" mission have been training the peshmerga  Kurds, present in northern Iraq, to ​​counter the forces of ISIS. They have trained more than 5000 units to date. The main purpose is basic infantry training, the procedures to be adopted in environments where there are explosive traps (Counter Improvised Explosive Device / C-Ied) and training with the 'Folgore' anti-tank weapon system, donated by the Government. Italian.

Il thunderbolt is a light weapon system for infantry, developed by Breda since 1974, which consists of a kind of recoilless cannon, lighter than normal, with an 80 mm caliber ammunition, with HEAT or HE charge. The firing range is about 1000 meters which becomes 4,5 km through the use of rocket projectile. In practice, the HE charge can usefully be used up to 2000 meters, while the HEAT only up to 1000 meters. The system was ordered by Italy in 800 units at a cost of several tens of billions of old lire. The thunderbolt, however, it was not very successful as it tended to be too bulky and heavy, especially with the tripod (over 25 kg!), and the 80mm grenade was not enough against modern tanks. The HEAT projectile in fact has a piercing capacity of only about 450 mm of steel. The piece also needs two men to handle and is better suited for static defense, not suitable for infantry tasks that require weapons that can be moved quickly.

Accredited sources say that i peshmerga they are gaining important success in the field also through the use of the "Folgore" system. Probably in asymmetric conflicts this type of weapon manages to be more successful.

This preamble would lead us to say "Well done, well done". Instead! I was puzzled by today's report of Amnesty International, where numerous violations of human rights in northern Iraq are documented, by the peshmerga - the forces of the Kurdistan Regional Government - and also of the Yazidi militias. Yes, just those peshmerga long supported and armed by Western governments in anti-ISIS function, including Italy that sent arms and military trainers. More witnesses claim that i peshmerga when they reconquer a village, the houses and crops stand, immediately afterwards they destroy everything with bulldozers and prevent the return of the original inhabitants.

Amnesty International, also in the report, accuses i peshmerga and other Kurdish militias for having demolished, blown up or set fire to thousands of homes in northern Iraq, after gathering information on the ground in 13 towns and villages and hearing over 100 eyewitnesses and victims of enforced disappearances. In support of these rumors, satellite images are added that document the mass destruction by the peshmerga and also, in some cases, of militias yazide and Kurdish armed groups from Syria and Turkey, always coordinated by the peshmerga. The report, entitled Banished and disposessed: forced displacement and deliberate destruction in northern Iraq, describes the forced displacement and large-scale destruction of homes in villages and cities in the provinces of Nineveh, Kirkuk and Diyala, which the peshmerga they snatched Daesh between September 2014 and March 2015.

In Sibaya and four other nearby Arab villages (Chiri, Sayir, Umm Khabari and Khazuqa), most of the houses were set on fire in January by 2015 militias yazide and by Kurdish armed groups from Syria and Turkey operating in the Sinjar area. Amnesty International visited the area in November 2015 and verified the extensive destruction of these villages. On a previous visit in April, many houses had been looted and burned but still stood.

According to Amnesty, i peshmerga they tried to blame the ISIS militias, without providing any evidence, also denied by other Kurds who admitted that the aim of the destruction was to ensure that the Arab inhabitants no longer had a place to return. According to Amnesty International, the forced displacement of civilians and the deliberate destruction of homes and property without military justification can amount to war crimes.

There are no security reasons, as stated by representatives of the Kurdish regional government, but the desire to punish the Arab populations for their support - real or alleged - to Daesh and to obtain and consolidate territorial advantages in a disputed area, which has always been claimed by the Kurds, who in their time were forced to displace by Saddam Hussein, who had installed Arab populations there. 

And the international community?

States that support i peshmerga, they should publicly condemn these violations of international humanitarian law and stop the assistance they are providing "immediately". I hope that this "shock" relationship will awaken consciences.

Femaz