Iraq: a new diplomacy for a new democracy

By HOWAR ZIAD

The Globe and Mail Thursday, December 09, 2004

The gradual reconstruction and rehabilitation of Iraq took another step forward yesterday when I had the honour of presenting my credentials to Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson as the ambassador of the new Iraq. Building links with Canada, a country with an exceptional record of contributing to international peace, is a vital part of the foreign policy of the new Iraq as it seeks to throw off the legacy of decades of oppression and totalitarian rule.

The renewal of Iraq as a state is more often than not seen in economic and political terms, but it is also diplomatic. For decades, thanks to the Baathist regime, Iraq was an international pariah, regarded as a lucrative market and an occasionally useful tool in the realpolitik games of cynical powers. Iraq's vast oil resources certainly created wealth, for arms dealers and the corrupt minority that held sway over the rest of the country.

A new Iraq, therefore, requires a new diplomacy, one based on the same principles of international law, peace and simple human decency that have always been the hallmark of Canadian foreign policy. As our foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, has repeatedly said, Iraq will no longer be a haven for, and a sponsor of, terrorism. Iraq will not resort to force to settle international disputes, and its embassies will no longer hunt down Iraqi dissidents. Today, Iraq is fighting both domestic and global terrorism, and is talking to its neighbours as a sovereign equal. Finally, and rather poignantly from my personal perspective, the new Iraq is appointing former dissidents and resisters to be its ambassadors abroad.

The new Iraq is reaching out for genuine partners, friends that can provide advice as much as assistance. We need to build a civil society based on peaceful compromise and the ability of citizens to make free choices within a democratic and federal state. A major step in this direction was the interim constitution -- the Transitional Administrative Law -- and the charter of rights that incorporates essential elements of human rights, peaceful development, tolerance for differences in religion, and gender equality.

For us, Canada provides an excellent model of how to manage a diverse, federal state and how that state can be active overseas in promoting peace and development. Peaceful compromise is a distinct hallmark of the Canadian experience, precisely the form of politics that we wish to develop in Iraq.

Canada is also known for its generosity. The Canadian government has made generous donations to the rebuilding of Iraq, as well as agreeing to forgive 80 per cent of Iraq's debts. Given Canada's extensive experience in peacekeeping and peace promotion, we would welcome any assistance that Canada could give based on that experience. We also believe that Canada could play a useful role in helping Iraq to prepare for its first free election, scheduled for Jan. 30.

Nobody in Iraq doubts the depth of the challenge ahead of us. The stakes are high. The remnants of Saddam Hussein's regime, accompanied by foreign terrorists, are fighting hard to prevent the emergence of a new Iraq. They are a minority, the disgruntled remains of a regime that practised genocide and internal colonization with shocking casualness. They must not win. At best, they would return Iraq to the "stability" of the mass grave; more likely, they would usher in a return to the dark ages of dictatorship, made worse by their lust for vengeance and their crazed belief in the value of terrorism.

They shall not win, however, because most Iraqis, in all our diversity, want to see Iraq become a federal democracy. We are fighting back, and we will defend our nascent democracy with the same fervour that we fought against the villainous dictatorship that our friends in the United States and Britain took the lead in overthrowing last year.

It may sound fanciful to say that Iraq wants to be the Canada of the Middle East, but those are the values that we are fighting for, of democracy, pluralism, tolerance and federalism. We are determined to win and to transform Iraq. With Canada's assistance and wise counsel, we can certainly do so.

Howar Ziad, the Kurdish representative to the United Nations from 1999 to 2004, is Iraq's new ambassador to Canada.