Basra’s protests 2018: Gambling with blood for power

Safaa Khalaf

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The recent protests in Basra created a glimmer of hope that the political system in Iraq will improve and that policy makers will embark on a serious reform process that goes beyond an exploitative quota mentality that has overshadowed it for many years and resulted in problems that have been aggravated with the political impasse since 2003. In 2018, Basra’s uprising, characterized by its anger, was an agent for change that inspired the rest of the country to vocally reject continued corruption and the disintegration of the political system. However, soon after the uprising, the government exploited populist anger and used it as a bargaining chip in the polarized context between Tehran, Washington and their allies. The moment that Iraqis thought Basra was capable of changing the political equation, it became clear that this “uprising” was mis-used to establish Iranian hegemony to a wide extent and establish a new Iraqi government with Iranian leanings.

The history of negligence and injustice

While Basra generates around 80% of the country’s financial resources, including through the production and export of 3.23 million barrels of oil out of a total of 4.6 million barrels of oil daily and through the port’s commercial resources and two border crossings with Kuwait and Iran, it suffers from systematic negligence and mis-management, compounded with weak political representation at the decision-making level. Despite its representation by 25 parliamentarians before the Iraqi parliament and two ministers in the transportation and oil sectors, it remains neglected in the country’s economic revitalization and development plans, including to address poverty eradication, unemployment and rampant tribal violence, as well as the collapse of the environmental and health sectors, the spread of cancer and the prevalence of drug abuse. Basra has also seen a drastic depletion in its human resources through the recruitment of young men in armed “Popular Mobilization Forces” or in the country’s official bodies such as the army or police forces.

The circumstances Basra has suffered have long pushed its residents to join the opposition. The city, which is situated in the south of Iraq (550 km from Baghdad), has long been depleted of its resources with no developmental impact in return.

In 1921, following decisions adopted in the San Remo Conference to redraw the region with the implementation of the Sikes-Pico plan, King Faisal was removed from the throne in Syria, placing Syria under French mandate, while Iraq under British mandate. As a settlement, British authorities decided to announce the establishment of a Hashemite Kingdom in Iraq, with King Faisal ascending to throne as its ruler. King Faisal I came to Iraq through the sea port of Basra, the city which rejected Hashemite rule. Basra’s notables, dignitaries and prominent clerics aspired to separate the city from Iraq and declare it a separate state or kingdom, unless Britain chose an Iraqi monarch from Basra. However, Britain responded to these aspirations, which were seen as an early rebellion to their rein, with exiling the notables and bombing their homes.

As King Faisal I assumed throne, he began to build the Kingdom’s fledging military capabilities. Basrites revolted once again against the newly adopted conscription law. Only three months after the formation of the Iraqi Air Force, which was formed under British command on 22 April 1931, it launched its first attack to crush the rebellion of tribes from northern Basra against military conscription on 17 July 1931. Villages in Al-Rahmaniyya, which falls within the administrative borders of Al-Midaina District, were shelled. This is also where several people were first killed in Basra’s 2015 and 2018 protests.

Basra is situated atop massive reserves of oil estimated at 65 billion barrels, making up around 52% of Iraqi oil reserves. Geological surveys by oil companies in the city estimate that reserves will increase to 80 billion barrels with the discovery of new reservoirs. However, despite the massive wealth of a city inhabited by 3 million people, around 50% of Basra’s population live below the poverty line according to the City Council, an ideal human reservoir for military and armed conflict.

During the Iraq-Iran war, Basra was an open-air theatre for a bloody and vicious war. Iranians have repeatedly tried to occupy and isolate it, with a view to end the war and topple the regime in Iraq. The conflict not only resulted in the destruction of the city, but it also changed the city’s landmarks, social fabric, delicate ecosystem and agricultural production. The city lost around 30 million palm trees, leaving only 3 million trees which suffered from disease, water scarcity, pollution and dredging at the hands of exploitative oil companies with the aim of increasing expansion and extractive activities.

Since 1989, development and reconstruction in Basra have been very limited, and even then, confined to specific neighborhoods and towns, with politically motivated goals, given the country’s hostility to Iran. The city that had been a center of recreation and relaxation for the entire Gulf region, has now become a wasteland, its skyline covered in dozens of tons of black soot. Temperatures soar to 60 degrees Celsius in summer, with desertification reaching the city limits and enclosing it up to the banks of the now-stagnant and toxic waters of Shatt al-Arab.

From mid-July 2018 until mid-September 2018, health authorities have recorded some 80,000 cases of water poisoning due to contaminated, highly salty water, with an average of 1,000 cases per day. That is in addition to increasing rates of cancer since the second Gulf War in 1991, during which Basra constituted one of the most affected provinces. Following the country’s expected defeat in the 1991 Gulf War, Basra became a gateway to the uprising against Saddam Hussein’s regime, which was very similar in nature to the uprisings in 2018, reflecting people’s resentment of the city’s deteriorating situation and the uncertain future.

The same bleak circumstances characterize Basra today. When the angried people of Basra took to the streets, they were demanding basic services. However, political conflict and regional polarization turned their angry demands into a mean gamble that took the lives of many.

Contamination by Burning

Basra has seen terrible years since 2003. The British occupation turned the city into a large-scale ‘no man’s land’ of deadly confrontations and settling of scores. From 2003 to 2009, when British troops were withdrawn, the city melted into an unrecognizable mess.

The social, cultural and musical aspects that had characterized Basra of the past have ebbed away, starting from the 1980 Iran War, the 1991 defeat of the second Gulf War followed by the disastrous economic blockade until 2003, and the subsequent bitter conflict between British forces and armed groups that were either backed by Iran, or other regional players to take over the city. Over the course of 15 years, resources were being drained, services were collapsing, and the corruption network was ever expanding.

Following the British withdrawal in 2010, the first sparks of popular protests took hold of the city against deteriorating services and sharp electricity shortages particularly in the scorching summer. That summer, the first protest victim in Basra and the country fell while calling on basic rights the new regime failed to provide.

Overcome with unrest, Basra had boiled over, over-populated, and reliant on decaying services and poor infrastructure.

In June 2015, protests took a more violent turn when a young man was killed in the town that was bombed by King Faisal in 1933. 17-year-old Muntadhar Al Helfi became a symbol for protestors across the country. However, the situation was only getting worse. In the same town, in front of the gate to the giant Al Rumailah Al Shamaliya oil field, bloody protests broke out across the country, after 26-year-old Saad Al-Mansouri, husband and father of 3 children, was killed in July 2018. Al Mansouri’s death lit the spark of protestors in six provinces in the south of Iraq, resulting in 20 victims killed and hundreds injured.  In Basra alone, 30 protestors were killed, hundreds injured, and dozens were arrested or kidnapped since Al Mansouri’s death in July and until mid-September.

The popular unrest was led by youth, eager and ambitious to change their miserable reality. This enthusiasm was used and fed by corrupt parties and criminal militias, along with Tehran and Washington, each fueling the tension and waiting for the spark that will engulf Basra in a deadly blaze.

Demands for basic services, soaring resentment of government failures, rejection of militia control and Iranian hegemony, deteriorating services, rising unemployment, toxicity and salinity of the city’s water sources, all played a role in sparking dramatic protests, unclear, and messy on all counts.

The starvation and poisoning of Basra

Basra has long suffered from the problem of water salinity, but this has now deteriorated to striking levels due to several contributing factors, including the failure of the political system, the theft of public funds and policies of neighboring Iran. Indeed, Iran has cut 35 main tributaries throughout Iraq, resulting in the loss of 80% of its water supplies. Iran unilaterally altered the path of two key tributaries, Al Wand and Al Karoun, which greatly impacted vast areas of agricultural land in the provinces of Basra, Wasit in the South Eastern region of Iraq and Diala in the North Eastern region of Iraq. Moreover, the Iranian government approved of a project to build 152 dams, some of which to control and allegedly conserve water coming into Iraq.

Iran gradually cut off the Karun River supply which runs straight into Shatt Al Arab, as well as the Karkheh River which flows into the marshes between Al-Amara, Al Nasiriya and Al Basra and maintains fresh water levels. Fifteen dams were built on the Karun River alone, and in 2013, Iranian authorities drained the river’s flow towards Basra completely, redirecting its flow towards the Zayanderud River in Isfahan. The Karun had previously pumped 14 billion cubic meters of freshwater annually into Shatt Al Arab.

While on the Karkheh River, which flows into the Iraqi Hawizeh Marshes, the largest dam in Iran was built, swallowing the waters entirely, with a storage capacity of 5.9 billion cubic meters and an electric production capacity of 520 MW.

Iran did not stop at cutting off fresh water sources, but it used dried tributaries to push saline drainage water towards Iraqi lands, to the point where harmful waters flooded much of the Iran – Iraq border near Basra, including border posts, forcing the population to retreat further into Iraqi lands to escape possible floods.

In November 2017, saline drainage waters from Iran reached unprecedented levels, threatening the collapse of the earth dam (a remnant of the Iraq-Iran war dams). Hence, salination posed one of the greatest threats to Basra, already suffering from high salinity, desertification, shrinking farmland, oil pollution and growing cancer rates.

According to Basra Water Directorate tests, salinity levels reached 8000 parts for every 1 million liters in the Sihan area, once famous for its orchards and palm trees. In the center of Basra, salinity levels reached 3000 parts. In both cases, the rates have exceeded normal levels and threaten to be poisonous and deadly.

Meanwhile, the Basra Agriculture Directorate states that Iranian saline water caused great damage to areas as deep as 100 km near Shatt al-Arab. The Director of the Basra Water Directorate confirms that salt concentration has increased dramatically since July 2017.

In June 2018, Iran cut off the power line that feeds Basra for huge sums of money, arguing that Iraq’s national debt has become too high and had to be repaid. Cutting the power line caused the city to plunge into darkness, unbearably hot, with the start of the summer season, which highly provoked the population.

Perhaps Iran, through this move, wanted to fight the United States who had begun imposing sanctions, preventing Iran from exporting oil through the Gulf.

Pressuring the population by cutting off power and increasing the flow of saline water into the country, Tehran speculated, would force the people of Basra to rise up against Washington’s ally, Haidar Al Abadi, hindering him from assuming a new government presidency, and proving to Washington its cunning maneuvers.

But the matter took a more disastrous turn for Iran, where Basra’s angered residents took out their grievances on Tehran, and set fire to all official buildings, party and militia headquarters. Angry protestors broke into the General Consulate of Iran in Basra, took down the flag and burned it before burning down the entire building, chanting and yelling: “Out, out with Iran… Basra remains free”

What at first seemed like a victory for youth and the disadvantaged quickly turned into greater domination. Following the events of that night, the Popular Mobilization Forces deployed thousands of its members throughout the city and announced the formation of ten voluntary brigades “Popular Resistance Forces”, similar to the Basij, one of the five forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

These forces, silently forming since early 2018, were tasked with intervening to resolve any future protests, and most importantly to penetrate them before they erupt. It is likely that these new forces will provide Iran greater maneuvering space to increase its dominance over Basra, in an experiment that could easily be replicated across Iraq’s provinces.

What happened in Basra was a gamble whose victims were the disadvantaged. Washington, who wanted to disrupt Iran’s prominence in Iraq through Basra, lost its chance yet again, and Tehran proved to be the strongest player, while the Americans were tilting at windmills.

Tehran neutralized Washington’s Prime Minister candidate, Haidar al-Abadi, and followed up with pre-set procedures. With the election of the Salim al-Jubouri as Speaker of the new Iraqi Parliament who has cozied up to Tehran and the Popular Mobilization Forces, and the disintegration of the Muqtada Al-Sadr – Abadi front, the path is clear for the formation of a dominant Iranian force in Iraq, originating from the bloody gamble for which Basra had paid a heavy price.