The Kuwait Conflict and the Iraqi Refugee Crisis 1991 - Coursework Example

The Kuwait Conflict and the Iraqi Refugee Crisis 1991 Iraqi Kurdish and Arab Shias had been always in discussion of international politics. Iraqi Kurdish and Arab Shias represent civilians of Iraq who were repressed by Iraqi government during every conflict that took place in Iraq. Iraqi Kurdish and Arab Shias were repressed by the Iraqi government and were not given their basic rights and as a result international response was received widely. United Nations Security Council resolution 688 was a helpful resolution in the best interest of Iraqi Kurdish and Arab Shias. In this paper we shall discuss why revolts took place in Iraq. We shall also discuss how invasion of Kuwait, Gulf war and refugee crisis added more into the grievance of Iraqi Kurdish and Arab Shias. The conflict between Iraq and Kuwait had been one of the complex conflict took place among the Arab countries. The year that led to the conflict between Iraqi Kurds and Arab Shias was 1991 but a number of series of issues that were observed in the past years of the relation between Kuwait and Iraq (Leary, McGarry and Salih). If one would study the past of both the states then it comes to our observation that the relationship between the two states were never friendly though the situation was noted to get better during 1970s. The connection of the dispute is interrelated with the Iraq’s interaction with the Kurdish rebellion that further heated the consequences against Arab Shias. The relationship between Kuwait and Iraq was noted to be improved as Kuwait helped Iraq during the war of Iran-Iraq. But it became less important step for Iraq after the war as the relationship between Saudi Arabia and Iraq were better than the relationship of Kuwait and Iraq. The invasion thus took place in Kuwait due to the interrelated causes from the history. The invasion of Kuwait by Iraq created many conflicts for Iraqi Kurdish and Arab Shias against Iraqi government (Leary, McGarry and Salih). The grievances of Iraqi Kurdish rose against Iraq after the Iraq-Iran war as well. In actual terms Iraqi Kurdish lead a more nomadic life and always supported Iraq during the war with Iran. But Saddam Hussein took a wrong approach towards Iraqi Kurdish as they were attacked by Iraqi troops as the orders were given by Saddam Hussein to wipe off peasants. The approach of the Iraqi government gave rise to the problems of refugees. The refugee issue created a battle front of grievance of Iraqi Kurdish and Arab Shias against Iraq. Iraqi Kurdish continued and Arab Shias opposed Iraqi armed forces which were attacking them in the form of troops. The refugees moved to the region of Turkey and Iran as Iraq government reached to its height of suppressing Iraqi Kurdish in north and Arab Shias in south (Leary, McGarry and Salih). The grievance of Arab Shias and Iraqi Kurdish came on front in the form of revolts right after the gulf war in 1991. The revolts occurred in northern and southern region by Iraqi Kurdish and Arab Shias respectively. The reason behind the revolts was noted to be the repression on the civilians by Saddam Hussein. Among the revolts that took place in Iraq against the devastation by Iraqi government, Arab Shias parties were the first who attacked Iraqi army troops in the southern region of Iraq. The second category of revolts was conducted in the northern region of Iraq. Iraqi Kurdish parties sustained the pressure of Iraqi army forces and then continued. In such a way the revolts which took place in the north turned up into a civil war (Leary, McGarry and Salih). The civil war that was conducted by Iraqi Kurdish helped the inhabitants to get a region of their own rule namely Kurdistan. In the beginning, Iraqi army troops did not consider the Iraqi Kurdish rule as devastating or strong but later on it became a challenge for the Iraqi armed forces to counter Kurdistan. It was estimated that a great deal of Iraqi armed forces had to block Kurdistan because they were not able to get inside the region for direct counter of Iraqi Kurdish as they were the civilians of Iraq. Iraqi armed forces had to use the techniques of stranding around the areas of Kurdistan with a supply of tanks and weapons. Iraqi armed forces tried their level best to put barrier in front of revolts by Iraqi Kurdish. Iraqi armed forces had to block all the supplies of resources that were being sent to Kurdistan (Leary, McGarry and Salih). The international response that was received by the Kurdish people was in the form of defense. Turkey defended the Iraqi Kurdish by air attacks. Turkey became under the threat of Britain because Britain was totally against the Iraqi Kurdish revolts against the Iraqi armed forces. Following the response of Turkey as a help of Iraqi Kurdish, Iran also provide Iraqi Kurdish with the competing assistance with the help of weapons and military techniques to confront and compete Iraqi armed forces. It had been observed that the refugee crisis, invasion of Kuwait by Iraq and gulf war led to the circumstances where the Iraqi Kurdish and Arab Shias contributed to revolts against the Iraqi government. A series of revolts took place and thus issues continued which made the political hegemony complexly impossible for Iraqi government. Following the Iraqi Kurdish and Arab Shias disputes with the Iraqi government, United Nations also contributed to resolve the problematic conflicts between both the parties. A very prominent contribution of United Nations in this regard is known as United Nations Security Council Resolution 688. This resolution was observed in the year 1991 as a reply of the suggestion by Iran, Turkey and France for the safeguard of Iraqi citizens including Iraqi Kurdish and Arab Shias. The repression of Iraq’s government was the basis of United Nations Security Council Resolution 688. With the help of United Nation Security Council Resolution 688, it became very helpful for the Iraqi Kurdish people to raise their voices against the Iraqi government. United Nations insisted Iraqi government to provide a report for the accusation against the repression by the government (Leary, McGarry and Salih). The resolution of crisis that was laid by Iraqi Kurdish and Arab Shias was backed by a number of different countries and above all United Nation Security Council Resolution 688. Right after the Gulf war and invasion of Kuwait, refugee’s crisis were observed that added more in the turmoil and complication faced by Kurdish and Arab Shias. According to some of the historians, the grievance of Iraqi Kurdish and Arab Shias that was observed in the form revolts was also due to the fact that they were not given their rights. Living peaceful lives with their security seemed to be impossible and thus they had to migrate to other places. People who never wanted to migrate became stern on their belief and showed their grievance against Iraqi government during every mishap such as invasion of Kuwait, refugee crisis, and gulf war etc. (Leary, McGarry and Salih). Through the above analysis of the position of Iraqi Kurdish and Arab Shias, their grievance against Iraqi government, it becomes visible that revolts took place in Iraq because they were not provided with their basic rights. The refugee crisis was another dimension that received international response from France, Turkey etc. As a result of international response United Nations Security Council resolution 688 and resolution of crisis took place in 1991 which was in best interest of Iraqi Kurdish and Arab Shias. Works Cited Leary, B., McGarry, J. and Salih, K. The Future of Kurdistan in Iraq. Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006.   Read More