Are Protective Sanctions Appropriate
in the case of the Mosul Vilayet (Northern Iraq)?

by  Hamma Sidik Mahmoud, Chairman of the first Mosul Vilayet Council General Assembly,
and  Anton Keller, Adviser of the Mosul Vilayet Council  -  27 August 1999
cp. 2580, 1211 Geneva 2  -  t+f:  +4122-7400362  -  swissbit@solami.com
url:  www.solami.com/MVmem.htm ¦ homepage:  .../mvc.htm ¦ .../assyriansawake.htm
.../UNGA.htm ¦ .../unity.htm ¦ .../recres.htm ¦ .../forward.htm


This map was composed on the basis of those attached to the
1925 Report of the League of Nations Commission of Inquiry on the Mosul Vilayet
(reproduced from: P.E.J.Bomli, "L'Afaire de Mossoul", H.J. Paris, Amsterdam 1929).

According to the Report by HM's Government to the League Council on the Administration of Iraq for the year 1929 (p.71), the 1920 census revealed:

vilayets  surface km2 Sunnites Shiites Jews Christians    total

Baghdad   141227      524414      750421    62565     20771    1360304
Basra         138741        42558      721414    10088       2551      785600
Mosul          91009      579713        22180    14835     55470      703378

total            370977    1146685   1494015    87488     78792    2849282

1.    According to an internal UN document of April 1992,

2.    Iraq was granted independence in 1932 under conditions reflecting the particular conditions and needs of the ethnic, cultural and religious communities living in this history-ladden area.  In order to effectively protect its divers inhabitants, even more stringent conditions were formally attached to its Northern part, the Mosul Vilayet.  This ancient crossroad area has been a bone of contention of the powers that be from time immemorial until now, be it notably between the Medeans and the Assyrians, the Sassanis and the Babylonians, Alexander and Darius, the Greek and the Farsians, Muslims and Zaratostrians, Caucasians and Abassians, Turks and Arabs, Englishmen and Frenchmen, Englishmen (on behalf of future Iraq) and Turks, WW2 Allied and Germans.

3.    In international law, the conditions attached to Iraq's independence still fully apply, at least in the opinion of the UN Secretary-General (E/367/Add.1) which, essentially, was based on a 1950 ruling by the International Court of Justice, proclaiming:

4.    Indeed, as pointed out in said internal UN Memorandum of April 1992: 5.    With regard to the economic sanctions the UN Security Council imposed on Iraq in the wake of the latter's invasion of Kuwait (SCR 686), the memorandum continues: 6.    The Mosul Vilayet and its inhabitants, in international law, are thus seen as being subject to special protection and considerations. Whether, in law, these formal guarantees stand in the way of the present sanctions regime appears as academic as whether a car hitting a pedestrian on a sidewalk may legally do that when on a humanitarian emergency mission.  More relevant seems to be whether the authors of the emergency mission may not want to consider reviewing that unwittingly harmful emergency mission and, in the event, redefining it in line with the set objectives, the legitimate interests of the peoples involved and other relevant facts.  This is the more so as a closer analysis shows that the Mosul Vilayet, at present and in the future, too can be seen as one of the Middle East's strategically most important areas, notably in terms of:
a)   geography (its 91009 km2 cover the area's main commercial and cultural crossroads; it borders on Iran, Turkey, Syria and Iraq's Baghdad Vilayet, and it avails itself also for a strategic transit pipeline from the Caspian Sea Basin via Iran and Syria to the Mediterranean);
b)   oil and gas reserves, notably the Kirkuk oil field (according to the oil expert of the U.S. Library of Congress, Joseph P.Riva, "The large Arabian-Iranian downwarp sedimentary basin contains by far the richest petroleum province in the world." "It is to this region that the U.S. and the world must turn for oil in the future.");
c)   water resources and agricultural land (situated in the middle part of the Tigris basin, it embraces the climatically mild and highly fertile catchment area of the Great Zab and the Small Zab rivers);
d)   sanctuaries of the three One God religions: recent research indicates that the Mosul Vilayet may be part of the Biblical Garden of Eden; the view of some Kurdish scholars who attribute the first founding of Suleimanyia to King Salomon on the basis of an SLM seal uncovered there finds some further support in recent research; and on the central hill of Arbil (its name signifies Four Gods) the main walls of what some describe as the remains of a four thousand years old fort and/or religious vestige (zigurat?) are mostly still in place and readily avail themselves not only for archeological research but also, in the event, for housing the SLM Center for the study of monotheism which is increasingly being supported also by world religious leaders, e.g. by the Grand Imam of Al Azhar, and
e)   ethnic and religious mix: the population living in both the government-controlled and the UN-controlled parts of the Mosul Vilayet is estimated to total some 8 millions at present, whereas the 1920 census revealed a population of 703378, with579713 Sunnites (mostly Kurds) 22180 (mostly Arab Shiites), 14835 Jews and 55470 Christians (mostly Assyrians).

7.    Like in a few other parts of the former Ottoman Empire, the conditions at that time provided for this cultural and religious mix to be a peaceful and mutually fruitful one.  With proper vision, support and guidance, the future of the Mosul Vilayet inhabitants may again be bright and exemplary.  To this effect, the Iraqi people's ingenuity and capacity to sort out their own problems and find their own way may best be helped step by step and in mutual accord.  Indeed, and as suggested in the UN paper "PROPOSED CONFLICT RESOLUTION PATHWAYS FOR IRAQ" (E/CN.4/1994/NGO/48), the Mosul Vilayet could serve as an non-prejudicial pilot area whose administration might be entrusted to the UN (with Jordan and Turkey being invited to play helpful roles).

8.    Accordingly, the involved and other parties, at the initiative of an interested government, may be invited to participate in working out a step-by-step formula which - like that developed by the Mosul Vilayet Council - could build on the special protection written into Iraq's constitutive document of 1932 the continued validity of which, incidently, has never been questioned by the Government of Iraq.  As such, this formula could lead to a prompt exemption of the entire Mosul Vilayet from all sanctions, providing for an area of self-financed humanitarian relief, regeneration and recreation for the whole of Iraq.  It could be designed to meet the legitimate interests of all concerned and thus promis to hold the road into the next Millennium.  This, of course, could include full payment of the services required from the United Nations - but it need not continue its bailout on the back of the "internationally protected" proprietors of the Mosul Vilayet's vast oil resources.  It will be up for imaginative and enlightened diplomats to work out whether this interim or medium-term solution will look like a traditional mandate for the UN or for some of its members, a confederation, or a federation within a renewed Iraq.

9.    The negociations leading to such a dignified way out of the regionally destabilizing persistent humanitarian disaster in Iraq should involve notably the American, British, French, German, Russian and Turkish governments.  Even if discredited, the present local power holders (be they called Saddam, Barzani, Talabani, etc.) need not be excluded from this process.  But care should be taken that their eventual participation will in no way be at the expense of the rights and legitimate interests of the local communities, or be carried out on the back of their representatives at home and abroad (e.g. the Assyrians' Secretary-General in Chicago, the Representative of the Turkomans in Ankara, the head of the Yezidis in Germany and the Representative of the Mosul Vilayet Council in Geneva).