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December 31, 2004
Troops sound pipe of peace for Basra tribes
Topics: Middle East News and PerspectivesTimes Online-World Jan 01, 2005
IT IS the kind of simple solution to a complex problem that the rest of Iraq can only dream of: the Scots Guards have brought a new year peace to two tribes of warring Marsh Arabs in a small muddy corner of Basra.
(Click image to enlarge- Scots Guardsman Neil 'Basha' MacRae exercises his bagpipes ahead of Hogmanay celebrations in southern Iraq
The Halaf and Garamsha people have been at loggerheads for as long as their chiefs can remember. Trouble originally flared when the Garamsha moved into traditionally Halaf areas after Saddam Hussein drained the marshes near Basra because they had become a safe haven for the Shia people.
The Halaf are a wealthy tribe of doctors, lawyers and other professionals; the Garamsha are an impoverished warrior tribe of dispossessed Marsh Arabs who farm water buffalo and resort to highway robbery to survive.
But when their age-old rivalry descended into open warfare and began to disrupt the main supply route from Basra to al-Amarah last autumn, the Scots Guards stepped in and attempted to settle the old conflict once and for all. Continue reading...
Posted by Hyscience at December 31, 2004 10:41 PM
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