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26 November 2008
This Week from Washington — November 21
Podcast on Iraq, writers’ work to promote human rights
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Today, America.gov examines the status of military forces in Iraq and the work of writers in the advancement of freedom.
In Baghdad, Iraq’s Cabinet has approved a new U.S.-Iraqi security agreement calling for a full withdrawal of American forces from the country by the end of 2011.
The agreement is now in Iraq’s parliament for debate and approval. White House officials welcomed the Iraqi Cabinet’s vote as another step forward for Iraq’s democracy. In addition to setting a withdrawal date, the agreement would place new limits on U.S. forces operating in Iraq beginning in January 2009. The United States also agreed to an Iraqi request giving Iraqi authorities the right to prosecute serious crimes committed by off-duty American personnel outside their bases.
The process affirmed the idea that Iraq and the United States are two free, sovereign states dealing with one another, and that those two sovereign states must answer to their publics.
Since 2003, U.S.-led coalition forces have operated in Iraq under a U.N. Security Council resolution that expires at the end of 2008. U.S. and Iraqi officials seek to replace the U.N. mandate and continue security cooperation through a status of forces agreement — a pact authorizing the presence of U.S. troops and outlining their activities in Iraq. The United States has concluded similar agreements with 78 other countries worldwide, including Germany, Japan, South Korea and several of Iraq’s Gulf neighbors. U.S. officials say that without the legal foundation offered by the accord, all coalition-led military operations would cease in Iraq.
American and Iraqi diplomats began negotiations in March, hoping to conclude the agreement by midsummer. Talks continued into the fall as negotiators on both sides tried to create a security arrangement that could be accepted by officials in Baghdad and Washington.
Since June 2007, when an increase in troops began to bolster security across the country, civilian deaths due to violence have decreased by 80 percent. The number of overall attacks by insurgents has decreased by 86 percent. And Iraqi security force deaths have fallen by 84 percent. In the same period, U.S. military deaths in Iraq have declined by 87 percent, coalition military deaths in Iraq have fallen 88 percent and sectarian-related deaths have decreased by 95 percent.
Literary artists are among the fiercest critics of human rights abuses worldwide. Writers such as Havel, Solzhenitsyn, Soyinka and countless others have demonstrated that literary art can be a potent weapon against tyranny, corruption and injustice. They shine a spotlight on many of the world’s ills and the regimes that perpetuate them. These are writers of conscience who are doing their part to address urgent problems and hold authorities accountable.
In the 1960s, the works of dissident novelist Alexander Solzhenitsyn of Russia exposed the Soviet labor-camp system. Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1970, but his fame did not protect him from persecution. He was forced into exile in 1974. He eventually settled in the United States, living as a virtual recluse before finally returning to Russia in 1994.
Solzhenitsyn’s fight against authoritarian rule is similar to the battles fought by many authors, including Czech writer, playwright and politician Vaclav Havel. Havel was a prominent dissenter against Soviet control of his homeland. He used the theater as a platform to attack totalitarian regimes. Although his political activism earned him several prison stays, Havel triumphed during the 1989 “Velvet Revolution” that propelled him into the presidency of Czechoslovakia, later renamed the Czech Republic.
Nigeria’s Wole Soyinka is a writer, poet and playwright and has been an outspoken critic of many Nigerian administrations. Much of his writing has focused on what he calls “the oppressive boot and the irrelevance of the color of the foot that wears it.” Soyinka’s activism came at great personal cost. He was arrested in 1967 during the Nigerian Civil War and placed in solitary confinement for his attempts to bring peace between warring factions. Released 22 months later, after international attention was drawn to his imprisonment, he left Nigeria in voluntary exile. Soyinka received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1986, the first sub-Saharan African to be so honored.
This podcast is produced by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of International Information Programs. Links to other Internet sites or opinions expressed should not be considered an endorsement of other content and views.
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