James Hider, The Times correspondent in Baghdad, says “Tal Afar is quickly becoming a symbol of the failure of US policy in Iraq.”
(To read my earlier story on the horrific revenge killings in Iraq please click here…)
“The Americans have been in there twice before as part of two huge operations. They pacified the situation, but each time they handed it over to the Iraqi security forces the problems started again.
“There are a number of reasons for this.
“Tal Afar is a very sensitive place. It is ethnically very mixed and it is also a big smuggling route from Syria towards Mosul. In Mosul there is a very large Sunni population with links to Saddam Hussein. He did much of his recruiting there, and many of the current Sunni residents of the area were his officers until the Americans sacked them. This has created a pool of resentment and an excellent recruiting ground of Sunni anger in the area.
“In addition, the fact that off-duty police officers were involved in today’s shooting implies that the Shia militias, in particular the Mahdi Army, are having no difficulty in recruiting members of the local police to their cause.
“These are the very police that the Americans were counting on to ensure calm and order to the town when US troops left…
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.