Reflections From a Life With the United Nations

Senior United Nations coordinator Wirya Qaradaxi. Photo Rudaw

Wirya Qaradaxi, a Kurd from Iraqi Kurdistan, has worked with the United Nations for two decades in a variety of roles all over the world. His work has involved everything from development projects in post-war Kosovo to coordinating with the Taliban in Afghanistan. In this interview with Rudaw, he shares stories of his travels and reflects on what he has learned, from Ho Chi Minh City to Nelson Mandela, about the challenges and opportunities facing the Kurds from observing political situations across the globe.

Rudaw: When did you start working for the United Nations?

Wirya Qaradaxi: I was teaching at Delft University in the Netherlands in the 1990s and I worked with a Chilean professor who was a refugee like me. He knew I was passionate about building houses for the poor and he told me that Europeans had already reached that goal. He told me I would be more useful helping the poor outside of Europe. He said he would help me start working with the United Nations through the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I wrote a request to the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs to work with the United Nations, and was accepted as a member of the Foreign Ministry. One year later, I was transferred to the United Nations. I have been working with the United Nations since 1991.

“ I met with Vietnamese leaders and they asked me where I was from, I told them Iraqi Kurdistan, but it seemed they had no knowledge of the Kurds,”Rudaw: How many different countries have you worked in with the United Nations?

Wirya Qaradaxi: I worked in South Africa and Zimbabwe between 1991 and 1994 as the United Nations Coordinator for Culture and Renovation. After 1994, I was transferred to Bangkok as the Regional Coordinator for Western Asia. In 1997, I was transferred to Bosnia, and then to Kosovo in 1999 when the country had just come out of the war. I gained great experience in renovating the cities there. Later, the United Nations requested for someone to go to Afghanistan to coordinate with the Taliban government.  At the time, no one wanted to take the risk, so I decided to go. In February of 2001, I went to Afghanistan when the Taliban was in power. I stayed for two and a half years until the fall of the Taliban government in September 2001.

After that, the United Nations requested for someone to go to Sri Lanka to coordinate between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan government during the ceasefire between the rebels and the government. I spent seven years in Sri Lanka as the regional advisor for the United Nations. The first two years, I was the Regional Advisor for the Affairs of South Asian countries, which included India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives and Sri Lanka. The United Nations wanted me there longer because of my experience in the region. When I finished my time there, I was transferred to Kirghizstan as the U.N. Regional Director.                    

Rudaw: You were in Vietnam for a while. Did the Vietnamese people know anything about the Kurds?

Wirya Qaradaxi: Vietnam has a language issue. The people of Saigon, which is now Ho Chi Minh City, speak English and French, because this city was the Americans’ capital during the Vietnam War. The people of this city have no knowledge on what is happening outside Vietnam. They are not familiar with outside political events. Every time I met with Vietnamese leaders and they asked me where I was from, I told them Iraqi Kurdistan, but it seemed they had no knowledge of the Kurds. Once, with Vietnam’s deputy foreign minister, I was in a place that had been heavily bombarded by the Americans during the Vietnam War. He asked me if I was an Arab and I said I was a Kurd. He immediately mentioned Barzani. He said, “We know the Kurds.”       

Rudaw: The Vietnamese had a revolution. Did they have the same issues after their revolution as we currently have in Kurdistan?

“I saw Nelson Mandela three times and told him about the Kurds.”

Wirya Qaradaxi: No. In Vietnam, people cannot criticize the government because it is a one-party rule, which is communist. When we were talking with the youth, they were not happy with their government. They were saying their government was a dictatorship and they wanted freedom, even though the government tried hard to make them happy by doing many things for the youth. After two years, when I returned to Vietnam, many things had changed. The youth were playing a significant social and political role. Vietnam is one of those countries which grew rapidly economically because the government allowed the youth to have a significant role in business and technology. The Vietnamese are known for being inventors. The inventions I saw in Vietnam I have never seen anywhere else in the world.     

Rudaw: In Africa, you went to the Sutu and Zulu tribes. How did that happen?

Wirya Qaradaxi: My office in Listu, South Africa was in the capital Masir. I usually worked outside the capital, about 60 kilometers away, where a bloody battle took place between the English and the Dutch as well as the Sutu and Zulu tribes. The king of the Zulus was Zulu, who was based in Natal. I went to the Sutu palace and their king was Mashushu. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the English and the Dutch engaged in a bloody battle in South Africa.

The United Nations wanted to revive their culture and tell them that they also had a civilization like the white people and one of their civilization’s symbols was a castle that was destroyed to the ground. It was our duty to find that castle. We went to their region but there was no written indication to tell us where to find the castle.

The United Nations wanted to inspire them and make them proud of their culture. We found many things during our search. We even found the king’s dagger. We created a map using a big kite with a camera attached to it to take pictures. We took pictures and numbered them. Among the things we found were items that belonged to a German guy who came to explore the area. When we asked the people of the tribe about this German man they said it was true that he came there, but that they ate him. I suggested that the United Nations build a museum in the area so the people would know they had a culture. They believed civilization started when the white people came to South Africa in 1570. They didn’t know they had a culture. We found many unique things. They crafted animal pictures on the side of the mountains. When we investigated the pictures, we found some of them dated back to 1,200 years ago, so the people of the area gradually realized that they had inherited a rich civilization.

“The Kurds deserve to have their own country, because they never give up.”

I visited them again in 2000 and they gave me a king’s welcome. The place where I was staying was named Taba Busi. In their language, “Taba” means “mountain” and “Busi” means “black.” My last name, Qaradaxi, means “black mountain,” so they always called me Mr. Taba Busi. They named one of their children Wirya. They didn’t know what Wirya meant, but they named him after me.

Rudaw: Were you able to see Nelson Mandela when you were in South Africa?

Wirya Qaradaxi: I saw Nelson Mandela three times and told him about the Kurds. One time, I saw him at his birthday party and shook his hand. I wished him a happy birthday on behalf of the Kurds. I told him I hoped to celebrate his birthday someday in Kurdistan. He laughed and said he knew the Kurds well and that the Kurds were a smart nation. The second time I saw him he had just become president after the 1994 election, and he invited us to his presidential palace. When I walked into his residence, I saw one of his guards wearing a shirt with a picture of Saddam Hussein on it. I didn’t like that. When I walked inside, I shook hands with Mandela and called him “madiba,” which means “king” in their language.

I congratulated him on behalf of the Kurds and said I hoped a person like him, who had spent 27 years in prison for freedom, would notice the Kurdish cause. Later, I told him about his guard, and he replied that not everyone in the country was aware of what was happening around the world. He said, “Don’t worry about that guard; only worry if he becomes like Saddam.”

Then he asked me what the Kurdish situation was like at that point. I told him. He said, “Maybe you and I will not see a free Kurdistan, but someday the next generations will have their independent country. The Kurds deserve to have their own country, because they never give up.” I recorded these words for myself.  Mandela admired the Kurds and cared about oppressed nations. In 1997, I was in Thailand when Mandela came to Singapore. The South African ambassador said Mandela’s plane would stop in Bangkok on the way back to South Africa and we planned to hold a small birthday party for him. I was able to see him in Thailand. I went to him and asked, “Do you recognize me?” He said, “Aren’t you the Kurd?” I said yes. He asked what I was doing in Thailand. I told him I was there to help the people and he told me I was doing a good job. “These people need help like the Kurds,” he said.        

Rudaw: Often people demand that those who participated in the genocidal Anfal campaign be put on trial. Do you think what Archbishop Desmond Tutu did in South Africa could be done here as well?

“All countries that go through war have corruption issues.”

Wirya Qaradaxi: We have a different history. We were always killed and slaughtered. Usually, a society centered in the Islamic religion has the spirit of revenge and killing. The Muslims in Malaysia and Indonesia are calmer; they don’t have the spirit of revenge and killing, because their background is Buddhism. The closer one is to the badu society, the more there is a spirit of revenge. We are close to the badu. We have received this from them and from the religion. Desmond Tutu was always saying that Jesus said, “If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other one to him also.” This verse played a (significant) role. I believe that if someone had attempted to do the same as Tutu did in Kurdistan, he would have been killed.

Rudaw: Nelson Mandela withdrew from the ANC because of corruption. In Kurdistan, we have never seen any leader resign as a result of corruption. Kurdistan went through a revolution and now it has a government. You have seen some countries similar to Kurdistan. What do you think should be done in Kurdistan?