Defence

Cover story

On the ground in the 'Green Zone'

By Kathryn Fitch

Side stories: The Green zone.... Organised chaos, says Jacinta Carroll | On receiving the medal

Photo by Jacinta Carroll

The intimate gathering in a hushed room, with Lake Burley Griffin sparkling through the window in the late afternoon sun is a million miles away from noisy, crowded Iraq. The gathered throng are here in honour of the three recipients of the Humanitarian Overseas Service medal, which was established in 1999 to honour members of recognised Australian groups that render humanitarian service overseas in hazardous circumstances.

The room is hushed as Secretary of Defence, Ric Smith, gives a short speech recognising the efforts of Corey Monaghan, Leigh McJames and Jacinta Carroll to help rebuild the Iraqi Ministry of Defence. Each is presented with their medal and the Chief of the Defence Force steps forward to close the ceremony. He acknowledges the team effort in Iraq and the partnership between the civilians and the men and women in uniform, finishing by saying he's very proud of them all.

An outsider might not immediately understand the significance of this event, but the extraordinary contribution these three people made in Iraq is the sort of thing history is made of.

Early in 2004, they arrived in Iraq and spent the next 200 days working with 10 other specialists from Coalition countries like Portugal, Spain and the UK, to rebuild the Iraqi Ministry of Defence - literally from scratch.

"We started with a blank sheet of paper because it had been dismantled after Saddam. We were there to assist with the creation of a new Ministry of Defence that was free of cronyism and corruption," Mr McJames says.

It was a big ask. While the blank sheet of paper created a certain amount of freedom to create a better model, there was nowhere to house the new Ministry, nor people to man it. With 35 years of corruption and the ongoing unrest, it was going to take a lot of hard work to get it up and running.

"When we got there we said, 'Okay, where's the plan and how far have you got?', they told us they'd been waiting for us to arrive. That was on 31 January and we were due to hand over sovereignty, and the new Defence and Security organisations, to the Iraqis on 30 June," Ms Carroll says.

So the three Australians and their Coalition colleagues rolled their sleeves up and did what needed to be done. Working 16-hour days and six and a half days a week, in what can only be called the most difficult of conditions, became the norm.

A four-member panel interviewed 1,000 potential Ministry candidates. They interviewed 100 people a day, 10 people at a time. The interview panel was looking for potential leadership skills and honesty in the candidates, rather than military experience. Forty potential candidates were selected from the initial group. They were then observed for three months before the final 20 appointments were made. Mr McJames says the bravery of these Iraqis should not be underplayed.

"These are good and brave people. We may have lived and worked in the comparatively secure 'Green Zone', but at the end of the day the Iraqis had to go home. Outside of the 'Green Zone' they were subjected to coercion and death threats. They kept fronting up each day because they believed in what they were a part of, what they were doing. But they were in real danger - three of the five Iraqis that I interviewed have since been assassinated," he says.

While the recruitment process was being carried out, the team was also lobbying to use the Old Iraqi National Assembly building for the new Ministry of Defence. Ms Carroll says Leigh McJames was pivotal in this process.

"Leigh led the project to rebuild the National Assembly building and an old primary school across the road that had also been badly damaged. He had the school up and running in time for the first 20 Ministry of Defence people to commence work. He then gradually worked through the wings of the National Assembly, which had been used back in the 1950s and 60s before Saddam took over. It's a magnificent building and symbolic for the Iraqis, but it had been severely damaged because it was the headquarters for a major Baathist party. So it wasn't just org charts and conceptual stuff - although we did that as well - Leigh was actually in there and making it happen," she says.

One of the challenges in developing the organisation was the cultural difference. Ms Carroll reports that there is a significant difference in the relationship between the military and politics. While there is an assumption of the separation of these two elements in Australia, Iraqis have lived under a Military dictatorship for the last 35 years. Consequently, the idea that the Military is above civilians, in terms of the law, was ingrained. Ms Carroll therefore had to develop a training package that demonstrated how civilian and military people work together in a democratic society.

"Iraqis are more focussed on relationships than on impersonal things such as structures and processes. One of the keys to affecting changes to existing processes was to understand it wasn't as important to them. You can't impose different systems, but you can teach principles. They want a democracy, and people were very interested in learning what that entailed," Ms Carroll says.

The third recipient of the Humanitarian Overseas Services medal, Corey Monaghan says that other members of the International Coalition team brought valuable experience that helped them build a model that met Iraq's needs.

"We learnt a lot from the Czech and Romanian representatives who had had experience in establishing a fledgling democracy. The resulting structure may have an Australian flavour, but only because their support needs are similar. It's a model that they own," he says.

Back in Australia, and reflecting on their experiences, the three medal recipients feel compelled to mention the Iraqi sense of humour and spirit. Mr Monaghan perhaps sums it up best.

"The people have such a beauty of spirit. It is an incredible country. The majority of people are like you and I - out to make some money and create a better quality of living for their family. I have never worked so hard in my life, but it was incredibly rewarding," he says.

[ top of page ]

[ top of page ]