The nation builders
LT Kate Noble reports on the contrasts between Baghdad and some of Iraq’s rural areas, where attacks are rare and reconstruction efforts are resulting in rapid change.

Group Captains Chris McHugh (centre) and Peter Wilkinson with a tour guide at the entrance to the Babylon Ruins and Museum. The Coalition Provisional Authority, South Central, is funding the refurbishment of the museum, the Research Centre and the murals in the courtyard (in the background).

Photo by LT Kate Noble

WE head out of the city in a two-vehicle convoy on Highway 8.

The traffic is reasonably heavy and slowed on occasion by traffic control points manned by Iraqi police.

An hour and several checkpoints later is the gravel turn-off to Al Hillah. Group Captain Chris McHugh is driving the first vehicle in the convoy. As locals farming the roadside crops look up and wave he returns their greeting.

It is near the end of GPCAPT McHugh’s six-month deployment as Chief of Operations and Projects at the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), South Central.

With his focus on reconstruction projects, he has coordinated millions of dollars worth of reconstruction projects spread across and beyond Babil Province.

Through these projects, he has established strong relationships with CPA staff and the locals.

These relationships – particularly with the local population – were hard won. GPCAPT McHugh recalls a very different Al Hillah when he arrived in May.

The 1st Marine Expeditionary Force that controlled the area came under small-arms and RPG attacks almost daily.

“It was very bare. Local residents were scared to move around and go outdoors, concerned about the fighting that was going on.

There was no-one on the roads and the locals were highly suspicious of the Coalition – they didn’t know who we were or what we were about,” GPCAPT McHugh said.

It was clear to him and other senior staff at CPA that engaging the local people would be a significant challenge that had to be overcome as quickly as possible. They began by engaging the local sheiks and anyone else willing to speak with them.

Their initial strategy was to begin work on “high visibility, high impact” operations.

One of these early projects involved repairs to elevators at the Najaf Hospital. The cost of the project was a comparatively modest $US10,000 but the locals’ response was overwhelmingly positive.

“The impact was immediate on the whole community. Elevators might seem a small issue, but the logistical and health impacts of having to carry critically ill and injured patients up four flights of stairs from the emergency ward to intensive care were huge,” GPCAPT McHugh said.

Other earlier works included the “deconstruction projects”, an initiative that he instigated and one that gave him and others a real sense of satisfaction.

“My thoughts were to take down all the bomb-damaged buildings that had belonged to the previous regime.

We didn’t realise the effect that was going to have until we actually started. We had contractors coming up to us and saying ‘I’ll do that for free’.

One guy took us through the building that had been headquarters for the secret police. He showed us huge hooks on the wall and the roof used to hang people from. Then he showed us the scars on his legs from when they did that to him.”

The early completion of successful projects such as these allowed CPA SC to make significant inroads. GPCAPT McHugh said local communities, assisted by CPA, had made phenomenal progress.

From his perspective, Iraqis are picking up the concept of democracy very quickly.

At one end of the spectrum are local governors and community leaders who are being taught how to maintain transparency and accountability, how to engage their constituency and prioritise public works in a fair and democratic way.

At the other end are farmers and manual labourers amazed to find out that they will help decide who makes the decisions for their communities.

GPCAPT McHugh points out that these concepts, taken for granted by Australians, are completely foreign to a people that grew up in a nation characterised by intrinsic corruption and deprivation.

“I think everyone has a milestone that they chose early on and when that milestone is reached, that’s when you know things really have come ahead in leaps and bounds,” he said. “I’d picked a small town called Somelym.

The first time we drove through that town the streets were totally empty. A couple of days ago we drove through the main street of Somelym and it took us 10 minutes, there were so many people out and about and the markets were thriving.”

In recent months CPA has funded the establishment of the Human and Women’s Rights Association for the Babil Governorate. GPCAPT McHugh took great pleasure in the irony of allocating and refurbishing a former Ba’ath Party recreational club as the Association’s headquarters.

Despite all the progress, GPCAPT McHugh was always conscious of the threat that still exists in Iraq. While this became less of a concern in rural areas, he often had to move through more dangerous areas to attend meetings.

“Always in the back of our mind is the small percentage of the population here who are trying to kill us.

And really, it’s like political opposition in any country – it’s just so much more violent,” he said.

“The country is just so different to what we’re used to and we really are aliens here. The locals tell us we’re like aliens, but they’ll say, ‘you’re nice aliens’. They know we’re here to help them and make a change. Around here they treat us like guests.”

GPCAPT McHugh completed his hand-over with Group Captain Peter Wilkinson in late October and has returned to Australia.

He said his lasting impression of Iraq as he left it would be one of stark contrasts.

“To stand at a mass grave site and feel the sadness that emanates from that place is a very confronting experience.

To know that there are thousands of people buried or partially buried within a quarter of a mile of where you’re standing and that they were killed using chainsaws or shot or even buried alive,” he said.

“And then to contrast that sadness with people’s joy when they realise that their thoughts and opinions matter, that’s pretty amazing.

Helping people to understand the concepts of freedom and democracy really is the best thing I’ve ever done here.”

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