Statement van minister Koenders bij internationale conferentie in Washington over Irak

Toespraak | 20-07-2016

Thank you very much John, and thank you and Samantha for the generosity of our hosts today and efforts of our fellow co-hosts, Canada, Germany, Kuwait and Japan. I think that this pledging conference is extremely timely. Incredibly important if you look to the massive challenge ahead of us. And I think the liberation of Fallujah, resulting in many IDPs fleeing the town, illustrated that stepping up international support for Iraq is much needed.

I see my colleague from Iraq. I wanted to thank you also for the enormous actions that the Iraqi Security Forces are doing in expelling Da’esh from so many places in Iraq.

At the same time, terrorist attacks that have recently taken place across Baghdad – even across the world – stress the fact that we are nowhere near the total defeat of Da’esh; it is an octopus, it’s a snake with many heads. Therefore when we are dealing with this enemy, and the way we deal with the proper military engagement in the future weeks and months, we have to include the issue of proper planning of the humanitarian and political side. I think that is very, very important.

Da’esh thrives on instability and regional sectarianism. So this enemy cannot be defeated by military means alone. I think that is the crucial message for today. And it is also how we make a link between the military planning, the civilian planning and the proper humanitarian efforts, in a way that can lead to inclusiveness. I think that many people in Iraq at the moment feel deeply traumatized, humiliated, the object of bad governance from Da’esh and other actors. We need to create a local confidence with the government of Iraq to make sure that the humanitarian efforts are integrated in the planning of the actions that we will have to do in the next couple of weeks. And therefore this civilian – military cooperation, and coordination, we’ll talk about it I’m sure tomorrow, will partly decide to what extent our large humanitarian efforts will be successful.

One of the immediate challenges we face in our fight against ISIS is the liberation of Mosul, everybody has mentioned this, with over 1.5 million citizens, the largest city under Da’esh occupancy.

I think this will be an enormous challenge for all of us and the Iraqi government, most of all. And I think we must learn from the previous experiences.

We know that almost the entire remaining population will attempt to flee as soon as military operations start, requiring early, and we are not good at this frankly, very early humanitarian actions already in the planning, integrated with massive humanitarian preparations for the reception of so many that are in need of food, medical aid and a safe haven. And I want to commend the great work of the United Nations and others here present when we were dealing with the situation in Tirkrit.

We also learnt that, when military operations are concluded, most will want to return as soon as possible while Da’esh will have left the whole city booby-trapped. People must be urged not to return before mine assessments. That’s why this money for mine assessments is so important, have been made and most urgent clearing has been done. At the same time we have to continue this issue of mine awareness and so on and so forth.

I think also when we are planning in the humanitarian area of immediate projects and programs, but also in the medium and long term, that’s why there are these two Trust Funds of the UNDP, we learnt that reconciliation at local level, right from the start is of utmost importance. Every citizen should feel safe to return and be allowed to return under the same conditions, because if we don’t think that through, the seeds for a new Da’esh will be planted.

This process obviously must be lead by the Iraqi government, the Iraqi civil society and the international community, in service of that.

Only if inclusiveness and reconciliation form an integrated part of humanitarian stabilization and governance efforts can we achieve long-term stability in post- Da’esh territory. And therefore I think it is important in the coming weeks humanitarian actors are given proper warning of operations, meaning no lack in response to IDPs. This is very, very important and very complex, especially when the campaigns move forward.

In the end, it is key that we all step up in the time that there are so many humanitarian challenges for all of us. We know that many humanitarian appeals are simply not filled. I would like to say that it is very, very crucial, therefore John, I appreciate that you have organized this because we have to plan it right now if the humanitarian and development efforts are keeping pace with what is happening in the military arena.

The Dutch government has been engaged in this for many years, as a big donor. Today we all gathered here to scale up our efforts to meet the needs in Iraq. The Netherlands will contribute in 2016 only 65 Million for stabilization, demining, humanitarian aid and training of security forces in Iraq.

Immediate stabilization after liberation of a town is crucial, as we have successfully seen in Tikrit. That’s why this needs to be done inline with what I said about longer term reforms and making sure there is no demographic engineering.

We support this important work of the United Nations with 25 Million via the FFIS and FFES, immediate and expanded stabilization. In order to stabilize a region and in order to ensure safe return of the population, it is of the utmost importance that IEDs and explosives are being cleared and the populations receive mine awareness training. This is why, today, the Netherlands will start a new 4 year humanitarian demining programme of 45 Million Euro of which a substantial part will go to Iraq.  

Then we will support the humanitarian response in Iraq with 11 Million.

But funds are not the only issue for an effective response. As I said coordination and building local capacity is important that’s why we are engaged in this and also in the work that deals with the military training for the Iraqi security forces and Peshmergas in non-lethal assistance for clearing IEDs and explosive remnants. In 2016 we allocated 19 million of these efforts.

The Netherlands will continue to support these important efforts for a stable Iraq in the years to come. We hope and expect also that our Iraqi colleagues will continue to take the lead in ensuring that our current joint efforts will contribute to a long term stable, inclusive and prosperous future for the people of Iraq.

Thank you.