Zinda 1 April 2006

Khubba Khuyada Aturaya was Born in the Iraqi Desert

Mikhael K. Pius
California

The first organized Assyrian national movement was born in 1942 in Iraq. The Movement, Khubba Khuyada Aturaya, meaning Assyrian Love and Unity, was known as Khait-Khait or Khait-Khait-Allap (KKA). Its seed was planted among a group of Royal Air Force Assyrian employees in the barren desert of southern Iraq and a year later its sprout was transplanted in the more expansive and fertile environment of CC (Civil Cantonment) of RAF Station of Habbaniya where a few thousand RAF Assyrian employees lived, with their families. The seed was a potent byproduct of an Assyrian nationalistic love felt by courageous Assyrian patriots. It was conceived, born and nurtured surreptitiously but lovingly and it grew for five years before a treacherous hand cut it at the roots and caused it to wither on the vine and die.

The seed is sown

Ousta Moushi Khoshaba 1876-1951, posing (in an earlier age) with what looks to be an ancient statue. Photo courtesy Shimun Putrus.

Khait-Khait Allap was originated by a carpenter named Moushi Khoshaba, popularly known as Ousta Moushi (master Moushi). He initiated the Movement among a working community of Assyrians living near the RAF Station of Shaibah. Numbering several hundred local civilian employees of various trades, the Assyrians were the bulk of the group that was transferred for a temporary project to the desert air base from the RAF Station of Habbaniya in central Iraq, 55 miles west of Baghdad.

These workmen toiled during the day in a place said to be called Site Hangars situated a few miles outside the RAF Station and they lived in a special camp of makeshift sarayif (huts) set up for them in the desert country within walking distance of their work place. But the permanent civilian employees of RAF Station of Shaibah lived more comfortably in a local camp of mud brick houses built inside the R.A.F. Station. The RAF personnel who worked with this temporary work force also lived in RAF Station of Shaibah, of course in proper accommodation and amenities of comfort.

The sarayif were made of hasseereh (mats made of reed and palm-tree leaves). Each makeshift sarifa consisted of two or three “rooms” and an open courtyard and each room accommodated two or more persons. They were provided for them by the RAF. Basic dry rations, cigarettes and military truck transportation for commuting as well as for periodic trips to the cities of Ashar and Basra 5 and 15 miles away, respectively, for shopping, church services and other needs were also provided free of charge.

The living conditions in this camp were pretty harsh; cold and leaking huts in winter and extreme heat, dust, and flies during summer, not to mention snakes and scorpions. The residents used kerosene lamps for night lighting and Primus stoves for cooking. They had common treated running water taps from which they drew water in empty petrol cans or buckets for their needs, but had no shower facilities. In summer they bathed out of a bucket in the open courtyard and in winter they heated water over Primus stoves and bathed once a week in aluminum tubs in their “rooms.”

And the outhouses were so unsanitary, it is said, that some people preferred to stroll out of the camp and do their ablution in the open desert.

During rest days and evenings these “bachelor” working men did their own laundry, cooking and other housekeeping chores, and for exercise and entertainment they played a few outdoor games among themselves in the desert, such as soccer, volleyball, and other field games.

One former camp resident, the late Shlimon Gewargis Daniel of Modesto, California, said “We played a local game like the American baseball, which we called Shaqqa Gouwana.” Another former resident, Davis Eshay David, also of Modesto, said “some evenings some of us youngsters would walk in a group the five miles to cinema in town [Ashar] talking and laughing aloud on the way to avoid being mistaken for prowlers and being shot at by the British Gurka sentries. And sometimes we would go on a picnic in a nearby palm tree grove. There we would find discarded old military articles, such as empty ammunition shells, old boots, and broken pieces of rifles—all probably relics from World War One days.”

Some would get together in a group in one of the large vacant sarifa dwellings (which they called club) to relax, drink tea, chat and play indoor games, such as chess, backgammon, drafts, dominoes or cards. A few had musical instruments they played, while others sang and danced khigga. Despite the miserable living conditions, they improvised to entertain themselves and their camp mates and while away their misery.

It was during such “club” group meetings that Ousta Moushi, a fervent nationalist, began to talk to them. First he narrated to them absorbing tales as well as stories from Assyrian history and about life in Armenia and Russia. Evidently, he had a knack for holding his listeners spellbound and would end the story on a high note, promising to finish it the next evening. “It was like watching a serial movie,” Davis said.

Then Ousta Moushi gradually began to speak of love, unity, nationalism and other subjects of patriotic interest. Evidently, his intention was to arouse and exploit Assyrian love and unity among them and to channel it into a nationalistic force.

At first, his listeners were just a few. But by and by their numbers grew into dozens. This early initiative took place in 1942.

Ousta Moushi’s intelligence, common sense, and eloquence were so absorbing that “even the gamblers gave up their poker games and listened to his nightly talks.” said Youkhanna Patros Youkhanna several years ago in Modesto. Youkhanna is an intelligent and observant person, now living in Sweden.

The first couple of years of World War II the war had not been going well for the British, and during a siege the Iraqi Army laid over the Royal air Force Station of Habbaniya in May 1941 Nazi German pilots, in collusion with a new imposed Iraqi Government, had bombarded Habbaniya, taking off from airfields in Syria and in Mosul in northern Iraq. In late 1941 until August 1942, when Field Marshal Montgomery took over command and was boosted by American Forces, Germany’s Field Marshal Erwin Romel, the “desert fox.” was giving the British hell in North Africa until he bogged down when he ran out of petrol and military equipment.

However, before this took place, following the Habbaniya Battle in May 1941, the British strongly feared the Germans might attempt to invade Iraq and Iran in order to control the two countries’ oil resources and simultaneously capture Habbaniya air base and hold all its British personnel captive. So a British and Indian military force, dubbed Paiforce (Persia and Iraq Force), soon swarmed all over the two countries to protect the British interests. Before the Paiforce arrived, however, three companies of Assyrian Levies, supported by a contingent of King’s Own Regiment and a few hundred RAF personnel with some old RAF airplanes, gallantly defended Habbaniya air base and defeated the 15 thousand Iraqi Army force along with hordes of Arab tribal warriors supporting the rebel government, thus temporarily averting the German threat (and consequently changing the course of war for the Allies). This was the first victory the British savored since the war began in September 1939.

The victory came about this way: In the first few days of the battle the RAF “softened up” with constant air bombardment the Iraqi troops entrenched on the Habbaniya Plateau overlooking the air base. Then the King’s Own Regiment contingent flown over to Habbaniya through Basra by the British at the time of the siege was given the first opportunity to dislodge the Iraqi Forces from the plateau. The KORs made an open ground daylight attack, but suffered heavy casualties from the Iraqi fire. The RAF withdrew the contingent and called on the Assyrian Levy companies to attack.

Seven of the young RAF Assyrian civilian employees who later became members of Khet-Khet-Allap posing in front of their sarayif (huts) in the Iraqi desert near RAF Station of Shaibah, circa 1942. From left to right, standing are: Andrious Mama, Davis Eshay David and the late Charles Aghasi Babilla and Ezaria Akhko; Squatting L-R are: Souren, Shlimoon Youkhana and Khammo Enviya. Photo courtesy Shlimoon Youkhana.

The Assyrian Levies were raring to fight with tooth and nail because some of them had lost loved ones among the three thousand defenseless Assyrian men, women and children massacred by the regular Iraqi Army troops and police in Simmaile and other villages in Northern Iraq eight years earlier. Most of the Levies were not only well-trained soldiers but experienced mountain fighters. They made a three-pronged attack at night and soon routed the Iraqi Army and had it on the run toward the neighboring Sin Adh’dhiban village and finally 18 miles farther east to Falluja, which town the Assyrian Levies also subdued after a few days of furious fighting.

Despite this initial victory and the presence of Paiforce troops the British still feared the German threat. In 1942 the RAF therefore fortified their RAF Station of Shaibah as a British maintenance center and staging post, moving an essential part of their engineering machinery and air maintenance installations and equip-ment, such as the machine and aircraft engine shops and supply and maintenance units, from Habbaniya to Shaibah, which was close to Basra port, a shipping and escape gateway to India and elsewhere. Under British executive supervision, the Habbaniya’s local civilian clerks in the Shaibah desert carried out the adminis-trative paperwork, the skilled workers did various repair and maintenance work, primarily of motor vehicles and airplanes, while the unskilled labor did the menial work. The skilled group also turned out a variety of mechanical and aircraft small replacement spare parts, such as bolts and nuts, squares, springs, etc, which otherwise could not be obtained easily from England, thus contributing significantly to the British war effort.

Another aspect of the job of the assigned labor force was the transshipment through Iran to USSR of con-signments of military equipment and supplies received from America at Basrah port. USSR became the American and the British ally when Russia was invaded by Germany in June 1941 and Iran, under British influence, was the best and safest supply route to Russia. Britain was also trying to help its strapped war-time ally by furnishing it with some British war planes. The airplanes arrived in Shaibah from Cyprus and elsewhere and were being serviced and painted with Soviet Union emblem and markings and handed over to waiting Russian pilots, who flew them to Russia for engagement against the Germans.

However, it would seem that after the African campaign by Romel slowed down in the autumn of 1942 and the fortune of war gradually turned in favor of the Allies the feared German invasion of the Middle East completely evaporated in late 1943. The Shaibah project was therefore terminated and Habbaniya’s reinforcement units and supplementary work force at Shaibah were returned to their home base in Habbaniya.

The sprout grows into a tree.

After these RAF employees were returned to their families and former jobs in Habbaniya, where over two-thirds of the few-thousand local civilian work force was Assyrian, the KKA Movement was planned and organized well and took hold and spread among the Assyrian male community of CC. General opinion is that several hundred of the Assyrian civilian employees, especially those loyal and patriotic ones, including some Levy civilian clerks, were recruited into the Movement during its five-year run. The Assyrian Levy personnel, however, had to turn a blind eye to the Movement and stay away from it in view of their firmer commitment to the RAF.

Originated and headed by Ousta Moushi, KKA operated underground, because Assyrian nationalist activities were forbidden by both the RAF and the Iraqi government. As a result of this and the fact that the RAF had obliged every person they employed to sign a document promising to safeguard the confidentiality of his or her work and to be loyal to the British employers, KKA held its members to an oath of secrecy and loyalty of its own, with the pledge to accept and carry out orders and defend the Movement and its objectives.

One person remembers that when he became a member, he was taken by his sponsor to Ousta Moushi’s house. Ousta Moushi had brought out a Bible and a sword and asked him to kneel down and put his right hand upon the Bible. Placing the sword upon his shoulder, Ousta Moushi had recited the oath of allegiance while the new member had repeated after him, swearing to secrecy and to be loyal to the Movement and to abide by its commands. He was then given a secret password name and the necessary instructions.

Another former member says that every two candidates would go together to take the oath and be given secret password names, and that a fork and a knife would be placed on the table during the oath-taking ceremony. Yet another one alleges that a dagger was placed on the table during the ceremony. But none can remember the wording of the oath nor is able to explain the symbolic meaning of the articles.

According to Shlimoon Youkhanna of Chicago, membership acceptance was sponsored by existing members and was based on the candidate’s loyalty, good character and ability to perform. “I personally was sponsored by three members of the ‘High Command’ but whose names I don’t want to mention; they’re all deceased. I took the pledge of allegiance in a dark room in a B type home of one of my sponsors. After the “Pledge,” my sponsor cut his right wrist and my right wrist and put our bleeding wrists together, signifying unity.

Ousta Moushi had thought up the idea of establishing the movement to benefit his Assyrian people. Evidently, after secretly discussing it with some nationalistic elders of the community in Habbaniya and obtaining their cooperation, he planned and tailored KKA supposedly in the fashion of the Tashnak, the Armenian nationalist party, whose member he had been in Armenia for 15 years.

KKA was composed of dozens of small groups, or cells. Each cell had a secret code number and each member was given a secret code or password name. For instance, one prominent member says his name was “Danube” and Ousta Moushi’s code name was “Judex.”

Cells were made up of six or more members, with a leader. Members of each cell knew only each other.

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No group members’ names were made known to members of other groups. They were kept secret. Communication was made through a chain of committee leaders. Every dozen cell leaders formed a committee which communicated through its leader with the leader of another committee, which in turn was connected through one committee leader with the next committee, and so on, till the chain reach the Central Committee, the governing body. Thus the identity of only a few members was known to a few other members, while the bulk of the membership operated incognito.

The Central Committee, which issued the orders, was formed from the founding and elderly members. But their names were known then only to a select few. Some of the leaders’ names mentioned today were: Ousta Moushi Khoshaba, his brother Samson, and Gewargis Daniel (all of Solduz); David Iskhaq (of Gavilan); Polous Oda (of Toulloun) and his nephew Levi Jebrail; Ewan Warda and William Shabbas (of Chamakiyeh); Raabi Aprim Binyamin (of Spurghan); Binyamin Gundalove (of Mar Bishu); Shawel Sulaiman, Rovil Mikhail, Sargis Michael, and Avimalk Yonan Orahim (of Gangachin), David Koryakos (of Jilu). All the elder members have been dead for some time. Of course there may have been other names in the Central Committee, but all the former members interviewed during recent years were then very young and didn’t know or can’t remember everything.

Meetings of individual cells and of various committee and Central Committee leaders were arranged secretly and held covertly in different places, usually in members’ homes, but sometimes in isolated locations.

The Movement’s echo penetrated Assyrian communities in Baghdad, Kirkuk and Basra as well as in Syria and Iran. It is said that it was received ardently particularly by the Assyrian community of Abadan and Teheran and by the Assyrian employees of the Iraq Petroleum Company’s pipeline stations. Messages were sent to Syria and Iran by hand of trusted members dispatched specifically for organizing purposes. One former member alleges that the Movement’s voice reached even some Assyrian groups living in the United States through messages dispatched by hand of Assyrian-American pilots visiting Habbaniya. But this has not been corroborated except by one who says he knew American pilots would come to Habbaniya, but doesn’t know if there were any Assyrians among them who took Khait-Khait-Allap messages to America. Still another former young member, Shlimooon Youkhana, alleges now that he was assigned to deliver a secret message to the late Patriarch Mar Eshai Shumon living in exile in Cyprus. He managed to have himself transferred, as a Levy clerk, to Cyprus, but that a Levy Assyrian high-ranking officer unknowingly thwarted his KKA assignment. While he was waiting in Haifa in transit for Cyprus, the Levy officer knew of his competence as a clerk and ordered him to stay in Haifa and work for him.

The tree wilts and dries up.

Khait-Khait-Allap made a steady progress for five years. Then it came to an abrupt halt when the RAF authorities uncovered it in 1947. It is not quite clear as to why and how the RAF learned about it. Today some think it was the result of a struggle within the leadership (as our national situation is today) and one prominent former member alleges that Ousta Moushi was led astray by flatterers and kinsmen. Others deny this and assert that Ousta Moushi was loved and respected as a leader and had no opponents, because he did not really hold himself above the others, for decisions were made by the Central Committee members. Some others feel it was the hand of a treacherous Assyrian or Assyrians who thrust the spoke into the wheel, in order to gain favor from British employers.

One leading former member, the late Sargis Michael of Chicago, said it was a disgruntled demoted officer of the Movement who, to avenge himself, informed the Officer in-charge of the Cantonment. But Sargis did not divulge the culprit’s name. Still others think guileless and gullible members exposed the existence of the Movement by talking about it to trusted friendly British personnel, who in turn passed the information on to RAF Intelligence sources. Mr. Michael also said that he had seen a top secret RAF report on the Movement, smuggled out of a British high-ranking officer’s office by Assyrian civilian clerks.

Whatever the reason, two former members allege that Ousta Moushi and a few of his lieutenants were summoned to CC Office and were arrested, though three other interviewed former members had no knowledge of anyone being detained following the interrogation. Another source alleges that Squadron Leader Lovett-Campbell, the Officer-in-charge of CC at the time, had summoned Ousta Moushi and a few others to his office. He had placed his gun on the table and had told them words to this effect: “If it’s true that you people have a communistic movement I will shoot you all with this gun!” But this statement has not been corroborated.

Mr. Michael also alleged that Mr. Lovett-Campbell was even contemplating on evicting from the Cantonment some 150 of the known Movement members. He also said that two pro-Assyrian British officers, however, took the case out of Mr. Lovett-Campbell’s hands and secretly passed the word to the KKA leaders to disband the Movement quietly before things got worse and the Iraqi Government learned of it. One of the officers was Major E.C. Day of Levies, with whom Sargis Michael alleged to have had a secret meeting one evening regarding the matter. Major Day was one of the few British officers who were known to be friendly with Assyrians.

Evidently, the RAF authorities were afraid the Movement was communistic. But after the investigation they realized that Ousta Moushi was an intelligent and able leader but had no ill intentions towards the RAF or the Iraqi authorities and that the Movement’s aim was merely patriotic, to create love, unity, and comradeship among the Assyrian community and that in fact it had no teeth to bite.

KKA and local labor strike

Some people believe that the Iraq Petroleum Company’s Kirkuk labor strike of 1948 and the Habbaniya labor strike of 1952 were both connected with, or influenced by, KKA Movement in some way. Another former member alleges that the Movement or at least its spirit did not die until Habbaniya’s abortive labor strike that took place near CC gate on June 9, 1952, when, the evening before the strike, eleven Assyrians, accused of being “ringleaders,” were detained and a few others were wounded by RAF gunfire during the strike. He believes the strike was arranged by the dormant KKA Movement or inspired by its spirit.

In regard to the Kirkuk strike, the general consensus is a firm “No!” It is known that the Kirkuk strike, during which some Iraqi workers were wounded, some shot dead, some jailed and a few hanged by the Government, was organized and directed by the Iraqi communists.

But there are mixed opinions concerning the Habbaniya strike. A few attribute its occurrence to former members of the then dormant KKA Movement, or at least to its spirit. Others think it was a conspiracy against Assyrians, instigated by Habbaniya’s local Kurdish communists and other non-Assyrian elements that managed to put the blame on the Assyrian community and made scapegoats out of seven of its hapless members, who were imprisoned in August 1952 for 10 months without trial. Still others believe that the strike was not prearranged but that it happened spontaneously after British armed servicemen blocked the CC Gate through which workers were going out to work on the morning following the short detention of eleven Assyrians the night before the strike.

But if KKA, or its spirit, was still alive beyond Squadron Leader Lovett-Campbell’s murderous or eviction threats, the 1952 failed labor strike definitely killed it!

After the RAF investigation of the Movement was over, Ousta Moushi was not jailed or evicted from the air base. Thinking he might become an unwanted problem for them later on, however, they dismissed him from his RAF job as a carpenter but left him to live with his family in one of the lowly type of houses in C.C. His teenaged eldest son Aram was earning only a meager income and so the Movement’s founder and leader fell on hard economic times.

At that time, the Movement had a cash balance of ID300 (about $1000) in its secret fund. The money was deposited, one leading member says, with one of Ousta Moushi’s related associates. A wish was expressed to donate the money to the fallen leader to help him in his economic hardship. But in order to avoid the possibility of a controversial furor over the decision, a few of the leading members thought it best to give the money instead to Mar Gewargis Church of the East in Habbaniya, which they did. So Ousta Moushi lived a quiet and austere life with his family until his death in 1951 at the age of 75.

Who was this patriotic “planter”?

What sort of person was this man who apparently possessed this gentle and humble yet effective leadership and commanded the love and respect of his fellow patriots?

In a composite picture, Ousta Moushi emerges as being a rather short man of average weight at the threshold of old age, somewhat hard of hearing, with a solemn face and a balding head of gray hair. He wore glasses, and often walked with a slightly stooped posture. He sometimes wore a beat-up English cap or a cylinder felt hat and a jacket that was a little too long for him, over baggy trousers. He buttoned up his shirt collar but did not use a neck-tie. “He did not care much about his dress,” Youkhanna Patros Youkhanna said.

His attraction and charismatic personality was apparently not in his looks or attire but in his resourcefulness and in his voice, style, and the content of his speech. Evidently a very intelligent person, with a good knowledge of world affairs, he has been described as being modest and gentle; a good listener who made eye contact and spoke slowly and in simple terms to make his meaning easily understood, giving his listeners the conviction that they were in the presence of a knowledgeable man; an unassuming, earnest, sincere and understanding person. It is said that he had an amazing memory and that he could recite, word for word, passages from what he had read previously. And when he talked he was so eloquent and persuasive that he would quickly captivate his audience’s attention. Shlimoon Youkhana dubbed him “The Churchill of the Assyrian Nation.”

Ousta Moushi had two younger brothers, Samson and Yosip. All three were employed as carpenters in the RAF Station of Habbaniya. Ousta Moushi and his wife Rakhy, daughter of Yosip Badal, had three children: Aram, Youliya and Awner. Awner died at the threshold of middle age in mid-nineties in Chicago, Youliya now lives with her family in Glendale, California, and Aram is a preacher in England.

According to information supplied by his son Awner, shortly before his death, Ousta Moushi was born in Solduz, Persia (in the Urmia region), in 1876. He was the eldest son of Khoshaba Moushi and Saanam. Saanam was Armenian, and Khoshaba was an ordained deacon of The Ancient Apostolic Catholic Church of the East in Solduz. He was, however, later converted to Presbyterianism and became a preacher in his village. In 1885 he moved his family to Armenia, where his nine-year-old eldest son, Moushi, grew up and lived for 26 years. During this time, Moushi went to school, was a member of Tashnak Party, and served as an officer in the Armenian Army, before returning to his native village of Solduz in 1911. During the Great War he is said to have served as an officer under Agha Patros Eliya, the Assyrian general commanding the Assyrian Forces fighting alongside the Russians and the British against Turks and Kurds. He and his family arrived in Iraq in late 1918 among the some 50 thousand surviving Assyrian and Armenian refugees following the mass Christian retreat from Urmia, Persia.

It is said Ousta Moushi was a cultured man, who had a good knowledge of world affairs, especially about Russia and Armenia. It appears that he was also a linguist: he could read and write several languages, among them Armenian, Assyrian, and Russian and, some say, English and Farsi, and could speak Turkish and Kurdish and a spattering of Arabic. Youkhanna Patros Youkhanna thinks that a man of such stature may have traveled to Russia, visiting its great cities and historical sites, and perhaps even read some of the world classics.

What was KKA’s aim?

The KKA Movement’s method of operation seems somewhat reminiscent of communist system. Was it a communistic sort of Assyrian nationalism? While one former member says he heard later that Ousta Moushi was communist-oriented and had the system’s objectives, several others deny this and assert that he was a nationalist. He had been a long-time member of Tashnak, and had taken part in military campaigns against the Ottoman Turks. And Tashnak was known to be strongly anti-communist. “His main intention,” said Shimun Putrus “was to bring love and unity, develop and enhance Assyrian nationalistic spirit towards helping one another in every way possible, with a long-term aim of securing a national home and identity for our people in our legitimate fatherland.”

Shimun Putrus also asserts that Ousta Moushi was against violence. The gentleman explains that a few young hot-headed members suggested to Ousta Moushi that they do away with a well-placed Assyrian opponent of the movement who wanted to stir up trouble. Ousta Moushi was outraged! “We do not kill!” he told them. “We have come to unite. We don’t want any blood to come from the nose of anyone. But when our cause is ripe, we shall do whatever is necessary against those who stand against us.”

Apparently, the Movement had a political aim in the long run. But first Ousta Moushi wanted our people to unite, love each other, and live in harmony, simultaneously spreading the message to the Assyrian communities elsewhere.

Ousta Moushi was evidently a brave man too. Shimun Patros said that when Mufawwat (Commandant) Patros of the CC Iraqi Police Station told him he was accused of being a communist, Ousta Moushi cursed his accuser and said to the Mufawwat: “Perhaps you are communist, but I am not! Your government should kiss our feet, because we are the ones against communists. We want to unite our people and stop the communists from infiltrating us.”

Another former member says that Ousta Moushi’s purpose in establishing KKA was to fight off Assyrian tribal, clannish, and religious differences and unite his people in love under one command. Apparently there was evidence of this purpose.

Assyrian community of Habbaniya was a conglomeration of dozens of tribes and clans professing several Christian denominations, namely Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic, and Greek and Armenian Orthodox Churches, with a sprinkling of various Protestant believers.

There was some prejudice between former territorial groupings of Urmizhnayeh (city-bred Bne-Urmia), Shapitnayeh (farming plainsmen) and Tourayeh (mountain tribesmen) on one hand; and between the many tribes and clans among these groupings on the other hand, as well as between the various Church denominations. This sometimes espoused bigotry, resentment, ill-feeling and even physical conflict. So Ousta Moushi’s work was apparently aimed at bringing together the conflicting factions in a bond of love and brotherhood.

What did KKA achieve during its lifespan?

Evidently, Ousta Moushi’s aim was an experiment in creating for the Assyrians a movement and a
commonly accepted leadership that could unite them as a people on equal terms in love and unity, which aims, Ousta Moushi is alleged to have said following his alleged detention and interrogation, “had been achieved.”

One member recalls that after Khait-Khait-Allap was established in Habbaniya, conditions truly became much better to the point that Assyrian people became closer to each other. Consequently, the emerging sense of brotherhood reduced tribal or religious differences. There were fewer disputes and people were more friendly and affable. It is said that where there was trouble, Movement members would quietly get involved to help solve the problem or improve relations whether between families or friends, between husband and wife or between parents and children, untying knots, soothing hard feelings and making peace. Efforts were also made to counsel the few wayward girls of the camp back to the right track.

It is also said, though disputed by one member, that anyone who had lost his job or was sick or in need, the Movement would quietly offer a little aid from the small fund fed by a monthly membership subscription of 100 fils [25¢]. This fund, however, was not connected in any way with Habbaniya’s Assyrian Relief Fund, which was officially recognized by the Iraqi government. The KKA fund was kept secret for fear that if it was known to RAF authorities, it would prove politically incriminating for the Movement and that the British might disclose it to the Iraqi Government.

Today’s prospects for unity and national rights

These Assyrian patriots of the past risked their livelihood and that of their families as well as staked their personal political safety in order to work for the welfare and unity of their people. Of course we have today some of our leaders and their followers in our former homeland, Zowaa members in particular, who have also put their lives on the line and are doing what they can, swimming against the tide so to speak, to accomplish something for our people. With financial assistance from the Diaspora Assyrians, they have not only done a lot of good work for our strapped people in Iraq in general during this past decade or so, but have also sacrificed the lives of dozens of their cadres for the cause.

And what have “our” puppet leaders abroad done toward advancing our political cause, educating our children and helping the sick and the needy in the Homeland, or towards the resettlement of the tens of thousands of our stranded masses languishing in miserable conditions in semi-hostile countries?

They have done nothing other than creating impediments, criticizing, ridiculing, opposing and trying to stir up trouble for those who are really working, thus causing division and confusion among our people.

We all know that in order to stand a chance of securing our national rights as a people in a land torn asunder by political, ethnic and religious animosity and strife, all of our people, in all their three factions and various religious denominations, should first achieve national unity and a common purpose, speaking in one voice. Instead some of our so-called leaders in the West (both political and religious), who enjoy comfortable, secure, and even affluent lifestyles as well as freedom of speech and press, do no more than blow hot air and oppose the doers.

Our Assyrian people as a whole still aspire to love and unity under one united leadership. But this still seems like an elusive dream, because evidently our love is faithless and our unity is splintered in many different political, religious and personal directions!

Our people in Iraq in general are now at critical crossroads. What we need most is unity. In unity there is strength of voice and strength of purpose. Unfortunately, instead of pulling all together, there is a three-way tug of war between them that threatens to pull them all asunder. And to make things worse, even the unity among the Assyrian Church faction is now splintered by those who do not want unity. Under the circumstances, what chance do we stand of achieving our ethnic, religious and political rights in our homeland under the central government, let alone in a self-administered territory of our own?

Perhaps what we really need is to produce a wise, meek and selfless leader of peace and goodwill; someone like the late Ousta Moushi. Or better still, a group of wise men to bring all the factions together and to unite and lead us under one banner!

Is another Habbaniyan, namely Raabi Younadam Yosip Kanna, such a man? And is Zowaa the group of wise men who are destined to lead us under one banner to achieve our national rights?

Or are we in fact promoting and nursing a pipe dream?

Author’s Note:

I acknowledge the assistance of the following persons who supplied feed-back or corroborated some of the information for this article: Shimun Yosip Putrus, Youkhanna Patros Youkhanna, Binyamin Warda, Francis Shawel David, Davis Eshay David, Shlimoon Youkhana and the late Fraidon Orahim Is’hak and Sargis Michael as well as several others from California, Chicago and Australia who prefer to remain anonymous. (The writer was not in Habbaniya during the KKA years. He left Habbaniya for Baghdad in January 1942 and returned only shortly before the Movement broke up. And until the fall of Saddam in April 2003 Assyrians were afraid to discuss Khait-Khait-Allap in Iraq.)

Mr. Mikhael K. Pius is the Editor of HUSCA Magazine (Habbaniya Union School & Community Association). Click here to view copies of this publication.