Basra airport ready for take-off

By Peter Grant
BBC News, Basra

For the past six years, most foreigners going to Iraq have packed boots and body armour.

But now there's a new uniform - a sharp suit and a briefcase. Increasingly, groups of business people are travelling to the country to discuss investment and development.

Most make their way to the capital Baghdad, and its administrative centre, the Green Zone, but there is an alternative.

The airport at Iraq's second city, Basra, is open for flights to various destinations in the region, and eleven airlines are using it. It gets between six and ten flights a day.

Until recently, it was mostly used by British forces, and was a neglected shadow of what it had been when it opened in 1987.

It was tattered and worn - full of long shadows and dark corners, and the floor was filthy. The gift shop displayed only a few boxes of uninviting sweets and some soft toys which looked distinctly sorry for themselves.

But now there's a fully-stocked duty free, with perfumes and luxury goods, and the gift shop has a range of cigarettes, toiletries and souvenirs.

The floor of the concourse is laid with gleaming brown and brown-grey granite. The woodwork and brass shine as, once more, do all of the illuminated signs. There's only one thing missing.

"The airport needs traffic", says its director, Mr Abdulameer Kanem Abdullah. "We are ready to move any amount of traffic. We have the lighting and facilities. We are just waiting for the passengers and aircraft".

But he's convinced they'll come. He says the new Basra business centre, near the airport, will help.

Group Captain John Gladston, who's been working with him, agrees. The RAF's 903 Expeditionary Air Wing has taken a mentoring role in the development of the airport, just as British troops have been training their Iraqi counterparts.

"Basra is the lily pad for the south", says Group Captain Gladston, pointing out how useful he feels it will be as a jumping-off point.

He thinks the airport can open up vital links for industry and commerce throughout the region, and prompt a return to manufacturing in and around the nearby port of Um Qasr which is Iraq's major entry and export point for heavy goods and oil.

Blank screens
That's the hope, but what of the reality? A glance around the comfortable, brown-furnished departure lounge shows a mix of nationalities. The boarding pass for my particular flight showed no flight or seat details, but no-one seemed concerned.

The departure screens are also blank, so it pays to listen for the shouted announcements, or watch for when fellow passengers start to move.

But the flight - in this case, to Amman, in Jordan - was punctual and smooth. For someone heading into or out of the region, it represents a very useful short-cut, saving at least half a day, and avoiding the teeming chaos that is Baghdad airport.

Basra will never be London Heathrow or Chicago O'Hare - nor does it aim to be. What those behind it - both Iraqis and British - hope is that it will soon become a busy provincial airport, playing its part in the regeneration of the region.

My week: Keith Mackiggan of DfID - Times Online

Rebuilding Basra with a dollop of help from Ben & Jerry

BACK TO SCHOOL

Every day is a work day in Basra - there’s no weekend. We live at the air base, which is about six miles across the dusty desert from the city, so helicopters are the easiest way to get around. It is my favourite part of life out here: you are skidding 100ft above the ground, swooping over the electricity pylons - it’s exhilarating. Commuting to work will never quite be the same again.

I’ve been living here since September as head of the Department for International Development’s reconstruction team for Basra, in southern Iraq. I spent the beginning of the week visiting some of our projects with my interpreter. He is from Sudan and fled his country about 20 years ago, settling with his family in Manchester. He’s a hero doing fantastic work and we couldn’t really do anything without him.

We touched down at a couple of primary schools for which we’d built eight new classrooms. Before that, there would be up to 100 children in each room; our efforts will cut the class sizes in half.

The children were so cute, dressed in their freshly pressed, gleaming white shirts and chanting their times tables. As we were leaving they shouted out, “Merry Christmas and a happy new year,” in English.

KARAOKE DREAD

As New Year’s Eve approached, I began to get butterflies in my stomach. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office in Basra hosted a party with karaoke and I was forced on stage. A few weeks ago I played Widow Twankey in a production of Aladdin put on by the British military base and my colleagues now seem to think that I’ve found my vocation as a singer.

It was a beautiful starlit night: there was a kind of Arabian crescent moon in the sky and it was in this setting that I wowed the audience with my rendition of Madonna’s Material Girl. I wasn’t in costume this time, although the party was fancy dress. There were some great outfits - a Christmas present and a policeman - but my favourite was the consul-general who came as a beach bum, sporting an ironing board as a surfboard. There was some cross-dressing, inevitably.

The military clerk, whose name is Corporal Burley - highly appropriate for a a physical training instructor - uses any excuse to get dressed up in drag. Wednesday was no exception.

DEMOCRACY TAKES OFF

There were a few sore heads on New Year’s Day but no time to relax for the Brits on the airbase because it was the day of the handover of Basra international airport. I head a team of about 30 people coordinating efforts to improve infrastructure, train Iraqi officials and attract foreign investment.

The UK has been working with the airport authorities and they are now handling numerous commercial flights each day; indeed, about 5,000 local residents flew to the haj in Saudi Arabia last month. I’m really glad about this because in the past the airport was never used commercially: it was only ever used by Saddam Hussein. To me, that’s democracy in action.

NOW FOR MOZAMBIQUE

Towards the end of the week I flew up to the marshlands, to one of the villages near the Iranian border. The area is neglected and remote but the scenery is stunning. Basra’s army chief, General Mohammed, was in the area recently and was horrified when the villagers told him that he was the first government official they’d seen in 30 years.

We’ll be working up there to create joint community action centres, which will provide access to basic services such as a school and a clinic for the first time.

I always look forward to Friday because that’s when I sit down to dinner with three of the other senior allied officials in Basra. We take it in turns to host the meal in our canteen and last week it was at the Donkey bar at the US consulate, where they have Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. You have to be careful not to get fat out here - the canteen food is so good.

I’ll be leaving Basra at the end of March and will be sad to go. It’s a weird and wonderful place and I feel lucky to be here. I don’t miss much about the UK - apart, perhaps, from cycling. I have a strict luggage allowance and I don’t think I could smuggle a bicycle into my suitcase.

My next posting begins in the summer in Mozambique, but I’ll need to go out there almost immediately to have some language training - everything is done in Portuguese and I’ll need to get fluent in three months flat.

Keith Mackiggan is the head of the Basra provincial reconstruction team for the Department for International Development

To see the full article click here to see it on the Timesonline

Britain hands control of Basra airport to Iraqis - Eurasia Press & News

Britain has formally handed over responsibility for the running of Basra airport to Iraqi authorities, the Ministry of Defence said on Friday, a move that paves the way for Britain to withdraw from Iraq.

The airport, on the outskirts of Iraq’s second largest city in the south of the country, was seized during the U.S.-led invasion that overthrew Saddam Hussein’s government in 2003.

It has since operated as both a military and a civilian airport, but always been under British military control.

Now, following Thursday’s transfer of authority, Iraqi civilians will be in overall charge of the installation, overseeing both civilian and military operations.

“The Iraqis have been operating their own airport in Basra with minimal involvement from Britain for several months,” said Major General Andy Salmon, the commander of British troops in Iraq.

“From today, they will gain further autonomy, taking over the running of the air traffic control tower… It is clear that Basra International Airport is now an international airport with good potential for future growth.”

Transferring control of the airport was one of three goals Prime Minister Gordon Brown set before Britain could complete its operations in Iraq, where around 4,000 troops remain.

The holding of provincial elections, scheduled for later this month, was another of the goals, and the third was the economic regeneration of Basra and its surrounding provinces.

The remaining 4,000 troops, almost all of whom are stationed at the airport, are due to start withdrawing in the next three months, with the process completed by the end of July, ending a six-year presence.

In the past nine months, Basra has seen steady gains in terms of security and investment, with Shi’ite militia groups far less active in the city and regional businessmen and major international companies seeking out opportunities.

The head of the Basra Development Commission, a British-Iraqi body responsible for drumming up business, believes there could be as much as $9 billion of investment in Basra in the next three years, largely in the oil industry.

Basra, situated not far from the Shatt al-Arab waterway which leads out into the Gulf, has the potential to become a major regional hub, Iraqi and British business leaders say.

As well as the fact that it sits on vast oil reserves, it has a large pool of skilled labor, good research and education establishments and strong transport links, including the airport, which handles 80 to 130 flights a month.

On Thursday, U.S. forces in Iraq came under an Iraqi mandate and in an immediate change, handed over responsibility to Iraqi troops for the Green Zone, a fortified swathe of central Baghdad off limits to most Iraqis, who widely view it as a symbol of foreign military occupation.

To see the full article click here

UK troops hand back Basra Airport - BBC

British troops have taken a step closer to withdrawing from Iraq with the handover of one of its main airports.

Basra International Airport had been used as a UK military base during the conflict but the Iraqis have now resumed full control.

It came as the UN mandate for US and UK troops - put into place after the invasion in March 2003 - expired.

Iraq will now take greater control of its own security, but US and UK forces will remain under a new deal.

The transfer of the airport at Basra, the country's second biggest city, was one of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's remaining key tasks in southern Iraq.

It is clear Basra International Airport is now an international airport with good potential for future growth Major General Andy Salmon Iraq takes control of Green Zone

The transfer of control, marked with a handover ceremony in the airport's VIP lounge, followed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding by British military commanders and Iraqi transport officials in Baghdad.

Military and civilian aircraft will continue to operate side-by-side at the airport but Iraqi civilians are now in control.

Major General Andy Salmon, general officer commanding of British troops in Iraq, said: "The Iraqis have been operating their own airport in Basra with minimal involvement from the UK for several months," he said.

"From today they will gain further autonomy, taking over the running of the air traffic control tower.

"It is clear Basra International Airport is now an international airport with good potential for future growth."

In December, Mr Brown said British troops would leave Iraq by the end of July 2009.

Military operations are due to end by 31 May and the remaining 4,100 UK service personnel will leave within two months.

For the full article on the BBC website click here

Brits Out Of Iraq By The Summer - Sky News

Final negotiations are under way with the Iraqi government, and Prime Minister Gordon Brown is expected to make an announcement by Christmas.

Iraq is pressing for the withdrawal of all foreign troops and is in talks with the Americans about their role once the United Nations mandate expires at the end of this year.

British forces have been based in the south of the country since the invasion in 2003.
The situation has changed dramatically in Basra since the Iraqi government took on the local militias earlier this year. As a result, the British presence in Basra could be all but over by next summer.

Douglas Alexander in Basra

Britain's International Development Minister, Douglas Alexander, is here flying the British flag.

He told me: "We'll continue to work closely with the government of Iraq but we will see a significant drawdown of British troops as a recognition of the progress and success that's been enjoyed here in Basra….

"We are looking ahead to the first half of 2009 but our focus on the moment is securing the possibility that I've seen today which is for further jobs, further investment, further prosperity."
More immediately, it is believed the process of handing over Basra airport and airspace to the Iraqis will begin within weeks. And American forces will soon take over camp security.

It is also thought that large security projects will be taken over by the Iraqis and Americans, working together.

Major James Gasson-Hargraves, the commander here, says the Iraqis are eager to take control.
"The reality is they are the sheriffs of this town, they own it. The townspeople come to them with their issues, not to me. I'm merely here in the background as support and the Iraqis are on top of where they're going."

Back in March, the Iraqi government's so-called 'charge of the knights campaign' to clear out the militias that had taken over the city was the catalyst for change.

It also convinced some in Baghdad that the British forces were dispensable.

Five years after their arrival here the end game is now being played out.

Read the full report and more on Sky News

UK expects to hand over Basra airport next year

Britain's defense secretary says he expects British troops to hand over their last major base in Iraq to local forces by the end of next year.

John Hutton says that if all goes well, the handover of Basra's airport would take place by the end of 2009. Britain has about 4,000 troops based at the airport on the outskirts of Iraq's second city.

Hutton says he is optimistic about the situation in Basra, where security is ''significantly better'' than in recent years.

Read the full article on the Hong Kong Standard's web site here

MP Hutton's tea break with Barrow soldier in Iraq

DEFENCE Secretary John Hutton surprised a Furness squaddie by dropping in to see him in Iraq.

Senior Aircraftsman Jon Corkill sent an email to Mr Hutton two weeks ago congratulating the Barrow and Furness MP on landing his new job as Defence Secretary.

The 27-year-old dad-of-three also invited Mr Hutton for a brew and chat the next time he was in Iraq. Mr Hutton took up SAC Corkill’s invite on Monday when the pair met in Basra.

Mr Corkill, who is serving as a crash rescue firefighter, training the Iraqi fire service, told Mr Hutton: “The best part of my job here is working with the lads and seeing the Iraqi services taking more responsibility for the airfield. The hardest thing is being away from my family.

“Training the Iraqi fire service is a vital part of their development and is key to them taking over the airfield responsibilities. This is an awesome airport with great potential to help the area develop.

To read the full article on the North West Evening Mail click here

Royal Air Force help develop Iraqi flight safety

Royal Air Force held the first combined flight safety meeting at the Basra International Airport, which is becoming a significant transport hub for Iraq’s second city. The meeting, hosted by the Group Captain Andrew, the Commanding Officer of 903 Expeditionary Air Wing (EAW), brought together a host of key Iraqi Air Force and Basra International Airport management to develop a strategy to bring the airport flight safety into line with international standards.

For more information on Basra International Airport click here