KNC Opinion on the current situation of Kurdish affairs in Iraq
June 06, 2004
Kurdistan National Congress KNC- The KNC Chairman of Foreign Affairs- Dipl.Ing. Bruska Ibrahim June 6th 2004.
Tannenstrasse 29 A, D-86510 Ried, Germany, Phone: 0049-8233-8061, Fax: 0049-8233-6121, Mail: KNC@ribrahim.de

KNC OPINION ON THE CURRENT SITUATION OF KURDISH AFFAIRS IN IRAQ

The 1st of July 2004 will mark a black day in Kurdish history. Every single day there is less hope for a turn around on our way to losing everything we achieved by so many sacrifices.

Kurdistan has become a country without owner, because the Kurdish parties PUK and PDK sold her for their own narrow-minded material interests.

Since decades we waited for the chance that Saddam's cruel regime would be toppled, and when in 1991 after the liberation of Kuwait and the American withdrawal without having removed Saddam no one dared to hope any more that 12 years later the Americans would be back again with powerful troops to finally overthrow Saddam's dictatorship and that there would be once again an opportunity for Kurdistan to become free and to found an independent Kurdish national state.

But what did those two Kurdish parties do? They perpetually repeated - without even being asked to do so - they would protect Iraq's unity, and they insisted the Kurdish people had decided out of their own free will to be a part of Iraq, during a time when it was obvious that no Arab faction, neither sunni nor shi'a, would accept a Kurdish autonomy like that of Saddam's times, much less a federal structure of Iraq or the right of self-determination for the Kurds.

Those Kurdish representatives in the Iraqi Government Council in Baghdad don't have any weight at all, because they are only speaking on behalf of their parties or their persons. There is no voice of any government of Kurdistan.

On the contrary, Kurdish office-holders like Zebari are speaking up for Arab interests as Arabs and Iraqis, not as Kurds. They are obviously feeling more obliged to the occupiers and destroyers of Kurdistan than to their own people, always reassuring Turkey, Syria, and Iran, they would never even try to achieve an independent state for Kurdistan. And worse than that, they even hinder other people who want to speak up and demonstrate for Kurdish independence. That's because both of these Kurdish parties have inherited authoritarian structures from their marxist predecessors in Russia and even up till now have their politburos like Stalin had.

Those Kurdish representatives are not trustworthy because on the one hand they are advertising a federal structure in Iraq, on the other hand they themselves are unable up till now to unite their regional Kurdish governments. Talabani and Barzani don't behave like Kurdish leaders but like village chiefs.

Naturally their Arab and American counterparts are aware of this. The United States are a superpower and certainly working for their own interests. But the Kurds, too, have to work for their interests, instead of lamenting always about American betrayal of the Kurds.

Politically there's no lasting friendship or lasting hostility. To achieve something with Americans they have to feel a lot of pressure at the right moment. The shi'i and the sunni in Iraq made use of this quite well, beginning by zero and now outrunning the Kurds who last year were the only power in Iraq being well organized and influential.

Now the Kurdish part in politics of Iraq is limited to a mute part. The recent letter from Barzani and Talabani to President Bush is showing to everyone most obviously what they are up to, most of all to get money and positions for their parties, because they signed in the name of their parties and not in the name of a chosen government of Kurdistan. By this approach they made fools of themselves in the view of Americans and in the view of the Kurdish people.

If they did want to be trustworthy there should be held elections for a new parliament of South Kurdistan very quickly, and there should be elected one new government of Kurdistan who has authority to negotiate with the US Administration and is able to represent the Kurdish claims, for which millions of people sacrificed their lives and health, and who will not eat humble pie like the present socalled leaders did.

The American Administration will certainly concede a much heavier weight to a Kurdish delegation which is formed by an elected Kurdish government than they are allowing to some party bosses who are writing a letter to enforce their party interests.

Therefore the Kurdish nation finally has to get rid of all those parties who are working like merchants for themselves, their families and their adherents. Time has come to build a Kurdish unity so that this unique opportunity might not be missed. For when the American soldiers leave Iraq, our fate will be more uncertain than ever, and our people will be threatened by extermination for another time.
 

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