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Already Semi-Autonomous, Region Is Wary of Change
IRBIL, Iraq, Oct. 12 - In the days leading up
to Iraq's historic national elections nearly nine
months ago, the streets of this Kurdish provincial
capital buzzed with excitement. Aging former
peshmerga militia fighters sang revolutionary songs
in an impromptu bus parade around the city.
Political party workers sat in striped tents outside
campaign headquarters and shouted through bullhorns,
urging people to vote in the country's first
democratic elections in nearly half a century.
The result gave Kurdish leaders their first chance
to participate in a central government in decades
and a large hand in drafting the new Iraqi
constitution that will be put to the vote on
Saturday. But in the days before this second
historic vote, a city that looked like one big
street party in January feels more like a deserted
Wrigley Field after the Chicago Cubs let another
pennant chance slip away.
Posters announcing the constitutional referendum are
noticeably absent from walls that were covered in
January. On a busy street corner, a lone pink
election banner competed for attention with one
announcing new flights from the city's airport and
another advertising sweets for the holy month of
Ramadan. And across the city, residents expressed
ambivalence about the referendum, even though it
could give the Kurds a measure of legitimacy they
have long sought.
As written, the constitution formally recognizes the
existence of a largely autonomous Kurdish region in
northern Iraq, makes Arabic and Kurdish the dual
official languages of Iraq and supports a Kurdish
constitution that can override that of the central
government.
"I should vote for the constitution because we want
to have democracy, to have freedom," Ghazi Mahmood
said in the electronics shop where he works on Iskan
Street, a lively downtown spot that bustles at night
with young men drinking tea and families strolling
past clothing shops. But the father of four young
girls said he had more pressing problems than the
referendum.
"There's no business," Mahmood said, blaming
dangerous roads between the north and the rest of
the country. "I don't care about the presidents. I
just want my life. I want to watch movies from
India."
In a nearby cosmetics shop, Hemen Ferhad, 20, had
little to say about the referendum. "People get
benefits for it," he said blandly from across a
counter where 22 different kinds of pressed powder
were displayed.
Ahmed Hama Ameen, 21, a self-described foot soldier
for the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) who was
baking pastries down the street, was more
optimistic. "I am hoping this voting succeeds, and
all the people go for voting to show the world what
we are and what we want to be," he said.
Many Kurds believed the January elections marked the
first step toward establishing Kurdish independence
and separating their region from Iraq. Instead, some
Kurds complain that their political leaders have
sold them out by pushing for a federalist system of
government that would make the Kurdish region a
state within Iraq.
Fadiil Merani, a high-ranking leader in the KDP,
appeared on Kurdish satellite television Tuesday
night to plead with people to vote, telling them,
"You are voting for yourself as a member of a
Kurdish society, as an Iraqi citizen."
In an interview Wednesday in the village of
Salahuddin, the headquarters of the KDP and its
leader, Massoud Barzani, the Kurdish regional
president, Merani said political leaders were well
aware of what they were up against. "I know every
single Kurd wants independence," Merani said. "This
is a goal you have to struggle for -- but when the
time comes."
Merani said there was a misconception that Kurdish
leaders were pushing for unification of a country
that has a history of oppressing the Kurds, most
recently under former president Saddam Hussein. "We
know it's important for us to be part of Iraq
strategically," he explained. "We know if there is
no peace and security, it's going to affect us."
Some of the disconnection may come down to two
competing perspectives on the referendum.
One of the reasons Kurdish leaders fought for
recognition under the new constitution is that it
would mean little change for a region that has been
semi-autonomous since the 1991 Persian Gulf War. The
Kurds do not want a new central government to
interfere with their laws and way of life.
Hamza Hamid Muhamad, a spokesman for the Irbil
government, said it was important that the new
constitution allow Kurds to continue making their
own decisions about local matters. "The laws and
decisions in the central government should not be
100 percent applied on us unless the sovereignty of
Iraq is at stake," he said.
Azad Musa, the deputy general director of Irbil
International Airport, said he expected little
change if the constitution were approved. "We don't
think the central government will have a bad
influence over our government," he said, "because we
are now part of the dialogue."
If anything, Musa said, becoming a distinct part of
Iraq should help the Kurdish region in negotiations
for new business and economic development. "We will
be an honest, legitimate government," he said.
But in the sitting room of their modest home, Nawzad
Abdulrahman, 50, and his wife, Jawan Ibrahim, 36,
said they saw no point in taking part in the vote
Saturday. "We haven't even seen the articles of the
constitution," Abdulrahman said. "People are not
interested in the process."
Ibrahim said she was disappointed that nothing had
changed after the January elections. The city still
experiences electrical shortages, and the wage gap
between the rich -- those presumed to be connected
to the political parties -- and the poor has only
widened.
"If independence is written in the constitution,
it's very good," she said. "It would allow us to
show us as a Kurdish nation. We want our rights,
just like any nation in the world."
Special correspondent Sarok Abdulla Ahmed
contributed to this report.
www.washingtonpost.com
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