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ARBIL,
Iraq, June 4 (AFP) - 13h49 - Iraq's Kurdish
President Jalal Talabani on Saturday addressed the
first session of the autonomous Kurdish parliament,
urging deputies to create a democratic, federal
system in a country threatened by sectarian strife.
"Your democratically elected parliament faces a
critical period in the history of Iraq," Talabani,
speaking in Arabic, told lawmakers in Arbil, 350
kilometers (220 miles) north of Baghdad.
Speaking after a wave of attacks killed scores of
people in the region, he said: "We are faced with
terrorism fuelled by orphans of Saddam Hussein's
dictatorship, we must unite to fight this
phenomenon."
"Our sacred task is to draft a permanent
constitution that guarantees equality for all of
Iraqi society and protects democratic and federal
freedoms."
Kurds, who have enjoyed autonomy in the north since
the 1991 Gulf war, want a federal system with the
oil centre city of Kirkuk as its capital, while
radical Sunni Arabs who were favoured under Saddam's
rule are believed to be fuelling the insurgency.
Referring to continuing efforts to draft a
constitution for Iraq, Talibani said: "All
componants of Iraq must participate, in particular
representatives of Sunni Arabs."
The parliament's first session opened more than four
months after general elections and following talks
between Talabani and Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani,
who was recently chosen as the autonomous region's
president although he has yet to be sworn in.
It began without Iraq's Shiite Prime Minister
Ibrahim Jaafari but National Parliament Speaker
Hajem al-Hassani, a Sunni Arab, attended.
Most Iraqi Kurds are Sunni Muslims and make up
nearly 20 percent of Iraq's 26-million population.
Hassani said in an address: "The time has come to
work together in the national and Kurdish
parliaments to build a new, united, democratic and
federal Iraq."
The two main Kurdish parties also have 75 members in
Iraq's national parliament, more than one-quarter of
that 275-member body.
Iraq includes three Kurdish provinces --
Sulaimaniyah, Arbil and Dohuk.
"We want an Iraq where all citizens live equally,
therefore all parts of Iraqi society must join in
drafting the constitution," Hassani said.
The 111-member Kurdish parliament began its session
with Koranic recitations read under a massive
portrait of Mullah Mustafa Barzani, the father of
Kurdish nationalism, framed between large red,
white, yellow and green Kurdish flags.
Several Kurdish flags hung elsewhere in the room,
while the Iraqi flag was absent.
Talabani heads the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan,
while Barzani leads the rival Kurdistan Democratic
Party. The two groups have effectively ruled Kurdish
parts of northern Iraq outside Baghdad's control
since 1991.
The agreement between the KDP and the PUK to sit in
one parliament heralds the unification of Iraqi
Kurdistan, which had for years been divided between
the two parties.
Following the 1991 Gulf War, the two fell out over
power sharing and tax revenues in the region and
thousands died in ensuing fighting, with Barzani
even calling in Saddam's forces to fight the PUK on
his behalf.
Some Iraqi Kurds now want full independence. The two
parties dropped this demand ahead of January's
elections, but many believe calls for independence
could resurface once the divided region is
completely consolidated.
UN envoy Ashraf Qazi also addressed the parliament,
saying Kurds must show "wisdom, restraint and an
abiding respect for human rights."
"You have the opportunity, capability and dare I say
obligation to provide a beacon of hope, to provide
an example to the rest of Iraq," he added.
AFP
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