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Incorporation of large numbers of peshmerga into
national security forces fails to allay concerns of
some Iraqis over the militia force.
Iraqi Kurdistan is to bolster Iraqi army and
interior ministry units by providing the beleaguered
security forces 32,000 of its peshmerga fighters - a
little more than half the elite militia, according
to Kurd officials.
The remaining thirty thousand Kurdish troops will
come under the control of a planned peshmerga
ministry in the regional government of Iraqi
Kurdistan, said Mustafa Sayyed Qadir, deputy chief
of units belonging to the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan, PUK.
The move comes as the rival Kurdish administrations
in Sulaimaniyah and Erbil prepare to unify. The
election of Massoud Barzani, head of the Kurdistan
Democratic Party, KDP, as president of Iraqi
Kurdistan on June 12 paved the way for the two
authorities to merge.
Sulaimaniyah and Erbil are the capitals of the PUK-controlled
eastern side and the KDP-controlled western side of
the Kurdish region respectively.
The continued presence of a peshmerga force has
alarmed some Iraqis, especially Sunnis, who are
concerned that it might be deployed by the Kurds in
a future independence struggle. Plans to halve the
militia have failed to allay these worries.
Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, a Kurd and head of
the PUK, recently sparked controversy when he
publicly expressed support for maintaining the
peshmerga and the Badr Brigade, the military arm of
the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
Abdul Salman al-Qubeisi, spokesman of the Sunni
Association of Muslim Scholars, accused Talabani of
trying to prolong the fighting in Iraq and to turn
it into a civil war.
The former Coalition Provision Authority had issued
orders for militias to be disbanded but the decision
has not been followed through.
In an effort to assuage concerns over the continued
existence of the peshmerga, Qadir insisted the
militia was a patriotic force and should not be
looked at with suspicion. "We don't have any evil
intentions," he stressed.
Other members of the Kurdish force have echoed this
sentiment but admit that they have some persuading
to do. Fazil Basharati, a peshmerga soldier and
member of the KDP, said they need to show they have
the interests of Iraq at heart. "To prove that we
don't pose a threat and we consider ourselves to be
part of Iraq, we have to be prepared to defend
Iraq," he said.
While the rest of Iraq might not like it, Kurds
believe it is paramount that they retain substantial
numbers of pershmerga fighters.
Muhsin Bayez, a senior official in the Kurdish
regional government, said it is important Kurds do
not have to rely on others for their protection. "We
don't [want to depend totally] on to the Iraqi
Army," he said.
Muhammed Jalal, who teaches international relations
at the University of Sulaimaniyah, said maintaining
the militia would reassure locals that their region
will remain an autonomous entity, "It is impossible
for the Kurds to fall under the direct rule of
Baghdad again."
Talar Nadir is an IWPR trainee in Sulaimaniyah.
www.iwpr.net
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