KRG Reception
Westminster, London 13 July 2005, Welcome Speech by
Ms Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, KRG High Representative
to the United Kingdom
Your Excellencies, my lords ladies and gentlemen,
good evening.
First, I would like to welcome every one of you.
It’s a pleasure to see so many friends and
supporters of Kurdistan here and we offer you a very
warm and hearty welcome.
It’s a pleasure to see Ambassador Shaikhly with us
this evening. When a Kurd invites the Iraqi
ambassador to a reception, you know things are
looking up!
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Ms Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman
Photo: KRG
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We meet today a year
after the handing over of sovereignty to Iraq and
six months after the momentous elections in January.
Elections that saw the peaceful transfer of power
from one Iraqi government to another – a rarity in
Iraq’s history but what we hope will become the
norm.
This is a critical year for Kurdistan and for
Iraq.
We have achieved much but there are many challenges
ahead, not least the drawing up of a new
constitution, a constitution that enables every
Iraqi – Kurd, Arab, Shia, Sunni, Assyrian, Turkeman,
Muslim or Christian – to feel that Iraq belongs to
them and that they belong to Iraq.
The other key challenge is to improve security and
to bring an end to the terrorist attacks so that the
reconstruction effort can begin in earnest and
ordinary people can go about their daily lives
without fear of attack.
The tragic and horrific events in London last
Thursday illustrate the difficulty we all face in
this regard. We share the grief of the families who
have lost loved ones and we stand united with Great
Britain its determination not to be cowed by those
who use violence to further their aims.
Terrorists have struck in our region too but, thanks
to our security forces – the peshmerga – and our
intelligence service, who work with the full support
of the public, we have been able to keep our region
relatively stable and secure compared with other
parts of Iraq.
The roots of our relative success lie in the
autonomy that we have enjoyed since 1992 and the
steps we have taken towards establishing democracy.
Thanks to the safe haven created by Britain and the
United States after the first Gulf War, we were able
to hold the first ever free and fair elections in
Iraq’s history in our region in 1992.
This led to the establishment of the Kurdistan
National Assembly and the Kurdistan Regional
Government, both of which include members from the
Assyrian, Turkeman and other communities.
Since then, we have rebuilt hundreds of villages
that had been destroyed by Saddam Hussein; we have
rebuilt roads, bridges, hospitals, schools and
universities. The media have flourished in
Kurdistan, while the rights of the various ethnic
and religious groups in the region have been
protected.
We continue to take steps to improve upon the civil
society in our region, often with the help of our
friends and allies from other countries with a
longer history of democracy, including of course,
Great Britain.
These achievements in Kurdistan have not come
easily. Our people have suffered greatly.
We have suffered chemical bombardment, ethnic
cleansing, destruction or confiscation of property
and genocide. In looking to the future, we believe
that these injustices should be redressed. We
believe that the new Iraq – a federal, democratic
and pluralistic Iraq – cannot come into being
without justice, reconciliation and restitution.
These issues are crystallised in the debate over the
future of Kirkuk, an urgent issue that has
regretfully been neglected by the Iraqi government
and our allies but which can no longer be ignored.
The creation and sustaining of relative peace and
prosperity in Kurdistan and the fledgling democracy
we have in place can provide important lessons for
the rest of Iraq.
The Kurdistan Regional Government is committed to a
democratic, federal and pluralistic Iraq and we are
striving to achieve that in every way possible.
One path towards achieving this goal is the way in
which Kurdistan has become a gateway for investment
and trade in Iraq – to spread prosperity throughout
the country. Already, many companies, from Britain,
other parts of Europe, the Middle East, Asia and
other parts of the world, have a foothold in
Kurdistan.
Through the Kurdistan Development Corporation (KDC),
which is a joint venture between the Kurdistan
Regional Government and private international
investors, we have brought companies from Germany,
Britain and the Middle East to Kurdistan. We believe
that Kurdistan provides the opportunity to do
business in Iraq.
We have reached a momentous stage in Kurdistan’s
history. Behind us, we have many dark days when our
homeland was ravaged and many of us lost people we
loved in the battle for freedom and democracy in
Iraq.
Ahead of us lie many challenges but also the
opportunity to have a brighter future, a stable
country at peace with itself and its neighbours, and
the prospect of Kurdistan and Iraq becoming a beacon
of democracy and peace in the Middle East.
With your help and your support we believe these
challenges are more easily met.
www.krg.org
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