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Talabani lambastes Baker-Hamilton report: It is
ill-informed, negative, unfair and undermines our long struggle
for democracy |
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Source : Kurdistan Referendum |
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Kurd Net
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Talabani lambastes Baker-Hamilton report:
It is ill-informed, negative, unfair and undermines
our long struggle for democracy
18.12.2006
Translated by Dr Kamal Mirawdeli December 17, 2006
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This is the translation
of the full text of Iraqi President Jalal Talabnai’s
press conference on Baker-Hamilton report as
published in Patriotic Union of Kurdistan’s daily
newspaper Arabic Al-Ittihad, Baghdad, on 11 Dec 06.
December 18, 2006
"This Report is contrary to the Iraqi constitution
that millions of Iraqis have voted for. If I, as
president, breach the constitution and do not
respect it, people do have power to remove me. The
National Assembly can dismiss me. Neither I, nor
government, nor anyone can touch the constitution."
The report is dangerous
His Excellency the President of the Republic of Iraq
Mr Jalal Talabani, in a press meeting today,
criticized Baker-Hamilton report. He said: “I
believe the Report is unfair, unjust and contains
items that devalue the sovereignty of Iraq and its
constitution. It is against the long struggle of
Iraqi people against dictatorship. |
Iraqi
President : Jalal Talabani, a Kurd |
His Excellency criticized a clause in the report
which calls for the return of the Ba’thists to the
political scene. He said: this is a very dangerous
matter. He added: The report does not respect the
will and wishes of the Iraqi people to control their
army and build its capacities in training and
arming. He asserted that the Iraqi forces are led by
the Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. He said: to put
foreign officers with every [Iraqi] military unit is
a serious breach of Iraqi sovereignty. He asked:
What will be left of Iraq’s sovereignty if the Iraqi
army becomes an instrument in the hands of officers
imported from abroad?
Training and commanding Iraqi army
His Excellency stressed: We do have thousands and
thousands of loyal patriotic Iraqi officers who had
been working with us against the dictatorship of
Saddam Hussain. Then he asked a number of other
objective questions: Why shouldn’t we use these
officers to train the Iraqi army?
Why should we bring those from abroad? What have
they done so far in terms of training Iraqi soldiers
and police? All what they have done so far is to
move from one failure to another. He said: Just look
at the police force whom they collected from the
street without paying attention to their affiliation
and background and their allegiance to the new Iraq
or their abilities. These mistakes will be repeated
if the Iraqi army is placed under the control of
foreign officers. We will not accept this. The Iraqi
army must be under the leadership of our Prime
Minister who is the general commander of the armed
forces. He will be the commander of the army and not
officers brought from abroad. I am certain that
Prime Minister al-Maliki will insist on taking over
the security file and having the army under his
command.
Foreign interference
He acknowledged that it is important for the
coalition forces to support the Iraqi army to fight
terrorism and by helping us to buy and obtain some
weapons. We have resources to buy arms. And they can
protect us from foreign interferences. His
Excellency President Talabani stressed that “the
report does not respect the will of the Iraqis in
dealing with their problems. The Iraqi people are
responsible for their independence, unity and their
right to govern their country and face up to
terrorism.”
His Excellency confirmed that he has many more
observations about the report but these are the
principal ones. “And previously I have expressed my
full support for [the President of Kurdistan
region’] Mr Mas’ud Barzani’s criticisms of the
report. The report is not balanced. They did not
visit Kurdistan. And they have heavily focused on
very negative aspects.”
Baker's smell
About the spirit of the Report, the President
explained: We smell from this report the attitude of
James Baker before the war when they decided to
liberate Kuwait and keep Saddam in Baghdad. He added
frankly: Generally, I reject this Report.
President Talabani added: “I would like to repeat
that we are very grateful to the American nation and
the President of the US for liberating Iraq from
dictatorship. But they need to give us power and
capacity to govern ourselves. We have proved through
three elections we have had we are capable of ruling
our country ourselves. Maybe it is a big surprise to
some people if I reveal that the Prime Minister does
not have power to move 10 soldiers. [In these
conditions] How can we make the country secure?
President Talabani said: If we managed to agree with
the Americans to give us the right to arm and train
our armed forces ourselves then the American forces
can leave by 2008. I have said this before: The
American forces could leave within two years but
with this condition.
Ignoring the constitution and the will of people
About the question of federation the President said:
“The Report has ignored the constitution. They
ignore us. They treat us like a small newly-formed
colony that they can treat as they wish. There are
many serious things in the Report. There is
something very odd: they want to transfer the
control of the police forces in the governorates
from governors and they try in this report to bring
all the commands to the Interior Ministry and
Defense Ministry. Then what will be the role of the
Interior Minister: To become a traffic policeman.
This is not acceptable.”
His Excellency stressed that we should express our
strong rejection of this Report. He added: “We will
confirm through statements and through our approach
to the US Ambassador in Iraq Mr Zalmay Khalilzad the
results that came out of the meeting between Mr Abd-al-Aziz
al-Hakim and President Bush and our agreement with
him, as well as the results of the meeting between
the Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and President Bush
in Amman. I believe these results were satisfactory
and we are committed to them.
These are the frameworks that we accept. We stress
that we want to have control over our armed forces
and to have the security file in the hands of the
Iraqis and under the control of the Prime Minister
who is constitutionally the general commander of the
armed forces. We want to have our hands untied in
fighting terrorism and we also stress that we want
to implement the joint security plan with full
participation of and coordination with the
multinational forces and we do not want the foreign
side to have unilateral power to take security
decisions.”
His Excellency expressed his trust and confidence in
the President of the United States Mr George W Bush
to remain committed in his support to the Iraqi
government and the democratic aspirations of the
Iraqi people. He said: “I believe that Mr Bush is a
brave principled and faithful man. He is determined
to support the [Iraqi] government. I do not think he
will change his policy until the end of his
presidency.”
In reply to a question about the clause 140 of the
Iraqi constitution, the Iraqi President explained:
This Report is contrary to the Iraqi constitution
that millions of Iraqis have voted for. If I, as
president, breach the constitution and do not
respect it, people do have power to remove me. The
National Assembly can dismiss me. Neither I, nor
government, nor anyone can touch the constitution.’’
He added: If there is a need for some amendments
then it is the Iraqi people can decide this through
a mechanism and a commission defined by the National
Assembly. Then it is up to the Iraqi people to
accept or reject these amendments.’’
Dialogue with Iran and Syria
A newspaper reporter asked the President about
opening a dialogue with Iran and Syria. He replied:
"We initiated negotiations with the Iranians and I
personally made an official visit to the Islamic
Republic of Iran before Baker made his
recommendations. I am also about to make an official
visit to Syria. I believe that by our agreement with
the two countries we will be able to achieve
security and stability to a large extent. Anyway, we
had initiated the process of setting up relations
and dialogue with the two countries before Baker’s
report.’’
Democratic opposition welcome
His Excellency stressed that the Iraqi government
believes in the necessity of the existence of the
opposition. He stressed: ¦’There is an experience
and a process of democracy started with
accomplishing three elections. On the basis of these
the present Irai government has been formed. And the
Constitution has been accepted by the overwhelming
majority votes of millions of the Iraqi people. This
new democratic institution can not be abolished.
Those who want to change or oppose, must do this
through the ballot box. Then they are free to change
whatever they want. This time is over when changes
are imposed by force. The overwhelming majority of
the Iraqi people support their constitution.’’
His Excellency expressed his regret that some Arab
countries have embraced some people who call for the
overthrow of the Iraqi government and the use of
violence. He said: ¦’The Irai government is a
government elected by people. No one, even the
Americans, do have right to interfere in its
affairs.’’
He added:’’ The opposition inside the country does
have every right to practice all its rights inside
the parliament. If they insist on withdrawing from
the government, the government will not stop. The
Prime Minister is in the process of making changes
in the cabinet. He has got majority in the National
Assembly and he can change his ministers. He
commented on those people who have threatened to
suspend their participation: I call upon them to
suspend their suspension.
Media discourse
He replied to a question about the media discourse
stressing the necessity to unify the information
discourse within the government saying: ¦’ I was the
first to call for the necessity of harmonizing the
government’s information discourse. It is not
appropriate to have people who are participants in
the government and at the same time criticize it in
the media.’’
Return of Ba'thists
About the possibility of the return of the Ba’thists
to the political arena, he said: "No to the return
of the Saddamite Ba’th party. This is an act which
is against the constitution. Those who negotiate for
their return breach the constitution. We
differentiate between the Arab Ba’th party, Iraq
country leadership, which was allied to Syria. This
is a patriotic militant party that fought against
dictatorship. We have asked them several times to
work within the democratic political process. Then
there are many other Ba’thists who were deceived or
forced to join the Ba’th party. They too can join
the political process under a different name or
under the name of Iraq Leadership Ba’th party. As
for the Saddamite Ba’athists I strongly stress that
they are prohibited from political activities inside
Iraq as the constitution states.’’
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