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Kamal Sayyid Qadir: This has been for the fifth time
that I have announced a hunger strike. I previously
undertook four hunger strikes during my imprisonment
here in the Asayish [internal security headquarters]
and received concessions from officials. This time,
however, I have really entered a hunger strike that
I will continue until I am released either on bail
or indefinitely. I promise all honest people that I
will not tolerate this oppression.
Yesterday [February 26], I suffered from oppression
as a judge came who was obligated to release me on
bail, but I was not released because the public
prosecutor was not there. Therefore I have entered a
hunger strike, and I will continue it until I leave
prison as a free person, being released either on
bail or completely. Asayish officials have always
respected my previous decisions [of this kind]. I am
convinced that they will respect my decision also
this time and that they will not be made to use
methods of force feeding me because this is not
possible. They did not try this in the previous
times, and they will not try now either.
I want to demonstrate to the Iraqi and Kurdish
people, and to people in general, that oppression
has two sides: the first side is the oppressor and
the other side is the oppressed who tolerate their
being oppressed. But I am not from those who
tolerate oppression because, for all my life, I have
been cautious to care about the rights of others. If
I cannot defend my own rights, how then can I defend
the rights of others?
RFI: Do you think you were mistaken in your writings
that have been used against you in the trial?
Qadir: I have not been mistaken in my writings. I
have written maybe 100 articles and studies so far.
I do admit that I have used some words that are not
appropriate toward some people mentioned in the
articles. But I have apologized to those people
directly, in a letter addressed to Kurdistan Region
President Mas'ud Barzani, Kurdistan Regional
Government Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, and
other people who were named in the articles.
Nonetheless, I cannot revoke what I have written
about the problems of corruption and protectionism
in Kurdistan and Iraq. These are problems that no
one can overlook, and Kurdish media have recognized
them too. There is social inequality, inflated
prices, and injustice. There is a problem with
justice itself as the courts are not free to the
extent that we would wish and that international law
requires. This is what I have written, and I will be
writing further in this manner.
I want to mention that the gentlemen of the Asayish
in Irbil said they did not want to prohibit me from
writing, but that the thing they do not want me to
do is to use words that I have used in some
articles. I should mention as well that those words
occurred in a particular situation, and the
leadership of the Kurdistan Democratic Party knows
well that I am not guilty in this issue but someone
else is.
This is something I want to explain to Kurdistan
Regional Government Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani.
He asked me to send a letter to him in which I would
explain the problem, and I asked him if we could
meet for a few minutes so that I could describe for
him the background of this issue. This is a
political cause in which I am a mere victim.
RFI: How would you assess the proceedings of the
trial against you?
Qadir: It has been an unfair trial to an extreme
extent, violating the legal guarantees of human
rights. The first trial, for instance, where I was
sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment, was even
against the Iraqi Code of Criminal Procedure, and
definitely against international law. It resembled
the trials of Saddam Hussein’s era.
RFI: Did it help you during the prosecution and the
trial proceedings that you bear [dual] Austrian
citizenship?
Qadir: On the contrary. The judge who tried me was
very disturbed with the fact that I bear Austrian
citizenship. He intended to take revenge on me for
my being a Kurd bearing Austrian citizenship because
he told me that a Kurd should not take the
citizenship of another country.
I replied to him that I am a Kurd but there is no
citizenship of Kurdistan so I had found myself in
need to take Austrian citizenship. [I said] there
are Kurdish officials and ministers, including
members of the political bureaus of the Kurdistan
Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan, who bear the citizenship of foreign
countries, including Austria.
RFI: A number of international organizations think
that Iraq has become a dangerous place for
journalists and writers. What is your comment on
this subject?
Qadir: This is correct, I agree with this opinion.
There have been murders, violence against, and
kidnappings of journalists. Especially foreign
journalists, but also Iraqi and Arab journalists
[are targeted]. This is obvious to everybody, but
all of us expect the Kurdistan Region, being the
safest part of Iraq, to be in a different situation.
On the contrary, the freedoms of expression and
thought should be guaranteed here but,
unfortunately, these principles have not turned into
reality until now. This is the reality I had to
face. When I returned from Austria to Kurdistan, I
could never imagine that, one day in Kurdistan, I
would be abducted by my Kurdish brothers, exposed to
torture and insults, and standing an unfair trial.
This has been a nightmare to me that I would like to
forget. I only hope this [case] will be an exception
not a rule.
RFI: After you leave prison and the file of your
trial is closed, what are your plans in the field of
writing?
Qadir: I am proud that I have dedicated 40 years of
my life to the service of scholarship and teaching.
I have promised myself and sworn to myself that I
will dedicate the rest of my life to the service of
human rights, human dignity, and social justice,
because now I have suffered myself from the
hardships of injustice.
I am from a Kurdish family that has sacrificed
itself, its property, and whatever a human being
owns for the sake of the people’s freedom,
democracy, and human rights. Nevertheless, I am not
a nationalist, as I have defended Arabs, Jews,
Germans, and Austrians. Wherever there is
oppression, I want to stand against it. In the
future, God willing, I want to be always in support
of the rights of the oppressed, through legal means
and through writings. I will dedicate the rest of my
life to these principles, God willing. This is what
I promise.
I wanted to work as Gandhi although I hope that
Kurdistan does not need any Gandhi to liberate
people because the way to democracy in Kurdistan has
indeed begun. But shortcomings appear here and
there, and all of us must remove as many of them as
possible. This goal must be reached within the
framework of law, God willing, and of the
constitution of Kurdistan if one is introduced.
RFI: Have you dreamt of playing a role similar to
that of Egyptian thinker Sa’d al-Din Ibrahim, who
has been prosecuted on issues related to human
rights?
Qadir: I have published articles in English, Arabic,
and Kurdish on human rights, political systems, and
similar issues. But I have never dreamt, or thought
of, being exposed to persecution or prison in
Kurdistan some day because of my writings. I did not
have in my mind any plan to become like Sa’d al-Din
Ibrahim or anyone else, although I admit that I had
in my mind to serve human rights and human dignity
because I personally feel happy when I can fulfill
this task.
RFI: Do you think that it is easy for writers and
journalists to criticize negative phenomena in Iraqi
Kurdistan?
Qadir: There are issues dangerous to their lives but
the danger is even graver in some other areas, such
as central Iraq and possibly also southern Iraq with
Al-Basrah. In Kurdistan, this danger is smaller
unless you transgress some limits. These limits are
clearly visible to all of us. I think I have myself
gone a few steps beyond these limits and this is the
price I have paid.
RFI: How do you look at the future of Kurdistan and
Iraq on the background of the current situation?
Qadir: I am very pessimistic on the current
situation in Iraq. I have published articles in
Arabic where I warned that a sectarian war might
break out in Iraq. Namely the conditions for the
outbreak of a sectarian war can be found in Iraq due
to the nature of interaction between some of the
religious communities. There is monopolization of
power by some families, not really [religious]
brotherhoods or sects.
The primary problem in Iraq is that some families
have dominated power. They are families who have
inherited religious power and then transformed it
into political power. [This may be a reference to
the Barzani family, originally a line of hereditary
sheikhs of the Naqshbandi order in Islamic mysticism
-- ed.] This is the most serious danger for
democracy in Iraq and even in Kurdistan.
If you look at Kurdistan, [you will see] we are not
ruled by a political party but by some particular
families who have divided the resources and the
posts in the region among their members. Being with
these families means receiving some portion of the
shares. The opposite means being deprived of even
the most basic daily needs. I am one of the latter
ones: I have a doctoral degree, speak six languages,
have published in four languages – but had I
remained in Kurdistan, I would have probably been
selling vegetables in the street because I cannot
find a convenient position within the system.
If civil war breaks out in Iraq – and this will
hopefully not happen, God willing – Kurdistan will
have no other choice but to remain out of such a
malicious war. This may [be achieved] either through
a separation from Iraq, or taking a neutral position
like Switzerland and Sweden in the first and second
world wars. The latter may be our preferred choice.
But our problem is an economic one because 99
percent or more of our economy is linked to the
Iraqi economy. The future of Kurdistan is under a
serious threat if the current crisis in Iraq outside
Kurdistan further deteriorates.
RFI: Where will you live after your case comes to an
end? Will you return abroad, or will you stay in
Iraqi Kurdistan?
Qadir: I returned from abroad to Kurdistan to 1991,
immediately after the war of the liberation of
Kuwait ended and Saddam’s forces left Kurdistan.
Therefore, I have never thought of leaving
Kurdistan, except for the period of the civil war
between the dominant political parties [in Iraqi
Kurdistan in 1994-95]. I have returned to Kurdistan
and taken the taste of prison and injustice but I
will stay in Kurdistan for the sake of justice and
strengthening democracy in Kurdistan, and for the
sake of justice not only in Kurdistan but also in
the Kurdish areas that were Arabicized by the former
regime [of Saddam Hussein]. No injustice is bigger
than to expel people from their homes. This
wrongdoing has affected not only Kurds but also
Assyrians and Turkomans.
I would like to dedicate the coming two years to
supporting the right of the displaced for the return
to their homes and so forth in accordance with the
Iraqi constitution, Article 136.
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