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Barzani: If we want to separate, we will do it, without fears |
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Barzani: If we want to separate, we will
do it, without fears
4.9.2006 |
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Erbil,
Kurdistan-Iraq, September 3, -- The leader of the
Kurdish region in northern Iraq threatened secession
Sunday as a dispute over flying the Iraqi flag
intensified.
Massoud Barzani on Friday ordered the country's
national flag to be replaced with the Kurdish one,
sparking harsh words in Baghdad.
"If we want to separate, we will do it, without
hesitation or fears," Barzani, president of the
Kurdish region, said during an address to
parliament.
He tempered his comments slightly by saying that
Kurdish leaders already have voted to remain in a
united Iraq. But government leaders in Baghdad fear
the Kurds are pushing for independence from the rest
of Iraq.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki issued a terse
statement Sunday.
"The current Iraqi flag is the only one which must
be hoisted on each bit of Iraq's land until a
decision is adopted by the parliament according to
the constitution," the statement from his office
said.
President Jalal Talabani's office on Sunday
denounced the flap over the flag as an "exaggerated
noise."
Talabani, a Kurd, defended Barzani's move, saying
there had been a "constitutional vacuum" over the
flag issue. Iraq's first interim Governing Council
that came after the fall of Saddam Hussein decided
to change the flag but no official version has been
adopted yet.
"What made the Kurdish parliament take this step is
this blunder," the statement said. It added that the
flag the Iraqi parliament will adopt will become
"sacred" and will be flown throughout Iraq,
"including Kurdistan's mountain tops."
The Kurdish region gradually has been gaining more
autonomy since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, a
worrying development to many Iraqi leaders,
especially Sunni Arabs. If the Kurds were to become
independent along with the Shiite majority in the
oil-rich south, the Sunnis would be left with little
more than date groves and sand. |
Iraq's Kurdistan president Massoud Barzani is
flanked by an Iraqi flag from the 1960's (R) and the
present Kurdistan flag (L) as he speaks during a
conference in Erbil, September 3, 2006. The leader
of Iraq's ethnic Kurds brandished the threat of
secession on Sunday as a row with the Baghdad
government over the flying of the Iraqi national
flag exposed an increasingly bitter rift. After the
Kurdish regional government banned the use of the
Iraqi flag on public buildings
Photo: Reuters |
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On Saturday, Sunni Arab lawmaker Saleh al-Mutlaq
slammed Barzani's decision.
"What will be taken by force today, will be returned
by force another day," he said, without elaborating.
"We can defend our dignity, our people and our land
... and no one should be under the illusion that he
could take a tiny bit of somebody else's land."
Speaking to parliament, Barzani said the national
flag does not represent Iraqis. He said the Kurds
would use an early version of the Iraqi flag that
was flown after the end of the monarchy in 1958.
The Kurdish area had been out of Saddam Hussein's
control since the 1991 Gulf War, when the Kurds set
up their autonomous region under the protection of
U.S. and British warplanes. After the U.S.-led
invasion, Kurdistan was the only region that did not
witness major changes.
Iraq's new constitution recognizes Kurdish self-rule
and provides a legal mechanism for other areas to
govern themselves but within the Iraqi state.
AP
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