|
Iraqi Kurds seek promise of protection
from US
15.2.2007
|
|
|
|
February 15, 2007
WASHINGTON -- Leaders of Iraq's Kurdish
minority, who were key US allies in the 2003
invasion, are becoming increasingly critical of US
actions in Iraq and are now seeking assurances from
the Bush administration that Americans will protect
their
region if violence reaches its borders.
Qubad Talabani , the Washington-based representative
of the Kurdish Regional Government, said he has met
with White House and State Department officials to
seek a public US commitment to intervene in the
event of an invasion of Iraqi Kurdistan by outsiders
from elsewhere in Iraq or neighboring countries, but
that so far he has received no official response.
The remarks of Talabani, the son of Iraq's president
Jalal Talabani, suggest that Iraq's peaceful Kurdish
provinces are increasingly pessimistic about the
prospects for a unified and stable Iraq. |
Qubad J. Talabani, representative of Kurdistan's
government to the U.S. |
They also underscore a
growing distrust of the United States among Iraqi
Kurds, who say US officials have ignored or
undermined their interests as Washington focuses on
quelling the violence in Arab Sunni and Shi'ite
areas.
Recent incidents, including a US military raid on
Iranian diplomats in a Kurdish city, have further
strained relations. Kurdish officials say they
invited the Iranians to their region and dispute US
assertions that the Iranians were involved in
weapons smuggling at the time of their arrest.
Qubad Talabani said he plans to launch a major
public relations campaign aimed at explaining to the
American people why the United States should keep on
protecting Kurdistan, even if US forces pull out of
Iraq.
In 2005, the Kurdish Regional Government, which
rules three semi-autonomous provinces in northern
Iraq, hired Russo, Marsh & Rogers , a public
relations firm, to launch a series of television
commercials advertising the region's stability to
potential American investors. But this year,
Talabani said, the message will be: " 'If Iraq
fails, it wasn't our fault.' "
"We fought shoulder to shoulder with you. We should
not be abandoned," Talabani said. "We need
assurances that, whatever happens in Iraq, the US
will protect the Kurds."
Ethnic Kurds, most of whom live in the northern
cities of Suleimaniyah, Erbil, and Dohuk, make up
about 20 percent of Iraq's 27 million people and
consider themselves separate from the Arab
population. Since the early 1900s, Kurds -- a
persecuted minority of 30 million spread across
Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey -- have fought for
self-rule. The closest they have come has been in
Iraq, where a 1991 no-fly zone prevented Saddam
Hussein from entering the region, allowing it to
flourish into a self -governing, pro-American oasis.
In 2003, the Kurdish militia known as the Peshmerga
fought alongside US soldiers in Mosul and Kirkuk.
Since then, Kurdish leaders have advised and
cooperated with US diplomats in the effort to set up
Iraq's central government in Baghdad, setting aside
their goal of independence in the belief that the
new Iraqi government would recognize their right to
govern their region. Last fall, Jalal Talabani
publicly proposed stationing long-term US military
bases in Kurdistan.
But now a series of recent US actions has infuriated
Kurds. A key complaint is that the United States has
backed a system of a strong central government in
Baghdad -- not the federalist system of strong
regional governments that the Kurds demand.
In 2005, Kurdish leaders successfully negotiated
considerable rights to self-rule in the new Iraqi
constitution, including sole
control over security in their region and exclusive
control over unexploited oil and gas.
But many Sunnis, who make up the backbone of the
insurgency, staunchly oppose federalism. To draw
Sunnis into the political process, US officials last
year offered them a chance to renegotiate some
elements of the constitution, a move that greatly
alarmed the Kurds. "Many Kurds fear that US
officials are in fact busy with undermining the
constitution they themselves brokered, particularly
when it comes to the powers of Kurdistan," said
Khaled Salih , a spokesman for the regional
government, in an e-mail.
Another complaint is that units of Peshmerga are
being sent to Baghdad as part of the new US-backed
plan to increase troops in the capital, a move the
Kurds fear will draw them into a sectarian war.
Yet another cause for outrage occurred when US
officials failed to consult Kurdish authorities when
it arrested the six Iranian officials. The Kurdistan
Regional Government issued a blistering press
release condemning the arrests. Qubad Talabani said
the Iranians had been guests of the local
authorities and were not working against the US
military in Erbil.
"There was zero consultation," he said, adding that
the raid prompted Iran to shut the border and cut
off the fuel supply for days.
"In the end, it makes us wonder how fragile is this
alliance? How temporary is this friendship? Is there
even a friendship?"
he said.
Another point of contention is that the United
States has spent just 3 percent, by Talabani's
count, of the more than $21 billion in Iraq
reconstruction funds in Kurdish areas, preferring to
rebuild war-torn areas like Fallujah to placate an
angry Sunni population.
"It is of course a matter of resentment in Kurdistan
that roughly the message seems to be that if you
bomb US troops, you will get money spent on you, but
if you are peaceful, if you are an American ally,
you will get nothing," said Brendan O'Leary , a
professor at the University of Pennsylvania who
serves as an adviser to the Kurdistan Regional
Government.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that
funds were spent where they would have the greatest
impact. He said the Kurds, like other Iraqis, would
have to make sacrifices to build a united country.
He said he could not confirm that Qubad Talabani
sought special assurances of protection for the
Kurds, but suggested that Washington is not prepared
to guarantee protection to one Iraqi faction over
another.
"What the Iraqis need to understand is that if they
are to succeed, they will succeed together," he
said. "They're all in this together in the formation
of this government -- Sunni, Shi'a, Kurd, and
everybody else."
But not all Kurds see it that way. Kani Xulam ,
director of the American Kurdish Information
Network, a Washington-based advocacy organization,
said that if sectarian violence engulfs the entire
country, Iraqi Kurds will have no choice but to
break away, even though the United States, Turkey,
Syria, Iran, and the rest of Iraq vehemently oppose
such a move.
"If it becomes a dead Iraq, then Kurds will be
forced to declare their independence," he said.
Turkey, a key US ally, has threatened to invade to
put down the Kurdish rebellion if Iraqi Kurds break
away, fearing that its own sizable Kurdish
population would follow suit. But Xulam said Kurds
in Iraq would fight a Turkish invasion just as
fiercely as Sunnis fought Americans in Fallujah.
For now, Talabani said, Kurds are working toward
being a part of the larger Iraq. But if the unity
government ultimately fails, he said, "We have no
option but to continue running our own affairs."
If Iraq splits, he said, "the United States has a
moral obligation to defend the advancement and the
development that has taken place in the Kurdistan
region."
Talabani and others noted that Washington has a
history of abandoning the Kurds. In the 1970s, the
CIA helped arm Kurdish rebels to fight Saddam
Hussein, but abruptly withdrew support when Hussein
cut a deal with the US-backed Shah of Iran.
In 1991, after the first Gulf War, President George
H. W. Bush encouraged Kurds and Shi'ites to rise up
against Hussein, but then failed to stop him from
crushing those rebellions. It took months for the
United States to help institute the no-fly zone,
Xulam said, and that only came after CNN broadcast
footage of Kurds who had fled Hussein living in
miserable conditions
boston com
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 