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Criminal cases in Kurdistan region are
being resolved through tribal mediation
17.3.2007
By Rebaz Mahmood in Sulaimaniyah (ICR No. 215,
16-Mar-07) |
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Above
the Law. Criminal cases in Kurdistan region (north
of Iraq) are increasingly being resolved through
tribal mediation
March 17, 2007 -
Kurdistan region (Iraq)
In July
2006, Mohammad Amin Abdullah, a resident of
Sulaimaniyah, took out a lawsuit against Iraqi
president Jalal Talabani which concerned the
latter’s role as head of the then rebel Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan, PUK, in the Eighties.
Abdullah sought 25 million Iraqi dinars in
compensation for foodstuffs that he claimed he
supplied to the PUK in 1983 and was not paid for.
Soon after this news was published in Hawlati, an
independent newspaper, the PUK's bureau of finance
contacted Abdullah to persuade him to withdraw the
case and sort the matter out through tribal
mediation.He agreed to do so, and eventually
withdrew his case in return for a financial payment.
Such forms of tribal reconciliation are superseding
courts, as people come together to resolve disputes
that would normally be determined by courts.
Tribal influence remains very powerful in large
parts of Kurdish society. Within a clan, there are a
number of tribes and in each of the latter hundred
of families.
Tribal leaders are vested with significant
authority. Essentially, members must abide with
whatever they say, especially in more rural areas.
They can decide whether to go to war and choose whom
their members should vote for in elections.
Many of those who’ve committed crimes seek tribal
resolutions rather than judicial ones. Often, the
family and friends of the perpetrator will meet the
relatives of the victim in the presence of clerics,
noblemen and local political figures, in a mosque to
settle their dispute - which commonly results in the
payment of compensation.
The two sides will sign a document confirming that
that their conflict has been resolved and the
victim’s family will withdraw the court case.
These agreements, usually called tribal
reconciliation, are so common that the two main
Kurdish political parties, the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan, PUK, and the Kurdistan Democratic Party,
KDP, have formed special so-called social bureaus
which deal with such cases on a daily basis.
From 2003 to 2005, the PUK's social bureaus mediated
in more than 1800 disputes, of which 184 were murder
cases. In 2005 alone, they resolved more than 600
conflicts. Figures of how many the KDP’s social
bureaus have tackled are not available.
"Between 1999 and 2000, an armed conflict between
two tribes [in Piramagrun, 15 kilometres west of
Sulaimaniyah] claimed the lives of 17 people, but we
mediated successfully and resolved the problem,”
said Mawlood Talani, head of the PUK's
social bureaus.
In much of the region, local people are suspicious
of courts, questioning their independence and
integrity. They believe many judges are vulnerable
to influence from political parties, friends and
other social connections.
Meanwhile, social bureaus claim that Islam, the
religion of the majority of the Kurds, and Iraqi law
supports what they do.
According to Islamic law, for instance, there are
three way of settling a murder case: the killer is
executed; pays blood money; or is forgiven by the
family of the victim.
In Iraqi law, there are several articles on tribal
agreements. For example, in article 198 of law 111
passed in 1969 and valid today, the latter are
considered equal to court verdicts, for crimes which
carry punishments of up to one year imprisonment.
In such cases, the family of the perpetrator can
come to some sort of arrangement with the family of
the victim, and the outcome is legally binding even
if the court has not been notified. With crimes
carrying punishments of more than one year, they
have to ask the court whether it will sanction their
agreement.
Talani said that the only cases in which his bureaus
won’t intervene are those concerning women,
espionage and theft. He says he prefers the courts
to deal with the first category because of its
potentially big social impact, and the latter two
since they are in the public interest.
He says one of the reasons people opt for tribal
reconciliation is because current laws can’t protect
a convicted criminal who’s released from prison
after serving his sentence. "He might be a target of
revenge by the victim or the family of the victim,"
he said.
Talani recounted a case of a criminal who after
serving his time for murder had to go into hiding
for two years fearing retribution from his victim’s
relatives. Talani said that one of his bureaus
mediated and the criminal paid 30,000 US dollars to
the aggrieved family, and is now free to go wherever
he pleases.
But lawyers and judges believe that these agreements
have undermined the legal system. "If the two main
parties don’t want to insult the courts and law,
they have to dissolve these bureaus," said lawyer
Soran Qaradakhi. "The parties want to increase the
power of the tribes."
However, Omar Ahmad, who has served as a judge for
six years in a Sulaimaniyah criminal court, said
that it is hard to change a system of justice that
is rooted in tradition. "There is no legal
education," he said, "The nature of Kurdish society
is tribal."
Rebaz Mahmood is an IWPR contributor in Iraqi
Kurdistan.
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