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KRG regrets the racist “kaka” remarks
associated with Saddam Hussein’s former Oil Minister
5.5.2007 |
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Kurdistan Government KRG regrets the racist “kaka”
remarks associated with Saddam Hussein’s former Oil
Minister
May 5, 2007
On May 4, the Kurdistan Regional Government saw a
copy of an email apparently sent by Mr. Issam Al-Chalabi,
Iraq Minister of Oil from March 1987 to October
1990, to his former colleagues and associates. Those
colleagues and associates are, like Mr. Al-Chalabi
himself, mostly based in Amman, Jordan, and seek to
serve as unofficial advisers to the Baghdad Oil
Ministry. The email was published on the internet on
Monday this week with the racist subject-header,
“Back to square one, kaka!... Have some oil…”.
Mr. Al-Chalabi’s email refers to the KRG’s
objection, raised at a conference in Dubai on
Wednesday 18 April and published on the KRG website
on Friday 28 April, regarding the recent efforts of
some in the Baghdad Oil Ministry to depart from
agreed policy and centralise almost 93% of Iraq’s
oil under an unaccountable “Iraq National Oil
Company” which they say will be closed to private
sector investment.
The use of the word “Kaka” is a return to the
derogatory and racist language of the former regime
to describe the Kurdish people. Under the former
Ba’athist regime, Kurds were the subject of extreme
racial discrimination and, for a period, genocide.
People who deal with the Kurds are aware that the
word “Kaka” in the Kurdish language is a friendly,
respectful mode of address, used by a Kurdish man to
address an older relative. It could be translated
into English as “brother”, or “my brother”. A
related word, “Kak”, is used to mean “friend” or
“sir” when addressing a close colleague or a senior
member of the Kurdish community.
However, the extremists who flourished under Saddam
used the word “Kaka” amongst themselves in
patronising, derogatory and racist ways in referring
to the Kurds, implying that Kurds are inferior. An
approximate analogy would be the use of the word
“boy” by a white person in the United States when
addressing or referring to an African American. It
is offensive.
The KRG regrets that this language is still in
circulation amongst some Iraqis. We understand that
Mr. Al-Chalabi has a point of view on the oil law
which he has a right to express, but the publication
of this point of view with a racist slur is not
acceptable. We call on Mr. Issam Al-Chalabi to
clarify the circumstances of the publication of his
email. We call on Mr. Issam Al-Chalabi and his
colleagues to reconcile themselves to a new Iraq in
which all ethnicities and sects have equal
protection under federal and regional law and are
deserving of equal respect.
We also hope that he makes an effort to reconcile
himself to the Iraq Constitution, Articles 115 and
121 of which clearly establish the powers of the
Kurdistan Region, and indeed other federal regions
and governorates, in respect of petroleum
management. Mr. Al-Chalabi is welcome to visit us in
Erbil at any time, where we would be happy to show
him Kurdistan’s progress towards a prosperous
multi-ethnic, multi-sectarian federation in which
all the peoples of Iraq benefit from increased
investment and petroleum production.
The KRG is committed to the creation of a fair,
transparent, investor friendly oil regime for the
whole of Iraq, and has been an active participant in
reaching this result. The only circumstances in
which we would oppose the already agreed draft law
is if the Annexes are not consistent with the draft
law and Constitution, if the role of INOC is
inconsistent with the Constitution, or if no
satisfactory revenue sharing law has been agreed as
is required by the Constitution. In the unlikely
event that an unconstitutional oil law is passed by
the Iraq Council of Representatives, then those laws
will naturally not apply in the Kurdistan Region by
virtue of the powers of Regions spelled out in
Article 121 and the Kurdistan Region Petroleum Act.
Dr. Ashti Hawrami
Natural Resources Minister-KRG
4 May 2007
The full text of Mr. Al-Chalabi’s published
statement follows:
“Back to square one, kaka! ... Have some oil ...”
Dear Colleagues
As reported by media, the Kurdistan Regional
Government's (KRG) oil minister raised strong
reservations during the Dubai meeting claiming that
he was not aware of the 4 annexes to the draft oil
law.
They are proposing major changes to the annexes
reducing the scope to be allocated to INOC. The
attached statement carries the stamp of the KRG
government and raises serious and strong
reservations that unless amendments to the annexes
are made and agreement on the draft revenue sharing
law and for that matter agreement on INOC, then KRG
will veto the draft law.
The reservations, fears and objections of the Amman
meetings are proven to be correct and so far there
have been no response from the Iraqi oil minister
regarding the KRG statement and who was defending
the draft law and criticising the Amman meetings.
This brings back the whole issue to square one.
Best Regards
Issam Al-Chalabi”
For more information contact spokesman(at)krg.org
please.
krg org
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