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Kurdish frustration with Maliki grows
26.1.2008
By Wrya Hama-Tahir in Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan (ICR No.
244) |
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Rifts over oil, Kirkuk and Peshmerga threaten
alliance between Kurdish authorities and central
government.
January 26, 2008
Tensions are building between Kurdish leaders and
Arab prime minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government in
Bagahdad, threatening to divide two of Iraq’s
strongest political allies.
Kurdish leaders accuse Maliki’s government of not
acting on issues most important to the Kurds, such
as resolving a dispute over ownership of Kirkuk
province and the funding of Kurdish forces known as
the Peshmerga.
At the same time, the Iraqi Kurdish government has
forged ahead with signing private oil contracts
without the approval of the central government,
irking Baghdad and reigniting debates about how much
power Iraq’s regional governments should hold.
The Kurdish Alliance, the second-largest political
bloc in the country, holds 53 of Baghdad
parliament’s 275 seats and are members of Maliki’s
Shia-led government. The recent tensions have
damaged one of the strongest alliances in Iraq’s
severely fractured political landscape.
The political disputes have simmered since last
summer, escalating over the past few weeks. While
Kurdish leaders insist they won’t pull out of
Maliki’s government,www.ekurd.net
they are growing
increasingly vocal with their demands.
“I wouldn’t call it a crisis, but there are ups and
downs and mistrust between the two sides,” said
Qassim Dawd, an Iraqi parliament MP from the
Maliki’s United Iraqi Alliance list.
Kurdish leaders “have been negligent and made a lot
of mistakes”, said Mahmood Osman, an independent
Kurdish member of the Baghdad assembly and one of
the most vocal Kurdish critics of Maliki’s
government.
“Federalism is new to Iraq, so undoubtedly problems
like these would arise,” said Osman.
“[The Kurds] took for granted that Baghdad would
follow through on its promises,” he said. “One
should not depend on promises, but actions.”
Iraqi Kurdistan’s decision to sign independently
about 15 oil contracts with international firms is
one of the most contentious issues. The region
approved an oil law last year that paved the way for
the agreements. The politically paralysed central
government has yet to vote on a national oil law.
The Iraqi constitution states that central
government controls oil revenues, however it does
not stipulate who should manage issues like oil
contracts and production.
The Kurdistan Regional Government’s natural
resources minister Ashti Hawrami is in Baghdad this
week to try to resolve the oil contracts dispute
with the oil ministry,www.ekurd.net
according to the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan’s news service.
Nechirvan Barzani, the KRG’s prime minister, was not
able to resolve any of the issues during a visit to
Baghdad earlier this month.
Iraqi oil minister Hussein al-Shahristani deems the
KRG’s contracts illegal and has threatened to bar
oil firms working for the Iraqi Kurdistan
authorities from doing business with Baghdad.
Dawd blamed the Iraqi government for dragging its
feet on regulating oil. He said that “our Kurdish
brothers” started signing contracts months after the
KRG requested that the central government ratify the
agreements.
Dawd is more sympathetic than many politicians. Last
week, in a challenge to the Kurds, 145 MPs from a
dozen political lists - including Sunni and Shia
Arabs, Turkoman and Yezidis - signed a declaration
supporting the central government’s control over all
of Iraq’s natural resources.
The MPs also said that Iraq’s political factions
should resolve the future status of Kirkuk without a
referendum. Although Article 140 of the Iraqi
constitution called for a plebiscite to be held on
Kirkuk by the end of 2007, the vote has been
postponed in part because of rising violence in the
province.
The delays over Kirkuk, an oil-rich city which is
home to Kurds, Turkoman and Arabs, has frustrated
Kurdish leaders who want it to be administered by
the KRG.
Kurdish leaders are under heavy public pressure to
bring Kirkuk under KRG control, as many Kurds
believe that Kirkuk is a historically Kurdish area.
The late Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein carried out
several ethnic cleansing operations in Kirkuk to
change the demography of the province. Thousands of
Kurds and Turkoman were displaced from the city and
Arabs replaced them.
Meanwhile, the KRG is waiting for Maliki to approve
funds for 80,000 Peshmarga fighters, and there is an
ongoing debate over how much revenue Iraqi Kurdistan
should receive from central government: The Kurds
maintained that they are 17 per cent of the
population and, as such, are entitled to 17 per cent
of oil revenues, while non-Kurds have argued that
Kurds are only 13 per cent of the population. Iraq
has not had an accurate census in decades.
Early last month, Kurdish leaders sent a “very
strong” memorandum to Maliki demanding that the
government quickly clarify its position on
Kurdish-related issues, said Mohammad Mala Qadir, a
politburo member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party.
Mala Qadir said Maliki had not responded.
“We’ll keep negotiating with [the Iraqi
government],” he said. “That way, they can’t ignore
us.”
Wrya Hama-Tahir is an IWPR correspondent in
Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan. Zainab Naji contributed to
this story from Baghdad, Iraq.
iwpr net
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