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Iraqi Parliament Debates Split of Power
and Money
8.2.2008
By Alissa J.Rubin
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February 8, 2008
BAGHDAD, Iraq, — The Iraqi Parliament
again deferred a vote on the budget on Thursday as
political blocs argued about how to divide financing
among the provinces, but legislators did make
headway toward approving a law that would outline
provincial powers.
Members of Parliament said they expected to complete
the provincial powers measure in the next week,
despite sharp disagreements between parties that
want a strong central government in Baghdad and
those that want more power to rest in the provinces
and in the Kurdish region, which encompasses three
provinces in the north.
During Thursday’s debate, about 90 members of
Parliament walked out in protest over a provision
that would give the prime minister a final say over
the firing of provincial governors. They were from
the Kurdish coalition and the largest Shiite
coalition, the United Iraqi Alliance.
As the lawmakers left the chamber, Speaker Mahmoud
al-Mashhadani threatened to dock their pay by the
equivalent of about $1,700 each unless they stayed
to work on the legislation.
Both the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, a leading
component of the United Iraqi Alliance, and the
Kurds want provinces and regions to have strong
powers that cannot be trumped by the central
government.
In Sadr City, the Shiite area in eastern Baghdad,
the American military raided several houses at dawn
Thursday, rounding up 15 men and killing one in the
initial stages of the operation. The military said
the men who were detained were believed to be
responsible for kidnapping and murdering Iraqi
citizens,www.ekurd.net
carrying out mortar
attacks and planting roadside bombs known as
explosively formed penetrators. Residents said the
raids terrified the neighborhood.
There was violence to the north and south of
Baghdad. The police found four bodies southeast of
Tikrit, including that of an engineer in the
maintenance department of Tikrit University, Hameed
Aziz al-Janabi. He had been shot, as had the three
others whose bodies were found: the brother and two
nephews of the leader of the Tikrit City Council.
In Diwaniya, an operation involving the police and
Polish forces was under way to capture those
involved in an attack Wednesday that wounded seven
local police officers and killed three civilians.
In Baghdad, five unidentified bodies were found, and
there was a drive-by shooting in Slaykh, a mixed
neighborhood in the city’s northeast. The gunshots
killed a worker for the Baghdad municipal government
while he was driving. His four passengers, also
employees there, were injured when he lost control
of the car.
An American soldier was killed Wednesday in western
Baghdad when an improvised explosive device went off
near his vehicle, the military announced Thursday.
The debate on Iraq’s 2008 budget, which was supposed
to have been resolved with a vote in December, has
revolved around how much of the money to allocate to
the Kurds and whether the central government will
pay the costs of the pesh merga soldiers, the
Kurdish militia.
Lawmakers said Thursday that the Planning Ministry
had collected data showing that Kurdistan had 14
percent to 15 percent of Iraq’s population, and that
it should get that share of the nonfederal part of
the budget. However, in the last few years the
Kurdish provinces have received 17 percent, a level
the Kurds want to maintain.
Some Parliament members said they wanted the prime
minister’s office to help resolve the situation by
formally providing a number that it believed
appropriate.
“The Parliament’s political blocs consider 17
percent too much for Kurdistan,” said Basim Sharif,
a member of Fadhila, a Shiite party.
He said a number of officials thought the allocation
should be 14.5 percent, adding, “But we want a
number from the prime minister.”
Members of the Kurdish bloc say they want to see a
full census held before they accept a reduction.
“When there is a new census that depends on real
statistics, then no one will dispute that number,
but until then we should stick to the 17 percent,”
said Abdulbari Zebari, a member of the Kurdish bloc
in Parliament.
The provincial powers law, which is also under
discussion, outlines in detail the powers allocated
to the provinces and their governors, how provincial
councils would be elected and how governors could
take office and be removed. Also under discussion is
when to hold provincial elections, with some calling
for a vote as early as October.
nytimes com
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