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Kurds' push for new regional constitution
alarms Iraqi officials
10.7.2009
By Sam Dagher
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July
10, 2009
BAGHDAD,— With little notice and almost no
public debate, Iraq's Kurdish leaders are pushing
ahead with a new constitution for their
semiautonomous Kurdistan region, a step that has
alarmed Iraqi and U.S. officials who fear that the
move poses a new threat to the country's unity.
The new constitution,
approved by Kurdistan's
parliament two weeks ago and scheduled for a
referendum this year, underscores the level of
mistrust and bad faith between the region and the
central government in Baghdad. And it raises the
question of whether a peaceful resolution of
disputes between the two is possible, despite
intensive cajoling by the United States.
The proposed constitution enshrines Kurdish claims
to territories and the oil and gas beneath them. But
these claims are disputed by both the federal
government in Baghdad and ethnic groups on the
ground,www.ekurd.net
and were supposed to be resolved
in talks begun quietly last month between the Iraqi
and Kurdish governments, sponsored by the United
Nations and backed by the United States. Instead,
the Kurdish parliament pushed ahead and passed the
constitution, partly as a message that it would
resist pressure from the U.S. and Iraqi governments
to make concessions.
The disputed areas, in northern Iraq, are already
volatile: There have been several tense
confrontations between Kurdish and federal security
forces, as well as frequent attacks aimed at
inflaming sectarian and ethnic passions there.
The Obama administration, which is gradually
withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, was surprised and
troubled by the Kurdish move. Vice President Joe
Biden, sent to Iraq on July 2 for three days,
criticized it in diplomatic and indirect, though
unmistakably strong, language as "not helpful" to
the administration's goal of reconciling Iraq's
Arabs and Kurds, in an interview with ABC News.
Biden said he wanted to discuss the proposed
constitution with the Kurdish leadership in person
but could not fly to Kurdistan because of
sandstorms. Instead, he spoke to Kurdish leaders by
telephone Tuesday, and Christopher Hill, the new
ambassador in Baghdad, met with them in Kurdistan on
Wednesday.
U.S. diplomatic and military officials have said the
potential for a confrontation with the Kurds has
emerged as a threat as worrisome to Iraq's fate as
the remnants of the insurgency.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki already is not on
speaking terms with the Kurdistan region's president,
Massoud Barzani. Iraqi political leaders have
vociferously denounced the constitution as a step
toward splintering Iraq.
"This lays the foundation for a separate state — it
is not a constitution for a region," said Osama al-Nujaifi,
a Sunni Arab member of the national Parliament. "It
is a declaration of hostile intent and
confrontation. Of course, it will lead to
escalation."
Kurdish officials defended their efforts to adopt a
new constitution that defines the Kurdistan region
as comprising their three provinces and also tries
to add all of hotly contested and oil-rich Kirkuk
province, as well as other disputed areas in Nineveh
and Diyala provinces. Iraq's federal constitution
allows the Kurds the right to their own
constitution, referring any conflicts to Iraq's
highest court.
Susan Shihab, a member of Kurdistan's parliament,
said she no longer had faith that the rights of
Kurds under the federal constitution from 2005 would
be respected.
"What is missing the most in the new Iraq is
confidence," she said.
Iraq's electoral commission, which oversees
elections nationwide, said Monday that the earliest
it could hold the referendum was Aug. 11.
The regional parliament said Thursday that it did
not oppose a postponement, but that it stood by the
constitution and was "determined to hold a
referendum" by September, according to its
spokesman, Tariq Jawhar.
Most expect that the new constitution will be
approved. The Kurdish ruling parties — the Kurdistan
Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan — control all levers of power in the area
and maintain legions of loyal followers through jobs
and patronage. But many people in Kurdistan are
deeply troubled by how the constitution was hastily
passed and the extraordinary powers it gives the
president,www.ekurd.net
without meaningful checks and
balances.
A group of civil society organizations in the
Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah began a campaign last
month opposing the constitution. Namo Sharif, an
activist involved in the effort, said a Kurdish
government official called him a "traitor."
Kwestan Mohammed, a member of the regional
parliament who joined a new coalition running
against the two ruling parties in this month's
elections, said that Kurdistan needed its own
constitution but that the document in its current
form planted the seeds of endless conflict with the
central government and made the region's president
an "absolute" ruler.
"It turns all the other powers, including
parliament, into cardboard figures," Mohammed said.
Gareth Stansfield, an expert on Kurdish politics and
an associate fellow at Chatham House in London,www.hawlati.net
a nonprofit organization that
focuses on international issues, said the Kurds'
insistence on a separate constitution was an
unequivocal message to the central government that
they were serious about their claims, especially as
the clock ticks on America's presence in Iraq.
"They are not backing down anymore," Stansfield
said. "They are being very forceful."
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
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