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Iraqi Kurds tell U.S. troops, Please don't
go
30.6.2011 |
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U.S. troops guarantee
a certain freedom in Iraqi Kurdistan,
Even
with the presence of Americans our freedoms are
being curtailed," he said. "Imagine what will happen
if they leave." Asos Hardi says.
June
30, 2011
SULAIMANIYAH/ERBIL,
Kurdistan region 'Iraq', — More than eight
years after the U.S. invasion, Iraqis are debating
whether to ask American troops to stay on past a
planned withdrawal, a sensitive question that is
testing its fragile power-sharing government.
Kurdistan is a potential flashpoint for tensions
among ethnic Kurds, Turkmen and Iraqi Arabs, and
most of its residents say U.S. troops should remain
after the end of this year to keep apart rival
groups making claims on the oil-wealthy territory.
But the semi-autonomous region's opposition leaders
and government critics also say U.S. troops will
halt a creeping return to the authoritarian past.
Kurdistan's ruling parties sent troops in April to
smother protests demanding political change and more
democratic freedom.
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Asos Hardi a prominent Kurdish writer who has
founded two independent newspapers [Hawlati and
Awene] in Kurdistan, Says U.S. troops guarantee a
certain freedom. "Even with the presence of
Americans our freedoms are being curtailed," he
said. "Imagine what will happen if they leave."
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"The withdrawal of U.S. troops will bring nothing
but disaster," said Asos Hardi, director of Awene,
an independent newspaper in Kurdistan. "There is a
danger of civil war, there is a danger for some
forces to return to the past."
The remaining 47,000 U.S. troops in Iraq are
scheduled to leave by the end of this year when a
security pact finishes and U.S. officials say Iraq's
government must ask soon if they want the troops to
stay on.
Violence in Iraq has fallen sharply from the bloody
days of sectarian slaughter in 2006-2007. Iraq says
local forces can contain a weakened but stubborn
Sunni insurgency and Shite militias, although they
acknowledge there are gaps in their capabilities.
But tensions are high along Kurdistan's "Green Line"
between Iraq and the semi-autonomous region, where
U.S. troops have organized joint checkpoints with
Iraqi Arab soldiers and Kurdish Peshmerga troops in
an attempt to build confidence.
The two forces have clashed in the past only to pull
back after the intervention of U.S. forces.
"This issue is about the future of Iraq," Nechirvan
Barzani, deputy chairman of the co-ruling KDP party,
told London-based Arabic newspaper, Asharq Al-Awsat.
SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP
Kurds have enjoyed special ties with the United
States since Washington and other Western powers
provided a no-fly zone to protect them in 1991 after
Saddam Hussein's genocidal campaign against the
minority group during the 1980s. Since then the
Kurds have enjoyed a de facto independence that was
bolstered when Saddam was ousted in the 2003
U.S.-led invasion of Iraq,www.ekurd.netallowing
them a larger share of the country's oil wealth in
the north. Compared with the rest of Arab Iraq,
Kurdistan's capital Erbil has more U.S.-style
shopping malls, fast-food restaurants and five-star
hotels because the region enjoys greater economic
stability than the rest of the country.
Kurdish leaders say they have more to lose should
U.S. troops depart without Iraqi Kurdistan's status
within Iraq being clearly defined.
"As long as there is no political solution, which
will not be anytime soon, these tensions could
easily escalate into a serious conflict. I think it
would be better for the U.S. military to stay, but
they are not going to stay," said Joost Hiltermann
at the International Crisis Group in Brussels.
Inside Kurdistan, local opposition leaders say a
continued American presence would halt what they
regard as the growing authoritarianism of the KDP
party of Kurdish President Massoud Barzani and the
PUK party of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.
In April, the Kurdish government sent troops to
quell a two-month-long protest that called for more
democracy. At least 10 people died in the protests.
Rights groups criticised Kurdish authorities for
using excessive force against protesters.
"Until Kurdish security forces become
institutionalised and are run by the Kurdish
government, rather than the political parties, there
is always a chance of these forces being used by the
ruling parties against their rivals," Shorsh Haji, a
senior leader of the Kurdish main opposition party
of Gorran.
"Establishing a U.S. military base would be good for
the future of Kurdistan and defend it from outside
forces," he said, referring to neighbours Iran and
Turkey who have shelled Iraqi Kurdish borders in the
past to hit Kurdish rebels.
Abubakir Ali, a member of the Kurdistan Islamic
Union, the area's most popular Islamic party, said
its Islamic ideology did not prevent it from having
political ties with the U.S. government. He said
Washington was an essential ally. For others like
Hardi, a prominent Kurdish writer who has founded
two independent newspapers in Kurdistan, U.S. troops
guarantee a certain freedom.
"Even with the presence of Americans our freedoms
are being curtailed," he said. "Imagine what will
happen if they leave."
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author or news agency, Reuters
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