KurdistanObserver.com

The Draft committee should Read this article before signing it.

By: Steve Tataii

Aug 14, 2005

1- The Sunni Arabs have nothing to lose nor worry about in a Free and Democratic Iraq in their enclave. Neither can they put the other two groups, Kurds in North, and Shia (which are still considered their Arab cousins, despite Saddam’s retaliations, and with a slight difference in their religion sect) under pressure. The bulk of the terrorists are from outside and not from within. Besides, we must not compromise our future with the threats by terrorists.

2- The Sunni have ruled Iraq for over 84 years within the manufactured boundaries set by British-France, having caused misery and destruction for the Kurds during that same period, while living lavish lives for the most part under Arab Sunni regimes.

3- It has been proven; that the Arabs are not capable to show sympathy nor respect for Kurdish people’s national rights as a unique and ancient people, a lot more ancient than Arabs, by thousands of years to be more precise. The Kurds have a rich culture with human respect for all peoples, hence the Kurds will not terrorize the Arabs if left alone to recover from their losses and human sufferings within their Kurdistan homeland.

4- We, as Americans know that, and U.K. knows the same fact better than us, being in the region and exploiting Kurdish oil since 1927, while turning Sunni and Shia Arabs against the native Kurds, to walk away with unknown billions of dollars from Kurdish oil from Kurdish Kirkuk. We should not allow the British commit the same atrocities against Kurds again, and let our martyrs’ spilled blood go in vain. Instead we must treat the Kurds with respect and as equals this time around. I won’t tell the British how to behave, because I’m not their citizen.

5- The critical Forum on Kirkuk aired only once on c-span on Aug 9, 2005, has revealed the truth about the percentage of oil reserves and oil production both in Kirkuk and in Shia South (with South’s active daily production). That c-span Forum is being ignored due to only one showing, and not found in c-span’s archive, but I found the audio copies in a link you should go to and at least listen to before agreeing to include any clause for oil distribution in the constitution, to receive 5% of the revenues for each of the three groups, and the rest be left to the central government in Baghdad to control.

6- This credible presentation by “Wayne Kelly”, an engineer, and oil consultant expert on Kirkuk oil  reveals; the facts about how large the reserves are in the South, being approximately 56 billion barrels or more for example as I recall.   

The Audio version Link of that Aug 9, 2005 Forum is at:

http://www.usip.org/events/2005/0809_kirkuk.html

Which is for  “Kirkuk Can It Be Solved?” Date: Tuesday, August 9, 2005

on the “U.S. Institute of Peace” website.  

Finally, as I read today; I remind President Talabani; that Saleh Mutlag, a Sunni member of the drafting of the Iraqi constitution said:

“The Iraqi leaders agreed on oil resource distribution among the Kurds, the Shiites and the Sunnis. The central government will supervise the oil products and every governorate will receive income according to the number of its inhabitants,”.

Another Sunni member, Haseeb Aref said:

"There are only pressures on us”. Mr. Aref then apologized and said that because of the meeting with the ambassador [Khalilzad] he did not have time to say anything else. But a Kurdish member of the committee, Mahmoud Othman, also acknowledged the American pressures and said that there had been constant meetings involving Mr. Khalilzad and many Iraqi officials, including the president, the speaker of the National Assembly and the president of Iraqi Kurdistan. The article continues: “Iraq's output of nearly two million barrels a day largely comes from southern oil fields, while all of the 1.6 million barrels a day of exports flow through southern terminals. Northern oil export routes remain paralysed due to the security situation.”

I believe; that President Talabani of Iraq government must consult with President Massoud Barzani of S. Kurdistan in dealing with Kurdish national oil ownership over its future revenues.

Mr. Khalilzad must stop pressuring the members of the drafting committee of the constitution to make wrong decisions, and cause the Kurds be cheated out of their basic rights once the constitution has been approved through the Oct 15 Referendum.

The Kurds have the right to keep their oil revenues without relinquishing its revenues to the central government after taking 5% of the total revenue. This is utterly stupid, knowing the fact; that Kurds are no longer responsible for the Arabs of South, Shia and Sunni, because the Arabs of South have more oil that Kurds at the present time and into the future, with complete convenient access to the Persian Gulf, while Kurds have to either airlift their oil with oil tanker aircrafts or pay the cost of transporting their oil to the shores in South or through Turkey in the North.

Who are we trying to fool here? This is not the 1925 year of oil discovery by U.K., considering the fact that Kurds had already known they had oil for thousands of years, nor is this the 1927 the year of the start of the production of oil by the “British Petroleum Company” according to Mr. Kelly on the panel in the Aug 9, 2005 Forum. Let’s not make any of these “Pressured hasty decisions” if it is not possible to clearly print the ownership of the oil revenues of Kirkuk and all other Kurdish oil fields only to benefit their rightful owners “the Kurds” as a Clause in the constitution if Kurds decide to sign.

Just how much oil wealth do you suppose Arabs in South and Center must have to meet all their national needs? They would have way more than they need to live a decent life with peace and security. The in fighting between the two Arab sects is not the Kurdish problem, while the Kurds have been the victims of genocides, mass killings, torture and imprisonments by these “Arabs” for 84 years. The Kurds are not baby sitters and bread givers to their henchmen under Baghdad regimes. The Kurds are a proud nation of their own. The Arabs already have 22 states. How many states Kurds have?   

No, the Kurds must not give in to this future robbery plot, while the British Petroleum Company and their masters still owe them all the money made since 1927. The Kurds will not pay them for another century on top of all the killings and destructions under the command of their “Presidents”. Are we crazy you think sir?

The way I see it, this is heading to a great future conflict between Arabs and Kurds again, unless we lay the foundation correctly at this stage. The Americans and especially the British have no right to decide on the faith of Kurds’ national wealth, which is not only for today, but for their future generations to benefit from what they have been deprived of.

Therefore, I strongly suggest President Bush study the Aug 9, 2005 Forum as mentioned above if he has not done so yet, and the same goes for Mr. Zalami Khalilzad and President Talabani, who all seem to lack the facts about the oil revenue figures and

Kurdish national ownership rights.

Let us not turn into oil revenue brokers from being the Liberators if Liberation is what we went to accomplish in this war. Let us make our martyrs’ families proud, and make friends with our strongest ally in the region “the Kurds”, so that they in turn continue to assist us in the tail end of this war in fighting terrorism, and in the future would be willing to give us a reasonable price from the sale of their oil.

I conclude by quoting President Massoud Barzani’s clear statement, which we must all respect. He reiterated once again; that the Kurds will not back down from their rights in the forthcoming Iraqi constitution:

“We regard the issues of federalism, peshmerga, Kirkuk and Kurdistan’s unique characteristics as settled issues,” the president told Al-Arabyia satellite program ‘From Iraq’ late Monday. He also said that the Kurds have the full right to establish an independent government but the regional and international environment is not suitable for that just now. The president said that the Kurds do not go to Baghdad to beg for their rights.

“We are partner in the government of Baghdad,” he told the program of the Arabic TV. In response to the correspondent, Mr. Barzani said that no Iraqi flag will be raised in Kurdistan until a new flag is made to refer to the partnership of the Kurds and Arabs in Iraq or the Iraqi government goes back to the flag which was raised with the appearance of the first republic of Iraq in 1958.

The Kurdish president also said to the Shiites in Iraq that their withdrawal from what they agreed upon with the Kurds about the future of Iraq will cost them the collapse of the government that they are now leading in Baghdad.

Steve Tataii, U.S. Congressman since the 2002 elections