KurdistanObserver.com

KNC: Kurds Are For An Independent Kurdish State

4th January 2005
The President of the United States of America
Mr. George W. Bush
The White House
Washington DC 20500, U.S.A.

Dear Mr. President,

First of all in the name of Kurdistan National Congress KNC, I want to convey our congratulations to your re-election as President of the United States of America. For the new year 2005 we are sending you the best wishes for your second term of office and your successful handling of all those difficult tasks and problems you are confronted with. The vigour and steadfastness of your struggle against international and state-executed terrorism were very much appealing to us, in Afghanistan and in Iraq as well, and especially the Kurdish people is very grateful for the liberation from one of the worst dictators of the 20th century.

As you know, in today’s Iraq there exist some very tough problems which only can be solved if the United States decide a policy totally opposite to the policy of the victorious allies of World War I who created artificial states according to their own interests.

One of these artificial states is Iraq, and on the long term it cannot be accepted that young American soldiers risk their health and their life for the unity of an artificial state like Iraq. Up till now nobody asked the people of Iraq whether they wanted to stay in a multi-ethnic state, dominated and oppressed by cruel Arab nationalists whose interest always has been to take the wealth of Iraq for themselves and let most Iraqis live in poverty and constraint. It’s a great pity that, with American support, Sunni and Baathist criminals are constantly gaining back power and maybe will get another chance to betray and oppress the people of Iraq as they will betray and even fight their American supporters. These people aren’t trustworthy in the least, and therefore your administration shouldn’t try to win them by allowences and concessions because they are neither grateful nor loyal and not even useful to anyone besides themselves and their kind.

Therefore, in spite of the constant affirmations of the Kurdish political parties KDP and PUK that the Kurds are willing to live within a united Iraq, these statements are completely opposed to the real ambitions of the Kurdish people for an independent Kurdish state of their own. The Kurdish Referendum Movement collected nearly 2 million signatures of Kurdish citizens in Southern Kurdistan, who don’t want simply to obey the authoritarian parties KDP and PUK, but want to decide their nation’s fate themselves in a public referendum where they can vote for an independent state of their own, as it is provided and granted in the UN Charter for all nations in the world.

The meanwhile profound antidemocratic charakter of both dominating Kurdish parties KDP and PUK is easily to be seen from the marxist-style united list they presented for the coming election, not only in Iraq, but in Kurdistan, too. This list provides an equal number of seats for both big parties, and a very small number of seats for some small political groups and minorities. The people are supposed to accept this prepared list as a whole, they have no real choice, in order to guarantee those two main political parties and their adherants an equal part of power in Kurdistan, just like they have divided it up among themselves up till now. Thus they want to keep their authoritarian regime style, sharing the wealth and riches of Kurdistan among themselves and their adherants, and depriving ordinary non-party Kurds of educational, social and economical participation.

Especially they are constantly preventing the people from standing up for an independent state of Kurdistan. Both big parties are even intimidating the people entitled to vote by threatening they would lose their food ration cards in case the united list shouldn’t get enough votes. Moreover this united list contains several former Baathist representatives of Saddam Hussein’s regime, and the voters have no possibility to strike those people out of the list. Thus the dominating Kurdish parties PDK and PUK have joined the front of other dominating parties in Iraq who don’t want to promote the benefit of their people but to gain lasting power for themselves.

Since there is no force strong enough to prevent Iraq from falling apart, in our opinion you should spare your people and the people of Iraq further war and suffering, and you should seize the first suitable opportunity to break up Iraq in three parts, to let the Kurds, the Shia and the Sunni have each a national state of their own. Each of them will need international support to build their own community. This support should be bound to certain requirements of international law, for instance the observance of human rights and the legal protection of all minorities. Thus it might be much easier for all people of Iraq to develop democratic structures and to live in peace, because there will be no more fear of oppression by a Shia majority or a Sunni minority. And your government and the United States might have a real chance to spread democracy in the Middle East, to minimalize your engagement in Iraq, and to withdraw the basis from the terrorists.

On the other hand, if you should further insist on a united Iraq, you will fail, and all your efforts and sacrifices of so many people will be in vain. It’s much better to break up Iraq in time, controlled and orderly, than to leave the country under compulsion, and risk civil war and the inevitable and uncontrolled disintegration of Iraq. Such uncontrolled disintegration will lead to chaos and civil war in the whole region and will be much worse than the situation before the Iraq war. Even an Iraq dominated by Shia might inflame the whole Middle East. Even now, when the Sunni and the Shia still don’t have any real power, they are already threatening the Kurds just as their reigning Arab predecessors did. One can easily imagine what they will do to the Kurds when they will come to power and when the Kurds will have no protecting allies any more.

We are knowing quite well, your task in Iraq is very complicated and difficult. But you have got a lot of power being the President of the United States, and you have got a lot of intelligent people ready to help you, and you are yourself a resolute and steadfast person, wanting to do the best for your own and other people. May God help you to win the peace for the people of Iraq, especially for the Kurds, who suffered so much from their oppressors and are longing so much for liberty and peace, and who have been the only true allies you had in Iraq and who would probably like to be your allies for an unlimited time. To this end your administration should prepare a strong and long-term military base in Kurdistan, in the interest of likewise the American and the Kurdish people.

Best wishes to you and your administration,

Bruska Ibrahim
KNC Chairman of Foreign Affairs
Kurdistan National Congress-KNC
PO Box 607, London NW8 0DT, United Kingdom
Tel: 0044 208 563 2881, Fax: 0208 563 8406, Mobile: 07768 266 005
www.knc.org.u
e-mail: wka@knc.org.uk
knc@ribrahim.de