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OP/ED pieces are restricted to
columnists who contribute their opinions solely to the Kurdistan Observer
KurdistanObserver.com
Kurds demand one of the top two positions in
Iraqi government
May 28,
2004
By:
Dr.Nazhad Khasraw Hawramany
In the next few days, at least what all
Iraqis and international community is expecting, the special UN envoy Mr.
Lakhdar Brahimi, will announce the new Iraqi interim government, a president, a
prime minister, two vice presidents and a cabinet of 26 ministers. This interim
government shall govern the country until the scheduled general elections, end
of January 2005. The composition of this new interim government will be an index
of the power distribution in the future Iraq, and in this aspect the granting of
the main top posts according to the main groups in Iraq, the problem is that
what classification the new envoy will adopt, is it ethnic and this means that
the two top posts, the president and prime minister will be given to Kurds and
Arabs respectively, or he will adopt a sectarian division which means that
Shiites and Sunnis will share the top jobs which could mean, taking the
background of Mr.Brahimi into consideration, that these post could be allocated
to Arab Shiites and Arab Sunnis, leaving the less important jobs of vice
president for Kurds, something the Kurds will vehemently reject.
The Kurds are demanding one of those two
top positions, otherwise the Kurdish leadership will be extremely embarassed
among its own population, and the question of reintegration of Kurdistan de
facto region into the rest of Arab Iraq will suffer a serious setback, the Kurds
have repeatedly announced that they are only interested in a binational
federation with the rest of Iraq where they are perceived as full partners in
the new Iraq, and will not accept to be sidelined again. The Arab population of
Iraq must accept the fact that a Kurd could be the president or prime minister
or that the Kurds face the reality that Arab chauvinism (regardless if they are
Arab Shiites or Arab Sunnites) will never accept Kurdish partnership, in that
case Kurdistan and Kurdish people must pursue other options, namely
independence.
The Kurds fear that they will be oppressed and their national rights undermined
again, and will have less say in shape of the future system of government in
Iraq, if they settle for the less important and ceremonial post of a vice
president, they have been marginalized against their will for the last 83 years
of Iraqi history, but for the first time in their history they have a real
prospect of exactly deciding what they want and how they rate their partnership
with Arabs in Iraq. This fear that the Kurds will be again subjected to Arab
domination and possibly new campaigns of persecution and genocide was potentate
through the recent developments in Iraq, one of these developments is surprising
move by Americans, when they rehabilitated some top Baathist generals in
Falludjah and reestablished a military unit to take control of Falludjah which
is composed mainly of Saddam loyalists and previous republican army officers,
there are already 300 Kurdish families who left Falludjah out of fear from the
Baathists and Islamists there, who consider them sympathizers and collaborators
with coalition and threatened to kill them.
The person of Mr. Brahimi himself does not
provide much comfort to Kurds, he is an Arab nationalist who enjoyed good
relations with the regime of Saddam Hussein, he was a previous prime minister of
Algeria which is known with its good relations with Saddam Hussein , he is an
Arab Sunni who is trying to bring Baathists again to the political life in Iraq,
he is a previous official in Arab League which is known for its chauvinistic and
hostile attitude towards Kurds in general, all these points make Kurds feel
skeptical about the intentions of Mr.Brahimi.
The third reason which make Kurds uneasy,
is that there are until now no practical steps to reverse Arabization and to
allow deported Kurds back into their homes in Kirkuk and other cities.
The trust of Kurds in coalition intentions
was shaken recently by the sudden change of American position towards one of
their old allies, namely Mr. Ahmad Chalabi, when he suddenly and without any
previous warning fell out of favor with the Americans, probably a victim of the
ongoing feud in American administration between Pentagon, State Department and
CIA, this feud which probably contributed largely to the current instability and
chaos in Iraq, and which could encourage serious political miscalculation in
Iraq which might lead Iraq to the brink of a civil war and make Iraq a safe
haven for international terrorism.
The deliberate and violent attempts of
previous Iraqi governments to suppress Kurds, did eventually lead to the
Iraq-Iran war 1980-1988, und invasion of Kuwait 1991, any intelligent person
must realize that without a just solution of Kurdish demands and without
accepting Kurds as equal partners to Arabs in Iraq, Iraq will slide further into
instability and conflict. Mr. Ibrahimi must take the Kurdish demands for one of
the two top posts very seriously.
Dr. Nazhad Khasraw Hawramany
Switzerland
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