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Kurds' new constitution angers US, Iraq
Sam Dagher, Baghdad
July 11, 2009
IRAQ'S Kurdish leaders are pushing ahead with a new constitution for their semi-autonomous region, alarming Iraqi and US officials who fear the move poses a new threat to the country's unity.
The constitution, approved by the Kurdish parliament two weeks ago and scheduled for a referendum this year, underscores the level of mistrust and bad faith between the region and the Federal Government in Baghdad. 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 and other ethnic groups, 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 US. Instead, the Kurdish parliament pushed ahead and passed the constitution, partly as a message that it would resist pressure from the US 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.
The Obama Administration, which is gradually withdrawing US troops from Iraq, was surprised and troubled by the Kurdish move. Vice-President Joseph Biden, sent to Iraq on July 2 for three days, criticised it in diplomatic and indirect, though unmistakably strong, language as "not helpful" to the Administration's goal of reconciling Iraq's Arabs and Kurds.
US 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 Nuri al-Maliki is already not on speaking terms with the Kurdish region's president, Massoud Barzani. Iraqi political leaders have vociferously denounced the constitution as a step towards 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."
Kurdish officials defended their efforts to adopt a new constitution that defines the Kurdish 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 the Kurdish parliament, said she no longer had faith that the rights of Kurds under the federal constitution would be respected. "What is missing the most in the new Iraq is confidence," she said.
At the same time, though, some Kurds acknowledge that they have grown frustrated with the halting talks to resolve territorial disputes and other issues involving the Kurds' political power in Iraq.
"This is a punch in the face. We are fed up with them," said a senior Kurdish official, referring to the Government in Baghdad.
But many in the Kurdish region are troubled by how hastily the constitution was passed and the powers it gives the region's president.
NEW YORK TIMES
Link
Sam Dagher, Baghdad
July 11, 2009
IRAQ'S Kurdish leaders are pushing ahead with a new constitution for their semi-autonomous region, alarming Iraqi and US officials who fear the move poses a new threat to the country's unity.
The constitution, approved by the Kurdish parliament two weeks ago and scheduled for a referendum this year, underscores the level of mistrust and bad faith between the region and the Federal Government in Baghdad. 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 and other ethnic groups, 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 US. Instead, the Kurdish parliament pushed ahead and passed the constitution, partly as a message that it would resist pressure from the US 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.
The Obama Administration, which is gradually withdrawing US troops from Iraq, was surprised and troubled by the Kurdish move. Vice-President Joseph Biden, sent to Iraq on July 2 for three days, criticised it in diplomatic and indirect, though unmistakably strong, language as "not helpful" to the Administration's goal of reconciling Iraq's Arabs and Kurds.
US 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 Nuri al-Maliki is already not on speaking terms with the Kurdish region's president, Massoud Barzani. Iraqi political leaders have vociferously denounced the constitution as a step towards 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."
Kurdish officials defended their efforts to adopt a new constitution that defines the Kurdish 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 the Kurdish parliament, said she no longer had faith that the rights of Kurds under the federal constitution would be respected. "What is missing the most in the new Iraq is confidence," she said.
At the same time, though, some Kurds acknowledge that they have grown frustrated with the halting talks to resolve territorial disputes and other issues involving the Kurds' political power in Iraq.
"This is a punch in the face. We are fed up with them," said a senior Kurdish official, referring to the Government in Baghdad.
But many in the Kurdish region are troubled by how hastily the constitution was passed and the powers it gives the region's president.
NEW YORK TIMES
Link
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