Conditions for cooperation ignored in new federal manifesto

, kurdish mps say
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niqash | Yaseen Taha | tue 02 aug 11


The Iraqi government released its political manifesto last week. But, Kurdish politicians say, it ignores all of the conditions for their cooperation in the precarious alliance that rules Iraq. Once again, the balance of power in Iraq looks shaky.

It has been just over eight months since the establishment of the precarious political coalition which currently rules Iraq, under the stewardship of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. And finally on July 31, the government released its manifesto to parliament. However the program of proposals is already causing consternation, especially among the powerful Kurdish group that played king maker after the controversial Iraqi federal elections of 2010.

As the Shiite-dominated block led by al-Maliki grappled with the Sunni-dominated parties led by former Prime Minister Ayed Allawi after elections in late 2010, with both trying to form a majority, the Kurdish politicians said they would back whichever group proved most responsive to their demands. Eventually, in order to get Kurdish politicians, who had a total of 57 seats in the Iraqi parliament, to support him, al-Maliki agreed to 18 out of 19 Kurdish conditions.

And as a result of al-Maliki’s promises, the Kurdish parties agreed to participate in al-Maliki’s Shiite-dominated government and were also given six governmental ministries to head.

The major political parties that make up the Kurdish alliance are the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). Together they have 43 seats in the 325-seat Iraqi parliament. The other significant Kurdish parties in parliament – the Change Movement and two Islamic parties – add another 14 seats. This has allowed the Kurdish politicians to play kingmaker. In the past, some decisions in the delicately balanced Iraqi parliament have come down to two or three votes.

Some of the conditions that the Kurdish parties had, in order for them to join al-Maliki, related to general governmental issues, such as the need for a census of the population and a balanced distribution of administrative and military power in the country. The 19th requirement, which was not agreed to by al-Maliki, had to do with the power held by the executive branch.

Other demands were more specifically related to Kurdish concerns, such as federal funding for the Kurdish Peshmerga, one arm of the military in the fiercely independent, semi-autonomous state of Iraqi Kurdistan as well as Iraqi laws relating to oil and gas resources in the region. And last but certainly not least, Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution which addresses disputed lands that both the Kurdish and the central Iraqi governments lay claim to.

Al-Maliki’s manifesto, presented on Sunday this week, outlines the government’s general plan, providing information on federal finances and some of the programmes to be undertaken over the next year and a half that the government is in power.

However as Shorsh Haji, the head of the Kurdish Change (or Goran) party who have eight seats in the federal parliament, pointed out, the manifesto “does not include any of the conditions upon which Kurds agreed to participate in the current government”. The Change party walked away from the larger Kurdish Alliance, now primarily made up of the two major parties in Iraqi Kurdistan, the KDP and the PUK, because they felt the latter would not heed their calls for a more open democracy in Iraqi Kurdistan. They eventually negotiated their own terms with al-Maliki.

Another MP for the Change party, Latif Mustafa, agreed. “The government’s manifesto did not contain any of the Kurdish demands. In particular, there was no reference on how one of the key requirements of the Kurdish people - Article 140 of the Constitution – would be implemented,” he said.

As a member of the Change party, which is in opposition to the PUK and KDP inside Iraqi Kurdistan, Mustafa also accused the two major Kurdish parties of doing nothing to aid with Article 140 – despite the fact that they are part of the ruling coalition. “The two Kurdish parties are participants in this government, they have two ministers,” Mustafa complained. “So they are partners in this failure.”

Article 140 was originally formulated in 2003, after the fall of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s regime, and then later revised; over the three decades that Hussein’s Baath political party was in control, there was a policy of what has been described as Arabisation of oil rich areas in the north. This saw hundreds of thousands of Kurdish families deported and ethnic Arab families brought in to take their place.

Article 140 sets out to remedy the expulsions, ethnic cleansing and Arabisation, through three steps. These are, firstly, normalization - a return of Kurds and other residents displaced by Arabisation – followed by a census taken to determine the demographic makeup of the province's population and then finally, a referendum to determine the status of disputed territories.

Originally Article 140 was supposed to begin to be implemented at the end of 2007. Various committees had been formed by both the previous government headed by Allawi and the current one. However as yet, no real steps appear to have been taken toward any of the above. And critics say this is because of a lack of genuine political will to do so. And all the while tensions between Iraqi and Kurdish interests in disputed areas like the oil-rich city of Kirkuk continue to rise.

Another issue concerning Kurdish politicians is that of the draft oil and gas law. The semi-autonomous government of Iraqi Kurdistan have already done a number of deals with foreign investors in terms of oil exploration and export. In fact industry analysts say that Iraqi Kurdistan is becoming the “Middle East’s fastest growing hydrocarbons player”.

However the complex law around Iraq’s resources is likely to require further discussion, debate and political power games and, if anything changes radically, then the Kurdish deals may well be considered anti-constitutional by the federal government.

Part of the 19 point agreement between al-Maliki and the Kurds focused on the ratification of the Iraqi national oil and gas law and how much of the Kurdish oil revenues would go to Baghdad. It allowed work, and oil exports, to continue but it is actually only a defacto agreement. And critics of al-Maliki’s government’s new manifesto say this doesn’t appear to address Kurdish concerns – they want the draft laws ratified - in this area either.

Additionally the new manifesto has come just as the Iraqi parliament approved of plans to trim the number of ministries in Iraq. The Saturday announcement will reduce the size of the Iraqi Cabinet by 12 ministers; al-Maliki has said that the current size of the Cabinet, with 46 ministries, is hindering decision making. This move will also halve the number of ministries headed by Kurdish politicians from six to three and Kurdish parliamentarians rightfully fear this will also decrease their influence.

However not every Kurdish politician is upset about the manifesto. Burhan Mohammed Faraj, an MP for the Kurdish Alliance, agreed that the government’s manifesto did not mention enough of the 19 Kurdish conditions. “But,” he argues, “these conditions were documented in bilateral political agreements that were made between the Kurdish Alliance and the coalition. Those political agreements are our guarantees. It is not a serious threat if they are not mentioned in the ministerial manifesto.”

Faraj noted that, in return, the Kurds had also agreed to 25 conditions imposed upon them by al-Maliki’s government. And it was all about negotiations in the back rooms, Faraj argued. In fact, often such negotiations never even got a mention in a party’s political manifesto because the subject of manifestos tended to be more service-related. “Some of these conditions are about very sensitive matters and could lead to the outbreak of protests and hostility,” he concluded.