Kurds and Article 9

[Harold F. Schiffman]

>>From the New York Times,  June 10, 2004 (but see addendum, hs)

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http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/10/international/middleeast/10KURD.html
POLITICS

Kurds Win Round on Constitution
By DEXTER FILKINS

BAGHDAD, Iraq, June 9 Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said Wednesday that his
government would adhere to the interim constitution agreed to in March
until elections are held next year, in an effort to defuse, at least
temporarily, a looming crisis with the Kurdish leadership. In a statement
issued by his office late in the evening, Dr. Allawi's spokesman, George
Hada, declared the new government's "full commitment" to the interim
constitution until democratic elections are held later this year or in
January.

The statement from Dr. Allawi's office followed a threat this week by
Kurdish leaders to pull back from the Iraqi state and possibly secede. The
leaders were alarmed after officials in New York failed to include the
interim constitution in the United Nations Security Council resolution,
approved Tuesday, on the return of sovereignty to the Iraqis. The Kurds
are worried that without the protections in the interim constitution, they
might lose the broad autonomy they have garnered since 1991 under American
military protection. The interim constitution recognizes the autonomy of
the Kurdish region and grants the Kurds extraordinary powers to protect
it.

But the commitment made by Dr. Allawi will likely only postpone a
solution. His statement binds the new Iraqi government to the constitution
only during "the provisional period," which will end when elections are
held. Many Shiite leaders say it is at that point, when the Shiites will
likely hold a majority of the seats in the national assembly, that they
would remove the language that grants the Kurds effective veto power over
the permanent constitution.

That language was a central component in the compromise that persuaded the
Kurds last March to agree to the interim constitution  and to affirm a
commitment to the Iraqi state.

The statement issued by Dr. Allawi's office followed a flurry of activity
involving Shiite political leaders and the country's most powerful Shiite
religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani. Iraqi officials say
Ayatollah Sistani, who earlier this week warned the Security Council
against including the interim constitution in the sovereignty resolution,
tried to reassure Kurdish leaders.

Kurdish leaders, most of whom have left Baghdad and gone to their homes in
the north, reacted cautiously to Dr. Allawi's statement. The top Kurdish
leaders spent much of the day discussing the future, which they have
increasingly suggested may include secession.

"We are happy to see the prime minister reaffirm his commitment," to the
interim constitution, said Barem Saleh, a senior leader of the Patriotic
Union for Kurdistan.

But Mr. Saleh said he and other Kurdish leaders were disheartened by what
they regarded as a casual commitment made by many Shiite leaders, who
endorsed the interim constitution last March only to announce their
opposition to parts of it immediately after the signing ceremony.

Mr. Saleh said the Kurdish public, which often clamors for independence
from Baghdad, has also been angered by the episode.

"If a community in Iraq wants to hijack the constitutional process in the
name of majority rule, this won't work," Mr. Saleh said. "It really smacks
of a lack of interest in a viable future."

The impasse over the interim constitution represents the collision of the
Shiites' dream of majority rule, which been repressed for centuries, and
the Kurdish desire for minority rights, trampled often and brutally in the
past.

The key language that worries the Shiites  and is so crucial to the Kurds
relates to the ratification of the permanent constitution. The interim
constitution says that the permanent charter will be drawn up after
democratic elections, and will be put to a vote of the Iraqi people.

Under the rules, the permanent constitution will pass on a majority vote,
unless two-thirds of the voters in three of the country's 18 provinces
reject it, in which case it will fail. There are three provinces with a
Kurdish majority.

Mowaffak al-Rubiae, Iraq's national security advisor and a Shiite who is
close to Ayatollah Sistani, said the dispute was deeper than just one
clause. The Shiite leadership, he says, believes it is wrong that an
interim constitution that was drawn up by an unelected body  the Iraqi
Governing Council  should bind the freely elected national assembly.

He suggested that the assembly would likely disregard all or parts of the
document.

"You cannot control the will of the people," he said. "Whatever they will
do, they will do."

But Dr. Rubaie said he was sympathetic to Kurdish fears and said Shiite
leaders would try over the next several months to reassure the Kurds that
they would not lose their autonomous status. "I don't believe a majority
of Iraqis would deny the Kurds their rights of full federalism," he said.

For his part, Mr. Saleh said he did not have much patience for the Shiite
views.

The interim constitution, with all of the provisions now being objected
to, was unanimously approved by the governing council's Shiite leadership,
he noted. "When we sign something, we should mean it," he said.

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Notice, however,  dear Reader, that this adherence to the interim
constitution agreed to in March does NOT mention language rights for
Kurdish, as in a message  sent on  Thu, 11 Mar 2004 to this list:

>>From the Sydney Morning Herald, 8 March 2004

LAW OF ADMINISTRATION FOR THE STATE OF IRAQ
FOR THE TRANSITIONAL PERIOD

[snip]

Article 9.


(1)   Publication of the official gazette, in the two languages;

(2)  Speech and expression in official settings, such as the National
Assembly, the Council of Ministers, courts, and official conferences, in
either of the two languages;

(3)   Recognition and publication of official documents and correspondence
in the two languages;

(4)   Opening schools that teach in the two languages, in accordance with
educational guidelines;

(5)   Use of both languages in any other settings enjoined by the
principle of equality (such as bank notes, passports, and stamps);

(6)   Use of both languages in the federal institutions and agencies in
the Kurdistan region.