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Feb 11 2012

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Kurdish opposition presents Kirkuk project

An 11-item project demands quick improvements
Local opposition leaders call for fast implementation of Article 140

Three Kurdish parties are demanding the implementation of Article 140 of the Constitution regarding the disputed areas and normalizing relations among the components of Kirkuk.

The opposition parties in Kurdistan Region, including the Gorran Movement, the Kurdistan Islamic Union and the Islamic Group in Kurdistan, published a project with 11 items demanding improvements in the heavily disputed Kirkuk province. The project is addressed to Kurdish parties, the Kurdistan Regional Government and Kirkuk's local administration.

Local leaders of the three parties in Kirkuk emphasized Article 140 as the solution to Kirkuk's political and administration issues and stated that the process of implementation is moving "too slowly." They are urging the Kurdish parties and Kirkuk's local administration to pressure the Iraqi government to accelerate the procedure and dedicate a larger share of the budget to complete the Article's details. Article 140 calls for the return of displaced people to their homes with compensation, the holding of a census and a referendum, which frees the original people to either join Kurdistan Region or remain with Baghdad.

Article 140 was intended for completion by the end of 2007 but is still in its initial stages. Many Kurdish families have returned to Kirkuk after receiving compensation of 10 million Iraqi dinars, while Arab families who were brought in received 20 million dinars to leave Kirkuk and return to their origins in central or southern Iraq. The Opposition is demanding that compensation to the Kurds be raised to 25 million Iraqi dinars.

"The return of Kirkuk and other disputed areas to Kurdistan Region should not be further delayed," stated the Kurdish Opposition in the project published Wednesday by the Komal News website affiliated with the Islamic group. The Kurds' relations with other components in Kirkuk must be based on all ethnicities, not merely between parties. There must be relations with Arabs, Turkmen and others.

The Opposition addressed yet another demand to the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), asking for the structural review of the security forces in Kirkuk. They blame the two parties for dividing among themselves any security posts for the Kurdish component of the security forces.

Also, "both the Asaish [security] forces of the KDP and the PUK must be framed within a national agency for Kirkuk" to remove the parties' impact on these forces, the opposition stated. The three parties also call for founding an establishment under the rule of the KRG Parliament to work toward reconstruction of the disputed areas. "Kurdistan's money shouldn't be spent by ruling parties, which is what is currently happening."

The Opposition has also asked for the people in the disputed areas to be given the same privileges and rights as anyone in Kurdistan Region in the term of receiving loans and service projects.