03 April 2011
Erbil - In a press conference Saturday after meeting with an opposition faction in Kurdistan, a leader from one of the ruling parties said the domineering parties need more time to discuss some demands of the opposition factions and the protesters in Sulaimaniya province.
The two allies in power, the PUK (Patriotic Union of Kurdistan) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) had already met with Goran (Change) Movement and the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) before meeting with the third opposition faction, the Kurdistan Islamic Group (KIG) Saturday.
Mala Bakhtiyar, the chief for administration board of PUK politburo, described the meeting with KIG "positive as the rest of the meetings with opposition."
The meetings are carried out while the anti-government protests in one of the three provinces of the Kurdistan Region, Sulaimaniya, persist. The protesting public and the opposition factions in parliament push for some demands that the Kurdish semi-autonomous government in northern Iraq has promised to fulfill.
It was agreed that the government, parliament and political parties should continue meetings, Bakhtiyar told the press conference. He added "there are only some points in the demands that the KDP and PUK need to deliberate on," without any explicit reference to those points.
It's nearly one month and half that thousands in Sulaimaniya take into streets daily. Their demands comprise 11 terms related to the current situation and 26 basic demands, most of which pertinent to their life and sustenance.
The most prominent demands are restoration of security to Kurdistan, allowing for the representatives of the protesters in the meetings of the political parties, granting freedom to the universities, raising marriage loan, treating officials and public equally in front of law, ending party's interference in government conduct, reconsidering Kurdistan constitution, and assigning impartial technocrats to the security ministries.
The protesters further require the government to take to justice the culprits, who shoot the protesters during the riots and parliament to summon and question the Kurdish ministers for interior, peshmarga (Kurdish armed forces) and finance. They also require the government to reduce the salaries of the lawmakers, ministers, and all the other top officials, including the Kurdish presidencies. One further condition is to annul the orders for those who have been retired with the same rank and salary they received for a nominal rank with no active duty.
The PUK chief also anticipated an exclusive meeting between the two allies in power and all the opposition factions. He said after such meeting, the presidents of the five parties will meet to reach a political agreement.
Bakhtiyar also refuted the reports that any meeting with opposition will be held in Iran.
KIG politburo member Abdul-Sattar Majid who attended Saturday's meeting expressed his "satisfaction" with the meeting. He told the press conference he hopes such assemblies can be fruitful while he reiterated opposition's' support for the protesters.
The protests in Sulaimaniya have so far claimed nine lives and wounded over 250 people.
Erbil - In a press conference Saturday after meeting with an opposition faction in Kurdistan, a leader from one of the ruling parties said the domineering parties need more time to discuss some demands of the opposition factions and the protesters in Sulaimaniya province.
The two allies in power, the PUK (Patriotic Union of Kurdistan) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) had already met with Goran (Change) Movement and the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) before meeting with the third opposition faction, the Kurdistan Islamic Group (KIG) Saturday.
Mala Bakhtiyar, the chief for administration board of PUK politburo, described the meeting with KIG "positive as the rest of the meetings with opposition."
The meetings are carried out while the anti-government protests in one of the three provinces of the Kurdistan Region, Sulaimaniya, persist. The protesting public and the opposition factions in parliament push for some demands that the Kurdish semi-autonomous government in northern Iraq has promised to fulfill.
It was agreed that the government, parliament and political parties should continue meetings, Bakhtiyar told the press conference. He added "there are only some points in the demands that the KDP and PUK need to deliberate on," without any explicit reference to those points.
It's nearly one month and half that thousands in Sulaimaniya take into streets daily. Their demands comprise 11 terms related to the current situation and 26 basic demands, most of which pertinent to their life and sustenance.
The most prominent demands are restoration of security to Kurdistan, allowing for the representatives of the protesters in the meetings of the political parties, granting freedom to the universities, raising marriage loan, treating officials and public equally in front of law, ending party's interference in government conduct, reconsidering Kurdistan constitution, and assigning impartial technocrats to the security ministries.
The protesters further require the government to take to justice the culprits, who shoot the protesters during the riots and parliament to summon and question the Kurdish ministers for interior, peshmarga (Kurdish armed forces) and finance. They also require the government to reduce the salaries of the lawmakers, ministers, and all the other top officials, including the Kurdish presidencies. One further condition is to annul the orders for those who have been retired with the same rank and salary they received for a nominal rank with no active duty.
The PUK chief also anticipated an exclusive meeting between the two allies in power and all the opposition factions. He said after such meeting, the presidents of the five parties will meet to reach a political agreement.
Bakhtiyar also refuted the reports that any meeting with opposition will be held in Iran.
KIG politburo member Abdul-Sattar Majid who attended Saturday's meeting expressed his "satisfaction" with the meeting. He told the press conference he hopes such assemblies can be fruitful while he reiterated opposition's' support for the protesters.
The protests in Sulaimaniya have so far claimed nine lives and wounded over 250 people.
© AK News 2011
