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Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basin Ôzeti available. First, strike the PKK where they are vulnerable, not in the mountain base camps where they are strongest. Divide the ene¬ my by crafting an amnesty that permits civilians and lower level PKK members to lay down their arms and rejoin society. This wor¬ ked in Northern Ireland to isolate radical fringes of the Irish Republi¬ can Army and it will work here, where the PKK's popular support at best is tepid. Second, the US and others could cripple PKK operations by cutting ITMTiI^ftWITMrWTi off its financial support. PKK's centre of power is not, and never has been, in Iraqi Kurdistan; its popular base lies in south-eastern Turkey. Its financial base is in the cities of continental Europe, where the money is raised. Its leaders travel freely in European capitals. A co-ordinated international effort is needed to interdict the flow of money and supplies to the PKK. Decades of military action against the PKK have failed to produce a lasting solution and it would fail again. Albert Einstein was not a Nov. Nov. 17, 2007 military strategist but he did know something about how to solve problems. He also recognised the folly of substituting haste for thoughtful, reasoned decision making when he said: "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." Dealing with the PKK is an essen¬ tial element of resolving the larger conflict in Iraq and improving the peace in the region. This challenge requires a creative strategy, one rooted in diplomacy and dialogue. Most of all it requires leaders with vision who rise above raw emotion - courageous leaders who are willing to forego short-term violent actions in order to wisely serve their nation's long term interests. General Clark is a former supreme com¬ mander of Nato, led the alliance of military forces in the Kosovo war (1999) and is a senior fellow at the Ron Burkle Center at Iraqi parliament opens probe into delays over status of northern oil-rich Kirkuk Bv SAMEER N. YACOUB Associated Press BAGHDAD Iraq's parliament on Saturday ordered an inquiry into the delay of a referendum over whether the oil-rich city of Kirkuk will join the semiautonomous Kurdish region in the north. The Iraqi constitution requires that a refe¬ rendum on the future status of the city be held by the end of this year to determine whether it will remain under Baghdad's control, become part of Kurdistan or gain autonomy from both. "Four years have passed, and the referen¬ dum should have been done by now, but successive governments have done no¬ thing," Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman said. "Yet we do understand that there were obstacles, such as security challenges and bureaucracy." Qadir Aziz, a spokesman for Kurdish pre¬ sident Massoud Barzani, said the delay "is not to the Kurds' benefit." The head of the Kirkuk city council on Saturday accused the central government of intentionally stalling the process, saying Baghdad's Arab-dominated government stood to gain from the delay. Kirkuk is an especially coveted city for both the Shiite-dominated Iraqi govern¬ ment in Baghdad and the Kurdish one in Irbil. Much of Iraq's vast oil wealth lies under the ground in the Kirkuk region, as well as in the Shiite-controlled south. Kurds refer to Kirkuk as the "Kurdish Jerusalem," and control of the area's oil resources and its cultural attachment to Kurdistan have been hotly contested. The city's Arabs are generally in favor of continued rule by Iraq's central govern¬ ment, while many Kurds want Kirkuk to join the Kurdish zone to its north. The city's minority Turkomen ethnic Turks have said they prefer to stay under Baghdad's control, but would lobby for their own autonomous region if Kirkuk ends up being part of Kurdistan. Kirkuk also has significant minorities of Christians, Armenians and Assyrians. The constitution also calls for a census to be held in Kirkuk by the end of 2007 to determine how many Arabs, Kurds and Turkomen reside in the city. Kurds dispute the results of censuses conducted under Saddam Hussein. UCLA Iraqi officials confirmed Saturday that the census and referendum have been post¬ poned until next year. Tens of thousands of Kurds and non-Arabs fled Kirkuk in the 1980s and 1990s when Saddam's government implemented its "Arabization" policy. They were replaced by pro-government Arabs from the mainly Shiite south, after Saddam accused the Kurds of siding with Iran in the 1980-1988 war with Tehran. Now, the Iraqi government has begun resettling some of those Arabs to their home regions, making room for thousands of Kurds who have gradually returned to Kirkuk since Saddam's ouster. The plan is said to be voluntary, and Arabs who agree are paid $15,500 and given a piece of property in their regions of origin. About 1,000 Arab families have received compensation so far, according to Kaka Ritsh, a Kurdish official who works on resettlement issues in Kirkuk. Another 3,500 families have signed up for the program and are willing to return to their home regions, he said Saturday. Iraqi Kurds flex muscles over black gold reserves ARBIL. Iraq. Nov 18. 2007 (AFP) Despite a veto from Baghdad, Iraqi Kurds have signed contracts with foreign firms to exploit their huge oil reserves which they vow will benefit the whole country. Strengthened by the autonomy enshrined in the Iraqi constitu¬ tion, the Iraqi Kurdish authority launched a regional oil policy in August, signing deals with overseas companies, to first achieve self-sufficiency and later exportation. The authority has signed 20 contracts during the last three mon¬ ths and shows no sign of changing course, despite threats from the federal government to blacklist companies trading with the Kurdish region. 90 "Iraq has more than 12 percent of the world's crude oil reserves, of which at least five percent is in our region," said Kiwan Siwaily, advisor to Kurdish oil minister Ashti Hawrami. "The old Iraqi regimes since the 1920s didn't allow us to develop these resources. No student was allowed to study in the oil and gas sector," added Siwaily, just recently back from Germany with a degree in this field. In the 1970s, gigantic oil fields were discovered in Iraqi Kurdish region but failed to be fully explored. They were never exploited during the reign of Saddam, hostile to the Kurds who resisted his authority. Since the end of his regime in April 2003, the reserves attracted the attention of international oil sector representatives who
Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basin Ôzeti travelled to the main city Arbil. "To export, we have to talk to the central government. But for our domestic use, we don't have to ask anyone. It belongs to us. It's our country," said Siwaily. "We're now producing 20,000 barrels a day. We need 100,000 for our domestic use alone. It's our oil, it's our right." The federal parliament has been attempting to hammer out a deal regarding national oil policy and to negotiate the delicate issue of sharing resources between the regions. The Shiite majority in the south and Kurdish majority in the north have plentiful oil reserves. But the Sunnis in central Iraq have little oil and insist policy is centralised through Baghdad, an approach not shared by the Kurdish regional authorities but backed by Washington. US authorities want the oil revenues to be shared equally among the 18 provinces of Iraq, especially the Sunnis in a bid to wipe out the Sunni-led insurgency against its troops. Commenting on the oil contracts signed in Arbil on November 7, Hawrami said: "In Kurdistan, we are setting the example: this is only the first post-Saddam framework for oil investment in Iraq that follows the democratic, federal, and free-market principles SIk àeurjjork STuncs November 18, 2007 mandated by the Iraqi constitution." The Kurdish authorities are attempting to reassure Baghdad and the other communities that they are happy with rules that res¬ trict them to retaining only the 17 percent of export earnings. At the federal level, this figure of 17 percent is also the portion of the national budget granted to the Kurdish region. "We know that if we want to export anything, we'll have to share: 17 percent for us only," said Siwaily. "We have no pro¬ blem with that." "They are still discussing this oil law at the federal level. It could take them another two or three years. We're not going to wait. We have lost enough time already. "Here, we have enough oil and gas for all the Middle East. It's our oil, our country. You'll see, we don't need more than two or three years to develop everything and cover our domestic needs." Among the contracts recently signed, is one for a gas collection and a refinery to supply the electricity stations, which experts says make the problem of regional power cuts a distant memo¬ ry. Iraq credits Iran with helping calm violence Spokesman also says government wants Sunni ministers back Alissa J. Rubin. New York Times The Iraqi government on Saturday credited Iran with helping to rein in Shiite militias and stemming the flow of weapons into Iraq, improving the security situation noticeably. The Iraqi government's spokesman, Ali al- Dabbagh, speaking at a lunch for reporters, also said that the Shiite-dominated government is making renewed efforts to bring back Sunni Arab ministers who have been boycotting the government for more than four months. Speaking about Iran, he said that government helped to persuade the Shiite cleric Muqtada al- Sadr to ask his Mahdi militia to halt attacks. Al- Sadr ordered his militia to stop using weapons in early September, and officials say the standdown by Mahdi members has helped improve stability. They say it also seems to have helped decrease the frequency of attacks with explosi¬ vely formed penetrators, a powerful type of bomb that can pierce heavy armor. Al-Dabbagh is the first Iraqi official to say publicly that Iran has used its influence with al- Sadr to discourage him from using his militia for armed attacks. Since al-Sadr gave his order in mid-September, the numbers of unidentified bodies found on the streets of Baghdad daily has rarely exceeded a half-dozen. When his militia was active there were often as many as 30 or more unidentified bodies found daily. "The freezing of the Mahdi Army makes us feel they have good intentions," al-Dabbagh said. "Iran played a role in this." Al-Dabbagh said the turning point came when Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki visited Iran in August and met with the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khame¬ nei, in the Shiite shrine city of Mashad. Al-Maliki told the Iranian leader that "Iran had to choose whether to support the government or any other party and Iraq will decide according to which they choose," al-Dabbagh said. The Iranians promised to help and have done so, said. he About the parliament, al- Dabbagh said the government wants the Sunni Arab bloc to return and that he believes a government with the bloc "in it is better than one without it." In one concession, al-Maliki has made a point of allowing a lengthy debate and review on the execution of Sultan Hashim Ahmed, the minis¬ ter of defense under Saddam Hussein. In Sep¬ tember, Hashim was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to hang. Objec¬ tions from some Kurds and Sunni Arabs, who believe he was not responsible for the policies he was forced to enact, have halted his execu¬ tion while the judiciary and the government review the case. The Cabinet has sent legislation to the parlia¬ ment revising the de-Baathifkation law that had presented obstacles to former Baathists' working in government jobs. The new proposal, which has been agreed to by the Sunni Arab bloc as well as the Kurdish and Shiite leaders, would let an additional 10,000 people take government positions, including many Sunni Arabs. It would also guarantee that all former government employees would be eligible to collect their pensions. Also in a move to spur reconciliation between Shiites and Sunnis, the government announced it will pay one million Iraqi denars, about $812, to every displaced family that returns home. More than 150,000 families, roughly 900,000 Iraqis, have fled their homes because of the recent violence, and about 95,000 of those families are in Baghdad, said Dr. Abdul-Samad Rahman Sultan, Iraq's minister of displacement and migration. Also, 30 skeletons were found Saturday in Hor Jab, a rural Sunni Arab area on Baghdad's southern edge that until early October was controlled by al Qaeda in Iraq. 91
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