LAST NEWS ABOUT KIRKUK/ KURDISTAN

[Anthea]

Fighting in Kirkuk, unknown gunmen target Iraqi Counter-Terror post

Fighting erupted inside Kirkuk on Thursday night, locals told Rudaw, adding heavy weapons were used and the gunfire lasted nearly an hour.

Afrasiaw Kamil Waisi, Kirkuk police spokesperson, announced that “a number of unidentified persons attacked the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Forces with “hand grenades and BKC [machine gun].”

He said the attack caused no casualties.

Locals who sent a video footages to Rudaw said that RPGs, machine guns, and rifles were used.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for initiating the clash that took place in central Kirkuk, targeting a post of the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism forces near the Kurdish Rahimawa and Almas neighborhoods, according to information obtained by Rudaw.

Kirkuk fell to the Iraqi army and Shiite militias of the Hashd al-Shaabi on October 16 after Peshmerga forces pulled out of the city.

http://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/071220173

[Anthea]

Information and Communication Technologies

KR-I Ministry of Interior presents pilot efforts to simplify access to government administrative services using Information and Communication Technologies

Key Ministers and officials from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KR-I) alongside representatives of the private sector, civil society, labour unions, the international community, donors and development agencies convened at a high-level conference yesterday in Erbil on E-Governance and Public Service Centres. The Ministry of Interior of the KR-I organized the conference under the auspices of the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, H.E. Mr. Nechirvan Barzani, and with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The conference examined progress on efforts of the Ministry of Interior to simplify citizens’ access to basic government administrative services, such as the e-visa and the new drivers’ licence renewal system, through online electronic platforms that can be used also from the convenience of their homes. This comes under a project entitled E-Governance for Better Service Delivery that the Ministry launched in March 2017, with help from UNDP, aiming to improve the responsiveness, transparency, and accountability of its delivery of quality administrative services to the public. To that end, the project promotes the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), including computer-aided platforms that can also be accessed remotely through the internet.

“The Ministry of Interior is committed to providing the quickest high-quality services to the citizens,” emphasized the Minister of Interior, Mr. Kareem Sinjari. “This will not only save considerable time and money for the citizens and Ministry alike, but it will help address potential administrative and financial corruption as well.”

[Exterior and interior views of the proposed Ministry of Interior Service Centre]The Ministry showcased its planned pilot Public Service Centres – new hubs equipped with automated ICT platforms to deliver a variety of administrative services to the community, such as issuing personal status certificates (birth, divorce, death, etc.). These centres will serve as an example for the wider application of e-governance in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

“Responsive and accountable institutions are a key objective that UNDP is helping to achieve within its primary focus on democratic governance and peacebuilding in Iraq. Central to this objective is more efficient quality services to citizens whilst ensuring that no one is left behind.” said UNDP Country Director for Iraq, Mr. Mounir Tabet. “Any such effort must pay special attention to helping the most vulnerable and marginalized segments of the population, who may not have access to or experience with ICT platforms to be equally served with these modern means.”

Partners of the KR-I Ministry of Interior from Azerbaijan and the Asan Khidmet Institution, which have provided technical advice and know-how through the course of the project E-Governance for Better Service Delivery also participated in the conference.

For additional information, please contact:

Ms. Nidaa Hilal, Communications Specialist

Email: nidaa.hilal@undp.org

https://reliefweb.int/report/iraq/kr-i- ... nistrative

[Anthea]

PMF to face criminal charges if sexual assaults investigated in Tuz Khurmatu

Iraqi authorities and Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) known as Hashid al-Shaabi will face criminal charges if the government and international organizations investigate sexual assaults against Kurdish girls and women in Tuz Khurmatu, a political official said.

Deputy Head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) office in Tuz Khurmatu said during the NRT Red Line Program (Heli Sur) that Kurdish women and girls have faced sexual assault in the Tuz Khurmatu district.

The NRT Red Line program highlights violence and sexual assault against Kurdish girls and women in the district after October 16, when Iraqi forces and Hashid al-Shaabi retook the district from the Kurdish forces.

A Kurdish member of Saladin Provincial Council said during the program that five cases of sexual assault had been reported in the district and “a woman has committed suicide due to the assault,” the official added.

NRT Red Line program about sexual assault against Kurdish girls and women in Tuz Khurmatu will be aired at 7:05 p.m. on Friday on NRT channel.

The Mayor of Tuz Khurmatu, Shalal Abdul, said hundreds of houses, apartments and businesses were exploded, burned and looted by the armed groups in Tuz Khurmatu.

Kurdistan Region’s Independent Commission for Human Rights said on October 19 that the crimes of Hashid al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Units) against people in Kirkuk and Tuz Khurmatu were “war crimes.”

Amnesty International said lives of countless men, women and children were “devastated” in Tuz Khurmatu. Citing residents, Amnesty said hundreds of properties were looted, set on fire and destroyed in the district.

Citing reports it received, the UN said on October 19 that looting of houses, businesses and political offices, and forced displacement of civilians had taken place against civilians.

The UN said, according to reports, violence occurred in neighborhoods mainly populated by Kurdish and Turkmen communities in Kirkuk and some disputed areas.

http://www.nrttv.com/en/Details.aspx?Jimare=17838

[Anthea]

Kurdistan parliament slams Abadi for ‘irresponsible’ victory comment

The Iraqi prime minister has acted “irresponsibly” in equating taking over the disputed areas from the Peshmerga with defeating ISIS, the Kurdistan Region parliament stated, joining the Peshmerga ministry in condemning a recent statement from Haider al-Abadi.

“We as the Kurdistan parliament consider the statement made by his Excellency Haider al-Abadi irresponsible and a flagrant mistake,” read a statement issued by the parliament’s presidential body on Friday.

During a meeting of his Dawa Party on Wednesday, Abadi referred to Kurdistan’s independence vote and Baghdad’s subsequent assertion of control over the disputed areas, saying “Uniting Iraq and preventing it from partition was another victory, which was no less than the triumph achieved over the ISIS terrorist gangs.”

That statement is far from “the values and principles of citizenship and contrary to Article 9 of Iraq’s permanent constitution, which in no way allows or gives legitimacy to mount these military actions against Iraqi citizens. This is another blatant violation of the constitution,” the parliament stated.

Article 9 of the constitution states that the Iraqi armed forces “shall not be used as an instrument to oppress the Iraqi people, shall not interfere in the political affairs.”

The Kurdish leadership has repeatedly accused Baghdad of violating this passage when it responded to the independence referendum with force and took control of the disputed areas in mid-October.

The parliament called on Abadi to not close the door on dialogue with the Kurdistan Region, warning that such statements “are a danger and a threat to the future of Iraq.”

“Negotiations are the only way to remove the obstacles and reach a solution for all the problems,” the parliament concluded.

The Peshmerga Ministry similarly slammed Abadi’s remarks, saying Iraq would never have succeeded against ISIS without Kurdish assistance – a fact the whole world knows.

http://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/081220174

[Anthea]

Peshmerga to Abadi: Attacking compatriots not comparable to ISIS fight

The Kurdish Peshmerga Ministry slammed remarks by Haider al-Abadi who had labelled the Iraqi army and Iran backed Hashd al-Shaabi’s incursion into the disputed territories as equal to the defeat of ISIS in Iraq. The ministry said had not it been for the Peshmerga, ISIS would have never been destroyed.

“Uniting Iraq and preventing it from partition was another victory, which was no less than the triumph achieved over the ISIS terrorist gangs,” Abadi said during a Dawa Party meeting in Baghdad on Wednesday.

The Peshmerga ministry responded Thursday night saying “it is very unfortunate for the prime minister of a country to compare attacking the people of his country with victory over terrorists and to very proudly talk about it.”

It added had not it been for the Peshmerga, “the giant victory which Abadi is now proud of would have never been achieved and the whole word has witnessed that.”

Leaders from both Erbil and Baghdad had hailed the unprecedented cooperation between their forces in anti-ISIS operations, which saw them fighting a common enemy side-by-side.

This is the first time the Peshmerga and Iraqi forces have shed blood together, then Kurdish President Masoud Barzani said on the first day of the Mosul operation. “We hope it’s a good start to create a bright future for both sides.”

Two weeks later, Abadi echoed Barzani’s words. “For the first time in Iraqi history the Iraqi federal forces with Peshmerga are fighting shoulder-to-shoulder,” he said. “This is the new Iraq.”

More than 1,846 Peshmerga gave their lives in the ISIS fight and another 10,000 were wounded, Barzani said on December 5. Iraqi forces do not release casualty figures.

On October 16, the Iraqi military, supported by Iran-backed Hashd al-Shaabi began an offensive to take over Kirkuk from the Kurdistan Regional Government following their referendum bid for independence which was held on September 25.

The ministry added in their statement that if the Peshmerga had not stopped the Iraqi armed forces and their Shiite militias after October 16, they would have continued to do what they did in Tuz Khurmatu.

Tuz Khurmatu, which fell to Iraqi forces when they drove out the Peshmerga, saw the brutal displacement of Kurds, killings, arson, looting and burning houses belonging to the Kurdish inhabitants of the town as reported by rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the United Nations.

The Kurdistan Region parliament in a special session that discussed the plight of tens of thousands of Kurds who fled the city labelled the acts of violence in Tuz Khurmatu by Iraqi forces "genocide" and "ethnic cleansing.”

The KRG ministry said Abadi’s remarks come at a time when all the parties are working to lay the foundation for a suitable atmosphere for talks between Erbil and Baghdad. Such dialogue has been encouraged by the international community with France most recently taking a direct lead.

“However such remarks indicate the essence of all the grudges that they hold against the nation of Kurdistan. But history has proven that the will of the Kurdistan nation has never been shattered by anyone and will not be shattered,” it concluded.

http://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/081220172

[Anthea]

The US needs to broker a political and security solution in Kirkuk

The United States-led coalition will retain forces in Iraq following the battlefield defeat of ISIS and the destruction of its self-styled caliphate in order to stabilize the war-wrecked state. To do so it will need to actively engage with both Baghdad and Erbil regarding the disputed territories between them, implement a power-sharing agreement along with a joint security mechanism and push Baghdad to properly implement Article 140 of the constitution in order to reach a long overdue resolution to this contentious issue.

Almost a year to the day before Iraqi forces stormed into Kirkuk and seized it by force, Washington successfully helped broker what, at the time, was described as historic cooperation between the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) and the Kurdish Peshmerga against ISIS. The latter stayed out of Mosul after clearing the key routes for the former to reclaim that city. Coordination between the two proved essential to destroying the mutual enemy embodied by the tyrannical caliphate.

When then-Kurdistan President Masoud Barzani began talking about the independence referendum last summer he unequivocally stated that an independent Kurdistan would preserve cooperative arrangements with the ISF, likely in recognition that they both could face common threats in the region and should work together to defeat them.

Instead of seeking to amplify and build upon the success of this cooperation, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi instead decided to impugn the reputation of Kurds and the Peshmerga. He nonsensically equated the Kurdistan Region with ISIS for seeking to exercise its right of self-determination via referendum, and, upon declaring that ISIS is defeated in Iraq on December 9, made no acknowledgement of the Peshmerga's contributions.

More generally, this once "historic" cooperation feels relegated to distant history thanks to Baghdad's recent actions. Iraq's unilateral, and aggressive, move in Kirkuk and the other territories has bred distrust between Baghdad and Erbil of the kind not seen since the pre-2003 era. The large-scale displacement of over 180,000 people in the wider Kirkuk region, mostly Kurds, in particular reminds many in the Kurdistan Region of Saddam Hussein's brutal Arabization there.

Even in light of this flagrant aggression post-referendum, Kurdistan has demonstrated its willingness to make concessions, something which demonstrably shows it is ready for meaningful dialogue with Baghdad on a range of issues including, but not limited to, the future and status of the disputed territories.

While the US State Department was visibly irked by the fact the Kurds went ahead with their referendum, it has since affirmed that Iraq's military takeover of Kirkuk and other territories does not mean they are now undisputed. In light of its own stance, Washington needs to apply pressure on Baghdad to come to the table to ensure that its actions last October do not further destabilize the country at this critical point in time, the immediate aftermath of the military defeat of the ISIS terror entity.

The US-led coalition is already beginning to help Iraq prepare to counter what looks to be an upcoming ISIS insurgency which could prove deadly if not properly dealt with soon, something that would undermine those prior combined Iraq, Kurdish and coalition efforts to destroy the group.

US officials invariably call upon both Baghdad and Erbil to resolve their differences through the constitution. The Kurds have already declared that they are committed to abiding by Article 1 of that constitution and have thus essentially committed to remaining part of Iraq. While Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi pays lip-service to the constitution, his actions in Kirkuk show disregard for perhaps the most neglected article of that constitution, Article 140.

Washington's efforts to stabilize the disputed territories should logically conclude with a diplomatic push for its implementation, or an alternative agreed upon by Baghdad and Erbil. This should follow joint administrative and power-sharing agreements in these areas to ensure their security, something which is of mutual interest to all sides.

The presence of Baghdad-sanctioned Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitaries in places like Tuz Khurmatu is a source of instability and incubates sectarianism of the kind ISIS, or an ISIS-like group, could exploit. This, coupled with their documented abuses there since October, shows they need to be completely banned from entering that region.

What is also of paramount importance is the safe return home of all residents displaced by Iraq's actions in Kirkuk, which could be supervised by international observers, to ensure Baghdad does not get away with instigating lasting demographic changes in the region in order to solidify control over it – which would be tantamount to permitting a new form of Arabization there.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari recently claimed that "the world owes" Iraq a Marshall Plan-type investment to rebuild the country. No doubt the enormous humanitarian crisis afflicted on Iraq by the war on ISIS, especially the wholesale destruction of Ramadi, Fallujah and large swathes of Mosul along with the continued displacement of millions, warrants continued and even greater international assistance. However, assistance should not be blindly given at a time that Baghdad's own policies unnecessarily contribute to this humanitarian crisis.

Iraq's punitive and petty flight ban over Kurdistan has already made it more difficult for aid agencies to do their important work from and in that secure and stable region – which has hosted nearly two million internally displaced persons (IDP) who felt they had nowhere safer to go since the war against ISIS began. Its aforementioned aggression in Kirkuk also added just under two hundred thousand people to Iraq's IDP population.

It's for these reasons that the United States and the international community need to push Baghdad to take concrete and demonstrable steps away from this aggression by committing to fairly and constitutionally resolving Kirkuk's status before it reverts to an ethnic and sectarian powder keg that could further destabilize and the destroy the region yet again.

http://www.rudaw.net/english/analysis/10122017

Perhaps America should send Paul Bremer to sort it out Iraq as he did before

[Anthea]

Kurdistan Social Forum highlights violence against NRT

A national rights advocacy network in the Kurdistan Region hosted a forum on Saturday (December 10) to discuss violations against freedom of speech and free press and many other human rights issues.

According to the statistics put forward to the public by the Kurdistan Social Forum as many as 145 violations have been recorded against freedom of speech in the past year. In 84 of them, the media was targeted.

During a period of 11 months in 2017, one journalist was killed and seven were injured following beatings.

The rights group also reports that there were 15 cases of death threat against journalists in the region.

NRT was highlighted as a frequent target of violence and harassment during the period, in Forum discussions.

On October 29 this year, because of the looting and destruction of the NRT office and studio in Erbil, the network has suffered losses valued at $1 million US dollars.

Journalism equipment including televisions, computers, cameras, recording and sound equipment, as well as furniture, windows, carpets, walls and many other valuable items were destroyed. Security forces were present at the scene, at the time of the destruction, but did not intervene.

Besides the destruction of the channel’s office in Erbil, a group holding sticks at the Kurdistan Parliament in the same evening, injuring the channel’s reporter and camera operator, attacked a team of NRT journalists. Another group of people also stoned and broke into the NRT office in Duhok.

The Kurdistan Social Forum (KSF) is a newly founded space for coordination among civil society organizations and networks in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, with a Secretariat based in Erbil and a committee composed of NGOs, trade unions and federations. The KSF was founded in September 2016 by Peace and Freedom Organization (PFO) following two years of preparation and dialogue with CSOs in the region.

During the first Kurdistan Social Forum, members participated in parallel workshops on social justice and employment, media promoting tolerance and democracy, protection of displaced persons and minorities, water rights and the protection of Mesopotamia’s rivers, women’s participation in civil society and policy-making.

KSF activists seek to back civil movements in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq working towards political, economic and social reform in order to contribute to the development of a more just future for the region.

http://www.nrttv.com/EN/Details.aspx?Jimare=17857

[Anthea]

Germany Stands with Kurdistan

Germany will continue its support for a strong Kurdistan Region as it values the role of Kurds in sheltering millions of IDPs during the war against the Islamic State (IS), said German Ambassador to Iraq Cyrill Nunn.

The envoy, accompanied by a diplomatic delegate, met on Monday with Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani to discuss bilateral ties between Erbil and Berlin, as well as the prolonged disputes between the Kurdistan Region and Iraqi government.

Nunn reiterated the importance of peaceful dialogues between Erbil and Baghdad within the framework of the Iraqi constitution.

He also commended the people and government of the Kurdistan Region for their outstanding role in sheltering nearly 2 million IDPs from other Iraqi provinces during the three years of anti-Islamic State war. The German diplomat vowed his country’s continued humanitarian support for the IDPs and refugees settled in the Kurdistan Region.

Barzani, in return, thanked the German government for its support to Erbil. Concerning the Erbil-Baghdad crisis, the Kurdish premier said that his government is still persisting in peaceful talks and not violence as a mean to resolve disagreements.

He reiterated that Baghdad should treat Erbil in accordance with the Iraqi constitution.

http://www.basnews.com/index.php/en/new ... tan/399216

[Anthea]

Stalled Kirkuk council not consulted by city’s acting governor

Members of Kirkuk Provincial Council have accused the province’s acting governor of exploiting a power void created by the absence of the council.

“Kirkuk acting governor Rakan Saeed doesn’t consult us in any way. He has frozen all the council’s duties and roles. He works the way he wants,” Azad Jabari, a Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) member of the council, told Rudaw.

The provincial council has met only once, in the absence of many of its members, since Iraqi forces took control of the province in mid-October and some of its members fled the city.

Ibrahim Khalil, a member with the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU), said: “The provincial council itself doesn’t exist, let alone for its powers to be monopolized. The current council is just a name, nothing else.”

Rakan Saeed al-Jabouri, a Sunni Arab was appointed to the post by the prime minister temporarily after former governor Najmaldin Karim was removed. Karim is a member of the PUK. The position of Kirkuk governor was given to the PUK as part of the party’s election entitlement.

Jabari of the PUK thinks if provincial council members go back to Kirkuk “a Kurdish governor will then be elected and Kirkuk will be freed from this political and governmental monopoly.”

The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) is among the parties that have so far refused to return to Kirkuk.

“The KDP made us hold the referendum and the party is not coming back to activate the provincial council,” Jabari said.

Mohammed Kamal, head of the KDP faction in the council, countered: “We were exiled. Our people live in exile. We are not prepared to send back only our officials unless our people return and our headquarters are reopened in Kirkuk. Conditions in Kirkuk should be normalized and legalized. The current rule in Kirkuk is militaristic.”

Selecting a new governor would require the Kurdish parties to find some unity.

“We are not prepared to applaud and make a PUK candidate governor every time because we have experience with this – the PUK nominates someone and asks us for our support, and then says he is bad and should therefore be removed,” Kamal said.

The council is also without a head. Its acting chair Rebwar Talabani has not returned since fleeing in October. He had earlier said he was not prepared to go back to the city unless conditions in Kirkuk return to how they were prior to October 16. In addition, 11 council members with the Kurdish-led Brotherhood Faction have said they are not prepared to take part in council meetings with the current conditions in Kirkuk.

Talabani’s party, the KIU, nominated Jwan Hasan to replace him. Council must, however, hold a vote before she can formally assume the office.

http://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/111220172

[Anthea]

Iranian border guards spotted in Kurdistan Region cause concern

Iranian security forces were in the Kurdistan Region city of Qaladze for a routine meeting on border cooperation, the city’s mayor has said after images of Iranians in the city in uniform sparked concern on social media.

Reacting to photographs and video of the Iranian forces, locals claimed that a force from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) had been deployed to Qaladze, on the border with Iran about 130 kilometres east of Erbil.

Mayor Bakir Baiz said the uniformed men were Iranian border guards attending a normal meeting with their Kurdish counterparts in Qaladze as part of ongoing relations.

He said the two have held such meetings in both Kurdistan and Iran. Their last meeting was in the Kurdish city of Sardasht, Iran.

He added that the two sides meet whenever necessary.

"The meeting was related to the border problems between the two sides," the mayor said, without elaboration.

Following the meeting, the Iranian forces visited the city center, had lunch with their Kurdish counterparts, and then returned to Iran, the mayor explained.

Qaladze has a semi-official border crossing with Iran called Kele.

The Kurdistan Region has a security agreement with Iran regarding border cooperation.

Iran closed its three official border crossings with the Kurdistan Region after the September independence vote. The Bashmakh crossing was reopened in late October and the other two are expected to also reopen shortly.

The presence of Iranian border guards in the Kurdistan Region is an especially sensitive matter since Iranian-backed Hashd al-Shaabi militias worked with Iraqi forces to take control of disputed areas from the Peshmerga in mid-October.

The Peshmerga ministry said that members of the IRGC’s Quds Force were among Iraqi ranks when the deadly clashes broke out.

http://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/111220175

[Anthea]

German parliament extends Peshmerga training

Germany’s parliament on Tuesday voted to continue training Peshmerga through to April 2018, allocating 6.9 million euros funding for the program.

Up to 150 German soldiers will continue to train the Kurdish forces in Erbil.

Niels Annen from the Socialist Democratic Party (SPD) stated that training and arming the Peshmerga is “a difficult mandate in a very complex security environment,” adding that the training program has been a success in the war against ISIS.

He stressed that Germany must make clear that its support for the Peshmerga should not be used to jeopardize the territorial integrity of Iraq.

Deadly clashes, triggered by Kurdistan’s independence vote, erupted between Iraqi and Kurdish security forces in disputed areas in October.

Germany briefly suspended its training program citing fears of sending a signal that it supports one side over the other.

Dr. Johann Wadephul from the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) called the decision to arm and train the Peshmerga “wise” as it contributed to peace in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq. He said the mission is not over, despite the Iraqi announcement of the end of the ISIS war, and it is important that Germany stay active in this regard.

Other MPs who rejected the motion cited fears that it could push Germany to become part of the problems between the Iraqi and Kurdish governments.

The German parliament must reauthorize troop deployments yearly. In tabling the motion on the Peshmerga mandate, the government stated they support dialogue between Erbil and Baghdad to resolve their differences. It warned that Berlin, in coordination with its international partners, will immediately suspend the training program if new hostiles erupt.

In early November, Germany’s outgoing foreign minister appealed to his country’s parliament to extend its mission training the Peshmerga, arguing that international presence in the country would help prevent a civil war.

Germany has trained more than 16,000 Kurdish soldiers since February 2015.

Up to 150 German soldiers will be based at the international anti-ISIS Combined Joint Operations Command Center, where they have worked with Iraqi and Kurdish commanders, in addition to Peshmerga units through the Kurdistan Training Coordination Center (KTTC).

A ceasefire has been in place between the Kurdish and Iraqi forces since the end of October, but Kurdistan’s National Security Advisor Masrour Barzani told German Ambassador to Iraq Dr. Cyrill Nunn on Monday of “frontline reporting in recent days indicating Iraq has not yet ruled out military options to settle political disputes.”

The October clashes erupted when Iraqi forces took over the disputed areas following Kurdistan’s independence vote.

Baghdad has not yet committed to talks, despite concessions from Erbil.

Germany is a member of the US-led anti-ISIS Global Coalition.

http://www.rudaw.net/english/world/121220171

[Anthea]

KRG to make more salary cuts in 2018 after losing Kirkuk oil

The KRG has planned to reduce the salaries of high-earners by as much as 33 percent after a dramatic drop in revenue with the loss of Kirkuk’s oil fields, a government source told Rudaw

The government’s income has decreased from $565.5 million a month to $337.4 million, a 40 percent drop.

The new pay cuts will affect those who were skipped during a previous round of salary reductions as part of unpopular austerity measures in 2016.

The KRG will reduce “by a percentage” salaries of the security forces, including Asayesh and police, the source said.

Rank and file Peshmerga will not be affected, but commanders with high salaries will see their income cut by “33 percent.”

Ministers at a KRG cabinet meeting headed by Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani on Monday discussed forecasts for oil and non-oil revenues for the first half of 2018.

The cabinet, following the discussion of two reports from the Region’s Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ministry of Finances, decided that public sector salaries will be “the priority,” but did not release any revenue figures.

The KRG will announce the new salary reductions in the future, the source explained.

Under the salary system introduced in 2016, most of the public employees saw their wages reduced by as much as 40 percent in some cases.

The KRG was on the road to financial recovery before the October events, mahttp://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/121220176inly because of higher oil prices, and KRG officials promised to make changes so that employees would receive higher portions of their salaries.

The financial crisis, sparked by Baghdad’s budget cut in early 2014, was made worse by the high cost of the war with ISIS.

Kurdish oil exports now stand at about 250,000 bpd, down from an estimated 550,000 bpd in early October. It is much lower than the goal of 700,000 bpd by the end of 2017 or early next year.

The government has also increased taxes and fees on many basic services like new car registration and real estate purchases. These were introduced as part of efforts to collect more non-oil revenue.

The government also hoped that its biometric payroll system would help to decrease its payroll by weeding out ghost employees and double-salary recipients.

If the KRG were to pay the full salaries of its 1.2 million employees, it would need $772 million monthly.

http://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/121220176

[Anthea]

We Kurds Could Take Care of the Refugees
But the West and Baghdad Won't Pay Up

Even as the battle to destroy the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) draws to a close, Iraq enters a new chapter of vicious turmoil. While the coalition’s military operations were meticulously planned, a long-term approach for the refugee fallout never materialized, and the international community lacks a political strategy for the day after ISIS.

We Kurds host a massive proportion of refugees and internally displaced people from the sustained conflict - which now reaches a breaking point. Without immediate intervention, this crisis will become drastically worse, not only for us but also for Europe and the world.

It is time for a coordinated shift away from the reactive policies for coping with the refugee problem. We propose a safer and more cost-effective solution to this metastasizing humanitarian catastrophe: directing aid to refugees and IDPs within the Kurdish region of Iraq. The cost of sustaining them in our region is a fraction of what Europe spends.

The current costs to EU members are vast. Germany alone has budgeted nearly €100 billion to support refugees over the next three years. These figures don’t include the immense burdens on domestic security and intelligence. A number of European countries resist any participation in refugee resettlement, and face steep penalties instead.

In stark contrast, we’ve managed to host 1.8 million refugees and IDPs on less than $2 billion per year. Compare this with the UK’s staggering £2 billion budget for absorbing just 20,000 Syrian refugees. But while a quarter of these costs are covered by the international community, we are left to bear the remaining 75 percent.

Without aid from our partners, the Kurdistan region will see a breakdown in its ability to absorb refugees and IDPs, thereby increasing pressure on an already-strained European Union. This is not a calculated political rhetoric; it is basic math.

The arrival of nearly two million refugees and migrants to the EU in recent years already has far-reaching impacts. Border controls are tightening in Schengen countries. Budgets and patience are stretched thin. Member-states have lost confidence in the EU’s ability to control the crises, and recent elections reflect frustration among citizens who question their governments’ ability to affect change and listen to their concerns.

Few countries have opened their doors to as many refugees and IDPs as the Kurdish region of Iraq. Our once-humble population of just over 5 million ballooned as these visitors now comprise a third of our residents.

To say we Kurds have done our part is an understatement.

Yet, since 2014, we have not received our share of the budget from the Iraqi government, and our petroleum-reliant economy suffered as crude prices plummeted. For all its rhetoric, Baghdad has never shown willingness to aid victims of terror, nor to stem sectarian violence. As the West focused on defeating ISIS, it enabled the rise of other deadly groups—such as the terror-designated Iraqi Hezbollah and the Popular Mobilization Units, who fight alongside the Iraqi Army.

Following our recent independence referendum, these Iran-backed forces launched a surprise offensive to seize our borders and further strangle our economy.

In this short time, they’ve brutally murdered our Peshmerga and journalists alike, and looted and demolished scores of civilian homes. Their brief reign of terror and ethnic cleansing has already displaced more than 181,000 civilians, according to the U.N. Such extreme trends drive our social welfare infrastructure well beyond capacity.

Back in Europe, some nations appallingly operate “rehabilitation programs” for returning ISIS jihadists. The politicians behind this should come here to meet the Yazidi women and children who these “former” terrorists preyed on—and who may never receive help for the mental, physical, and sexual trauma from the most grotesque of crimes against humanity.

We need to see the development of rational solutions and innovative policy recommendations to confront the humanitarian disaster. Vice President Mike Pence’s recent statement that America will provide direct support to persecuted minorities through USAID is an encouraging shift in the right direction. America realized that faith-based organizations on the ground, whether Christian, Yazidi or Muslim, tend to have a deeper understanding and reach within the communities they serve.

It is up to our longtime friends in Europe, the United States and Canada to pressure Baghdad to enter serious and constructive dialogue and to release our constitutionally-bound 17.5 percent share of the Iraqi budget. This is the first step in helping us obtain the humanitarian and security resources required to defeat terror, relieve the victims, and spare Europe from further unnecessary division and danger.

If Europe and the rest of the international community fail to further and more wisely invest in confronting the crisis here, closer to its epicenter, the crisis will inevitably arrive straight to your shores and your overflowing absorption centers. After all, if Iraq’s economic blockade and military threats against Kurdistan are allowed to continue, not only will the displaced among us flee to Europe, but many of us - their host community - will, too.

A strong, stable Kurdistan, on the other hand, means strength and safety for Europe, and we need an immediate boost of support to achieve this mutual goal.

http://www.newsweek.com/kurds-will-take ... -it-746623

By Falah Mustafa, Head of the Foreign Relations Department of the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq.

[Anthea]

History is about to repeat itself in Kurdistan

As my readers know I like to connect current events with their historical forbearers. It has always amazed me how many people can recite George Santayana warning that “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” And how few live its caution.

Today in Kurdistan we are witnessing a repeat of history which bought the world to a great war and in the end introduced us to the atomic age.

Following the devastation of World War I most of the world was exhausted and did everything to never have a major war again. The war to end all war was not, and the mechanisms set up to prevent the next war failed. They failed because the participants refused to accept the fact that there are times when force must be used to stop a greater violence.

The League of Nations and its member states set up high ideals and moved forward with great expectations, but when faced with actual crisis that revolved around its main charter it proved incompetent. The attempts at resolving the problems through diplomacy or attempts to bring the parties to the table were an absolute failure – the inability to resolve the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, or the Italian assault on Abyssinia (today Ethiopia) as well as both the League and the great powers to respond to German rearmament, and the reoccupation of the Rhineland and Europe conceding the Sudetenland, all in the hopes of evading war.

One action of the League that may have been considered a success was the resolution of the Mosul question, rejecting Turkey’s claim to the province of Mosul as historic Turkish territory and awarding Mosul to Iraq under a British mandate for 25 years to ensure the autonomous rights of the Kurds. The intent however did end as failure.

The result of all this was that the aggressor nations of Germany, Italy, Japan, and the Soviet Union saw the weakness of the world and exploited it. The League of Nations was toothless without the British or French military and the leaders of those nations were still so traumatized by the last war that a military option to any problem was just not considered.

Today we see much the same happening in the Middle East. Aggressor nations have been testing the West and finding it war weary, attempting to extract itself from current confrontations while avoiding new ones. While viable diplomatic solutions are advanced, with no threat of war they are simple rejected. When they are successful, such as a ceasefire in Syria, it is temporary and used to rest and rearm the combatants.

Iran is currently the most dangerous aggressor by far – directly with use of its military through the IRGC and indirectly through its use of proxies including Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces, Hezbollah and Hamas. These forces have given Iran control of Iraq and Lebanon as well as much of Syria. This control gives Iran a land bridge from Iran to the Mediterranean. It has effective control of Iraq and Lebanon and Syria.

How could this happen? Let us continue the lessons from history. Consider the disputed territories in Iraq as the Rhineland/Sudetenland of the 1930’s. Germany marched into the Rhineland to diplomatic outrage but no action and then used diplomacy to take the Sudetenland without Czechoslovakia’s input or presence. These last are examples of the West failing to stop aggression in the hopes of stopping aggression. When Iraq, under the direction of Iran, violently seized Kirkuk and the other disputed territories from the KRG without warning, the West allowed it in the hope of ending aggression.

Following failed diplomacy and a worthless embargo of Japan, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor with the intent of reducing the US military and removing its power from the Pacific. Japan had shown itself to be ruthless in its military conquests prior to Dec 7th, 1941 and continued its brutality up until the end of the war.

The Iraqi Popular Mobilization Force (PMF) has shown itself to be brutal with the mass slaughter of Sunni civilians following its occupation of cities such as Fallujah. This has continued even into the disputed territories. The US can stop this by extending military protection. Recently however the PMF have declared the US military as the new targets and the leader of Sadr’s militia, Abdullatif al-Amidi, has called on the Iraqi parliament to force the removal of all US forces from Iraq.

In the end this will result in an eventual all-out war in the Middle East. This war will not be confined to the current areas. As we have seen, Saudi Arabia has been pulled into the battle in Yemen and is under attack by forces trained and supplied by Iran. The leadership of Iran has also said that the next war will result in the destruction of Israel. Russia has already staked out its claim in Syria and Turkey is drifting rapidly into dictatorship set on recovering at least part of the Ottoman Empire (Mussolini was intent on reestablishing the Roman Empire).

It is always hoped that war can be avoided but history has shown us that diplomacy works best when both sides understand that there is a military option available and that the other side is willing to use it.

Paul Davis is a retired US Army military intelligence and former Soviet analyst. He is a consultant to the American intelligence community specializing in the Middle East with a concentration on Kurdish affairs. Currently he is the president of the consulting firm JANUS Think in Washington D.C.

http://www.rudaw.net/english/opinion/14122017

[Anthea]

People protest for basic services in Chamchamal

People took to the main Sulaimani-Kirkuk roadway in the town of Chamchamal in Sulaimani Province on Saturday to protest a lack of services in the area.

Ramik Ramazan, the mayor of Chamchamal, told Rudaw that demonstrations kicked off Saturday morning without prior permission from local authorities.

“We are calling on the protesters to raise their demand in a civil way,” he said. “Whatever is needed we will do to protect them and stop any rioters trying to blend in with the protesters.”

He said they had sent their representatives to speak with the demonstrators in order to receive their calls and raise it to the relevant parties.

Ramazan decried the recent “political discourse” of the parties, without naming them, as the reason for fueling the protests.

Photos and videos show the blockade of the Sulaimani-Kirkuk road, the town’s mayor dismissed these rumors saying traffic was normal.

The protesters are asking for essential services, notably electricity, as well as receiving continually-delayed salaries of civil servants.

The KRG has planned to reduce the salaries of high-earners by as much as 33 percent after a dramatic drop in revenue with the loss of Kirkuk’s oil fields to the Iraqi government.

The new pay cuts will affect those who were skipped during a previous round of salary reductions as part of largely unpopular austerity measures in 2016.

Since the October takeover, the Kurdistan Regional Government, which is heavily reliant on oil production, has seen its monthly revenues decreased from $565.5 million to $337.4 million, a 40 percent drop.

The decrease compounds economic challenges in the Kurdistan Region after continued budget cuts from Baghdad, a global drop in oil prices, a war against ISIS, and waves of IDPs and refugees.

Link to Article - Photos:

http://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/161220171