The Kurds as parties to and victims of conflicts in Iraq

International Review of the Red Cross

Volumn 89, Issue 868, 2007, Pages 823-842

  Rogg, Inga ^a   Rimscha, Hans ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 84875185720     PISSN: 18163831     EISSN: 16075889     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S1816383108000143     Document Type: Article

References (43)

1. See the website of this promotion campaign: www.theotheriraq.org (last visited 22 November 2007); and Rajiv Chandrasekaran, “Kurds cultivating their own bonds with US”, Washington Post, 23 April 2007.
2. Masud Barzani in Amman: “The dream of a Kurdish state is a legitimate right … and will become reality”, al-Hayat, London, 22 March 2007.
3. Martin van Bruinessen, “Iraq: Kurdish challenges”, in Walter Poesch (ed.), Looking into Iraq, Institute for Security Studies, European Union, Paris, 2005, pp. 45–72.
4. This approach can be found in the statements and writings of the KDP in the 1960s and 1970s, well documented in Ferhad Ibrahim, Die kurdische Nationalbewegung, Berlin, 1983. The most prominent proponent of the symbiosis of Kurdish and Arab nationalism has been Jalal Talabani.
5. On the inception and development of the PUK see Andrea Fischer-Tahir, Wir gaben viele Märtyrer: Widerstand und kollektive Identitätsbildung in Irakisch-Kurdistan, vol. 7, Beiträge zur Kurdologie, Münster, 2003.
6. For an account of this period see Martin van Bruinessen, “The Kurds between Iran and Iraq”, MERIP Middle East Report, no. 141, July-August 1986, pp. 14–27.
7. “Anfal” means spoils of war, and is the title of the eighth sura of the Qur'an. On the Anfal campaign, see Medico international, Die Linien eines Völkermordes, Frankfurt, 1990
8. Human Rights Watch, Iraq's Crime of Genocide: The Anfal Campaign against the Kurds, New York, 1993/New Haven, 1995. Kurdish sources speak of some 182,000 victims.
9. See e.g. Declaration 3087 of the General Command of the Iraqi Army, al-Thawra, 20 March 1988.
10. E.g. “Al-Anfal put an end to the collaboration of those who (…) rendered service to the foreigner”, Al-Iraq newspaper, Baghdad, 18 March 1993.
11. UN Doc. SC/RES 688/1991, 5 April 1991.
12. See Ralf Bäcker and Ronald Ofteringer, “Republic of Statelessness. Three years of humanitarian intervention in Iraqi Kurdistan”, Middle East Report 187/188, March-June 1994, pp. 40–45.
13. See Ahmed Hissou, “Jeder mit jedem gegen jeden: Die irakische Opposition”, INAMO, 21 January 1999.
14. Sami Zubaida, “Communalism and thwarted aspirations of citizenship”, in Middle East Report 237, Winter 2005, pp. 8–11.
15. Garner was not a newcomer to Iraq. He had already served in the Kurdish north after the 1991 Gulf War. See “General reverses his role”, San Francisco Chronicle, 26 February 2003.
16. Jalal Talabani to Chris Kutschera, Middle East Magazine, May 2005.
17. The Governing Council was composed of thirteen Shiite Arabs, five Sunni Arabs, five Kurds, one Turkmen and one Christian. See BBC News, “Iraq moves towards self-rule”, 13 July 2003.
18. Law of Administration for the State of Iraq for the Transitional Period (TAL), Ch. 1, Art. 4, available at http://www.cpa-iraq.org/government/TAL.html (last visited 22 November 2007); the TAL came into effect on 8 March 2004.
19. See the website of the Kurdish Regional Government, available at www.krg.org (last visited 22 November 2007).
20. TAL, above note 20, Ch. 8, Arts. 53, 54.
21. The Kurdish Regional Government published a final draft oil law, model contract and exploration blocks on 29 June 2007, available at www.krg.org (last visited 22 November 2007).
22. Nechirvan Barzani, “Taking the lead on Iraqi oil”, Wall Street Journal, 6 October 2007.
23. See, e.g., “KRG responds to Dr Shahristani's threats to international oil companies”, available at http:// www.krg.org/articles/?smap502010100&lngnr512&rnr5223 (last visited 22 November 2007).
24. The Kurdistan Oil and Gas Law was approved by the Kurdistan National Assembly, the Region's parliament, on 6 August 2007. The law entered into force on the assent of President Masoud Barzani on 9 August. Available at http://www.krg.org/articles/?lngnr512&rnr5107&smap504030000 (last visited 22 November 2007).
25. NTV-MSNBC, “A Kurdish state inevitable: Barzani”, 3 February 2005, available at http:// www.ntvmsnbc.com/news/307946.asp (last visited 20 January 2008).
26. “In Iraqi Kurdistan, CPJ delegation highlights press freedom concerns”, 5 November 2007, available at http://www.cpj.org/news/2007/mideast/iraq05nov07na.html (last visited 22 November 2007).
27. “Caught in the whirlwind: torture and denial of due process by Kurdish security”, Human Rights Watch, Vol. 19, New York, July 2007.
28. Within the PUK this has led to a split between Talabani's faction and the reformist wing around Nawshirwan Mustafa, deputy secretary-general for many years. Together with Mohammed Tofiq, the PUK's chief diplomat for more than twenty years, Mustafa resigned in early 2007.
29. For more details see International Crisis Group, “In their own words: reading the Iraqi insurgency”, Middle East Report 50, 16 February 2006.
30. See Roel Meijer, “The Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq”, Middle East Report 237, Winter 2005, available at http://www.merip.org/mer/mer237/meijer.html (last visited 22 November 2007).
31. The Islamic Party's 25-point project to “unify the vision” of Iraqi leaders, called “The Iraqi National Contract” and made public on 25 September 2007.
32. See Reuters, “Iraq: Sunni party drafts new political principles”, Reuters, 26 September 2007
33. “National pact launched by Islamic party”, Voices of Iraq, 26 September 2007.
34. For the history of the various communities, and the diverging claims, see Bruinessen, above note 4, and the related reports of the International Crisis Group, in particular “Iraq and the Kurds: Resolving the Kirkuk crisis”, Middle East Report 64, 19 April 2007, available at http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/ index.cfm?l51&id54782 (last visited 22 November 2007).
35. Nawshirwan Mustafa, “Again 140”, Rozhname, 9 October 2007 (in Kurdish). According to the author, Saddam Hussein had offered the Kurds full recognition of their government in the 1990s if they would give up their claim to Kirkuk.
36. For details of Article 140 and its implications, see Middle East Report 64, above note 35.
37. “Verhärtung der ethnisch-politischen Fronten in Kirkuk”, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 20 February 2007.
38. “Kurdish officials sanction abductions in Kirkuk”, Washington Post, 15 June 2005.
39. “Bewegung im politischen Seilziehen um Kirkuk”, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 10 December 2007. In an interview on 29 October 2007 with Sharq al-Awsat, Jalal Talabani said that he envisages a bi-communal status for Kirkuk, like the Belgian capital Brussels.
40. UNAMI, “Implementation of Article 140: Deadline of 31 December 2007”, press release UNAMI/57/ 2007, 15 December 2007; available at http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/EGUA-79YPQH? OpenDocument (last visited 22 November 2007).
41. “Syria and Iran pledge help to defuse Turkey-Iraqi crisis”, Agence France-Presse, 29 October 2007.
42. Two of the five Iranians detained on 11 January were released on 9 November 2007. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 10 November 2007.
43. Faleh Abdul-Jabar, interview with Youssef Hijazi, 2006, available at www.Qantara.de (last visited 22 December 2007).