Liberated Kurds Find Little Freedom

[Barrett808]

Liberated Kurds Find Little Freedom
Fri Jun 4, 5:51 AM ET
Aaron Glantz , Inter Press Service (IPS)

ARBIL, Iraq, Jun 4 (IPS) - Fruit and vegetable vendors push their carts around a street market in Arbil, the seat of governance of Iraqi Kurdistan. The city is very different from Baghdad. Kurdish is spoken here, and written large on shop windows. Also, there is no visible American troop presence.

The streets are patrolled not by American soldiers in tanks and humvees, but by kalashnikov-carrying Peshmerga guerrillas on foot patrol.

Since the creation of the Kurdish autonomous area in 1991, Kurds have been doing everything they can to create their own society. But that does not mean they get their news in Kurdish.

Kurds of all ages crowd around the television in Arbil's Machko Cafe as al-Jazeera broadcasts news of Iraq's interim constitution.

...

It is hard to find people here willing to talk openly against either of the ruling Kurdish parties. While nowhere near as oppressive as Saddam's regime, the U.S.-backed Kurdish leaders of Northern Iraq have virtually banned dissent.

The area even has its own secret police, the Asayeech, to keep people in line. Kurds outside Iraq are often critical of this, but most of them see the current leadership by the two armed factions as a temporary step on the road to ultimate separation from Iraq.

(more)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/oneworld/20040604/wl_oneworld/6573874351086341887

[PROGRESSIVE1]

1. Well, the last Bush to promise them "freedom" also left them...

in the dark, what did they expect?

Bush 41 allowed a Genocide of Kurds and 43 will do the same.

:eyes:

[lanparty]

2. Go Kurds!!!!

They truly deserve their own country. The Sunni and Shiite will try to ahnialate their culture.

[struggle4progress]

3. kick

:kick:

[Norquist Nemesis]

4. Check this out! Letter to Bush threatening to break off...!!!

(also the use of "His Excellency" LOL)

http://www.kurdishmedia.com/reports.asp?id=2013
<snip>
Ever since liberation, we have detected a bias against Kurdistan from the American authorities for reasons that we cannot comprehend. At the outset of the occupation, the coalition seized the oil-for-food revenues that had been specifically earmarked for Kurdistan and redistributed them to the rest of Iraq-in spite of the fact that Kurdistan received far less of these revenues per capita than other Iraqis and notwithstanding the fact that our region was the one most destroyed by Saddam Hussein. CPA actively discouraged the equality of the Kurdish and Arabic languages, and repeatedly tried to “derecognize’ the Kurdistan Regional Government (Iraq’s only elected government ever) in favor of a system based on Saddam’s 18 governorates. US officials have demeaned the peshmerga, calling this disciplined military force that was America’s battlefield comrade in arms, “militia”. In official statements, it is rare for the US government or the CPA even to refer to Kurdistan or the Kurdish people.

We will be loyal friends to America even if our support is not always reciprocated. Our fate is too closely linked to your fortunes in Iraq. If the forces of freedom prevail elsewhere in Iraq, we know that, because of our alliance with the United States, we will be marked for vengeance. We do ask for some specific reassurance for this transitional period so as to enable us to participate more fully in the interim government. Specifically, we ask that:

The Transitional Administrative Law (TAL) be incorporated into the new UN Security Council Resolution or otherwise recognized as law binding on the transitional government, both before and after elections. If the TAL is abrogated, the Kurdistan Regional Government will have no choice but to refrain from participating in the central government and its institutions, not to take part in the national elections, and to bar representatives of the central Government from Kurdistan.
<snip>

We've screwed 'em again. :(