.BAGHDAD OBSERVER BLOG: Kurdish lawmaker expresses resentment toward U.S.
Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish lawmaker, has an ax to grind with the United States. He's sick of watching American officials make statements on television every time the Iraqi parliament makes a move.
He was angry when President Bush last week said he hoped a law that was supposed to soften restrictions on former Baathists; he was angry that when the law did pass with a slim majority in the parliament, many linked the passage with Bush's statement. An hour later in Bahrain, President Bush congratulated Iraq on the law's passage, Othman said.
The law itself in some ways is more stringent than the one it was supposed to soften, and former Baathists, thousands of which can now claim pensions, do not trust the government enough to return and admit their positions in Saddam Hussein's government.
"They talk about it as if we are children and they are directing us," he said, exasperated. "When we passed the accountability and justice law, after one hour Bush said publicly we congratulate you so that everybody will say 'we told you this is an American law.'"
But there are other things that bother him about what he called a black and white American foreign policy.
He remember in 1989, he went to the United States for a month, the last 19 days of Ronald Reagan's presidency and the first 11 days of the elder George Bush's presidency. He begged to see someone in the State Department about what had happened to the Kurds, he wanted to talk to them about the gassing of Kurds in Halabja and the Anfal campaign a campaign against the Kurds in the 1980's that was estimated to have killed between 100,000 and 200,000 Kurds in bombings and chemical bombardments of Kurdish villages. Officials in the State Department agreed but said they didn't want to hear anything about overturning Saddam Hussein's government. At this time, Saddam was a friend of the U.S.
They called the next day and said they would see him but they wanted to hear nothing about secession of the Kurds. Othman agreed, he would just tell them the story of what had happened.
The next day they called and said they could not meet with them. How would this look to their ally, Saddam Hussein?
He called powerful friends and journalists to intervene on his behalf. Finally the State Department agreed to let someone meet with him from the Human Rights section. But Othman could not come to the State Department. He must act as if he bumped into the official in the lobby of a D.C. hotel, he was told. Othman refused.
During the invasion of Iraq in 2003 the Kurds were the American's most steadfast allies. Still in the north, Americans are welcomed, he said.
"You talk to a communist, an Islamist, anyone, they all love America," he said.
But he is angry at the U.S. policy on the Kurdistan Worker's Party, the PKK, a militant Kurdish nationalist group that wants an independent Kurdistan in parts of Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria.
The conflict between Turkey and the PKK has been fought for decades and in recent months Turkey's shelling of villages and incursions into Iraqi Kurdistan has angered the Kurds in the north. But in this conflict the U.S. did not play a role as a broker, he said.
Where they could have begun negotiations between the PKK and Turkey, instead they took Turkey's side and called the PKK the enemy of America, the enemy of Turkey and the enemy of Iraq.
"The PKK has been trying to talk to America," he said. "If you push them and always say they are terrorists, their policies will become more militant and they will turn somewhere else."
Othman believes the United States could have brokered a deal for amnesty for PKK fighters in Turkey and a concession on Kurdish rights and changes in the Turkish constitution.
"They support Turkey wrong or right," he said "Why are their relations with Turkey at the expense of our relationship with them."
PKK is a listed terrorist organization in the United States.
"Did they (Turkey) help America during the war? They didn't let one soldier on their land," he said. "Faith hasn't grown between America and Iraq."
Kansascity
He was angry when President Bush last week said he hoped a law that was supposed to soften restrictions on former Baathists; he was angry that when the law did pass with a slim majority in the parliament, many linked the passage with Bush's statement. An hour later in Bahrain, President Bush congratulated Iraq on the law's passage, Othman said.
The law itself in some ways is more stringent than the one it was supposed to soften, and former Baathists, thousands of which can now claim pensions, do not trust the government enough to return and admit their positions in Saddam Hussein's government.
"They talk about it as if we are children and they are directing us," he said, exasperated. "When we passed the accountability and justice law, after one hour Bush said publicly we congratulate you so that everybody will say 'we told you this is an American law.'"
But there are other things that bother him about what he called a black and white American foreign policy.
He remember in 1989, he went to the United States for a month, the last 19 days of Ronald Reagan's presidency and the first 11 days of the elder George Bush's presidency. He begged to see someone in the State Department about what had happened to the Kurds, he wanted to talk to them about the gassing of Kurds in Halabja and the Anfal campaign a campaign against the Kurds in the 1980's that was estimated to have killed between 100,000 and 200,000 Kurds in bombings and chemical bombardments of Kurdish villages. Officials in the State Department agreed but said they didn't want to hear anything about overturning Saddam Hussein's government. At this time, Saddam was a friend of the U.S.
They called the next day and said they would see him but they wanted to hear nothing about secession of the Kurds. Othman agreed, he would just tell them the story of what had happened.
The next day they called and said they could not meet with them. How would this look to their ally, Saddam Hussein?
He called powerful friends and journalists to intervene on his behalf. Finally the State Department agreed to let someone meet with him from the Human Rights section. But Othman could not come to the State Department. He must act as if he bumped into the official in the lobby of a D.C. hotel, he was told. Othman refused.
During the invasion of Iraq in 2003 the Kurds were the American's most steadfast allies. Still in the north, Americans are welcomed, he said.
"You talk to a communist, an Islamist, anyone, they all love America," he said.
But he is angry at the U.S. policy on the Kurdistan Worker's Party, the PKK, a militant Kurdish nationalist group that wants an independent Kurdistan in parts of Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria.
The conflict between Turkey and the PKK has been fought for decades and in recent months Turkey's shelling of villages and incursions into Iraqi Kurdistan has angered the Kurds in the north. But in this conflict the U.S. did not play a role as a broker, he said.
Where they could have begun negotiations between the PKK and Turkey, instead they took Turkey's side and called the PKK the enemy of America, the enemy of Turkey and the enemy of Iraq.
"The PKK has been trying to talk to America," he said. "If you push them and always say they are terrorists, their policies will become more militant and they will turn somewhere else."
Othman believes the United States could have brokered a deal for amnesty for PKK fighters in Turkey and a concession on Kurdish rights and changes in the Turkish constitution.
"They support Turkey wrong or right," he said "Why are their relations with Turkey at the expense of our relationship with them."
PKK is a listed terrorist organization in the United States.
"Did they (Turkey) help America during the war? They didn't let one soldier on their land," he said. "Faith hasn't grown between America and Iraq."
Kansascity
posted by madtom at 11:02 PM
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