Vol. 72/No. 50      December 22, 2008

Al-Maliki recently clashed with the KRG, as well as with Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, over several other issues. Talabani heads the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of the two main Kurdish parties.

One controversy is over the formation of sheik-led “support councils.” These are tribal militias funded by al-Maliki’s office. Al-Maliki, who heads the Dawa party, one of two major Shiite-based parties in the country, has been setting up the councils throughout the country in preparation for the January 2009 provincial elections. Talabani and the other main Shiite party, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, oppose the formation of the groups.

Iraq is inhabited by three main ethnic and national groups: Arab Shiites, Arab Sunnis, and Kurds. The Kurds are a historically oppressed nationality of 20-25 million people who reside in an area that includes northern Iraq and parts of Turkey, Iran, and Syria.

One unintended consequence of the U.S.-led war in Iraq was that it opened up space for Kurds to press their longstanding struggle for national rights. In northern Iraq, where they are a majority, Kurds have gained a measure of autonomy. Arab sections of the Iraqi bourgeoisie have tried to curb Kurdish autonomy, vying with Kurdish capitalists for greater control of oil revenues.

The vast majority of Iraq’s income comes from oil exports. A national hydrocarbons law, designed to settle the distribution of profits among the different regions and interests in the country, was drafted in February 2007. The draft, which allocates 17 percent of national oil revenue to Iraqi Kurdistan, has never been ratified and remains a major debate within the federal government.

Two foreign companies, one a joint venture between a Turkish and Canadian company, and the other a Norwegian company, signed deals with the Kurdish Regional Government before February 2007. They were given permission to tie into Iraq’s northern pipeline in late November. According to Iraq’s oil ministry, exports will proceed after the ministry and the KRG come to agreement on the contracts’ terms.

The two deals could increase oil exported through the pipeline up to 50 percent over the next year.

The Shiite-dominated central government has refused to recognize more than 20 other contracts the KRG secured after August 2007. The oil ministry has threatened to stop exports to foreign firms that do business with the Kurdish government.

In late September KRG prime minister Nechirvan Barzani signed exploration contracts with South Korea’s state-owned Korean National Oil Corporation that included investment in power and sewage infrastructure in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Since then, the oil ministry suspended exports to several foreign companies, including South Korea's privately owned SK Energy. Exports to SK Energy resumed only after the company agreed to cancel its contracts with the KRG.  
 
‘Support councils’
Iraq’s Presidential Council sent a formal letter of protest to al-Maliki against formation of his support councils in the Kurdish region. In addition to President Talabani, the Presidential Council includes two vice presidents: Tariq al-Hushimi, head of the Sunni-based Iraqi Islamic Party, and Adel Abdul Mahdi of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq.

Al-Maliki defended the support councils in a November 20 press conference.

He criticized the KRG for signing oil deals before the passage of a national oil law, for inviting the U.S. military to establish a base in Iraqi Kurdistan, and for setting up its own diplomatic offices abroad.

The KRG released a statement defending its actions as sanctioned under the Iraqi constitution. It accused al-Maliki of planning to arm the councils and include former collaborators of the Saddam Hussein regime.

The Kurdish government also criticized the prime minister for blocking decisions to resolve the status of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. Whether Kirkuk will be integrated into the KRG is a major issue of contention, and several deadlines for referendums and a census have passed.

A Kurdish battalion of 750 soldiers charged with protecting the Iraqi parliament building refused to return to their posts November 30 after a visit by al-Maliki, accompanied by a security contingent of 400 troops, forced the Kurdish troops to leave the building.

Meanwhile, on December 5 Turkish warplanes bombed the mountainous region of Qandil, near the Turkish border in Iraqi Kurdistan—the second time this month. The Turkish military said it hit bases of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a group fighting for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey.

Layla Zana, a Kurdish activist and former member of Turkish parliament, was sentenced December 4 to 10 years in prison. A Turkish court convicted her under the country’s “antiterror” laws, ruling that her pro-Kurdish statements amounted to support for the banned PKK.

In 1991 Zana was imprisoned for speaking Kurdish during her inauguration speech in parliament. She was not released until 2004.  
 
 
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