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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Shiites plan autonomous region |
| 2004-12-07 |
| ABOUT 600 leaders from central Iraq's Shiite Muslim provinces announced plans to begin setting up their own autonomous region, following a meeting today in the holy city of Najaf. Representatives agreed to set up a security committee for their five provinces and a regional council to stimulate the economy of their neglected region. Iraq's provisional constitution recognises the federal nature of Iraq, most of whose Kurdish population lives in three northern provinces with a large degree of autonomy. Participants of the Najaf meeting underlined the importance of holding elections on January 30, and backed Shiite leaders' rejection of largely Sunni calls to delay the vote. Shiites make up about 60 per cent of the Iraqi population but were oppressed under the former regime of Saddam Hussein, which favoured the minority Sunnis. The meeting opened with an appeal from the governor of Najaf province, Adnan al-Zorfi, for a regional gathering of presidents of provincial capitals with an executive council made up of governors and provincial administration leaders. He also called for a consultative council with greater powers than the existing provincial councils that would draw up unified political, economic and security policies. "We must turn ourselves into a regional unit in the context of a federal Iraq," said Ukail al-Khozai, deputy governor of Karbala, another Shiite holy city. The congress involves the provinces of Babel, Qadissiyah and Muthanna as well as Najaf and Karbala. The idea of forming a Shiite autonomous region has been floated for months, but this was the first time that the region's leaders met to draw up concrete measures. |
| Posted by:God Save The World |
| #10 Coming from the Shi'a, not the Kurds, this has legs and "legitimacy" - so it will serve the non-idiotarian segments of the Iraqi population. The South and the North become federal zones, republics, whatever word one wants to use - Baghdad becomes an administrative zone, I guess - and the Sunnis, well, let's see... no oil, no power, no relevance. Yep, this is the sweetest Shi'a revenge possible which does not lead to the wholesale dissolution of Iraq as an entity... In a sense, effectively, it's a peaceful (for now) Shi'a declared civil war... The Kurds must emulate this, as closely as possible to prevent the inevitable Ba'athist UN thug Brahimi's attempts to derail / obfuscate the process. Truly, a fascinating development. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-12-07 2:04:47 PM |
| #9 Bully for them. |
| Posted by: gromgorru 2004-12-07 11:43:53 AM |
| #8 Will this be a red or blue state? Depends what most of the people support. OT, but the mouse just went crazy, moving and clicking wherever out of control until I logged out and then logged back in. What the fuck happened? |
| Posted by: Steve from Relto 2004-12-07 10:34:51 AM |
| #7 Will this be a red or blue state? |
| Posted by: Capt America 2004-12-07 8:29:34 AM |
| #6 Indeed, in Iraq where ethnic groups have been terrorized for so long, Iraq is likely to be "balticized" anway. |
| Posted by: Amir-Ashkan 2004-12-07 7:20:53 AM |
| #5 We need to balticize iraq. Balticize - to divide a larger dysfunctional state into several succesful and mutually cooperative states. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2004-12-07 12:47:13 AM |
| #4 Not just our variety, either: look at how Britain has vastly increased autonomy for Scotland, and has come up with intelligent proposals for solving the Northern Ireland mess. Kurds as Scots, Sunnis as Irish: it can work in Iraq. OTOH Baghdad is the country's nerve center and can't be spun off to one faction. And the shi'a and kurds will ahve to have some meaningful sunni participation in the security forces if the crackdown that's needed is to avoid looking like a civil war. |
| Posted by: lex 2004-12-07 12:38:08 AM |
| #3 USI? Hmmmm, maybe they may achieve their United States of Iraq in the future, but I sincerely hope it doesn't take 50 years! |
| Posted by: smn 2004-12-07 12:36:11 AM |
| #2 I don't have a problem with this. Federalism is a good thing. |
| Posted by: Secret Master 2004-12-07 12:33:50 AM |
| #1 A good idea. A step towards potentially independent Kurdistan, too. |
| Posted by: Sobiesky 2004-12-07 12:05:38 AM |