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Protesters Object To Opposition Parties Negotiating With Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government

Sulaymaniya in Iraq’s Kurdistan saw the largest demonstrations in the country at the beginning of the year. Starting in February 2011, thousands gathered in the city’s center every day before they were broken up by a brutal crackdown in April. The Kurdish opposition eventually latched onto the activists’ demands, and is now holding discussions with the ruling parties about reforms. Some of the demonstrations have objected, saying that they should be meeting with the region’s leaders, because they represent the people and the Kurdish street.

In May, a month after demonstrations in Sulaymaniya had been broken up, the three Kurdish opposition parties said that they were willing to hold negotiations with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). The opposition is made up of the Change List, the Kurdistan Islamic Group, and the Kurdistan Islamic Union, while the two ruling parties are KRG President Massoud Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). Several meetings between all the lists have occurred since then, but with no real progress. The opposition parties may have lost their chance to push their demands, because there are no longer people out in the street to pressure the government. While the KRG claims to be carrying out a series of reforms, they are of their own making, and only marginally connected to the concerns of the opposition.

These talks are a result of the three months of protests, even though the opposition had a sometime difficult relationship with them. Before assemblies started in February, the Change List called for the government to be dissolved, that political reforms be implemented, that corruption be curtailed, that better services be provided, and that the ruling parties be separated from the bureaucracy. When demonstrations started on February 17 they expressed many of the same issues. At first, the Change List denied that they had anything to do with it however, while condemning the violence perpetrated by the security forces that day. Within weeks, all three opposition parties backed the protests, organized their supporters to join them, and tried to merge their agendas together. Some activists resented this, believing that the political parties were trying to take over the movement, and exploit it for their own gain in their rivalry with the KDP and PUK. The three parties for example, pushed their own reform agenda, which was very similar to the protesters, but was not coordinated with them.

With negotiations underway between the two sides, a group of Sulaymaniya demonstrations objected. (1) They said that the current talks were illegal because they should be meeting with the ruling parties, not the opposition. They claimed that the Change List and two Islamic parties didn’t represent the activists or the Kurdish street, and were only trying to advance their own interests. These were the same concerns voiced by some during the weeks of protests. Like the opposition however, the activists have probably lost their chance to hold sway with the ruling parties, and push their demands now that they are off the streets.

Thousands of people attended the daily protests in Sulaymaniya, the largest and most consistent in Iraq. They clearly scared the ruling parties, and the opposition quickly saw it as an opportunity as well. Both groups made wide-ranging demands of the KDP and PUK, and it seemed like they had a real chance of success. When the regional government finally decided to put an end to them in April, both groups took a hit. They lost their main leverage with the KRG. The Barzani and Talabani clans have been running Kurdistan since the 1990s. They are unwilling to give up on their entrenched power, and while they are implementing a number of reforms currently, it is unlikely to shake their hold over the region. The Change List, Kurdistan Group, and Kurdistan Union can hold as many talks as they want, and some of the protesters can complain about that, but the status quo has largely been returned.

FOOTNOTES

1. Mohammed, Azad, “The position of demonstrators from Sulaymaniyah dialogues power with the opposition,” Radio Free Iraq, 6/13/11

SOURCES

Aswat al-Iraq, “Iraqi Kurdistan’s opposition movement calls for fighting corruption,” 2/7/11
- “Leading Kurdish MP calls for dialogue to settle differences among Kurdish Parties:,” 2/2/11
- “Serious discussion in Parliament between Kurdistan Coalition’s and Goran (Change) MPs:,” 2/19/11

Hasan, Rebin, “Talks to end Kurdish political crisis unfruitful,” AK News, 6/22/11

Mohammed, Azad, “The position of demonstrators from Sulaymaniyah dialogues power with the opposition,” Radio Free Iraq, 6/13/11

Mohammed, Shwan, “Students demand Iraq Kurd apology for protest deaths,” Agence France Presse, 2/19/11

Saifaddin, Dilsahd, “Kurdish opposition ready to negotiate,” AK News, 5/19/11
- “Kurdistan opposition unanimously demands govt. reshuffle,” AK News, 4/6/11

Iraq Is The Most Dangerous Place In The World For Journalists

On June 1, 2011, the Committee to Protect Journalists released their latest ranking of the most dangerous countries for the media. Iraq was ranked number one for the fourth straight year. While the report looked only at unsolved murders, the country has also gone through a wave of media repression that coincided with national protests that started at the beginning of the year.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) looked at countries with the most unsolved murders of reporters from 2001 to 2010. The organization believes that in those nations, the media can become severely restricted as it tends to stay away from stories that could threaten the lives of their staff. 13 countries were included in the report, and had the number of unsolved cases divided by the total population, which gave each country a rating.

Iraq was at the top of the list for the fourth straight year. Iraq had 92 unsolved cases in the last decade, by far the most of any country included in the ranking. The Philippines had the second most at 56, but then that dropped down to 16 in Russia. With an estimated population of 31 million, Iraq had the highest rating at 2.921 unsolved murders of journalists per 1 million inhabitants. That was more than double Somalia that was number two at 1.099.

Committee To Protect Journalists' Ranking Of Most Dangerous Countries For Reporters 

Ranking/Country	Number of Unsolved Murders	Rating
1. Iraq	92	2.921
2. Somalia	10	1.099
3. Philippines	56	0.609
4. Sri Lanka	9	0.443
5. Colombia	11	0.241
6. Afghanistan	7	0.235
7. Nepal	6	0.205
8. Mexico	13	0.121
9. Russia	16	0.113
10. Pakistan	14	0.082
11. Bangladesh	5	0.031
12. Brazil	5	0.026
13. India	7	0.006

Within Iraq, the Committee reported an increase in attacks against the media. It found that while general violence in the country that might affect reporters had gone done, targeted attacks upon journalists went up in 2010 after there was a decline in the previous years. In 2010 there were a total of four murders of members of the media. The one case that the report highlighted was that of Kurdish writer Zardasht Osman. In May 2010, Osman was kidnapped in front of his college in Irbil, tortured, and then killed by two shots to the head. (1) His body, which was tied up, was later dumped in Mosul in Ninewa province. His family and friends thought the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) was involved because he had criticized its leaders. His death led to protests in Irbil and Sulaymaniya. KRG President Massoud Barzani then ordered an investigation. Osman was a freelance writer for several Kurdish websites. According to his family, he had been receiving threatening phone calls since the beginning of the year after he wrote a satirical piece about Barzani for a Swedish based website. His death was also taken up by the opposition party, the Change List, which implied that government forces must have been involved. When the authorities finally released their report a few months later it claimed that Osman was killed by insurgents for refusing to work with them, something that few believed. Some claimed that Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) was simply trying to cover up the murder. It is unresolved crimes like this that placed Iraq atop the Committee’s report.

2010 Protest In Irbil over death of writer Zardasht Osman (Agence France Presse)

Overall, the Iraqi media has been under attack in the first half of 2011. One main factor was the protest movement that started in the country in January. Outlets that tried to cover the demonstrations were routinely harassed, attacked, and had their reporters arrested and their equipment taken. On February 23, the offices of the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory were raided by the security forces in Baghdad. February 25 was the “Day of Rage” when national protests were held, and the government banned live television coverage of that day’s events. Al-Diyar TV did not follow the order, which resulted in the police breaking into their station and arresting seven staff members. On that same day, authorities beat a reporter for Reuters in Karbala and one for Radio Sawa in Mosul who were trying to cover the demonstrations. The Iraqi Society for Defense of Press Freedom later claimed that dozens of reporters had been arrested that day as well. The Journalistic Freedoms Observatory later said that there had been 160 attacks upon the media from the end of February to the beginning of March. That included 33 reporters arrested, 40 stopped from doing their job by having their equipment taken or damaged, 12 were beaten by security forces, and nine media organizations were raided or closed by government, only five of which were able to reopen afterward. In April, the Iraqi Association for Defending Journalists accused the government of clamping down on reporters trying to cover the protests, and by May the Journalistic Observatory claimed that there were 372 attacks upon the media since the protests started. Human Rights Watch tried to document some of the cases in Kurdistan such as the NRT Television station who had its offices burned down in February, two freelance journalists who went into hiding in April claiming that the authorities were after them, and a reporter for the Kurdistan News Network who was arrested and had his hand broken in Sulaymaniya on May 11. The Iraqi Association for Defending Journalists claimed there were 226 reports of abuse against journalists in Sulaymaniya alone, which was the center of demonstrations in Kurdistan. Even if the protest movement had not started, the media in Iraq faces the threat of lawsuits by the government. The Journalistic Observatory said that there were 90 lawsuits filed by authorities against reporters in the first five months of the year. During 2010 there were only 117 suits in total.

Reporter being repeatedly hit by police during protest in Basra, March 4, 2011 (Associated Press)

For decades, reporting in Iraq has not been easy. First, there was the near totalitarian rule of Saddam Hussein where the government was feared. Then the U.S. invasion in 2003 unleashed a wave of new media outlets, but the violence from the insurgency and the sectarian civil war of 2005-207 threatened their work. Now that the fighting has subsided considerably journalists should finally be enjoying the freedom that the New Iraq is supposed to offer. Their attempts to cover the 2011 demonstrations however, showed the limits that they still face. The central and Kurdish regional governments both cracked down on outlets that were trying to cover the unrest by threats, intimidation, arrests, and beatings. Even regular reporting that criticizes government officials can lead to lawsuits. Many newspaper and magazines are also directly related to political parties so they are used for propaganda as well. Even though the Iraqi constitution ensures press freedom as part of its democratic rights the country is still a long way away from realizing that ideal.

FOOTNOTES

1. AK News, “Demo in protest of the killing of a student in Erbil,” 5/9/10

SOURCES

Agence France Presse, “Iraq has most unsolved murders of journalists: watchdog,” 6/1/11

AK News, “Demo in protest of the killing of a student in Erbil,” 5/9/10
- “Tensions Deepen between Goran and KDP,” 5/18/10

Amnesty International, “Days Of Rage, Protests and Repression In Iraq,” April 2011

Aswat al-Iraq, “Feb. 25th – Bad Day for freedom of press and democracy in Iraq:,” 2/26/11

BNO News, “Over 160 attacks against Iraqi journalists, media institutions in two weeks,” 3/10/11

Committee to Protect Journalists, “Getting Away With Murder,” 6/1/11

Dagher, Sam, “Abducted Kurdish Writer Is Found Dead in Iraq,” New York Times, 5/6/10
- “Killing of Journalist Inflames Iraqi Kurds,” New York Times, 5/10/10

Gunter, Michael, “Between Baghdad and Ankara: The Kurdistan Regional Government’s Delicate Balance,” Terrorism Monitor, Jamestown Foundation, 11/11/10

Human Rights Watch, “Iraqi Kurdistan: Growing Effort to Silence Media,” 5/24/11

Institute for War & Peace Reporting, “Storm Gathers Over Slain Journalist in Iraqi Kurdistan,” 5/24/10

Al-Jourani, Flaiyeh, “Violence against journalists soars in some Iraqi provinces,” AK News, 4/6/11

Al-Mandalawi, Bashar, “Attacks on journalists up 55%,” AK News, 5/3/11

Shelton, Tracey, “”The Other Iraq” not so free after all,” Global Post, 5/29/11

Smith, Patrick, “Iraq worst in journalist murder rankings,” AK News, 5/29/11

Van Wilgenburg, Wladimir, “CPJ: Impunity Plagues Cases of Journalists in Kurdistan and Iraq,” Rudaw, 6/1/11

AL JAZEERA VIDEO: US Drawdown In Iraq Raises Security Concerns

Iraq’s Maliki Using Infiltrators And Tribal Support Councils Against Demonstrators

Iraq’s protest movement has struggled to maintain its numbers and consistency. One of the main reasons has been the repressive tactics of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. There are reports that the premier is still intent on breaking up future demonstrations using a mixture of infiltrators and the Tribal Support Councils that he created two years ago.

Human Rights Watch released a report on June 30, 2011 that detailed how the government infiltrated one protest in Baghdad last month. Two sources in the Defense Ministry told Human Rights Watch that an order had been issued for up to 150 plainclothes security officers from the army and police to infiltrate the June 10 protest in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square. Maliki was worried that there would be a large event in the capital on that Friday as his 100-day deadline for evaluating the performance of the government had just ended. It was easy to place the infiltrators within the square on the 10th because Maliki’s Dawa Party organized a counter demonstration of 3,000 people. The pro-government crowd ended up attacking the protesters. Human Rights Watch saw four plainclothes officers assault protesters during the melee. Two of them even showed their Interior Ministry police ID badges. The Facebook group The Great Iraqi Revolution also has a photo page of six people they believe to be security officials who have attended the weekly assemblies in Tahrir Square. Infiltrating the crowd serves several purposes, the most important of which is probably to identify leaders who can be followed, harassed or arrested, which has happened to some of them before. 

Some of the men the Great Iraqi Revolution accuses of being government infiltrators 

Shatt al-Arab also ran a story that Maliki is preparing to counter demonstrations throughout the country with his Tribal Support Councils. The paper claimed that the Prime Minister had issued orders for his Dawa Party to get the Support Councils organized to suppress any protests that occur against the government. Maliki’s operatives were to appoint one tribal leader in each province, provide them with a salary and spending money to keep them loyal to the premier. Beginning in March 2008, Maliki began setting up the Tribal Support Councils. Originally, they were used against Moqtada al-Sadr’s followers during the government’s crackdown upon them, but later the prime minister used them to counter the Sons of Iraq, and to create a new patronage system to build up his support. Maliki now appears to be using them once again for his political means, by shaping them into an anti-demonstration force to be deployed in any province where activists may stage an assembly.

The Prime Minister is intent on breaking up the protest movement, and these are just two more examples of how he plans on doing it. He started off by promising reforms, and then sending the security forces to crackdown on activists and the media that were trying to cover them. Recently, he has become more sophisticated and organized his own events full of his supporters, and tried to seize the headlines from the demonstrators. These two reports show that he is trying to keep tabs on the movement’s activities through infiltrators, and that he is organizing the Tribal Support Councils into a nationwide force to counter any anti-government assemblies that may break out. Maliki was first caught by surprise when the Arab Spring came to Iraq in January, but since then, he has played a very shrewd game, and taken back the momentum. Organizers are fighting an uphill battle to keep up with his tactics, and they may ultimately lose as previous demonstrators did in 2010, which Maliki successfully put down. This does not bode well for Iraq’s emerging democracy that the country’s leader is willing to use such means, and violate people’s rights to end what have largely been peaceful demands for reform in the economy and politics.

SOURCES

Human Rights Watch, “Iraq: Attacks by Government-Backed Thugs Chill Protests,” 6/30/11

Saadi, Ahmed, “Maliki begins the reorganization of support councils in preparation for the suppression of any popular opposition,” Shatt al-Arab, 6/28/11