ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A Kurdish MP in Baghdad has accused the central government of deliberately refusing to send the KRG its budget share in the hope that it will lead to the collapse of the Kurdistan Region and give Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi a boost in next year’s elections.
Baghdad has been refusing to send the Kurdistan Region its rightful share of the budget so that “internal crises in the Kurdistan Region deepen further, people bear arms against one another, the hungry revolt, all our achievements are destroyed, and internal war is instigated,” Dr Muthana Amin, head of the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) bloc in the Iraqi parliament, told Rudaw TV.
Financial hardship is one of the grievances that brought people into the streets in anti-government protests that broke out last week, largely in the Kurdistan Region’s Sulaimani and Halabja provinces.
Under austerity measures, the KRG has reduced or delayed payment of civil servant salaries. The KRG maintains that the loss of oil-fields in Kirkuk and the continued budget cut by the Iraqi government since early-2014 are the primary reasons they have failed to pay state salaries in full or on time.
Kurdish security forces have been deployed to several cities to put an end to the protests that have seen the deaths of two and scores more injured and others arrested.
A Kurdish media network, NRT based in Sulaimani remains suspended since Wednesday. And the whereabouts of two politicians, MP Rabun Maruf and businessman-turned-politician Shaswar Abdulwahid remain unknown; both are from the newly-established New Generation party.
Two political parties, Gorran and Komal, which have long-standing discord with the ruling parties, have subsequently quit the coalition government and Amin’s KIU has set out demands with the threat it too could withdraw.
Kurdish officials, including Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, have said they respect the people's right to protest, but warned that violent attacks against party and government offices must end. They have also alleged that the protests are being manipulated by some outside hand.
Amin accused Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi of using the situation in Kurdistan for political gain.
“Abadi shouldn’t use us, our livelihood and hunger as an election campaign tool. He shouldn’t show himself as a hero over the Kurds. This is an immoral and non-political thing to do and we shouldn’t support this,” he said.
Iraqis will go to the polls on May 12.
KRG’s Minister of Education Pishtiwan Sadiq agrees that Baghdad is deliberately seeking to harm the Kurdistan Region.
“The current sectarian government in Baghdad doesn’t regard the Kurds as its partners. This government is trying to destabilize Kurdistan, end this calm and make the people of Kurdistan hungry,” Sadiq asserted to Rudaw.
The solution, he argues, is to build up the Region’s independent economy.
“We shouldn’t depend on Baghdad. Instead, we should make quick reforms, improve peoples’ living conditions, and develop the economic conditions of Kurdistan by using our own revenues.”
Relations between Erbil and Baghdad have collapsed in the wake of Kurdistan’s independence vote and Iraq’s military advances into the disputed areas.
Amin believes that Kurds must be unified in order to begin dialogue with Iraq.
The Kurds “can engage in serious dialogue with Baghdad politicians through (forming) internal unity, serious dialogue, resolving the problem of government legitimacy which has been there for a while,” he said.
Baghdad has so far resisted sitting down and talking with the KRG, despite international pressure and concessions from Erbil.
“Now that the KRG has shown complete readiness for talks, there currently are no excuses for them to come forward in order to hold these talks,” Sadiq said.
Baghdad has been refusing to send the Kurdistan Region its rightful share of the budget so that “internal crises in the Kurdistan Region deepen further, people bear arms against one another, the hungry revolt, all our achievements are destroyed, and internal war is instigated,” Dr Muthana Amin, head of the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) bloc in the Iraqi parliament, told Rudaw TV.
Financial hardship is one of the grievances that brought people into the streets in anti-government protests that broke out last week, largely in the Kurdistan Region’s Sulaimani and Halabja provinces.
Under austerity measures, the KRG has reduced or delayed payment of civil servant salaries. The KRG maintains that the loss of oil-fields in Kirkuk and the continued budget cut by the Iraqi government since early-2014 are the primary reasons they have failed to pay state salaries in full or on time.
Kurdish security forces have been deployed to several cities to put an end to the protests that have seen the deaths of two and scores more injured and others arrested.
A Kurdish media network, NRT based in Sulaimani remains suspended since Wednesday. And the whereabouts of two politicians, MP Rabun Maruf and businessman-turned-politician Shaswar Abdulwahid remain unknown; both are from the newly-established New Generation party.
Two political parties, Gorran and Komal, which have long-standing discord with the ruling parties, have subsequently quit the coalition government and Amin’s KIU has set out demands with the threat it too could withdraw.
Kurdish officials, including Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, have said they respect the people's right to protest, but warned that violent attacks against party and government offices must end. They have also alleged that the protests are being manipulated by some outside hand.
Amin accused Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi of using the situation in Kurdistan for political gain.
“Abadi shouldn’t use us, our livelihood and hunger as an election campaign tool. He shouldn’t show himself as a hero over the Kurds. This is an immoral and non-political thing to do and we shouldn’t support this,” he said.
Iraqis will go to the polls on May 12.
KRG’s Minister of Education Pishtiwan Sadiq agrees that Baghdad is deliberately seeking to harm the Kurdistan Region.
“The current sectarian government in Baghdad doesn’t regard the Kurds as its partners. This government is trying to destabilize Kurdistan, end this calm and make the people of Kurdistan hungry,” Sadiq asserted to Rudaw.
The solution, he argues, is to build up the Region’s independent economy.
“We shouldn’t depend on Baghdad. Instead, we should make quick reforms, improve peoples’ living conditions, and develop the economic conditions of Kurdistan by using our own revenues.”
Relations between Erbil and Baghdad have collapsed in the wake of Kurdistan’s independence vote and Iraq’s military advances into the disputed areas.
Amin believes that Kurds must be unified in order to begin dialogue with Iraq.
The Kurds “can engage in serious dialogue with Baghdad politicians through (forming) internal unity, serious dialogue, resolving the problem of government legitimacy which has been there for a while,” he said.
Baghdad has so far resisted sitting down and talking with the KRG, despite international pressure and concessions from Erbil.
“Now that the KRG has shown complete readiness for talks, there currently are no excuses for them to come forward in order to hold these talks,” Sadiq said.
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