Iraq draft budget: no compensation in disputed territories

SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region – Iraq’s 2015 draft budget has brought about an opportunity to restore relations between Erbil and Baghdad. However, it has also become a source of concern because it does not include any funding for the compensation process of article 140, which is related to the fate of disputed territories.

Ahmed Rashid, a member of the finance committee at the Iraqi parliament, revealed: “The budget does not include any funding for the compensation process of article 140.” He said several ministers had confirmed this.

As part of the Iraqi budget, customarily every year a sum is allocated to compensate people who were resettled under late dictator Saddam Hussein’s Arabization policy. This is called for in Article 140 of the constitution.

Friad Rawanduz, Iraq’s minister of culture, said that the draft budget is now in parliament, which will have the final say on the law.

But Rashid said: “I am not sure if they are going to allocate funding from the budget of the council of ministers or not, because implementation of Article 140 was part of the recent agreement between Erbil and Baghdad.”

In addition to the Erbil-Baghdad agreement on oil, budget and the Peshmerga, the Iraqi government has also agreed to complete the implementation of article 140 by September 8 next year.

But these kinds of agreements are not very promising for the city of Kirkuk, which has been a hot issue between Erbil and Baghdad over the last 11 years. The issue of compensation of imported Arabs and displaced people from the city has been talked about since 2004. The question that everyone asks is whether there have been any demographic changes in the city of Kirkuk since 2004.

Kaka Rash Siddiq, head of the implementation office of article 140 in Kirkuk, said: “Nine thousand displaced Kurdish families and 7,000 imported Arab families are awaiting compensation.

“Since the beginning of the work of our office until now, within the administrative borders of Kirkuk province, 46 thousand displaced Kurdish families, and 12 thousand imported Arab families have received compensation. In addition to the 16 thousand families that are waiting to receive compensation, there are 20 thousand other families that are eligible for compensation.”

Mohammed Kamal, head of a Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) branch in Kirkuk, claimed that not allocating any budget for compensation demonstrates the negative intentions of the Iraqi government. Referring to the recent visit of Iraq’s parliament speaker, Kamal stressed: “We told him that implementation of article 140 should not be delayed any further. He promised to form a parliamentary committee to look into the reasons behind the lack of progress.”

Kamal urged the Kurdish members of the Iraqi parliament to raise their voices against the draft budget, and to block its ratification until funding for compensation is included.

He warned about the impact of the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS) on the demography of Kirkuk city:  “Around 75 thousand Arab families have sheltered in Kirkuk. If each family is composed of five members, then we have received 400,000 Arabs in the city since the fight against ISIS” in June.

Kurdish MPs n Baghdad are preparing for another tough discussion in parliament and are unwilling to let the proposed budget law go through as is.

Sherko Manguri, head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) faction in the Iraqi parliament, affirmed: “We are following up on the case to identify the reasons behind such a decision. We have submitted a letter to the council of minister asking about an explanation for the exclusion of funding for article 140,” he said. “This is not acceptable.”