Iraq's Kurdish Leadership Fears Loss

AP ^ | June 9, 2004 | ROBERT H. REID,AP

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BAGHDAD, Iraq - While world leaders applaud international unity over Iraq (news - web sites), the country's Kurdish leadership expressed fears Wednesday that they will be sidelined politically by the Shiite Arab majority, whose clerical hierarchy has been cultivated by the Americans.

Kurdish anger boiled over after the United States and Britain refused to include an endorsement of the interim constitution in the U.N. resolution approved Tuesday by the Security Council.

U.N. diplomats said the decision was made to keep a reference to the interim constitution — officially the Transitional Administrative Law — out of the resolution to appease Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, who grudgingly accepted the charter when it was approved in March.

To the Kurds, all this represents U.S. favoritism toward the Shiites, who comprise 60 percent of Iraq's 25 million people. Kurds form about 15 percent.

"We do not accept that the Shiites would have the lion's share of any Iraqi government because any Iraqi government should be composed of the representatives of all Iraqi people," Mulaha Bekhtiyar of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan said Wednesday.

Such comments raise fears of political instability within the new government and stand in sharp contrast with the diplomatic euphoria over the unanimous approval of the U.N. resolution — a major step in healing the breach between the United States and its longtime allies such as France and Germany that opposed the Iraq war. ...

The Kurds strongly supported the Americans during the 2003 fighting against Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), allowing the CIA (news - web sites) and special operations forces to use their territory before the invasion and providing 75,000 peshmerga militiamen to fight alongside U.S. forces.

However, the Kurds — a non-Arab, Muslim people who live in Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran — have a long history of betrayal by erstwhile allies. The Kurds have long aspired for their own country — a goal none of the governments in the region supports.

The Kurds, the most pro-American group in Iraq, won major concessions in the interim constitution, including recognition of the principle of federalism and an effective Kurdish veto over a permanent constitution to be drafted and ratified in a national vote next year.

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The people of Iraq must all be motivated to support their new government. This can best be done by giving them a real financial interest in their country's oil resources as outlined in the folowing proposal of the LAS AMERICAS COMPANIES:

A Proposal : IRAQI CITIZENS’ OIL FUND

The following proposal submitted by the LAS AMERICAS COMPANIES is designed to win the minds and hearts of the Iraqi people through the annual distribution of a share of their nation’s oil resources. This is not a new idea, but rather one derived from the successful experience of the State of Alaska, which annually distributes a portion of the state’s’ income from oil production directly to its citizens. It stands to reason that Iraqis will vote their support of a government proposing to make each citizen a true partner in sharing the country’s oil riches.

1. The Alaska Permanent Fund

In 1976, voters in Alaska approved a constitutional amendment creating the Alaska Permanent Fund. It required that at least 25 percent of all mineral lease bonuses, royalties, and rentals be deposited in a fund used only for income-producing investments. At the urging of REPUBLICAN Governor Jay S. Hammond (1974-82), the state legislature enacted into law the innovative concept of establishing a permanent fund to distribute part of the state’s oil earnings directly to Alaska citizens as dividends.

The Alaska Permanent Fund is a case study in a new concept of the role of government - that of agent to equitably distribute resource rents to its citizens, thereby providing them with common heritage rights to land and natural resources.

After a court challenge, the Alaska legislature implemented the plan in early 1982. The Fund originally provided that any adult who had lived in Alaska at least six months was to receive dividends of $1,000. For future years, it promised annual dividends based on distribution of half the earnings of the permanent fund in any given year.

Alaska citizens who received a total of $18, 511 in dividends each year from 1982 - 2000. There were 582,105 citizens who received a total of $1,143,172,725 in dividends in the year 2000, which amounted to an individual dividend of $1963 per person. The Alaska Permanent Fund dividend payment in 2002 was $1540 per recipient, and $1107 in 2003. These payments provided an annual income of approximately $8,000 per household across the state.

Overall, the dividend program has dispersed more than $10 billion into the Alaskan economy. The principle of the Fund currently exceeds $26 billion. The Alaska Fund is the first to recognize the full rights of citizens to share directly in the income from public assets.

2. Proposed Iraqi Citizens' Oil Fund-

In 2004, Iraq's oil revenues, which have reached over $9 billion through April, are projected to total $15-20 billion (US), up from approximately $5 billion (US) in 2003. These revenues are expected to increase in successive years.

As in Alaska, an Iraqi Citizens' Oil Fund for the direct benefit of all citizens could be established by the new government. Citizens seeing the prospect of receiving money from their government, rather than paying money to it, are much more likely to be willing and enthusiastic supporters of the new authority.

Fortunately, Iraq has significant oil resources, which can be used to benefit all Iraqis. Currently, Iraq's per capita gross domestic product is $2,500. Under the prior government, average individual annual income was estimated to be less than $60 (US).

This proposal would give each Iraqi citizen a true stake in the economic foundation of newly established country. Each citizen could become a direct partner in Iraq’s economic and political future.

The Iraqi Citizen's Oil Fund would require that the principle of individual ownership be a primary hallmark of the new government. Citizens who are guaranteed economic power by the government will naturally support the newly established system. And, citizen-owners will be highly motivated to join together to devote their efforts to building their country’s future stability and prosperity.

The architects of the new Iraq have the power to replace the former government monopoly over natural resources with the Citizens’ Oil Fund providing all Iraqis a direct ownership stake in their country’s most valuable resource. Such a plan is in the best interest of Iraq and all Iraqis.

LAS AMERICAS COMPANIES 515 Madison Avenue Suite 2306 New York, New York Tel: 718-784-7786 Email: lasamericasinfo@email.com

Hector Llorens,Managing Director

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Kurdish fears are valid.