UNAMI: Iraqi Media Monitoring

From the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI)

Sunday, 25 July 2004

Headlines

(Al-Dustur, Baghdad, by Movement for the Hashimite Constitutional Royal Union, 24 July 2004) -
·         Al-Sadr lashes out at Allawi in Friday sermon at Al-Kufah Mosque
·         Small UN mission to return to Baghdad next month
·         Saddam demands European court ensure
·         Washington will honour its commitments according to the Geneva Convention
·         1,100,000 US dollars allocated to rehabilitate Baghdad's water supply system.

(Al-Shira, independent, political and general weekly, 25 July, 2004)-

·         Foreign terrorist, having penetrated new Iraqi intelligence system, are spying on government moves
·         Last batch of Al-Zarqawi operatives kicked out of Al-Fallujah by local tribesmen
·         Chase of terror remnants moves on to Baghdad, National Guard arrest 20 Arab nationals in Haifa Street
·         Zebari: We will reveal Saddam's Israeli connection soon Izzat al-Duri announces readiness to surrender to Iraqi authorities
·         Two prominent Basrah City Council members suspend their council membership after receiving death threats
·         Yet another crime against Iraq's national cultural heritage committed by occupying forces: Nebuchadnazzar's ancient Babylonian home destroyed, turned into military airfield.

(London-based Azzaman, Political and independent daily, issued by Saad al-Bazaz, 24 July, 2004)-

·         Haifa Street, Adhamiyah district cordoned off by police, National Guard forces, arrest 272 suspects in biggest anti-terror raid in Baghdad
·         Iraqi society Minister predicts forthcoming National Congress to be still-born, with suspicions about its feasibility widening and campaign to boycott it growing;
·         Allawi calls for new phase of Iraqi-Syrian cooperation
·         Gen Salim Iblish gunned down by unidentified elements in Mosul.

(Al-Iraqiya TV, Baghdad, in Arabic, 23 Jul 04)

·         Iraq Prime Minister Iyad Allawi calls from Damascus for new era of relations with Syria. Video report covers Allawi tour in Cairo and Damascus.

·         Iraqi army officer killed in Mosul; eight injured in roadside bomb in Khazimiya. Video report covers violence.

·         Multinational force attacks terror suspects linked to Al-Qa'idah operative Abu-Mus'ab al-Zarqawi in Al-Fallujah. Video report covers raid.

·         Friday imams call for national unity, say Arab and foreign lawyers should not be allowed to defend former President Saddam Husayn. Video report covers Shi'i and Sunni preachers calling for national reconciliation.

·         New UN Iraq envoy to head for Baghdad next month. Video report highlights his comment, new envoy comments.

·         Kenya advises its nationals to leave Iraq. Video report covers Indian hostages crisis, Kenya warning, US State of Secretary Colin Powell in talks with Bulgarian foreign minister.

·         Iraq minister of human rights says rights of victims of former regime a priority. Video report covers his meeting in Basra with non-governmental groups.

·         More Iraqi exiles in Iran return home. Video report covers arrival in Basra, Iraqis praising Tehran.

·         National Guard finds weapons cache in Karbala. Video report covers operation.

·         National Guard foils attempt to smuggle fuel. Video report covers operation, efforts to protect Iraq national resources.

·         Members of Al-Sabi'ah minority mark religious feast. Video report looks at ethnic minority, celebrations.

·         At least 36 killed in Turkey train derailment. Video report

·         Business bulletin. Northern Iraq oil pipeline maintenance work completed. Report on opening of natural gas station in Basra. Foreign exchange market report. US House of Representatives ratifies free trade agreement with Morocco. International market reports.

Nepotism is Back- Al-Adala Daily

(Al-Adala, Baghdad, twice-weekly by the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq SCIRI, 25 July 2004) - "Nepotism, so widely practised during Saddam's corrupt reign, is very much back, and more tangibly and shamelessly so, for that matter. It is now quite common to hear that minister x's sister has been appointed as an ambassador or director-general, or that lady, a minister, has had her husband given a key high-powered job, all, so it seems, is in line with the well-known Arab proverb: The closest in kinship are the worthiest of favour. This has grown into such a phenomenon that it is hardly an exaggeration to find a minister, an undersecretary, a director-general and an ambassador, all belonging to a single family, as if we were reliving the same bad old days when nepotism was taken for granted and had to be lived with as a fact of life."

Growing Practice of Sectarian Fervour - Al-Sira Daily

(Al-Shira, independent, political and general weekly, 24 July, 2004)- Al-Shira' [From commentary by Ja'far Ubayd Ali]: "Anyone interested in following up developments in Iraq cannot fail to notice the growing practice of stoking sectarian fervour and the unmistakable trend that feeds on deepening the sense of belonging to a certain sect within Iraq rather than that of Iraqi national identity, as if this country were nothing but an ad hoc aggregation of discrete sects, not a long-established state with a rich cultural heritage deep-rooted in history."Baghdad [From commentary by Karim al-Turki]: "Iraq, like any other Third World country, is not exempt from that characteristic struggle whereby those in power do their utmost to impose their own narrowly-conceived local culture on the vast majority of their subjects, whose natural response is invariably to resist this as a form of cultural domination. The way out of this predicament seems to lie in promoting what I would call 'civil culture', a mixture incorporating the dominant local culture with the full diversity of other local cultures, which would be conducive to wide public participation in building a more secure and stable political system based on a common understanding that would ensure individual rights and do away with political violence.

Tangible Evidence that Iraqi Neighbours dumped Nuclear Waste in Iraq- Azzaman

"Al-Zaman [From commentary by Samir Ubayd]: "According to a number of reports, recently confirmed by Iraqi sources, there is tangible evidence that some of Iraq's neighbours, taking advantage of the chaotic situation that prevailed in the country in the wake of Saddam's fall, have dumped nuclear waste in the marshlands in southern Iraq to get rid of incriminating proof of their involvement in the production of nuclear weapons or in research to this end. Now that this information has surfaced, it is deeply alarming to think of the disastrous consequences such irresponsible acts will inevitably have on human and animal life in this area."Source: As listed

Updates from Iraqi Kurdish Press
From UNAMI - Erbil
(Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) satellite TV, Salah-al-Din, in Sorani Kurdish on 20 July)

·         US forces kill nearly 12 supporters of Al-Zarqawi in attack on site in Al-Fallujah; twenty insurgents arrested near the city of Samarra. Report over video showing scene of the incident; captured insurgents sitting in the back of a pick-up truck.

·         Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi visits Syria; political situation discussed. Report over still picture of Allawi.

·         Iraqi National Conference to convene next week. Report over video showing elections of governorates's representatives.

Iraqi Kurdish writer hails president's visit to Halabjah

(Kurdistani Nuwe, Al-Sulaymaniyah, in Sorani Kurdish,24 Jul 04) Excerpt from article by Jabbar Sabir entitled "The whole Iraq is bowing to Halabjah.", published by Iraqi Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) newspaper Kurdistani Nuwe on 24 July

If the chauvinist Arabs and the supporters of the detained tyrant Saddam have been so far denying the chemical attack on Halabjah and have blamed it on Iran, or as Saddam said in court "I have seen it on television,"now after the visit made by the current Iraqi president, Ghazi Ajil al-Yawar, to Al-Sulaymaniyah and later to Halabjah, the town of martyrs, it has become evident that Halabjah was attacked by chemical weapons on the orders of Saddam himself and that the whole Arab nation turned a blind eye to the crime with the same silence and nonchalance they supported Saddam.
[President] Al-Yawar - who won the post of the president of the Federal [as published] Republic of Iraq by the overwhelming support of the Kurdish group in the Governing Council - is that kind of a man among the Arabs who is making efforts to heal the wounds and preserve the seeds of peace and reconciliation that we the Kurds have long been awaiting and we do not want any more bloodshed between us.
President Al-Yawar's visit to the town of Halabjah, which was martyred by the Arabs, is not merely an ordinary visit. It has far-reaching significance behind it, which is, before anything else, a bowing to the greatness of the town that the Arabs martyred and President Al-Yawar bravely admitted that crime, exactly as Hadi Alawi, in the aftermath of the chemical attack on Halabjah, expiated for that blood which choked Halabjah to death by saying, "I am no longer an Arab."
Hadi Alawi was a helpless intellectual who adopted a stance and has been sidelined by the Arab regimes. That is why all he could do was to voice his own repentance. However, Al-Yawar is the leader of Iraq and admits that crime and also apologizes in the name of Iraq and the Arabs.
What is incumbent on us, Kurds, is to close ranks, to adopt one stance and to understand that the Arabs keep us the Kurds in mind and take us into account. However, we ourselves are yet to assess our own weight. We have failed so far to make Halabjah a political issue; political in the sense that we should present it to the Security Council as an issue of genocide and annihilation of a nation. Exactly as the Jews turned the Holocaust into a political issue and they still get compensation for its victims from the Germans.
We also have the right to demand compensation for Halabjah and the Anfal [1988 former regime's campaign responsible for the disappearance of nearly 182,000 Kurds] from them, the Arabs.
Should we fail to demand that now, perhaps, we will not encounter another opportunity in the future, because it is now that Al-Yawar is visiting the martyred town of Halabjah as the president of Federal Iraq, as the representative of the Arabs and prostrates before the monument of those victims who were massacred at the hands of Saddam, the Arab, and also to tells us: forgive us with your greatness.
[Passage omitted]
Finally, this visit made by the president of the Federal Iraq, honourable Ghazi Ajil al-Yawar, is a kind of disgrace for all the Arab leaders and intellectuals who have been supporting Saddam. It is a kind of branding for [Yemeni President] Ali Abdallah Salih and [editor of Al-Quds newspaper issued in London] Abd-al-Bari Atwan, to whom the words 'federalism'and 'Kurd'give the creeps and who are allergic to those words.
That is why, possibly after this visit by Al-Yawar, a new record will enter the history of Iraq, the history of coexistence of the Kurds, Arabs and the others, a history full of forgiveness and the spirit of reconciliation. We are waiting for that history to be made.

M. Barzani: Remove Traces of Kirkuk Ethnic Cleansing Against Kurds
(Khabat daily, Erbil 25 July 2004) - In his Salahuddin HQ north of Erbil, the KDP leader Massoud Barzani received the US Counselor for Kirkuk and discussed with him the political and security situation in Iraq and Kurdistan. Barzani explained his party's stand on Kirkuk issue stressing on the need to normalize the situation there and restoring the city's distorted history. We prefer a ``peaceful'' removal of the remnants of the ethnic cleansing policy applied against the Kurds in Kirkuk, Barzani said. The visiting diplomat reiterated the need for bilateral coordination to settle the problems in Kirkuk and Barzani assured him of his party's readiness for any support that may serve all ethnicities in Kirkuk.
Kurdistan Parliament Swear In Deputy PM, 5 New Ministers
(www.peyamner.com <http://www.peyamner.com>, Khabat daily, Erbil 25 July 2004) - In a normal session yesterday morning, Kurdistan Parliament sworn in Serkis Aghajan Mamando as deputy PM of Erbil administration of Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to replace late Sami Abdulrahman, a victim of last February's suicide explosion at the KDP Erbil HQ. Mamndo will his position as Finance and Economy Minister. Another 4 ministers were sworn in yesterday for the ministries of Agriculture and Irrigation, Culture, Reconstruction and Public Housing, Municipalities and Tourism, in addition to a Falah Mustafa Bakir as a minister without portfolio. Prime Minister Nechrivan Barzani was present at the swearing session. He had announced in an earlier interview with the newspaper that he would further reshuffle his cabinet and establish new ministries to promote reconstruction and better serve the people.
Germany To Treat Halabja Victims
(Khabat daily, Erbil 25 July 2004) - A German delegation visiting Baghdad was requested to treat 100 of Halabja Ggassing victims who still suffer the consequences. The request came during a meeting between the Iraqi federal minister of human rights and the German delegation. The international media had documented that the German companies were amongst many international companies that helped Saddam regime manufacture chemical weapons.
Talabani Stresses Warm KDP-PUK Relations,
Barzani Announces Joint KDP-PUK Committee For Iraq Elections
(Kurdistani Nwe daily, Sulaymanya 23 July 2004) - The Patriotic Union f Kurdistan (PUK) leader Jalal Talabani refuted allegations about feeble KDP-PUK relationship and said the ties were very strong and relations warm. Talabani's statement came in a joint press encounter with the leader of Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Thursday. Talabani had visited Barzani and met him in private for two hours before the press conference, during which Barzani said that the two parties would set up a joint committee to unify the stands on the forthcoming elections. Talabani further stressed the two parties had identical views on the discussion topics that covered Kirkuk, the Iraqi and Kurdistan elections, as well as bilateral relations.
In brief:
From: www.pukmedia.com <http://www.pukmedia.com>

- KRG in Sulaymanya increase pension pay 10 to 90% as of July.

- Korean company considers setting up heavy industry companies in Kurdistan.
- Sulaymanya Governorate elected its representatives to the national conference expected next week.

*****
NB: This is not an official document. The information contained therein was compiled by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, Information Office . If you have any questions/suggestions, please contact us at (+ 962 550 -4629/4631 or Cell. + 962 77619731 jarrar@un.org <mailto:jarrar@un.org>

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