Kurds Saddled with Saddam's Men--Atimes, Hong Kong

[Gloria]

Up now in the new World Media Watch up now at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical
Tomorrow at Buzzflash.com


1//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong Jan. 26, 2005

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GA26Ak01.html



KURDS SADDLED WITH SADDAM’S MEN

By Aaron Glantz

KIRKUK - Iraq's two main Kurdish political parties have put aside their differences for the January 30 election. Like the Shi'ites in the south, they have organized a single, sectarian ticket for which they hope all Kurds will vote.


SNIP

As with all election lists in Iraq, the identity of the Kurdish candidates remains officially a secret for security reasons. Unlike other election lists, however, the contents of the Kurdish one became known when it was obtained by the independent Kurdish weekly Hawalti. The list revealed that about a dozen Kurdish candidates were former Ba'athists.

"These are people who helped Saddam in his campaign against the Kurds," said Zirak Abdullah, managing editor of the newspaper's office in Arbil in northern Iraq. "Remember that 182,000 people were killed in the campaign, which was carried out by Saddam in the 1980s, including what happened in Hallabja," where 5,000 Kurdish civilians were gassed with chemical weapons, he said. "These people - they have the blood of the Kurdish people on their hands."

Among the former Ba'athists on the Kurdish election slate are people who were once known as "Rafiq Hizbi" or the "Comrades". These were high-ranking members of the Ba'ath Party. Mustashars, the heads of Saddam's Kurdish paramilitary and mercenary groups, are also on the Kurdish election slate, according to Hawalti.

The newspaper published the names of some of them along with the positions they held in the former Ba'ath Party. On the list of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which controls the area north and east of Kirkuk along the Iranian frontier, are Faiysal Karim Khan Mahmum, a former Mustashar; Abdul-Bari Mohammed Faris from Mosul, also a former Mustashar; and Faris Younis Krido from Duhok, a former Ba'athist.

The list of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (PDK), which controls the cities Arbil, Zakho and Dohuk, and the areas along the Syrian and Turkish border, include Namiq Raqib Mohammed Surchi, who was the head of the committee responsible for banning the Kurdish language in the Kurdish city Mosul; Jawhar Muhedin Jihangir from Mosul, who was head of Saddam's mercenaries, and Omer Khizir Hamad from Arbil, a Mustashar.

Many Kurds are taken aback by the inclusion of these names, since they will be voting for the Kurdish list to put Saddam's dictatorship behind them.


(MORE)

[Rockerdem]

1. Bush is even more cynical than I thought

Did he think that the coalition could stack the deck like this and have nobody find out. The Kurds are going to be POed.

[Disturbed]

2. More slime will...

ooze as soon as real reporters start doing their jobs.

[hector459]

3. Now please tell me why anyone should have faith in this election?

The US should be ashamed of itself. They can only drop bombs from afar with great success. Everything else they do is a total disaster.

[Hard Attack]

4. 48,000 IRAQI'S LIVING IN IRAN ARE GOING TO VOTE FOR IRAQ

More than 48,000 Iraqis in Iran register to vote in 'very positive' turnout

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/afp/20050124/wl_mideast_afp/iraqvoteforeigniran

[NNN0LHI]

5. The Kurds have never been the sharpest tools in the shed when...

...it comes to dealing with members of the Bush family. Its almost as though they are destined to get screwed or something? They never seem to learn from the past. Short memories maybe?

Don