Iraqi Minorities 'Insulted' by New Provincial Assemblies Law

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Source: McClatchy Newspapers

Iraqi minorities 'insulted' by new provincial assemblies law

By Leila Fadel, McClatchy Newspapers – Mon Nov 3, 5:23 pm ET

BAGHDAD — The Iraqi parliament approved legislation Monday that allocates six seats in provinces to small ethnic and religious communities in the upcoming provincial elections, but Christians, Yazidis and Shabaks asked for the law to be overturned on the grounds that they remained underrepresented.

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"They failed in the examination of democracy," said Yonadam Kanna, a Christian from the Assyrian Democratic Movement . "This was a result of the conflict between Kurds and Arabs." Kanna was referring to Nineveh province, where Christians had hoped for three seats, Yazidis three seats and the Shabaks one seat. Arabs worry that the minorities could become extensions of the Kurdish parties that dominate the provincial council in the mostly Arab Sunni Muslim province.

"The Arab nationalists think that the minorities will side with the Kurds, which is not true," Kanna said. A United Nations proposal would have given the minorities a total of 12 seats, including three seats for Christians in Baghdad and one in the oil-rich city of Basra. Sabeans, a very small religious minority in the south, would have received one seat in Baghdad. Instead, 106 legislators voted for the amendment that awarded six seats. Kurds, the minorities and legislators who follow radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al Sadr voted for the U.N. proposal.

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"Getting nothing is better than this insult," he said.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20081103/wl_mcclatchy/3090934