Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berlzevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro
de la Prensa-Basm Özeti
.)
in February. Mr Aristicle
an;ved yesterday in Sout.h
Africa to protests from the
and we face insults from the
Iraqi police," said
Maqdad, a Kurdish
Ghazi.
lorry:
driver. "I am sure the Kurds
living in Baghdad are k~eping
a low profile."
In the balmy days last
summer after Mr Hussein's
fall, many Arabs went north
to mountain resorts in the
Kurdish north. This sum.
mer, the flow has dried'
up.
"Kurdish security police
be.came more suspicious of
Arabs after the February suicide
bombings [when over 70
Kurds were killed in the
Bush lauds
newlraqi
leadership
Annan says selection
effort 'wasn't perfect'
By Brian Knowlton
regional capital Arbil]," said
a Kurdish official. "This may
discourage them from coming,
even if the main reason
is the security on the rOllds
on the wày to Kurdistan."
, Satellite television cover-
'age of Iraq is compounding
the divergence between.
Arabs and Kurds: Arabs
watch Arabic language channels
such as ai-Jazeera,
which are regarded by Kurcls
as hostile to their interests;
many Kurds watch Kurdish
language stations instead,
which are much more sympathetic
to the US-led occupation.
"We get our news from al-
Jazeera [the Qatar-based
channel]," said Bassam
Be):man,an Arab in Kirkuk.
He praised Moqtada al-Sadr,
the radical Shia cleric who is
leading resistance to US
troops in the southern city
of Najaf, as "a good man
who loves Iraq".
The Kurdish view is very
different. "AI-Jazeera and al:'
Arabiya [another popular'
Arabic language channel]
report'only those Arabs who
are hostile to the Kurds,"
said Sarhang Salar Hama-
Sa'eed, an NGD manager in
Suleimaniya.
Since Kurdish replaced
Arabic as the language of
instruction in Kurdish
schools in 1997, many
younger Kurds do Ilot speak
. Arabic. and prefer Kurdish
television stations. Kurdish
and Arab leaders on the Iraq
Governing Council stress,
their commitment to an Iraq
based on equal rights, but
the divergence at popular
level is creating fertile soil
for hardliners.
. "If Iraqi political groups
can come to an understand.
ing, .then all can be well,"
said Asos Hardi, editor of
Hawlati, an independent.
Kurdish newspaper. "But for
. sure, there are many
,:threats."
,..
WASHINGTON: The United States
and its coalition allies warmly endorsed
the newly named interim Iraqi
government on Tuesday, but Secretary
General Kofi Annan of the United Nations
said the process had been difficult
and less than perfect.
President George W. Bush depicted
the appointment of the group as historic,
saying it represented "one step closer
to realizing the dream of millions of
Iraqis, a fully sovereign nation with a
representative government." And Britain
asked the world community to support
the government, to be headed by
Prime Minister Iyad Alawi.
But with questions still lingering
over the precise powers to be ceded to
the interim body by the' occupying
powers and the timetable for their withdrawal,
it remained unclear how far the
creation of the government would go toward
rallying and unifying international
support.
Annan welcomed the new govern.
ment's appointment, but added, "I think
we all have to recognize that the process
wasn't perfect."
He said it "shouldn't be surprising
that the United States had made its preferences
known."
The United States and Britain, meanwhile,
continued to work to overcome
resistance from key countries at the
United Nations to aspects of a draft resolution
on Iraq to recognize the new
government and define its powers, and
those of the new force.
A Security Council ~roup led by
Mannie Garcia/Reuters
Bush on Tuesday praised Iraq's leaders as people of talent, commitment and resolve.
China, and including Russia, France
and Germany, wants a U.S.-British draft had played only secondary roles in selecting
the major figures of the new
resolution to be rewritten to define
Iraqi sovereignty more broadly.
leadership.
Bush said he had told world leaders "It was Mr. Brahimi's selections,"
that "we're willing to work with them to . Bush said. "The Governing Council
achieve language we can live with." The simply opined about names." He called
United States said it would discuss alterations
to the text at the UN.
leader.
Brahimi "the quarterback," or team
With the interim government moving He rejected a suggestion that the interim
body might be seen as a "puppet
quickly to assert itself - even ahead of
the June 30 date set for a formal handover
of powers - diplomats at the had no role" in selecting leaders.
government." Personally, he added, "I
United Nations were said to be eager to Richard Boucher, the State Department
spokesman, glossed over the issue
meet with Iraqi representatives before
moving ahead on the resolution. A meeting
when asked repeatedly by reporters
was expected as early as Thursday. whether Brahimi had in fact made the
The role ofLakhdar Brahimi, the special
UN envoy, in nominating the inter-
By the end of this process, Boucher
final choices on his own.
im government's leaders was widely said, "We had people in the jobs."
seen to. have been undercut as the Bush, while strongly supporting the
l':Ïitcd StM~s and the now-dissolved new government, did not venture to
Iraqi {,o'Vcrn.ng Council manpuvered' predict that its creation might lead to
to influencc the final choices.
large new contributions of troops. "I
Bush surprised many listeners Tuesday
when he suggested that the United
States and the Iraqi Governing Council
d~n't know if there'll be a major commItment
ofnew troops," he said.
And he cautioned that trouble would
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