Jay Garner: Few US Officials Have Thorough Understanding of Article 140
On May 9th, The Kurdish Institute in Washington in cooperation with thehttp://pukmedia.com/english/Daily%20...-05-11/jpg.JPG Pennsylvania University held a special seminar concerning article 140 of the Iraqi permanent constitution. A number of attendees cautioned that the non-implementation of article 140 will harm the security and stability of Iraq.
“Article 140 contains suitable procedures to address the disputes over those areas which were Arabized during the Baath regime. Those problems should be solved according to the constitution, new views, therefore, should not be presented to address them,” Hawar Shally, Head of the Kurdish National Conference said.
Calling on the Iraqi government to implement the article as soon as possible, Shally said the non-implementation of article 140 will negatively affect relations between Kurdish people and central government.
“Unfortunately the article 140 was not implemented on time while, I believe, it can be implemented in the future. Few US officials have a thorough and complete understanding of article 140,” Jay Garner, who was appointed by the US as Director of the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance for Iraq in 2003 following the Operation Iraqi Freedom, said.
“Baath regime perpetrated as much injustice against Kurds as against Arabs. We, therefore, should be an example of fixing fairness. Kurds are not better than Arabs and Turkmens - we all are created by God. We should not go back to chauvinism and racism,” the Deputy Speaker of Kurdistan Region Parliament, Kamal Kirkuki, said.
“UN came up into the issue following the delay of implementing the article on December, 31st, 2007; we are now waiting for the UN initiatives and suggestions. If their suggestions are in favor of the public interests and enable to bring rights back to those whose rights were confiscated, we will support those suggestions as much as possible, the KRG Minister for Extra-regional Affairs, Muhammad Ihsan, said.
All attendees concluded that the article 140 is a constitutional one and it should be implemented.
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