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FM REO KIRKUK
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RUEHGB/AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD PRIORITY 0686
INFO RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE
RUEHKUK/REO KIRKUK 0752

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 KIRKUK 000146 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
BAGHDAD FOR POL, POLMIL, NCT, IRMO 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL:  8/21/2016 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PINR PINS PNAT PREF PTER KDEM IZ
SUBJECT: (C) KRG CONSTITUTION COMMITTEE CHAIR DISCUSSES KURDISH 
REDLINES, FEDERALISM 
 
KIRKUK 00000146  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: Jim Bigus, PRT Leader, POL, Department of State. 
REASON: 1.4 (b), (d) 
 
 
 
¶1.      (C) INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY:  Chair of the Constitution 
Committee for the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Farset 
Ahmad Abdallah, said on August 10 that resource control, Article 
140, and regional defense were the key redlines defining 
federalism for the Kurdistan region. He said that a major 
problem in amending the KRG constitution would be Article 115, 
which the Kurds had conceded to the Shia during negotiations on 
regional versus provincial authority.  The role of Islam was the 
main obstacle for ratification of the KRG constitution.  New 
articles would protect religious and human rights.  The rights 
of women also would be protected, although ethno-religious 
minorities like the Shabak and Yezidis would not receive special 
attention, since they were Kurds.  END INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY. 
 
(C) KEY REDLINES DEFINE KRG, FEDERAL CONSTITUTIONS 
--------------------------------------------- ------------ 
 
¶2. (C) Chair of the Constitution Committee for the Kurdistan 
Regional Government (KRG), Farset Ahmad Abdallah, told IPAO on 
August 10 that resource control, Article 140, and regional 
defense were the key redlines that would likely define the 
relations between the regional and federal constitutions.  He 
said the KRG should have "influence and control" over oil, 
minerals and other resources, and would not accept any reduction 
of regional authority on this matter.  The issue was primarily 
over the reach of central authority, he said, and the position 
that Baghdad could not enter the Kurdish region to remove 
existing resource infrastructures, such as water pumps on the 
Tigris River, without first receiving KRG approval.  He also 
said Article 140 must be implemented without delay because the 
Kurds had past experiences with the central government 
manipulating dates and Kurdish leaders understood that to 
advocate a delay would mean losing the peoples' trust.  Abdullah 
said the only possibility for an amendment to delay the 
referendum would be if the Kurdish people perceived the federal 
government was taking steps to correct and normalize Kirkuk. 
However, he said, the deteriorating security situation in the 
south was raising Kurdish distrust with other communities' 
reasons for insisting on certain things, including changing 
dates.  The Kurds believed they could not rely on the federal 
constitution or central government for protection, he claimed, 
which was the primary reason a local regional law was needed to 
maintain the Peshmerga as a defense force.  The constitution 
under Saddam "had many laws providing for the sharing of 
resources and protection of human rights" he said, and claimed 
the KRG constitution was designed to protect the Kurds from 
future abuses. 
 
(C) OTHER PROBLEMS DOWN THE ROAD 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶3.  (C) Abdullah claimed several issues would likely be raised 
during the amendment process. The KRG believed Baghdad would try 
to centralize authority by inserting a clause in the federal 
constitution that required the regional constitutions to match 
"Iraqi laws."  Abdullah said the KRG had a clause that specified 
its constitution only needed to match the laws contained in the 
federal constitution, not Iraqi laws themselves.  Abdullah 
claimed that KRG's budget currently must be approved by the 
Ministry of Finance in Baghdad and that this would also become 
an issue.  He said the Kurds already had the three provinces 
necessary to reject an amendment with which they did not agree 
and were ready to exercise this option.  Abdullah said Article 
115 of the federal constitution would also become problematic, 
since it recognized provinces and regions as having the same 
authority, a concession given to Shia during the constitutional 
drafting process because the Shia feared the central and 
southern regions would not be created. 
 
(C) ROLE OF ISLAM MAIN DELAY IN KRG CONSTITUTION 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶4.  (C)  Abdullah said the role of Islam was the greatest 
obstacle delaying the drafting process, with the two members 
representing the Kurdistan Islamic Union and the Kurdistan 
Islamic Gathering insisting that Islam be mentioned as the 
official religion of the Kurdistan region in the constitution. 
The other sixteen constitution members opposed this position, he 
claimed, because they held the federal constitution had already 
said enough about this issue and wanted to leave Islam out of 
the KRG constitution entirely.  Abdullah claimed the committee 
agreed to not have an official KRG religion, but that the even 
larger obstacle was the Islamic parties' insistence that sharia 
be the main source of legislation.  Here again the KRG and 
 
KIRKUK 00000146  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
federal constitutions differ, Abdullah claimed, with Islam being 
"a main source" of legislation in the federal article; the KRG 
language stated Islam was "one of the main sources" of 
legislation, to make it clear there are other sources and, he 
claimed, to send the signal that the KRG did not oppose 
religious efforts because the Islamists tried to spread a rumor 
the KRG constitution committee was against Islam.  Abdullah 
claimed the delay over this issue had been good, however, since 
it led to the article that prohibits religious laws from being 
imposed on other religions. 
 
(C) OTHER FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO DELAY 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
¶5. (C)  Abdullah said several members of the constitution 
committee were not familiar with the resources issue prior to 
the drafting process and had to consult with a team of legal 
advisors and political party representatives, further delaying 
ratification.  He said the committee members also watched and 
anticipated changes in the federal constitution to match it and 
adjust the regional draft accordingly.  Technical and logistical 
factors, Abdullah said, contributed to slowing the process, such 
as translating the foreign constitutions, the fact that no one 
on the constitution committee was a full time member, and that 
all the members were spread out geographically with some being 
out-of-country refugees.  Abudullah claimed the United States, 
South Africa, India, Germany, Bosnia and a group of Arab 
countries provided models for the KRG constitution.  He said as 
the KNA Secretary, he was unable to attend the constitution 
committee while the KNA was in session.  He added the delay had 
led to new ideas, which then needed to be incorporated, leading 
to further delays.  On the timeline for the KRG constitution 
referendum, Abdullah said some would like it soon, while others 
wanted to wait until the referendum on Kirkuk and other areas. 
 
(C) NEW ARTICLES - RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, HUMAN RIGHTS 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶6.   (C)  Abdullah said one major difference between the federal 
and KRG constitutions was the language devoted to freedom of 
religion.  The federal constitution limited its language, he 
claimed, to the freedom of belief but had no mention of religion 
itself, while the KRG constitution included both.  He claimed 
the KRG constitution contained very clear language protecting 
freedom of religion and respect for human rights and obliged the 
regional government to respond to individual grievances within 
15 days.  Still under discussion, he said, was a personal 
religious law that included language that would prohibit any one 
religion from imposing its beliefs on other religions.  He 
claimed this was very new to their culture, since Islamic legal 
systems had dominated regional jurisprudence until recently. 
This new law was to stipulate that no party or organization was 
allowed to adopt for its own benefit Quranic articles to use 
against another people which was, he claimed, a response to 
Saddam's past abuses of the Quran.  An "ombudsman" system 
adopted from Scandinavian models was to be in place for the 
protection of human rights.  He added that the new constitution 
established an independent judiciary, included its budget. 
 
(C) STATUS OF WOMEN, MINORITIES 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
 
¶7. (C)  Abdullah claimed the KRG constitution declared that 25 
percent of the Kurdistan National Assembly (KNA) must be women, 
as well as 25 percent of the provincial and city councils; this 
contrasted with the federal constitution, which only covered the 
Council of Representatives on this issue.  He said the KRG 
constitution also protected women who fled their families for 
personal reasons, and said that Saddam's constitution had 
language on the equal status of women and that the KRG 
constitution committee had tried to better protect these rights. 
  He said that sometimes the nature of the job or position did 
not permit for the application of these rights, such as in the 
military, but the KRG constitution prohibited any law that would 
forbid women from these posts.  He claimed the KNA recently had 
passed a law granting women full salary during maternity leave 
where formerly they received only half salary.  The KNA also 
passed a law that beating a woman would now be prosecuted under 
criminal law; before it was not considered a criminal case, he 
said.  On the status of certain minority groups, Abdullah said 
there was no mention of the Shabak, because they considered 
themselves Arabs even though they were really Muslim Kurds.  He 
said the Yezidis were mentioned, but only in the articles 
protecting religious freedom, not in the list of ethnicities 
because the Yezidis were Kurds.  (Note:  The Yezidi and Shabak 
groups have insisted on being mentioned in both the federal and 
the KRG constitution as an ethnic entity with legally protected 
status.  End note.) 
 
 
KIRKUK 00000146  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
(C) BIOGRAPHIC NOTES 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶8. (C) Farset Ahmad Abdullah:  Current Chair, KRG Constitution 
Drafting Committee; from Dahuk; was an Internally Displaced 
Person (IDP) in Basrah after the 1974 Kurdish revolution; 
Abdullah said during the interview that as an IDP, the Bathist 
regime put him on land formerly owned by Jews who had emigrated 
in 1948 to insult him; member of the High Committee for the 
Kurdistan National Assembly, a presidential body; member of 
Masud Barzani's delegation to Baghdad to amend the federal 
constitution prior to the October, 2005, referendum; played a 
key role in drafting the Iraqi Transitional Government law; 
member of the KNA since 1992. 
 
(U) COMMENT 
----------- 
 
¶9. (C) Despite periodic announcements from the KRG, the most 
recent being just days after this meeting, that the new 
constitution would be ratified shortly, when post requested the 
most current draft Abdullah claimed he could not provide one 
because "it was still in pieces," a probable indication of where 
things stand.  Post anticipates the KRG constitutional 
ratification process likely will coincide with any negotiations 
on amendments to the federal constitution, with the "final" KRG 
version presented to the Kurdish public in a referendum, pending 
the status of key redline issues in the federal constitution 
amendment process. 
JBIGUS