The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today vigorously condemned a targeted bomb attack on the President of the Iraqi Union of Journalists (IUJ) in Baghdad only seven months after his predecessor was shot dead by extremists. The IFJ is demanding increased security for the union and personal protection for its leaders.
General Union of Students condemns forcible eviction
of students from residence building
in Baghdad University
The General Union of Students in the Iraqi Republic (GUSIR) issued a statement condemning an operation carried out on Thursday morning, 18 Sept. 2008, on the campus of Baghdad University in Jaderiyah, "by units of the Iraqi army accompanied by International Coalition forces", to evacuate a building used for the residence of students from the provinces. The building, in the Second Engineering College (Al-Khawarezmi College), was stormed, resulting in clashes between the army units and students, during which firearms were used to terrorize the students. For more information please click here:
www.iraqiletter.blogspot.com
Women to get 25% quota in provincial councils
September 23, 2008
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Women will be given a quota of no less than 25 percent in provincial councils, the chairman of the regions and provinces committee said on Tuesday.
“The issue of the presidential revocation concerning women’s quota in the provincial council elections law has been settled,” Hashim al-Taa’i told Aswat al-Iraq. For more information please click here:
www.iraqiletter.blogspot.com
Kurdistan journalists demand being exempted
from law for combating terrorism
23-9-2008
Arbil / agencies - Journalists in a number of local media in Arbil delivered a memorandum to the Kurdistan Parliament, signed by 7 newspapers, 3 magazines and Radio Nawa, calling for being exempted from a draft law for combating terrorism that will be debated in its next session. For more information please click here:www.iraqiletter.blogspot.com
1 hour ago
BAGHDAD (AFP) — The Iraqi parliament finally passed a provincial election law on Wednesday, setting a January 31 deadline for a vote to allow more power to be handed to the country's divided communities.
Members of parliament agreed to a compromise that will exclude not only the disputed northern oil province of Kirkuk but also the whole of the northern Kurdistan region from the new legislation.
Kurdish factions, which lay historic claim to Kirkuk and its oil wealth, had put up the sternest resistance to earlier attempts to clear the way for provincial elections seen by the United States as a cornerstone of national reconciliation efforts after the sectarian bloodshed of recent years.
Parliament had been aiming to pass the legislation in time to hold the polls on October 1 in all 18 of Iraq's provinces but deep rifts between the Kurds and their Arab and Turkmen rivals over arrangements for the process in Kirkuk torpedoed any agreement before the summer recess.
MPs have now agreed to postpone the polls in Kirkuk and three northern provinces that already form part of the autonomous Kurdish region so that elections can be held in the other 14 provinces by January 31.
Elections in Kirkuk will not now be held until after March 2009 and the existing multi-communal council will continue to administer the province.
A committee consisting of two representatives each from its Arab, Kurdish and Turkmen communities and one from the Christian community will work to prepare the groundwork for the organisation of elections in Kirkuk.
The ousted Sunni Arab dominated regime of Saddam Hussein poured Arab settlers, both Sunni and Shiite, into the province in a bid to prevent its oil wealth falling into the hands of Kurdish rebels.
For Kurdish leaders, their insistence on Kirkuk being incorporated into their autonomous region was the main reason for their rejection of a peace deal with the Baghdad government in the early 1970s that saw them continue a rebellion in which hundreds of thousands of their people died.
Kurdish MPs have insisted that a new electoral register be compiled giving the vote only to those with a historic claim to residence in the province before elections be held in Kirkuk.
Under the terms of reference set by the new law, the new seven-member committee will report back to parliament in coordination with the United Nations by March 31 after reviewing the electoral roll with both the existing provincial council and the central government.
Passage of the compromise law by a majority of the 191 MPs present in the 275-seat assembly was immediately hailed by speaker Mahmud al-Mashhadani as an acceptance by the legislature's disparate factions of the wider national interest.
"The law is what the Iraqi people wanted, and not what the politicians wanted," said Mashhadani, a Sunni Arab Islamist who has frequently been outspoken in his criticism of the US-led occupation and the boost in power it has given to Washington's Kurdish and Shiite allies.
"This law shows our determination to reach an agreement, and that we are able to solve problems in a democratic way. Kirkuk was the source of troubles, but now it became a symbol of nationalism and agreement. It has united us."
With US support, Iraq's Shiite-led government wants to devolve more spending powers to the provinces, particularly for post-war reconstruction, in what is seen as a major incentive to disenchanted Sunni Arabs in north-central and western Iraq to rejoin the political mainstream after years of insurgency
Demonstration of workers and employees
of oil products distribution in Baghdad
Hundreds of workers and employees of the Oil Products Distribution Department in Baghdad demonstrated in Furdaus Square in central Baghdad on 10 September 2008. A memorandum addressed to the Ministry of Oil listed their legitimate demands and explained the situation in the distribution stations as a result of unfair decisions to suspend workers and stop their salaries. The following were some of their demands: For more information please click here:
www.iraqiletter.blogspot.com
For more information please click here: www.iraqiletter.blogspot.com
Iraqi Writers' Union condemns the assassination
of culture ministry adviser
Baghdad, 23 August 2008 (Voices of Iraq)
Head of the Iraqi Authors' Union on Saturday condemned the assassination of Kamil Shiaa, the culture ministry adviser, calling on the Iraqi government to find the assassins.
"The Iraqi Authors' Union considers the assassination of Shiaa as an ugly crime, and we feel so sorry for losing him," Fadhil Thamir told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI).
"I call on the Iraqi government to find the evil hands that committed this crime," he said.
Thamir expressed his sincere condolences to Shiaa's family and colleagues.
Earlier today, unidentified gunmen assassinated a culture ministry advisor after they intercepted his vehicle on a road in central Baghdad, according to an Iraqi police source.
"The gunmen opened their machine-gun fire on the vehicle of Kamil Shiaa near the Muhammad al-Qassem highway and showered him with bullets, killing him instantly and seriously injuring his driver," the source, who asked that his name not be mentioned, told VOI.
Shiaa's driver was rushed to a nearby hospital, the source added. The reported assassination was confirmed by Rabah, the culture ministry advisor's brother.
Posted by Salam