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description= 3 posts published by Reidar Visser during December 2007;
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in, of, non, the, sectarian, iraq, and, federalism, far, south, southern, suffering, coexistence, on, gulf, analysis, archive, for, december, 2007, sectarianism, iraqi, federalist, tradition, ownership, local, energy, resources, regionalism, ideal, conclusion, under, pressure, archives, categories, meta, my, latest, book, amazon, com, twitter, updates, subscribe, recent, posts, oil, ideals, federal, trends, nonsense, congress, anti, police, commander, is, assassinated, babel,
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the (717), and (184), iraq (102), that (98), for (90), iraqi (68), with (67), basra (66), this (65), #federalism (63), sectarian (62), #federal (60), shiite (57), from (55), 2006 (49), oil (48), 2005 (46), south (45), 2007 (44), southern (40), has (39), government (37), their (37), have (36), was (36), non (31), but (30), fadila (30), region (29), they (28), may (28), constitution (28), not (27), one (26), are (26), which (24), more (24), october (24), some (23), been (23), december (23), governorates (23), sciri (22), all (22), were (22), august (21), had (21), july (21), even (20), its (20), also (19), new (19), where (19), central (18), september (18), local (18), 2004 (18), march (18), january (17), during (17), political (17), when (17), far (17), there (16), should (16), would (16), shiites (16), party (15), who (15), any (15), manara (15), governorate (14), support (14), idea (14), than (14), baghdad (14), february (14), about (13), instead (13), after (13), regions (13), united (13), 2008 (13), southerners (13), 2010 (13), 2013 (13), now (12), today (12), into (12), project (12), among (12), kind (12), april (12), governor (12), november (12), 2014 (12), 2009 (12), 2011 (12), 2012 (12), press (11), such (11), settlement (11), june (11), 2003 (11), resources (11), police (10), country (10), what (10), will (10), state (10), clearly (10), reidar (10), visser (10), conference (10), constitutional (10), regionalist (10), three (10), gulf (9), other (9), being (9), council (9), only (9), these (9), his (9), against (9), international (9), did (9), particular (9), entities (9), law (9), well (9), power (9), abd (9), whereas (9), share (9), arab (9), maysan (9), nationalism (8), however (8), few (8), general (8), often (8), particularly (8), those (8), congress (8), iraqis (8), area (8), first (8), through (8), entity (8), suffering (8), regionalism (8), release (8), pro (8), iran (8), summer (8), anti (7), maliki (7), provincial (7), minister (7), towards (7), 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the fact that it was only the constitutional revision clause inserted at the twelfth hour ostensibly to placate sunnis that persuaded sistani to give the green light to a yes vote the divergence between sistani s rhetoric and that of the pro sectarian sciri is particularly pronounced on the federalism issue see reidar visser sistani the united states and politics in iraq from quietism to machiavellianism nupi paper no 700 march 2006 www historiae org sistani asp 9 aswat al iraq october 5 2006 10 in bbc abc polls conducted in spring and autumn of 2007 the percentages of shiites who favored a unitary state model with no federalism of any description whether sectarian or non sectarian effectively this would mean a dramatic revision of the 2005 constitution were 41 and 56 respectively 11 al adala september 28 2006 12 reidar visser basra the failed gulf state separatism and nationalism in southern iraq berlin lit verlag 2005 pp 171 72 13 in the south a bid to loosen baghdad s grip christian science monitor june 28 2005 14 press release from the governor s office basra august 1 2007 15 aswat al iraq september 10 2007 16 undated letter from baqir yasin al tamimi to hajim al hasani circa spring 2005 17 al manara october 3 2004 18 al manara march 28 2006 19 posting on http www southiraq org july 1 2005 20 letter from ali husayn faraj to the leadership of the united iraqi alliance may 15 2006 21 al sharq al awsat july 29 2007 press release of the fadila party in basra dated july 28 2007 22 undated letter from baqir yasin al tamimi to hajim al hasani circa spring 2005 23 al manara march 11 2006 24 interview with falak al din kaka i al jazeera television january 23 2004 25 interview in al manara september 1 2004 26 al manara august 22 2004 27 al manara april 13 2005 28 fadila press release march 1 2006 29 fadila press release may 31 2006 also basra seeks more autonomy oil revenue npr august 5 2005 30 letter from ali husayn faraj to the leadership of the united iraqi alliance may 15 2006 31 press release of an entity calling itself the autonomous government of southern iraq july 24 2007 32 al manara march 27 2005 33 al mu tamar july 19 2005 34 reidar visser basra crude the great game of iraq s southern oil nupi paper no 723 2007 www historiae org oil asp 35 al manara july 11 2006 36 government of iraq office of the prime minister reports on the activities of the governors karbala report dated december 27 2005 37 from a document on constitutional reform by abd al latif probably dating from early 2006 38 article by abd al jabbar al hilfi in al manara march 2007 it should be pointed out that the latest draft of the iraqi oil law in some contexts introduced discriminatory measures against oil producing governorates as opposed to those with a federal status whereas in previous drafts all oil producing entities had been on an equal footing 39 posting dated december 24 2005 at http www southiraq org accessed on february 18 2006 the link is now defunct 40 fadila press release september 11 2006 41 fadila press release october 21 2006 42 al manara october 21 and october 28 2006 and july 26 2007 43 aswat al iraq october 3 2007 44 report from fadila party meeting in basra december 20 2006 45 washington post august 19 2006 parties battle in basra washington times august 16 2007 46 al manara may 9 2006 47 al manara february 23 2006 48 mahdi al hasnawi al ahwar hadarat sumir baghdad dar al shu un al thaqafiyya al amma 2004 49 al hasnawi al ahwar p 93 50 ibid p 18 51 ibid p 100 52 al manara october 21 2006 53 riyad al asadi remarks at a federalism conference in basra april 2005 54 press release by the autonomous government of southern iraq july 24 2007 55 conversations with shiite politicians from baghdad june 2007 posted in basra and southern regionalism shiite sectarian federalism comments off on suffering oil and ideals of coexistence non sectarian federal trends in the far south of iraq nonsense of congress on federalism in iraq posted by reidar visser on thursday 13 december 2007 19 18 a bill is on its way to president george w bush with an enclosure that encapsulates the atmosphere of a disoriented us congress euphemistically titled sense of congress on federalism in iraq and attached to the 2008 defence authorisation bill that was passed in the house of representatives yesterday and is expected to pass easily in the senate today this latest iraq related opus to emerge from capitol hill is so riddled with inconsistencies that it is the opponents of the idea of us interference in internal iraqi affairs that emerge as the clear victors in this strange affair it may be useful to briefly recapitulate the flaws of the precursor to the text which is now being turned into law contrary to accounts in the us press the senate s biden amendment of september 2007 did not specifically seek to divide iraq into any particular number of federal states nor did it advocate full partition it did however violate the iraqi constitution in two major ways firstly by introducing the idea of a conference settlement of iraq s federal question it sought to circumvent the democratic procedures for creating federal regions from below through grassroots initiatives as outlined in the iraqi constitution secondly by anticipating an iraq that would be wholly divided into federal regions it usurped by implication the constitutional rights of individual iraqi governorates to retain their unitary state status if that should be the wish of their populations in short the biden amendment ignored iraq s status as a unique specimen within the world s family of federations namely an asymmetrical federation where the demarcation of federal entities is gradual and where the right to create new federal entities is vested exclusively in the local populations of the existing governorates this is a dual system combining federal and unitary state elements and it may well end up with one federal region only kurdistan the sole federal entity explicitly mentioned in the 2005 constitution although existing governorates like for instance basra or najaf can try to opt for a federal status at a future stage if their populations should strongly favour this to those searching for comparisons the united states is entirely irrelevant it is to spain and russia and arguably the united kingdom one should look for cases with certain parallels to the asymmetric division of power between centre and regions in force in today s iraq the biden amendment of last september also highlighted the logical flaws of the us senators approach as they seek to apply the concept of federalism to create an alternative iraq policy their problem is that iraqi parliamentarians and the bush administration happen to speak with one voice on this particular issue they follow the 2005 constitution and the law on implementing federalism of october 2006 which together provide detailed principles procedures and timelines for creating federal regions in those parts of the country where there is a genuine desire for such federalisation these procedures are finite and clearly defined unless one intends to break the law there is no need for additional conferences or international assistance of any kind accordingly if us senators wish to produce something that is somehow more federal than this they will have to violate the iraqi constitution which is just what they did through their september resolution unsurprisingly senator joseph biden and his allies flatly deny that they are transgressing the iraqi constitution but their handling of this in the final congress conference version of the bill has been particularly awkward the two elements of the original amendment that are clearly in breach of the iraq constitution are still there the conference for iraqis and the idea of a comprehensive one off settlement where by implication the entire country is to be subjected to federalisation instead of resolving this for instance by suggesting a more limited mandate for the projected conference or by explicitly recognising the constitutional right of existing governorates to remain non federated the us congressional conferees have simply littered their text with caveats that invite the iraqis to break their own constitution if that is seen to be the popular will the key clause is now rendered as follows if the iraqi people support a political settlement in iraq based on the final provisions of the constitution of iraq that create a federal system of government and allow for the creation of federal regions consistent with the wishes of the iraqi people and their elected leaders the united states should actively support such a political settlement in iraq emphasis added followed by the suggested ingredients for this kind of settlement including action by the international community to support a federalism deal as well as the previously mentioned federalism conference neither of which of course is actually mentioned anywhere in the 2005 iraqi constitution this is disingenuous in two ways first the iraqi federal system as outlined in the 2005 constitution is simply not of the settlement sort i e one big convenient conference of major factions of the kind that would seem palatable and perhaps manageable to us senators but instead is based on gradual evolution through bottom up processes the reason for this is that the concept of federalism is so contested in iraq that for fear of popular resistance even the elites who wrote the 2005 constitution did not dare to impose any particular federal formula on the country beyond recognising kurdistan as a federal region basically the arrangement is supposed to guard against any federal entities being imposed on parts of iraq where there is no popular demand for federalism second how could the existence of popular support for such a settlement be ascertained prior to the proceedings themselves through a popular referendum in that case the question to be put to the iraqi voters would have to be framed in a very inventive way because the real question would be do you support the idea of temporarily dispensing with the 2005 constitution and the 2006 law for implementing federalism and their long drawn procedures so that iraq instead can have a us designed more effective process including international support and maybe a one day conference for iraqis to divide their country into federal regions the irony is that during this work the senators were actually quite close to the key to an alternative iraq policy they even touched on it when they inserted the words final provisions of before the iraqi constitution in the conference version of the bill presumably a reference to the fact that the iraqi constitution itself is an evolving project with an ongoing process of revision by committee where the senators made their big mistake was in focusing on federalism instead of constitutional revision this is where there is room for the grand settlement including features related to federalism which the senators so clearly want this is also where such settlement can be sought without violating the iraqi constitution because the process of revision itself is constitutionally mandated but the direction of change likely to meet with iraqi approval would again be the opposite of the general thrust in the latest us congress bill instead of asking for more federalism or a more rapid path towards federalism many iraqis seem to favour delays for implementing federalism stricter criteria for forming federal regions or guarantees against a federal arrangement where new demarcation lines would correspond to ethnic and sectarian divisions in short they maintain the general scepticism towards federalism that has been reflected in successive opinion polls among shiites and sunnis alike but because the committee charged with revising the iraqi constitution clearly is not responding to these signals from below this may constitute an area where iraqi nationalists might actually appreciate some kind of input or support from the international community perhaps even from the us congress the biden amendment of september 2007 was provocative in its flagrant violation of the iraqi constitution thanks to the efforts of iraqis who protested the bill congress has now been sufficiently shaken to present yet another version this time with so many additional contradictions that the new text is best characterised as illegible all in all it is quite hard to see why the language on federalism was included at all endnotes postscript the bill formally cleared the final hurdle in the senate on 14 december with an almost unanimous vote this phrasing was probably not intended to question the iraqi people s support for their own constitution but rather relates to their support of the political settlement which the us senators allege to be in harmony with the iraqi constitution although that is patently not the case posted in iraq and soft partition comments off on nonsense of congress on federalism in iraq anti sectarian police commander is assassinated in babel posted by reidar visser on sunday 9 december 2007 18 21 the news about the assassination of babel s police chief qays al ma muri today is particularly tragic to those who are hoping for the restoration of a non sectarian iraq where ethno religious identities are in the background for several years ma muri had stood out as an honest figure of authority in the mixed governorate of babel and had fought hard against militias regardless of their sectarian affiliations already some newswire reports speak of suspicion towards al qaida in the absence of further evidence such accusations should be treated with caution in several cases of violence in the shiite dominated parts of iraq including basra before the imposition of a state of emergency in may 2006 and najaf during the battle with the soldiers of heaven in january 2007 vague references to al qaida were used by iraqi government sources to gloss over episodes that clearly featured elements of intra shiite conflict instead it may be worth looking at how al ma muri s conflict with various shiite militias unfolded in the past in may 2006 for example bartle bull wrote in the new york times what really makes babel special is that it is a largely shiite province in which the shiite militias the mahdi army and the badr brigades have almost no foothold but they are trying all iraq s police answer to the interior ministry which is held by the supreme council for islamic revolution in iraq the main iranian organ in the country and the interior minister bayan jabr has repeatedly tried to replace babel s independent minded provincial police chief gen qais hamza al maamony under heavy pressure from the americans however the minister agreed in january to a moratorium on the replacement of senior police officers until after the formation of the new government nonetheless according to american officials in the province general maamony was recently forced to accept 7...
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