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description= 10 posts published by Reidar Visser during October 2011;
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the, and, iraqi, iraq, latest, to, in, of, nujayfi, parliament, gulf, analysis, archive, for, october, 2011, archives, categories, meta, my, book, on, amazon, com, twitter, updates, subscribe, recent, posts, christopher, hill, war, legacy, welcome, malikistan, salahaddin, confused, federalism, bid, wave, arrests, baathists, terrorists, are, two, different, things, sadr, demands, resistance, against, us, embassy, baghdad, time, revise, constitution, maliki, parliamentary, seats, iraqiyya, breakaway, factions, uses, word, again, closes, down, paralysis, hits,
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s commission basra and wasit have submitted such requests in the past without any response from the central government the significant aspect of the salahhadin bid is that it could put more pressure on maliki to allow federal referendums from basra in the south to mosul in the north but to get there the politicians of salahhadin must first submit a request within the existing legal framework instead of making up their own procedures posted in iraq regionalism general iraqi constitutional issues 53 comments the latest wave of arrests baathists and terrorists are two different things posted by reidar visser on wednesday 26 october 2011 13 29 the full picture is only beginning to emerge after two days of widespread arrests involving hundreds of people across iraq most of those arrested are described as baathists with vague accusations about plans to subvert the political process in iraq after the us withdrawal the prosecution has yet to speak on these cases but disturbing language has been employed by those who carried out the arrests in many cases their choice of words suggests those arrested were not targeted for any specific planned act or terrorism or even for lauding the baath party but simply for having been members of the baath party in the past in yet other cases vague accusations of terrorism are coupled with specific information about membership levels in the baath party here are some excerpts from the initial reports on 24 october 28 persons were arrested south of kirkuk among them 12 of the firqa or shaaba membership level in the baath party according to local police sources on 24 october police sources in diyala said 15 persons in muqdadiyya had been arrested mostly firqa members of the baath on 24 october police sources in babel said 50 persons had been arrested among them firqa and shaaba members of the baath on 25 october sources in the security committee in the basra governorate said 30 persons had been arrested some of whom were members at the firqa level on 25 october security sources in diyala said more than 30 persons had been arrested across the governorate including some firqa level members of the baath why are these sources so obsessed with membership rank a terrorist is a terrorist no matter what background he or she has right the systematic reference to membership ranks instead of specific accusations of terrorism strongly suggests that a dangerous conflation of the concepts of baathists and terrorists has taken place and that some are being arrested simply for having been a member of the baath in the past rather than for any specific criminal act suffice to say in this context that the iraqi constitution actually offers pro active protection of former members of the baath article 135 5 explicitly says mere membership of the baath party is not a sufficient basis for transfer to the court article 7 of the constitution outlaws propagation of a number of political ideologies where baathism is mentioned alongside racism terrorism and ethnic cleansing but stipulates the passage of a law by parliament to codify this more precisely which has yet to be done in other words there is no basis whatsoever for prosecuting anyone for simply having been a baathist member and arguably at the current time not even for propagation of baathism since this is not covered by any specific form of legislation the systematic information about membership levels strongly suggests this is an attempt to refer to iraq s de baathification legislation from 2008 but it is a flawed attempt the de baathification legislation is only interested in membership level as a principle governing the reinstatement of former baath officials in the public sector high levels like shaaba members are not allowed to return but firqa members are specifically allowed to return with the exceptions of security intelligence and diplomatic services the de baathification act does not in itself offer specific procedures for dealing with allegations of baathist sympathies this is of course not the first time vague accusations of baathism are being used as a basis for vigilante witch hunts against political opponents in iraq the pro iranian shiite islamist parties made such efforts the centrepiece of their election campaign in 2010 and prime minister nuri al maliki eventually jumped on the bandwagon too in this most recent case the wave of arrest was preceded by a campaign of sacking personnel from the higher education sector headed by maliki ally ali al adib where again ideas about de baathification and allegations of incompetence made up an uneasy mix at the local level outright attempts by shiite islamist parties to actually overrule the de baathification legislation were noted both in november 2010 and in june 2011 the arrests were mostly carried out by the ministry of interior as is well known the acting minister of interior is nuri al maliki himself suggesting this could all be yet another element in his minority government strategy the consequences for the climate of iraqi politics are palpable sunni shiite issues over de baathification sunni interest in federalism these are certainly good days for the kurdish leader masud barzani to visit kirkuk for good measure some reports also suggest the iraqi judiciary has now decided to drop charges against muqtada al sadr for his involvement in the murder of abd al majid al khoei in 2003 today in turn sadr expressed support for what the government is doing with de baathication in higher education it was reported yesterday that izzat shabandar the state of law alliance strategist in chief for dialogue between maliki and sunnis and secularists did in fact attend a crisis meeting of iraqiyya his cause if it even exists anymore must now be something of an uphill struggle posted in de baathification iraqi constitutional issues 11 comments sadr demands resistance against the us embassy in baghdad posted by reidar visser on saturday 22 october 2011 18 21 what some had warned about during the discussion of a possible post 2011 us military presence in iraq has now happened muqtada al sadr feels he won the debate about withdrawal instructors and immunities and has moved down to the next target on the agenda the us embassy in baghdad in response to a question from one of his followers sadr now says that after the expiration of the sofa the staff of the embassy should be considered occupiers and must be resisted this may well be the single most significant item in all the news stories about iraq this weekend everyone should have known for months if not years that there would be no new sofa and no immunities for us instructors thanks to the failure of the iraqi politicians to create a pro extension coalition and due to the failure of washington to stimulate the formation of such a coalition the projected us mega embassy in baghdad has become the next vulnerable element in american iraq policy posted in us policy in iraq leverage issues 23 comments time to revise the iraqi constitution posted by reidar visser on friday 21 october 2011 20 22 does iraqi really need more problems right now is there not already a complete stalemate on such momentous pieces of legislation as the oil and gas law and the federal supreme court law can parliament realistically be expected to accomplish significant things when it cannot even agree on its own bylaws or indeed on exactly who the members of parliament are against that backdrop the sudden call by members of iraqiyya this week for the appointment of a new parliamentary committee to urgently revise the iraqi constitution from 2005 inevitably comes across as somewhat unrealistic the suggested timeline of three months seems particularly utopian the constitutional aspect of the matter is as follows article 142 of the constitution calls for the establishment of a committee at the beginning of the first parliament i e in 2005 06 that should be representative of the components of the iraqi people and charged with doing a revision of the constitution within four months to be approved by parliament with an absolute majority and subsequently in a popular referendum where it must not be rejected by two thirds of the voters in any three governorates in other words the constitutional revision belongs to the special category of time sensitive issues in the iraqi constitution other such items include the law for the formation of regions whose 6 month deadline was violated by some months but nonetheless did produce an actual piece of legislation in october 2006 and the settlement of kirkuk and other disputed territories issues supposedly before 31 december 2007 but not yet implemented a constitutional revision committee was eventually formed in october 2006 months past the deadline for the completion of its work it did produce some draft changes in 2007 and wrote everything up in 2009 however this was never considered a final package of revisions and was never voted on inevitably the question today is whether the new iraqi parliament can legally form a new constitutional revision committee and if so whether its revisions can be approved under the special rules specified under article 142 of the constitution ordinary constitutional revision under article 126 requires a two thirds parliamentary majority and a popular referendum majority the constitution clearly mentions one committee only but many of the original committee members lost their seats in the march 2010 elections making it quite unrealistic to revive the old committee also if a new committee is indeed formed should it start afresh or continue on the basis of the rather toothless draft of revisions prepared by the previous committee the likely political dynamics of any such new committee is also an open question normally constitutional issues should bring together the shiite islamist state of law alliance of prime minister nuri al maliki and the secular iraqiyya alliance of ayad allawi against the kurds and the shiite islamist islamic supreme council of iraq isci in theory both state of law and iraqiyya are sceptical to the extension of the federal principle to the rest of iraq beyond kurdistan in the way it was enabled in the 2005 constitution when isci and the kurds dominated lately however personal rivalries between allawi and maliki have prompted iraqiyya to take surprising positions on several constitutional questions including supporting the kurdish stance on the oil and gas law if recent trends are anything to go by this could easily turn into a renewed debate about such inventions as the national council for high policies instead of clearing up the existing framework indeed in announcing their desire to reform the constitution politicians of iraqiyya seemed to focus mostly on anti authoritarianism and the dispersal of power which might well pull them closer to the kurds than to maliki on many questions the constitutional mandate for a new committee seems unclear in the extreme whether it could actually arrive at a package of revisions seems doubtful still there are no signs that parliament is able to move forward on other critical issues at this time maybe another revision committee could at least create a new forum with the potential to avoid a mere replication of the frontlines that are having such a destructive impact on most other spheres of iraqi politics at the moment posted in iraqi constitutional issues 6 comments nujayfi maliki and the parliamentary seats of the iraqiyya breakaway factions posted by reidar visser on tuesday 18 october 2011 18 04 the dust has still yet to settle after the recent shrinking of the iraqi government that process and the question of what to do with the sacked ministers is intertwined with the lingering conflict about the validity of the parliamentary membership of several deputies who gained their seats through a messy process of replacement when party members became ministers in the maliki government in december 2010 in august this year the iraqi press widely reported an alleged decision by the consultative assembly of state a somewhat shadowy administrative court to the effect that the sacked ministers could revert to the seats they formerly held in parliament if they so desired more recently this description of the situation has been modified somewhat through the publication of the actual court ruling which is in fact more limited in scope in its ruling 85 dated 16 august 2011 the court says former ministers can return to their seats provided they remain unoccupied shaghir it should be added that the jurisprudence behind the decision seems somewhat delphic most of the points listed have absolutely no relevance to the decision such as the reference to the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches of parliament and the argument that is used to settle the case is somewhat extraordinary there is no law that prevents the sacked ministers from returning to vacant seats وحيث ان لايوجد نص يمنع المستوضح عنه من العودة لشغل مقعده النيابي غير المشغول من عضو آخر to give someone a seat in the assembly simply with the reference to the absence of laws explicitly forbidding such allocations certainly seems somewhat contrived as long as there are very specific constitutional provisions governing the allocation of those seats in theory the sacked ministers are iraqis like everybody else one might even argue that their sacking in late july was implicitly a verdict of incompetency on behalf of the national assembly at any rate in accordance with the ruling one of the ministers of state falih al sari who belongs to the hizbollah in iraq party within the broader isci badr coalition of parties recently got his seat back and was sworn in again as a deputy there had been rumours last winter that he was about to be replaced in parliament by someone else from his party but this apparently never happened accordingly in this case the action by parliament was at least consistent with the ruling by the consultative state assembly most others of the sacked ministers will not become members of parliament either because they were never deputies in the first place or because someone else was given their seat during the first half of 2011 there are however at least two other cases that remain in focus because of inconsistencies in the way parliament and parliament speaker usama al nujayfi in particular has opted to deal with them firstly there is ali al sajri whose replacement in parliament jawad al bulani recently lost his seat based on a court ruling accordingly that seat remains just as vacant as that which was given back to sari and it seems unclear why parliament should have any legal reason not to give it back to him secondly there is the problematic case of jawad al batikh who was recently replaced in parliament by ammar hasan abd ali from iraqiyya that decision by parliament has been challenged by white iraqiyya the breakaway faction from iraqiyya that was formed by batikh and others around t...
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