Armed groups backed by Diyala official captured

Three armed groups involved in organized crime and financed by a local official have been disbanded, Diyala police announced today.

The 36 captured men, who police say were financed by the Diyala Governor's Deputy for Arts Affairs, Ghadhban al-Khazraji, were responsible for several armed attacks and assassinations.

The video-taped confessions were shown during a police conference today, in which the militants admitted to belonging to armed groups such as Ansar al-Sunnah and the Rijal al-Naqshbandiyah and receiving payments from the official for assassinations since 2006.

The groups used silenced guns to assassinate members of the Dawa Party led by Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the Shiite groups of the Supreme Islamic Council in Iraq and the Badir Organization.

Khazraji is a member of the Accord and Reform Front, which is part of the Iraqiya List.

He was arrested on terror charges on Jan. 20 by a special force working under the command of the prime minister.

Date for controversial national conference to be set on Sunday

ERBIL – Political leaders in Iraq are expected to finally set a date this Sunday for a much-debated and anticipated national conference that is hoped to put an end to political dispute in the country.

Spokesman for the Kurdish Blocs Coalition (KBC) in the Iraqi Council of Representatives Farhad Atroushi said the political parties in the country will hold a meeting on Sunday to decide on the date of the conference.

The meeting is expected to include 15 representatives from the major political blocs: seven from the National Coalition led by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, five from the al-Iraqiya List led by rival leader Ayad Allawi, and three Kurds.

The conference was originally the idea of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, where all political parties negotiate to find solutions for the issues facing Iraq following the withdrawal of US forces in Iraq in December last year.

Relations between the National Coalition and the al-Iraqiya blocs - two major blocs who have 180 seats together in the 330-seat parliament - deteriorated after attempts by the Shiite-dominated authorities in Baghdad to arrest Sunni leaders on terror charges.

According to observers, the attempts were used by the Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as a pressure card, especially after Sunni leaders in Diyla and Salahadin provinces announced plans for creating federal autonomous regions in their provinces and accusing Baghdad of repression against the Sunnis.

The news follows the return of Talabani on December 28 following surgery in Germany. He returned directly to Baghdad because the long-heralded conference "depends on his leadership", said senior Patriotic Union of Kurdistan member Fuad Masum.

The KBC previously stated that it feared the conference may fail or not even go ahead in light of the intensifying war of words between the State of Law Coalition and Iraqiya List.

Meanwhile the Sadrist movement led by Muqtada al-Sadr rejected any idea of holding the conference outside of Baghdad, noting that the KBC agreed on holding the conference in the capital. An official source in the presidency office of the Kurdistan Region previously said President Massoud Barzani will not participate in the conference if it is held in Baghdad.

The debate over where to hold the conference arose after the leader of Iraqiya List Ayad Allawi preferred to hold it in Kurdistan. Barzani later announced that he will not boycott the conference if it is held in Baghdad, but stated he will send his representative in his stead.

The Sadrist movement's Ahrar bloc then launched a fresh effort at mediating between the State of Law Coalition and Iraqiya List in the run up to the conference.

Victims of Turkish airstrike commemorated in Erbil

ERBIL – Victims of a Turkish airstrike exactly 40 days ago in Sirnak province, south east of Turkey, in which 36 civilian Kurds were killed, were commemorated in a ceremony in Erbil city, the capital of the semi-autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan.

Turkish authorities announced that the Kurdish civilians who were working as smugglers were mistake for Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels who have been fighting the Turkish states for three decades for the rights of the Kurdish minority in the country. Turkish authorities later offered apologies.

The event on Tuesday was organized by a number of NGOs but was also attended by representatives of the political parties in the region as well. Participants lit 40 candles in commemoration of the death of the 36 Kurds 40 days after their death.

Bilind Mustfa, speaker of the ceremony said "our goal in this commemoration is to reiterate our concern about the Sirnak tragedy, as well as our support for the just cause of the Kurdish nation in Turkey"

Falakadin Kkayi attended the ceremony as special representative of the President of Kurdistan Region Massoud Barzani.

"IT is over 30 years that there is war between the Kurds and Turks in northern Kurdistan [Turkey's Kurdish region], and the continuation of war will inevitably result in tragedies like that of Sirnak. Therefore, the best solution is an end to this fighting and the Kurdish question in Turkey be solved through dialogue and democratic solutions" Kakayi read Barzani's speech.

"We hope that instead of fighting, a different circumstance come forward that will bring reconstruction and development in the Kurdish question in Turkey, in addition to building peace and democracy on the basis of human rights and Kurdish rights"

Opposition MP resigns over scandal

ERBIL –  A member of the Kurdish parliament from the opposition Gorran [change] Movement resigned from parliament following a scandal which outraged his party leaders. Earlier in January 37 parliamentarians, four from Gorran, tried to buy government property on the cheap.

Ismael Galali is the only Gorran MP out of the four to resign from parliament. Last week the other three resigned from the Gorran party, saying they would form a new bloc in parliament to continue their work.

Karwan Salih, Paiman Abdul Karim and Abdul Rahman Hussein said they did not seek to deceive the public and try to own the housing provided for MPs during their work for the parliament. Rather they said they believed parliament should sell the houses to the MPs if it plans to sell them.

The scandal was first reported in a local weekly newspaper Awene. The 37 MPs, most of  them from the ruling parties, signed a petition addressed to parliament's speaker, demanding he allow the MPs own the houses for only $200,000 USD (233 million IQD), the original cost of the houses. But the homes are worth over $600,000 USD (699 million IQD) according to market prices.

The resignation of the Gorran MP, Ismael Galali, comes after Gorran leader Nawshirwan Mustafa criticized the MPs and called on them to explain themselves to the public. He demanded they apologize because under the party's guidelines they were elected by the people to fight corruption.

If the legislators were unwilling to explain themselves Mustafa offered them the choice to fall on their swords. A preferable option for Galali, unlike the other three.

Gorran welcomed Galali's decision to step down in a statement which also quotes Galali as saying the attempt to buy the government house was a mistake.

Gorran MPs involved in bid to own parliament housing at low costs to splinter from party

Jan. 26 – Four parliamentarians from the largest opposition party in Kurdistan region, Gorran, are likely to splinter after party leader Nawshirwan Mustafa criticized them for signing on a bid that would see the buying of parliament housing property at very low costs.

The splinter option comes after the local media reported that Gorran leadership has decided in a closed meeting to sack the four MPs from the party for signing on the petition.

According to the petition signed last month by over 37 MPs in parliament, most of the from the main ruling parties, the houses provided for MPs as accommodation during their work in the parliament and whose value is over US$600,000 would be sold to the MPs at a price no more than US$200,000.

Gorran leader Nawshirwan Mustafa called on the four MPs in an open letter circulated on the media channels in Kurdistan to apologize to the people of Kurdistan for not passing the test of money and breaking their vows to serve the people of Kurdistan Region as they had promised in the electoral campaigns two years ago.

Nawshirwan said in the letter that he always tested real men with money and positions.. "When people praise them they should not be too much self-satisfied and they should not see people as inferior"

"Some of you proved to be weak in the first test… you were not strong enough for the ploy of money, apartments, villas, cars, bodyguards and other privileges..  I don't like anybody avoid bad deeds for me or discipline, but for the fear of being held to account by the public and their own conscience" he said in the letter.

The Gorran leader called on the MPs to explain what happened to the public and offer apologies. Also to push on the parliament to pass legislations to reduce the salaries of MPs which amount to about US$6,000 in a country where average salary of an employee is US$500.

Abdul Rahman Hussein, one of the four Gorran MPs told AKnews that "W have only withdrawn from the Gorran bloc in the parliament, but will continue to work in the parliament.. we will form a new bloc in the parliament, but we will continue to work within the principles of Gorran"

Hussein said the four Gorran MP's signing on the petition was not to buy government properties at very low costs. "We asked the parliament that if it planned to sell the houses it should sell them to the MPs and the payments be made in installments"

Karwan Mala Salih, another of the four Gorran MPs who signed on the petition, refused to give a comment on splintering from Gorran. "We will not talk about this. We have decided it [splintering from Gorran] to release ourselves [from commitment to Gorran obligations]"

By Fryad Mohammed and Raber Y. Aziz