KDP drops lawsuits against newspapers

Dohuk, Jan. 17 (AKnews) - One of the major ruling parties of Kurdistan Region, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) led by regional president Massoud Barzani, has dropped several lawsuits against newspapers and writers it accused of defamation. The move was welcomed by the media organizations.

The issue of the lawsuits against newspapers and writers goes back to July 2010 after the Rozhname newspaper, the mouthpiece of an opposition group Gorran, accused the KDP and its ally Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) led by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, of profiteering from smuggling oil into Iran.

Following a fuss between the ruling parties and Gorran, KDP filed an unprecedented lawsuit against Rozhname demanding 1 billion Iraqi Dinars in damages, (about US$800,000) on charges of defamation.

Hawlati and Awene, two other newspapers claiming to be independent were also among those the KDP raised claims against on charges "defamation" in one of Erbil courts. The KDP demanded damages of 500 million Iraqi Dinars from each newspaper.

KDP leader's deputy Nechirvan Barzani said in an interview with the local newspaper Rudaw's Monday issue that his party had decided to withdraw all lawsuits against the newspapers in Kurdistan as a "show of goodwill"

The withdrawal of lawsuits has been widely welcomed by the media organizations, in particular the independent media, and journalists centers.

"We believe that what happened is a very positive step to create bridges of understanding and trust between free media and journalists on the one hand, and the political parties on the other." Rahman Gharib, coordinator of the Metro Center to Defend Journalists in the Kurdistan, told AKnews.

Metro is an independent organization dedicated to  defending journalists and freedom of the press in the Kurdistan region.

Hadi Jallo Merei, of the Press Freedom Center in Iraq, says the decision to drop the lawsuits  in the Kurdistan is welcomed in the media in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities as well, calling at the same time for strengthening press freedom with a set of "decisions and actions" without elaborating.

This shows that there is good understanding of the fact that the media have the right to access to information, according to Merei.

The implications of the move by the KDP will be quite positive on the situation of the press in the Kurdistan region, Merei believes. He says the this signals a transition in the regional authorities concept of the role of journalists, so "this will facilitate the work of journalists."

Reported by Khudr Khallat, edited by Raber Y. Aziz

50 killed 150 injured in Tikrit blast

Kirkuk, Jan. 18 (AKnews)  - The death toll of a suicide bombing in the city of Tikrit, 108 km north of Baghdad, Tuesday targeting a police recruiting center has risen to 50 deaths and 150 injuries, according to a source in the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior security source. The suicide attack is the first deadly attack in Iraq since the formation of the new Iraqi government on Dec. 21. No group has been officially blamed for the attack but fingers of accusation is are usually pointed at al-Qaeda. "Fifty people have been killed and 150 others injured in the attack, and the final toll may change" said the source, declining to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Some 300 young men were lining up in front of a volunteer police center in Tikrit, the hometown of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, when a suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest blew himself up among them. The area has been sealed off by the security forces and the injured were being rushed to the hospital already full of dead and injured people. Initial reports previously pointed to at least 14 deaths and 86 casualties, but officials warned the figure would rise. The province of Salahaddin is still the scene of frequent attacks by Sunni insurgents most prominently al-Qaeda. On Jan. 11, at least 6 Iraqi policemen were killed in a car bomb attack in Tikrit and several others weer wounded. reported by Ammar Ali, edited by Raber Y. Aziz Tuesday, January 18th 2011 1:45 PM

Kurdistan: Intellectuals at loggerheads with clerics over freedoms and sanctities

Erbil, Dec. 12 (AKnews) – Clerics and intellectuals in the Kurdistan region of Iraq are locked in a fight over freedoms and sanctities prompting both parties to resort to legal means to settle the conflict. Intellectuals accuse clerics of inciting people against their freedom of thought and written expression, and of slander in their Friday sermons, while the clerics accuse them in turn of insulting Islam, and disregarding social norms and values. More than 1,300 writers, artists, journalists, academics, and lawmakers have signed a bill they have prepared and submitted to the parliament of Kurdistan region calling for the regulating of Friday sermons. Signatories to the bill say the aim of the project is to serve religion while at the same time maintaining public order and national security. "We believe that religion has to be conveyed to the people in a civilized way, without creating problems," the end of the bill reads. KRG Minister of Endowments and Religious Affairs Kamil Haji Ali, says any cleric slandering anybody or discussing matters of current interest through harsh discourse in the Friday prayers will be interrogated. "But unfortunately, the intellectuals have separated themselves as if the clerics are not educated and are not intellectuals. Don't clerics in their Friday sermons also talk about the right of self-determination, the environment, federalism, children's rights and diseases?" says the Islamic Movement of Kurdistan (IMK)'s affiliated minister. According to the proposed bill, in any of the three provinces of the Kurdistan Region there will be three sermons in three major mosques and these sermons will be broadcast on TV and in other mosques live instead of different sermons in the different mosques. Following the submittal of the bill to parliament, the Islamic Scholars Union voiced concern in a statement saying it was a restriction on freedom of though and speech. "…they should have worked for expanding freedom of expression and speech and the horizons of democracy rather than trying to suppress the voices of religious scholars" "We did not expect people who think of themselves as elite to take such a step in trying to silence the voices of other humans" the statement read. In the parliament of Kurdistan, the bill met with flat rejection by the Islamic parties and groups while other secular factions have not officially announced their positions. "We believe the bill looks in no way realistic and it is another attempt to restrict freedoms in the Kurdistan Region" said Bayan Ahmed, an MP of the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) faction in parliament. "Mosques have been serving people throughout history" Ahmed Warti of the Islamic Movement of Kurdistan (IMK) believes a mosque in a particular quarter of a city has its own characteristics and their own territorial concerns to address in their Friday prayers, therefore the bill is not appropriate. On Friday, an imam in one of the mosques in Erbil waved a book of poems by a Kurdish poet in the air attacking the writer and the publishing house saying it contained insults to religion and to God. Erbil's Misdemeanor Court sentenced on Dec. 20 the chief editor of the Kurdish magazine to six-months imprisonment (lightened to three years of supervision) and a fine of 5 million Iraqi Dinars (about US$4,700) was imposed on the magazine because it published a poem that symbolically uses the names of prophets and was interpreted as insulting religion, and an erotic story translated originally from Arabic written some eight centuries ago by a Muslim writer. Intellectuals say their writings, if not approved of by any actors, have to be responded to by civilized means like writings, not by inciting people against them in the mosques. However, when a cleric published a book late December accusing some women's organizations and activists of not contributing to the solution of women's problems in the country and that that they defended norms and values that were alien to the Kurdish community, NGOs, women's rights activists and organizations were infuriated. They organized demonstrations and called on parliament to restrict the clerics and said that such a book should never have been permitted by the ministry of culture. In the demo, women activists raised banners that read "A Lost Truth and a Made Up Lie" referring to the title of the book by the cleric "A Lost Truth" The cleric accuses, in his book, the women's organizations of urging self-burning and suicide among Kurdish women. In an interview with AKnews the writer said he never incited anybody and did not judge anyone but depended on the women activists' own statements and writings to justify his viewpoint in the book. "When you tell a woman not to accept anything from a male counterpart and when you say burning yourself is a sign of bravery and awareness, that encourages women to commit such acts" he said, referring to statements by some women activists. While the intellectuals defend the bill that regulates Friday prayers and restricts sermons, they call for absolute freedom of written expression. A Member of Parliament in the Kurdistan Islamic group (KIG) Ahmed Suleiman thinks that this is ironic because clerics and Islamic scholars are also a slate in the society and they have the right to criticism, expression and defense of their religion as well. "It is their job to defend the religious values, faith and rituals" he says, "intellectuals have to realize that nobody has the power to manipulate the way of conducting Friday prayers by Muslims or the way of worship in other faiths." He called on clerics and intellectuals to handle differences through dialogue, talks and conferences to converge ideologies. Aso Karim of the dominant faction in the Kurdish parliament, the Kurdistani Alliance, says his bloc backs the rule of law and equality and the guarantee of public and individual freedoms. "It is our job to regulate that and guarantee that these freedoms are not violated by anybody," he said. Gorran (Change) lawmaker Rebaz Fattah says his bloc has not officially received the bill so that it cannot officially announce its attitude. "We have not officially convened to declare our position about the bill". Raber y. Aziz Ka/AKnews Wednesday, January 12th 2011 3:59 PM

Rights group says "ongoing" genocide against Kurds in Syria

Sulaimaniyah, Dec. 10 (AKnews) – A Kurdish rights group says Syria is carrying out genocide acts against the indigenous Kurds in the country behind a complete media blackout. CHAK or Kurdocide Watch, a Stockholm-based rights watchdog, says it is planning a conference in the Swedish capital on Wednesday to uncover the persecutions of the Kurds of Syria. Rights groups in Syria have warned that violence against the Kurds is increasing and the Stockholm-based watchdog says Syria's Kurdish region "is under ongoing genocide". "Hundreds of thousands of Kurdish individuals in this country (Syria) are not seen as worth even Arab nationality, let alone Kurdish" said Azad Haidery of CHAK, "their children have no schooling rights. More than 50,000 children do shoe shining on the streets" "Unfortunately, the least coverage by the media and European circles has been devoted to the west part of Kurdistan (Syrian Kurdish region), while the persecution of this Kurdish region is no less than the other Kurdish regions in Turkey and Iran, if not greater" Though there are no official statistics to confirm the number of the Kurds in Syria, unofficial statistics suggest there are about three million of them, accounting for 10-17% of the population. The majority of the Swedish parties are expected to attend the conference on Wednesday, in addition to Amnesty International, and many more human rights groups, according to Haidery. CHAk has held conferences in Sweden on the persecution of Kurds of Turkey as well. "We have also invited the foreign ministry of Sweden, but they have not replied to ups officially" Haidery says renowned Turkish writer Ismail Besikci will also deliver a speech in the conference from Ankara by telephone. And Syrian eye witnesses will also participate to recount mass murders of the Kurds in the country. The PEN Honorary Member has served 17 years in prison on propaganda charges stemming from his writings about the Kurdish minority in Turkey. On Dec. 9, a Kurdish human rights organization (DAD) in Syria, said Kurdish recruits in the Syrian army were killed while doing military service in mysterious circumstances after the body of a Kurdish solder was delivered to his family the same day. The family of recruit Mohammed Jalal Mohammed, received the body of their son who Syrian officers in his military unit said he died as a result of electric shock. Families of the victims often claim their sons were exposed to torture and murder, citing traces and marks appearing on their recovered bodies. Syrian authorities claim the cases are "accidents" or "suicides" without official investigations being conducted into the cases or the bodies being inspected by forensic experts. In 2010, nine Kurdish soldiers were killed while on military duty in the Syrian army bringing the total number of Kurdish recruits killed in mysterious circumstances to 44 since 2004. Reported by Khabat Nawzad, edited by Raber Y. Aziz Monday, January 10th 2011 12:47 PM

Illiteracy down to 16% in Kurdistan region

Erbil, Dec. 28 (AKnews) – Illiteracy rate in Kurdistan Region has dropped to 16% from previous 37% nine year ago and the Ministry of Education is planning to bring the figure down to 10% by the end of 2015. The ministry of education has been implementing a through plan to reduce illiteracy in the Kurdish Region through opening quick learning schools and evening schools that allow adults to go to school for education. Illiteracy rate in 2000 and 2001 was as high as 37% but now this rate is only 16%, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Minister of Education Safin Dizayee told AKnews Tuesday. The opening of more schools and especially the increasing number of quick learning schools and centers for illiterate adults has been very effective, Faisal Hasan, an assistant to the Director General of Erbil Education Department says. He says fighting illiteracy has been a top priority for the ministry of education in the recent years. "In any area or neighborhood, if the majority of the people agree on having an education center they can raise a request to us and we will be happy to help them and provide them with teachers" Hasan said. Currently, there are 88 quick learning schools in the three provinces of Kurdistan Region which educate some 15,585 learners. The quick learning centers are for the people who have dropped out of school and their age won't allow them to go back to their grades. Reported by Ahmed Ghafur Ry/AKnews Tuesday, December 28th 2010 3:01 PM