publications

III. Background

A mass uprising broke out in northern and southern Iraq in March 1991 in the wake of Iraq’s defeat in the Gulf War. The Saddam Hussein government crushed the uprising, causing the exodus of some two million Kurds and Shi`a Muslims to Turkey and Iran. The following month the military forces of the United States, the United Kingdom, and France established a “safe haven” zone in the Kurdish region, followed by the imposition of an “air exclusion zone” forbidding Iraqi fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters from flying north of the 36th parallel.8 Unable to provide air support to its troops, the Saddam Hussein government was forced to withdraw its civilian administration and military forces from the region. In the wake of this withdrawal, in October 1991, the governorates of Arbil, Duhok, and Sulaimaniya, as well as part of Kirkuk governorate, came under the de facto authority of Kurdish opposition forces.

Upon withdrawal from most of the Kurdish region, the Saddam Hussein government imposed an “internal frontline” and an economic blockade on the Kurdish population. Kurdish opposition forces established a joint administration and appointed a Council of Ministers, both dominated by the two principal political parties, the KDP and the PUK.9 By mid-1994, however, fierce clashes had broken out between the forces of the KDP, the PUK and those of a third group, the Islamic Movement in Iraqi Kurdistan, heralding several years of fighting during which the joint administration was effectively dissolved.10 It was not until September 1998 that the KDP and PUK signed the Washington Accord, a US-brokered peace agreement aimed at normalizing relations between the two sides and at the eventual reestablishment of a unified administration. Implementation was fraught with complications, and both sides continued to maintain separate political, administrative, and executive institutions in areas under their effective control.11 In August 2002 the two parties announced an agreement to reconvene a unified parliament and to hold elections for a new parliament. Neither event had taken place when US and other coalition forces invaded Iraq in March 2003, and the Saddam Hussein government fell the following month.

Kurdish political parties were represented in Iraq’s Interim Governing Council appointed by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in July 2003,12 and in the Iraqi Interim Government headed by Ayad `Allawi upon the declared transfer of sovereignty in June 2004. Kurdish political parties contested the January 2005 general elections on a joint platform, the Kurdistan Alliance, and were represented in the Iraqi Transitional Government headed by Ibrahim al-Ja`fari. The Kurdistan Alliance, with the KDP and PUK as its main political parties, also contested the December 2005 general elections. The Alliance won 53seats out of 275 in Iraq’s National Assembly (its members being elected for a four-year term), and were allocated six ministerial portfolios in Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s government. At the regional level, the KDP and the PUK dominated elections also held in January and December 2005 for the Kurdistan National Assembly.

The Iraqi Council of Representatives13 elected PUK leader Jalal Talabani as president of Iraq in April 2005.14 The Kurdistan National Assembly elected KDP leader Mas`ud Barzani as president of the Kurdistan Region in June 2005.15

The Law of Administration for the State of Iraq for the Transitional Period (Transitional Administrative Law or TAL), issued by the CPA on March 8, 2004, paved the way for the establishment of a federal system of governance in Iraq.16 Article 53 of the TAL recognized the “Kurdistan Regional Government” as referring to the Kurdistan National Assembly, the Kurdistan Council of Ministers, and the regional judicial authority in the Kurdistan region.17 The principles of federalism were also enshrined in the Iraqi constitution as adopted by national referendum on October 15, 2005, granting executive, legislative, and judicial powers to the federal regions.18

The KDP and the PUK administrations had not as yet unified when the TAL was promulgated and the constitutional referendum held. As part of the normalization of relations between the two parties, the Kurdistan National Assembly formally reconvened with the majority of its original members (as elected in May 1992)19 for the first time in June 2005. However, until mid-2006 both the KDP and the PUK continued to maintain separate administrations in the territories under their military control, with parallel ministries, judiciary, and security and military forces.20 On January 21, 2006, Jalal Talabani and Mas`ud Barzani signed the Kurdistan Regional Government Unification Agreement, establishing the principles of a unified regional government.21 Formal unification took place in May when they announced a joint cabinet, headed by Nechirvan Barzani.22 Both the regional government and the parliament are based in the city of Arbil, capital of the Kurdistan region.




8 The northern “air exclusion zone” was imposed on April 19, 1991.

9 The joint administration was established in the name of the Iraqi Kurdistan Front, consisting of eight political parties.

10 Efforts by the US to broker a ceasefire during this period and to negotiate a peace agreement failed. In the context of the inter-Kurdish conflict, the political parties’ human rights record was appalling. The parties engaged in widespread arbitrary arrests, detention without trial, summary trials leading to executions, routine torture of both political suspects and common criminal suspects, the assassination of political activists and other perceived critics, and enforced disappearances. Those who were responsible for these crimes were never brought to account. Additionally, tens of thousands of civilians were displaced as they were forced to choose sides and place their loyalties with one or other of the political parties fighting each other.

11 After 1998 the region saw significant improvements in the human rights situation. Both the KDP and PUK closed many secret or unacknowledged places of detention run by the political parties and transferred the inmates to officially recognized prisons operated by the police and internal security forces under the jurisdiction of their respective interior ministries. They accorded all categories of detainees held in these prisons visitation rights. The KDP and PUK abolished the special courts and made efforts to reduce the length of time security authorities held suspects in pretrial detention before charging them with cognizable offenses and referring them to the criminal courts. The number of reported incidents involving the torture of detainees also decreased, as did incidents involving the targeted killing of political opponents. 

12 CPA/REG/13 July 2003/6 – Governing Council of Iraq.

13 The Iraqi Council of Representatives is often referred to in English as the Iraqi National Assembly. 

14 Jalal Talabani also served as interim president, following his election in April 2005.   

15 Kurdistan National Assembly, Decision No. 3, June 6, 2005, Kurdistan Gazette, Vol. 55, July 10, 2005. The election took place in accordance with Law No. 1 of 2005: Law of the Presidency of the Kurdistan Region – Iraq, Kurdistan Gazette, Vol. 55, July 10, 2005.

16 The Transitional Administrative Law came into effect upon the dissolution of the CPA and the restoration of sovereignty to the Iraqis in June 2004.

17 TAL article 53 states, “The Kurdistan Regional Government is recognized as the official government of the territories that were administered by that government on 19 March 2003 in the governorates of Dohuk, Arbil, Sulaimaniya, Kirkuk, Diyala and Neneveh.” The reference to Kirkuk, Diyala, and Nineveh (Mosul) denotes small areas of territory that were under the effective control of Kurdish opposition forces prior to the 2003 war rather than to those governorates as a whole.

18 Constitution of the Republic of Iraq, Section Five, Powers of the Regions, Chapter One, arts. 116-121, as published in the Iraqi Gazette (al-Waqa’i al-`Iraqiyya), Vol. 4012, December 28, 2005.

19 With KDP, PUK, and other political parties represented.

20 The KDP controls the governorates of Arbil and Duhok, while the PUK controls the governorate of Sulaimaniya and part of Kirkuk governorate.

21 The Unification Agreement provided for, among other things: the creation of the post of vice-president of the Kurdistan region, allocated to the PUK and with the incumbent also serving as deputy commander-in-chief of the peshmerga forces; the positions of speaker and deputy speaker of the Kurdistan National Assembly to be allocated to the PUK and the KDP respectively pending parliamentary elections in late 2007; and the creation of a joint cabinet with the KDP and the PUK allocated 11 ministerial portfolios each. The KDP’s share includes the Ministries of Finance, Peshmerga Affairs, Agriculture, and Natural Resources, while that of the PUK includes the Ministries of Interior, Justice, Social Affairs, and Human Rights. The remaining ministries are to be allocated to other political parties in the Kurdistan region. The Agreement provided for the immediate unification of all parallel executive and legislative institutions, with the exception of four key ministries—Finance, Peshmerga Affairs, Justice, and Interior—which would unite within one year. In the interim period, “[t]hese four ministries, until they unite, will have both a cabinet minister and a minister of the region for the affairs of the concerned ministry. Each minister will have responsibility for the part of the ministry which is under their control” (Unification Agreement, art. 5(d)).

22 The Kurdistan Regional Government comprises 42 ministers, nine of them without portfolio.