Printer-friendly VersionBy Ako Muhammed
The Kurdish Globe
A "Pack of Honor" is signed by PUK officials in a sign of unity aimed at tackling the party's problems.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, or the PUK, "successfully" ended on October 31 its forth plenum to seek reorganization of the party, which recently suffered crises following the split of a group of its members.
The PUK decided to found a central assembly of 100 members as well as 11 committees to go after the party's problems. Furthermore, it signed a Pack of Honor and scheduled its next general congress for May 2010. This came during the plenum held in Suleimaniya for three days with the attendance of nearly 1,600 members rather than the leading members.
"We as the PUK think that the plenum was very successful as it could send its message to the common discourse and to the PUK and its supporters. It also could appoint a general road map for the PUK," party politburo member Mala Bakhtiyar told a news conference on Monday following the first meeting of the bureau since the plenum. He explained that the road map will revive the party and pave the way toward holding PUK's third general conference "firmly decided on mid May next year."
With the end of the plenum, the PUK politburo started holding sessions trying to interpret the presented recommendations. Eleven committees were formed during the plenum to study and follow the PUK's political report presented by Talabani in the opening ceremony.
Talabani announced that the plenum aims to strengthen the party so that it can better defend the Kurdish people's achievements, including "federalism." He also called for eradicating corruption inside the party and asked PUK leaders to "be among people." "The plenum comes at a crucial time?it is for unifying the [PUK] organizations and thus we must wisely decide toward renewal and reform," said Talabani as reported by his party's official website.
Talabani stated against Goran
Talabani's political report covered different subjects including the historical stutions of the party and the lately split-up of Nawshirwan Mustafa, former deputy secretary.
Mustafa departed from the PUK nearly two years ago. This was followed by the departure of four politburos, a dozen members of the leadership committee, and some other lower-ranking members. Mustafa's group once inside the PUK and called the "Reform" wing established the Goran (Change) Movement, which won almost a quarter of Kurdistan Parliament's seats in the past July 25 regional parliamentary elections.
The PUK secretary general described the split of the Reform Wing as "a conflict between protecting unity and weakening the PUK."
He firmly criticized Mustafa and described him as being responsible for many mistakes the PUK committed since the 1980s, the Suleimaniya-based "Awene" weekly reported from a plenum attendant.
Talabani accused Mustafa of being the first leader to divide the party into wings, and he said Mustafa was responsible for the civil war among Kurdish parties in the 1980s, according to the paper's source, who also conveyed Talabani as saying "Goran and their policy are against federalism, against the return of Kirkuk, and against the Peshmarga."
Anyhow, the plenum decided to officially terminate membership rights for resigned politburo and leadership committee members. However, except for the leading figures, the PUK decided "to open its doors to the return of its members that have already joined the Goran Movement," announced Mala Bakhtiyar in a press conference after the plenum.
The PUK official website recently published the return of several groups including a group of 100 members who rejoined the PUK office in Chamchamal on Tuesday.
He denied what he called "rumors" that the PUK accepted the departed elements with conditions and noted: "There is no condition for accepting them. Thus, if any element, cadre, military member, politician, or writer with them [Goran] wants to come back to the PUK, the PUK will extremely respect them." But he assured that this opportunity excludes the top leaders.
Ratifying reports of 11 committees
On the third and last day of the plenum, attendants voted on ratifying reports presented by the 11 committees. One of the reports was of the Committee of Martyrs, chemical bombardments, the Anfaled and their relatives, the war handicapped, and former political prisoners. The committee recommended improving the life of survivors and relatives of the victims by providing them residences and helping their children to continue their studies. It also suggested building monuments of the victims of Anfal and Halabja chemical bombardments of 1988.
The Committee of Complaints insisted on "the necessity of commitment to the PUK internal system, overcoming ranking discrimination, and commitment to justice." On the same subject, Deputy Secretary General Kosrat Rasul Ali ensured the necessity of creating the transparency committee for covering officials' wealth.
Thus, and based on a suggestion of Talabani and Ali, the plenum decided to investigate the wealth of their officials; for this, a special committee was formed to question their officials about their wealth.
Another committee presented a report about the disputed areas between Kurdistan Region and the federal government. The committee reported that those areas including Kirkuk are suffering political and security problems, and thus affirmed that Iraqi constitutional Article 140 is the "solution for the problem."
Among the suggestions of this committee for those areas were increasing the number of Kirkuk province seats in the Iraqi Parliament and government, increasing its provincial budget, accepting students from those areas in Kurdistan Region universities, and offering agricultural and service projects.
Then, the Pack of Honor was signed by the top politburo members. According to this pact the current members of the politburo and the leadership committee have to protect the unity inside the PUK and also to work for ending sub-groupings inside the party.
This plenum is the fourth of its kind held by the PUK; the previous once were held in 1989, 1992, and 2007. According to the PUK internal system, the party holds plenum whenever a historical necessity or a crucial situation requires it. The PUK had held only general conferences one in 1993 and the other 2001. Since the foundation and during the two conferences, President Jalal Talabani was elected the Secretary General of the PUK.
The party was founded in 1975 based on unification of some political movements of that time, including Heli Gishti (the General Line) led by Talabani, Komalay Ranjderan (Toilers Association) led by Newshiran Mustafa, and the Social Movement led by Salih Yusifi.