Kurdistan Region implemented half of Islamic Group’s demands

ARBIL / IraqiNews.com: Member of the Political Bureau of the Kurdish opposition Islamic Group has said on Sunday that north Iraq’s Kurdistan Authority has implemented half of the demands of the Kurdish opposition forces, denying the assignment of a date for the meeting of the 5 main parties in the Region.   “Kurdistan Region’s Authority had not assigned a date for the beginning of the 5-party meetings and negotiations, to gather the Authority’s two parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, with the three opposition parties, the Goran (Change) Movement, the Islamic Union and the Islamic Group,” Abdul-Sattar Majid told IraqiNews.com news agency.   Majid said that “the Kurdistan Authority had approved half of the opposition’s demands, that had been a condition for the resumption of the talks,” calling for the implementation of the other demands.   “The decisions to restore the transferred employees, who were moved to remote areas, due to their political positions and the accounting of those involved in killing civilians in the events that took place in Sulaimaniya and other cities, were not implemented,” he said.   Kurdistan Region’s President, Massoud Barzani, had issued 4 decisions on 28/8/2011, to put an end for the political tension in Kurdistan and end the boycott between the opposition forces and the Authority’s parties, that continued since Feb. 17 th demonstrations in Sulaimaniya city.   The decisions included the detention of persons, against whom legal decisions had been issued and their trial due to their involvement in the tense incidents that took place in February and March last, non-detention of any person without legal basis, the payment of the financial grants to the opposition Parties in Kurdistan and the formation of a committee to study the illegal administrative and political measures, taken against members of the opposition.   Sulaimaniya city, 364 km to the north of Baghdad, had witnessed during the period from Feb. 17 th and April 21 st , 2011, a series of demonstrations by thousands of young people, university students, intellectuals and civilian activists, demanding broad reforms, fighting corruption and putting an end for the monopoly of power, during which clashes took place with the security forces, killing and wounding dozens of people.   SKH (FT) 271