Democracy Kurdish style

A Kurdish writer was thrown into prison for 30 years in a court in Kurdistan just 4 days after the Iraqi elections for swearing at the President of Kurdistan Massoud Barzani.

Kurdish media networks are approaching the case nervously and some are even scared to report about the news. Some newspapers haven't even reported about this anti-democracy and human rights decision.

The writer's name is (Dr. Kamal Saeed Qadir) and he was put in prison for 2 articles he wrote against the KDP.
KDP's tribal mentality are not fit for today's democratic life.

The Kurdish news websites regularly report about this issue but the English ones are a bit quiet. KurdistanObserver are still yet to report about the news while KurdishMedia have published one or two letters. Kurdistani News have published several news but have stopped since after.

Some reports about the new freedom and democracy in Kurdistan :

Dr. Rebwar Fatah: Dr. Kamal’s sentence is against the principles of human rights in Kurdistan
KRG Human Rights Minister: Dr. Kamal is an Iraqi citizen before being an Austrian
Dr Kamal Sayd Qadir describes Erbil court as “illegitimate” and calls for retrial
Dr. Kamal Sayd Qadir’s sister calls on Kurdish intellectuals for help
Erbil court sentences Dr. Kamal Sayd Qadir for 30 years in prison
Dr Kamal Said Qadir: Don’t let Kurds put their hands in my blood
KRG Human Rights Minister: Dr. Kamal Sayd Qadir must rot in prison
Article: Will Iraqi Kurdistan teach Turkey about freedom of speech?
Amnesty International Starts Official Public Campaign on behalf of Dr Kamal Sayid Qadir
Writer detained for articles critical of Kurdish authorities
Barzani’s KDP tortures Kurdish Austrian writer – Kurdish website
Kurdistan regional government admits “abducting” Kurdish writer
Barzani-critic arrested by KDP in Hewler – KurdistanPost

The best thing we can do is zip our lips otherwise we will be also put into prison for swearing AKA criticising the Kurdistan government.

Hello G.A.

At the place where I work, I never talk about blogging and bloggers. As everyone had a purple finger, I was the only one to have a clean finger on 15th of December.

One of the German workers at where I work was surprisingly among the readers of my blog (hello G. A. !!) and he noticed my finger.
He told me...you are not going to vote ?....

I said no.. I am not voting...

He straightly said to me "Do you use the internet" ?

I said yes you just saw me going on that old computer..

He said I read Iraq Wires and sometimes a Kurdish blogger writes there (Iraq Wires is a blog aggregator). He is not voting too...

I said yeah..what is his name... He said to me "Kuourdo" (no one can do it better with a German accent like G.A)...
I said yeah....you are talking to him.....He was surprised..then he said "no wonder why I saw all the photos of our trips there" ... (I once used his camera and poor G.A did not notice..ok sorry for not asking G.A lol) ..

It turned out that G.A. knew much more about "Kuourdo" than I thought.. So after a good chat about the elections and why I was not voting...we became really hungry...we ended up in a nice Kurdish restaurant for a nice Kurdish meal - Kebabs & Mastaw (yoghurt drink) !!

Iraqi Elections in Kurdistan :

Because of the nature of my work, I could not report about the elections on the day. I have collected photos, reports, interviews, and results in this post from different forums and news websites as well as blogs.
I would like to thank all these forums and blogs and websites.

Photos:
Election Photos 1
Election photos 2
Election Celeberation photos 3
Election photos 3 (protests by an Islamic Kurdish party)
Election Celeberations in Netherlands photos 4
Photos of Kurds participating in the Iraqi elections 15.12.2005
Photos of Kurds participating in the Iraqi elections 14.12.2005
Election photos 12.12.05
More Holland photos

Results:
The elementary results of the Iraqi elections in Kurdistan
Iraqi Vote Update from Global Voices (Delal)
Kurdistani Alliance sweeps 46% of London votes
Iraqi election: Kurdistan alliance list is on top of EU countries
Iraqis vote, celebrate near Washington, DC
About 95 percent of Kurdish Amedi took part in the election
Kurdistan President votes using Arabic ballet box
Kurds win in Kirkuk - Hiwa

Removable Ink ?!
I did not participate. But fraud and cheating was very wide across the whole of Iraq. My friend who works in Baghdad told me that he and his friends voted several times because the purple ink could be washed off with any cleaning liquid.
Another way to remove the ink was to dip your finger in oil (cooking oil, car oil etc) before entering the polling center, then washing your hands with soap was enough to get it off.

Lack of ballot papers across Iraq ?!!
One funny thing happened on the day is that we heard that ballot papers run out across Iraq. An election official came on a popular radio and said we have sent out ballot papers for every single voter to the polling stations. That is about 15 million ballot papers. How can they run out ?
Well they can. This is what happened. Every single party started to fill out papers by themselves.
A friend of mine went to vote..He is of the religious type and he wanted to vote for the Kurdistan Islamic Union. He is a funny guy he always makes jokes. This is how he told me about his experience:
"I went to vote at about 3.30 pm. A guy eating an apple and a few election officials (women and men) were dancing on the other side to some loud Kurdish dance music)...they told me voting is over...My friend told them "Look it is 3.30...voting is until 5.."...they told him "oh don't worry..we voted for you"..
My friend gets angry and shouts "Voted for me ?! Who told you to vote for me ?? They told him "We voted for you for 730..we will win..come and dance with us"..my friend (who does not look religious at all) told them I don't want to vote for 730..I want to vote for what I believe in...

the election officials become confused and they give him a ballot and let him vote...Later when he finishes, they ask him who did you vote for..He says that is private...they give him an apple and tell him not to tell anyone !!!

This happened all over Iraq. In Rumadi and other Sunni areas, tribal militiants were in charge of security and not the independent Iraqi army !!!

But despite all of these violations, it is not too bad...Better could be done in the future.

Iraqi Election!
It has been a quite day for Kurdistan...I will post a detailed description of events in the following hours.

Credibility of some Kurdish News Websites

I have received several emails from a few people asking me about if the following Kurdish news websites are credible or not... Because I have got this question from at least 4 people in the last couple of weeks I think I should post about it...

1st : The Kurdistani
This news provider publishes (reprints) and also they write their own reports regularly. I have been following this website for a couple of months now and I have not found anything wrong with them.
The sources of their news reports are mainly independent Kurdish news providers (Radio, newspaper etc) and they do qoute their sources...
One of the emails I recieved was "I found this report here can you verify it for me please..As I didnt find it on any other websites"

You can find the same news report on several Kurdish websites actually... But they are not English...The report qoutes "Radio Nawa" (A very popular Kurdish radio which at least 80% of Kurds listen to now) and the same report can be found on their website as well as in several Kurdish newspapers such as Hawal. The same story of a protest in Hewler on 19th of November 2005 against the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) was also shown on Azadi Tv (local Tv) in Kurdistan. (Azadi Tv is funded by Kurdistan Communists Party).

So I would say that Kurdistani News is as reliable as any other major Kurdish news websites.

2nd Kurdistan Observer
This website is also reliable which mainly publish (reprints) and sometimes very important exclusive news. It has been in operation for over 5 years and besides The Kurdistani, is one of my daily reads.

So if you found a report on a Kurdish (English) website just see what is their qouted source...try to find that source (which for sure will be in Kurdish) and if you had problems contact me or any of the Kurdish bloggers we will be able to help.

Saddam Trial

Stayed in all day yesterday to watch Saddam's trial.

I think the trial is unfair - (not to Saddam, but to his victims) because :

1. The trial is not live. We get 30 minutes delay. Let's hear what the man has to say. Why he did that to us LIVE and without censors.

2. The trial video is edited and censored. This is not fair. So many people have died and so many mothers and fathers and orphans want to hear the facts. Why is the video censored and edited ?

3. All we get to see is Saddam being defiant, his aids crying for help....but nothing about facts...Saddam wanted to explain what he was doing in the video and he was stopped from doing so. Let's hear what the man has to say for fairness's sake.

plans

after a long negotiation I have come to an agreement with this Kurdish website and we have come up with some plans to improve Kurdish blogs and news reporting.
For my part I will do translation of Kurdish blogs and monitoring of Kurdish English blogs and they will publish it. We have some terms which I will post very soon and I hope other bloggers will join in. Any suggestions ? let me know please.