Finnish and Kurdish demilitarized zones

In Turkey people have been made to believe that the country is surrounded by enemies. And because of this the army must be strong. But Turkey has never had a war against its neighbour countries during the 85 years of independence. Turkish army has been fighting only against its own people. Even in North Iraq army's target has been Kurds who are Turkish citizens.
Looking from an European perspective Turkey's neighbours are not too aggressive. But Turkey has the fifth biggest army in the world.

The situation of Kurdish Autonomous Area is opposite to that. It is really surrounded by enemies. And the situation is opposite to Turkey even so that peshmergas do not have other weapons than kalashnikovs, and some old panzers taken from the escaping Saddam soldiers in 1991.

This lack of heavy arms surprised me when I visited North Iraq in spring. In Turkey I have got used of seeing panzers and hearing the sound of military airplanes and helicopters all the time. Kurdish autonomous area has became a demilitarized zone without any one planning is purposefully.

Maybe the Kurdish leaders hope to buy F 16 -aeroplanes and Cobra helicopters and put peshmergas to pilot school as soon as possible. I am not a military expert but my suggestion is that why not keep North Iraq a demilitarized zone also in the future? And make it a real demilitarized area where security is not based even on kalashnikovs. At least it would be cheaper than buying expensive military technology. With the exemption that a good radar system is a necessity.

This came to my mind because my country, Finland, has a demilitarized zone, Aland Islands. They are located between Finland and Sweden. Aland is nearer to Sweden.
30 000 people, who live there, speak Swedish. There was a referendum in 1921 where the people could decide whether they want to be part of Sweden or Finland. They choose autonomy in Finland.

One part of the autonomy plan made by the League of Nations in was that the islands are a demilitarized zone. The area was strategically important especially at those days when St. Petersburg was the Russian capital. It lies by the Baltic Sea. Aland Islands lie in the same sea and who controls them has good possibility to control all boat traffic to St. Petersburg. The decision made whole the sea more peaceful.

Despite times are now different than during the days of the first world war, Kurds should study the autonomy of Aland islands. Maybe there are aspects which are useful for them. Also in other issues Kurds look now at decisions made at those days.

The autonomy and demilitarization of Aland has been successful because it was guaranteed by the international community. An area without arms can live in peace only if demilitarization is made with strong enough international quarantine. When Western countries now desperately want to remove their troops from Iraq maybe a demilitarized buffer zone in the north would be a acceptable solution even for them. International agreements would only legalize the situation which de facto already exists.

This text is published in Gulan, it is in Kurdish here.

ICI Conference in Stockholm 29.5.2008

Representatives of nearly 100 countries took part on Thursday the 29th May in a conference in Stockholm, Sweden's capital. The UN called the conference to review a five-year package it brokered last year, called the International Compact with Iraq (ICI). The gathering followed the conference in May 2007 at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where the Iraq Compact was launched.

In the Stockholm Conference participants represented governments, United Nations and European Union. There were no NGOs. Among the delegates in the Conference were UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, EU High Representative Xavier Solana, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki. Thirteen Ministers of the central government represented Iraq, led by Prime Minister Noori Al-Maliki.

Al-Maliki asked the international community to relieve Iraq's debt. Officials said the move was aimed mainly at Arab countries, to which Iraq owes most of its 67 billion dollar debt. It dates from the time of Saddam Hussein's regime. The debt is owed to the Gulf states of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. The request was aimed at supporting Iraq's efforts to restore stability and rebuild a functioning economy. Correspondents say progress in these areas remains fragile. Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said before the Conference debt was not its subject.

Despite big hopes laid on the ICI Conference the arrangements of it reflected how fragile the situation is. Programme and participants of the delegations were announced only on the same day as the ICI Conference took place. Hope, optimism and need for reconciliation was expressed in many official speeches but difficult topics like the Kirkuk question or bombings of North Iraq were not mentioned.

Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih mentioned in his speech the need to implement the issue of the Disputed Territories and internal boundaries addressed by Article 140 ot the Constitution.

Condoleezza Rice repeated that US supports a unified Iraq. She repeated both in her press conference and in her speech in the ICI conference how the security situation in Iraq is getting better.

Rice refused to answer journalists who asked her to say the biggest mistake what US has made in Iraq. She said the historians will analyse the situation in a different way than people nowadays. She was sure that it was not a mistake to liberate Iraq because now the Iraqi people have a possibility to develop their country and Iraq can become a stabilising force in the Middle East.

Also the other speeches in the ICI Conference sounded similar to speeches held various times in other conferences. The Conference concentrated on issues related to the central government and Arab parts of Iraq. While listening the official speeches people who are unfamiliar to the situation in North Iraq could not imagine that every part of Iraq is not under chaotic conditions.

Kosovo Guidelines for Independence

Martti Ahtisaari.

FIIA's seminar was in the Parliament building in Helsinki.

Pictures by Kristiina Koivunen

Xebat published this text the 13th March 2008. It is in Kurdish here. (It is at the bottom of the page.)

Kosovo declared independence the 17th February this year. Martti Ahtisaari, the former president of Finland, negotiated the peace process. Kosovo crisis is just one episode in the Balkan crisis which has lasted already two decades.

The Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA) arranged in Helsinki the 7th March a seminar about the Kosovo situation. Mr Ahtisaari was the keynote speaker. He told his experiences about the birth process of a new state. Dr Tanja Tamminen had returned from Kosovo three days before the seminar. She told about the feelings in Kosovo: the happiness caused by the independence could still be seen there. People were smiling in the streets of Pristina.

As United Nations Special Envoy for the Kosovo status process. Mr Ahtisaari led the negotiations. He has done a paper called "Guiding principles of the Contact Group for a settlement of the status of Kosovo" (here is a link to it). This paper consists of ten principles which should be followed when the administration of independent Kosovo is created.

Ahtisaari described the Kosovo situation to be a sui general:

"I do not know any other crisis situation with a similar history. Belgrad (the government of Serbia) knew already 2006 what would be the conclusion of the negotiations", he explained. "United Nations should have given an order to the Serbian authorities that you have some years time to arrange a functioning administration in Kosovo."

The Guiding principles of the Contact group demands that in Kosovo "a negotiated solution should be an international priority. Once the process has started, it cannot be blocked and must be brought to a conclusion."

THE IMPORTANCE OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNATIONAL LAW

The Guiding principles for a settlement of the status of Kosovo consists of ten important aspects which should be followed when creating the constitution and other laws in the independent state of Kosovo.

First, the settlement of the Kosovo issue should be compatible with international standards of human rights and international law.

Secondly, as Kosovo is an European country, it's system of law should conform with democratic values and European standards.

Thirdly, the settlement should ensure multi ethnicity. It should provide effective constitutional guarantees and appropriate mechanisms to ensure human rights for all citizens in Kosovo, including the right of refugees and displaced persons to return to their homes in safety.

Also, the settlement should provide mechanisms to ensure the participation of all Kosovo communities in government, both on the central and on the local level. Effective structures of local self government should be established through decentralization keeping in mind the coexistence of different communities.

The settlement should safeguard the protection of the cultural and religious heritage in Kosovo.

And the settlement of Kosovo’s status should strengthen regional security and stability. There should be no changes in the current area of Kosovo.

The seventh principle is the security of Kosovo. The new country should not pose a military or security threat to its neighbours.

And, the settlement of Kosovo’s status should promote effective mechanisms to strengthen Kosovo’s ability to enforce the rule of law, to fight organized crime and terrorism and safeguard the multiethnic character of the police and the judiciary.

It is also important that Kosovo can develop in a sustainable way both economically and politically and that it can cooperate effectively with international organizations and international financial institutions.

The last principle states that for some time Kosovo needs international civilian and military presence to ensure security and especially protection for minorities. There is also a need to monitor and support the administration.

KOSOVOAN PEOPLE CELEBRATE STILL INDEPENDENCE

The other speakers in the seminar were Professor Judy Batt and Dr Tanja Tamminen.

Like Ahtisaari also Batt claimed that Serbian authorities knew that Kosovo’s separation would happen but they did not prepare themselves to adjust for that. Batt gave a good description for the word “self determination”. It is people’s right to live under a government which represents them.

Tamminen had arrived from Kosovo three days before the seminar. She said the atmosphere there was still quite unbelievable and independence celebrations continued. In the Albanian part of the country people did not seem to worry about the reactions in the Serbian parts of Kosovo. People were just happy that the independence was finally achieved.

Anyway, the future problems are big. Kosovo is a poor country. It has the youngest population in Europe: 70 per cent of the people are under 35 years old.

“The biggest problems of Kosovo are corruption and organized crime. Now the most important things are to create a functioning administration and economical growth”, she said.

“People believe that law is the source for peace. But it is politics,” explained Judy Batt. She believes that Serbia will continue to finance some parallel administration in Kosovo but they should not finance parallel police forces.

All the speakers believed that there is need for donor money from abroad as Kosovo is a post war society. Ahtisaari said that custom duties are very important and they should be established quickly.

UN COULD NOT SOLVE KOSOVO CRISIS

Martti Ahtisaari was president of Finland 1994-2000. After that he has been the chairman in Crisis Management Initiative (CMI) which is dealing with international crisis and conflict resolution. 2005 Ahtisaari led peace negotiations between the Free Aceh Movement and the Indonesian government.

At the beginning of September 2007 CMI arranged a seminar in Helsinki for representatives of various Iraqi groups. Ahtisaari was the chairman of this meeting but all details of it were kept secret.

Martti Ahtisaari is a respected person but there is also criticism against his decisions. Some people claim that Kosovo's independence declaration was done in too big hurry. It would have been better to let United Nations to solve the crisis. If the rights of the Serbian minority in Kosovo are not quarantined now there will be new ethnic problems in the future. Russia does not accept the independence of Kosovo. Ahtisaari answered this criticism in Helsinki:

“The war in Kosovo ended already 1999. UN and Security Council have been unable to deal with the issue.” He added that Kosovo has developed these years towards independency. This is a fact which international community must accept now.

Daily newspaper Xebat published in Hewler The Guiding principles for a settlement of the status of Kosovo, they are in Kurdish here.