25-12-2009
By Hawar Abdulrazaq Former socialist MEP Paulo Casaca, who’ve been in the EU parliament for 10 years and is very knowledgeable on Iraq and Kurdistan, says the current Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki acts more like someone who wants to be a dictator. He also says the Iraqi government is under investigation from Spanish judicial court, because of the last July’s “inhumanly” attack on camp Ashraf. Paulo Casaca who at present works for non-government organization called Organization for Studying peace, which is based in New York and he’s in Kurdistan region trying to make report about Iraq’s future after U.S’s withdrawal and he’s planning to talk with all Iraqi parties. Concerning the recent political development in Kurdistan region, the former MP told Rudaw, that the rise of the Kurdish opposition is important. “In my view the steps taken in Kurdistan should be compared with other Middle Eastern countries and not compared to European countries”. Maliki is a dictator About the issues of Kirkuk and the disputed territories, Casaca believes that the best solution for those issues is that the people of that region should make their own decision and no one should force them to do something against their will. “I’ve visited Kirkuk plenty of times and have talked with all the parties in the city and the people haven’t got any problem. Those who have got problem are Iran, Turkey and Al-Maliki, because right now Al-Maliki behaves like somebody who wants to be a dictator”, Casaca added. Ashraf attack inhumane Last Summer, Iraqi authorities under intense pressure from Iran, attacked Camp Ashraf and the members of Mujahedin Al-Khalq, which is an outlawed Iranian opposition group. “The last July’s attacks on camp Ashraf were inhuman act and currently the Iraqi government under investigation from Spanish judicial court. The Iraqi authorities took this action under Iranian pressure and we can see it clearly that recently the security situation in Baghdad has become worse, because Iran is responsible for the latest terrorist act and it’s a message from Iran to Maliki, so that he can remove the member of Mujahedin and close down camp Ashraf,” the Portuguese politician explained. DTP ban bad for Turkey A few weeks ago Turkish government banned a Kurdish party “DTP”, and accusing them of helping terrorists inside Turkey, Paulo Casaca thinks this decision will cost Turkey the European membership. “In my view this decision will hurt Turkey very bad and will cost them the EU membership, because the first principle of becoming an EU member is to respect minority’s rights, and Turkey hasn’t done that and that’s not just against the Kurds, the condition of Turkish Christians are worse than the Kurds,” he claimed (Photo: partido-socialista.net). © Rudaw
