Kurdish peace process continues
Iraq, Politics, 4/25/1998

Efforts to reach a final peace agreement in Kurdistan region of Iraq have been continuing. Delegates from both the Kurdistan Democratic Party, and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, met on April 23 in Shaqlaw.

Following the meeting, Aziz Mohammed, former secretary-general of Iraq's Communist Party who mediates between the two Kurdish factions, told reporters that media on both sides have violated the principles they agreed upon, "But today I am happy to announce that we have overcome these negative incidents; we have agreed to retrack the media onto its normal track on April 26. We are able to do very much. Several decisions have been taken. People, from now and on, are free to travel between both areas in Kurdistan."

Regarding the important points between PUK and KDP, "There have been several joint points, but with different ideas to implement them. We are to make more endeavors to overcome the remaining complexes." He added, "I believe we can unite all complexes," expressing optimism, "all problems can be solved by negotiation."

Meanwhile Kamal Fuad, head of PUK delegation and member of its politburo said that they were not satisfied with their work and, "We decided to accelerate our mission."

"We reached several positive conclusions; we discussed several basic issues such as making of a temporal multi-party government, conducting a general census as an initiative toward holding the general elections and discussed the mechanism for achieving those steps," Fuad told the reporters.

Sami Abdul-Rahman, a member of KDP politburo and head of the delegation said, "We discussed in detail the negative position of media; neither KDP, PUK nor the Kurdish people benefited from that stand." Our people as well as our friends are awaiting a general and complete peace, he added.

Sami Abdul-Rahman asked authorities from both the KDP and PUK to comply with resolutions adopted by the High Committee and avoid deporting people from their homes.

Previous Stories:
  Car explosion in Suleymaniya, Iraq   (4/15/1998)
  Iran arrests Barzani party members for spying   (3/28/1998)
  Talabani: Hard work required to make peace in Kurdistan   (3/5/1998)

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