Calls for 'independent' Basra could end looting, militia rule
Politicians have highlighted the importance of supporting the popular calls in Basra, which urge making Basra “an independent region”, stressing that the components and resources of the province push toward independence in accordance with Iraqi constitution.
They added that there is nothing wrong, legally or constitutionally, with those calls. However, they were late, amid the continuous looting of Basra resources and oilfields over 16 years under rule of militias.
As the parliament ratified, few days ago, the state budget, political protests occurred in Basra. They were swiftly developed into calls for turning the southern province, rich with oil and overlooking the gulf, into a separate region like Kurdistan in the north.
Some members of the provincial council started to collect signatures to propose establishing a region, although they are not totally confident that their attempt will succeed.
Kurdistan’s privileges stirs controversy about federalism
Politicians, who support establishing the region, according to a report published by The Independent that the success of the idea means that Basra will have wide powers and will get plenty of money to resolve its issues with services. To prove this belief, they indicate to Kurdistan, which possesses most of its financial revenues and gets its double the allocations of Basra from the federal government.
Ahmed Abdul-Hussein Kadhim, head of the administrative and legal committee in Basra provincial council, said “no less than 86 percent from the revenues of the current state budget comes from the oilfields and the border crossings in Basra, however, only 1.5 percent of the budget was allocated to the province, compared to 19 percent to Kurdistan.” He considered that turning the province to a region is urgent to get rid of the injustice.
Kadhim indicated that “Basra provincial council is considered the highest local monitoring and legislative authority, which witnesses collecting of signatures ahead of submitting an official request to establish Basra region to the federal government.”
Huge challenges
Although the main trend in Basra tend to establish a region, however, the political forces are different about their stances. Forces, which don’t support the calls, avoid declaring their rejection, however, they refer to their refusing stances through expressing fears about the separation.
Political analyst and writer Rasheed Fahd rules out Basra to be an independent region in the near future “as political forces there are mainly branches for parties and political movements with leaders who are not from Basra. Their main headquarters are in Baghdad and other Iraqi provinces.”
The provincial council, according to Fahd, “could not be serious about establishing a region in Basra, but refers to this just to pressure the federal government to gain powers and more money.”
In 2015, former MP Mohamed al-Ta’ey submitted a request to the supreme commission of elections to establish a region in Basra, along with signatures of 44,000 voters. The commission then announced accepting the request and moving toward a second phase, however, the federal government hampered the move saying the general situation was not suitable, especially that Iraq was fighting against ISIS.
Former Judge Wael abdul-Latif was the first to attempt making Basra a region after the downing of former President Saddam Hussein in 2003. By late 2008, he managed to collect ballots of two percent of the voters, however, he failed during the second phase, which required the support of 10 percent of the voters in order to hold a referendum. Now, he believes situations are much more suitable than before.
“The aspirations for establishing the region are adopted by organizational committees that are active across the province. Day after another, the number of supporters will increase,” he said.
The supporters of the idea took the initiative and designed a flag. They also made a draft constitution from their region-to-be, taking the social media as way to promote their calls.
Observers note that the feeling of marginalization and injustice will always aspire people to establish their region.They also noted that this could be a strike to corrupt parties which are used to looting the properties of the province.