In Diyala .. A demand to implement Article 140 to end crises
Shafaq News / The Deputy of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in Diyala, Sherko Mirwais, confirmed on Saturday that 80 percent of the residents of the disputed areas in Diyala are demanding the revival of Article 140 and its implementation as soon as possible to get out of the worsening security and service crises.
Mirwais told Shafaq News, “Civil committees and organizations in Khanaqin previously launched extensive media and social campaigns to educate on the necessity of adopting Article 140 as the main solution to the accumulated problems in the disputed areas in Diyala and even other provinces.”
He pointed out that “the committees and organizations are determined to move through governmental and parliamentary channels and the United Nations to deliver the legitimate demands of the residents of the disputed areas who have become victims of problems and political conflicts and have become prey to armed groups amid the security weakness that prevails in their areas.”
Mirwais added that “the campaign to implement Article 140 will not stop, which is a popular demand to restore rights and liberation from the massive social tragedies that the disputed regions have been experiencing for decades.”
Mirwais affirmed that “80 percent of the residents of Khanaqin and the disputed administrative units in Diyala are calling for accelerating their implementation according to a short timetable and under UN supervision to address the collapse of service structures, widespread poverty, unemployment and lack of job opportunities as a result of the disruption of the exploitation of natural resources on national and political grounds.”
Article 140 provides for the removal of demographic policies conducted by Saddam Hussein’s regime in those areas in favor of the Arabs at the expense of the Kurds and Turkmen, and then counts the population before the last step that is to hold a referendum whereby the population determines whether they wish to join a northern region of the country or remain under the administration of the government Central in Baghdad.
The stages of implementing the article were to be completed until the end of 2007, but security and political problems prevented this, as the Kurds accused Baghdad of delaying the implementation of the article.