Iraqi Kurd Gets Key Post

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s new democratically elected National Assembly named a former Kurdish resistance leader as the nation’s president Wednesday, a historic event broadcast nationwide and watched even by deposed President Saddam Hussein in his Baghdad jail cell.

Jalal Talabani, leader of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and a longtime bete noire of Hussein, accepted the largely ceremonial post and urged his countrymen to end sectarian and ethnic divisions.

“After being liberated from the most horrific dictatorship in history, our aim now is to achieve the democratic goals that the Iraqi people have struggled for,” Talabani told assembly members during the heavily guarded session.

During his rule, Hussein brutally repressed the Kurdish ethnic community and condemned Talabani as a “criminal.” Now, Talabani has become the country’s first Kurdish president, and he will be joined by two Arab vice presidents: Ghazi Ajil Yawer, a Sunni Muslim who has served as interim president since June, and interim Finance Minister Adel Abdul Mehdi, a Shiite Muslim.

“This is the new Iraq,” said Hachim Hassani, the assembly’s recently elected speaker, “where a Kurdish citizen is elected president of the country and a sitting Arab president will become his deputy. What more could the world want from us?”

The three men are scheduled to be sworn in today. They have announced that they will immediately name Ibrahim Jafari, head of the Islamic Dawa Party, a Shiite group, to the more powerful post of prime minister, who will lead the new government. Cabinet ministers are expected to be named by next week.

Hussein and about a dozen of his top deputies were asked if they wanted to watch an edited tape of the proceeding, including the nomination and Talabani’s acceptance speech, said Bakhtiar Amin, Iraq’s interim human rights minister. All of them accepted the offer and watched the entire clip, said Amin, who was briefed on the viewings. Hussein watched the tape alone from his cell, and the others viewed it together in a separate room.

Prison observers told Amin that the deposed leader and his associates appeared upset as they watched the tape. “They realized that their era has come to an end,” Amin said. “And it gave them a feeling that their trials are coming closer.”

A fuller report on Hussein’s reaction is expected to be released today.

Hussein is awaiting trial, expected to begin this year, on suspicion of war crimes. Those include charges linked to the Anfal military campaign in 1988 in which thousands of Kurds were killed with chemical weapons. Talabani played a key role in publicizing the atrocity to the outside world.

A Kurdish president would have been unthinkable two years ago and was considered a longshot before the elections two months ago. But Kurds, who represent about 15%-20% of the Iraqi population, won about one-quarter of the 275 assembly seats in the Jan. 30 balloting.

Wednesday’s election of Talabani, 72, and the two deputies was arranged weeks ago in a deal between the Kurds and the leading Shiite coalition, the United Iraqi Alliance, which won just more than half of the assembly seats. But the final announcement was delayed because of a dispute among Sunni Arabs over who should be named one of the vice presidents.

With the new government set to take over as early as today, it remains unclear what role interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, whose slate won 40 seats, will play. Though his secular Shiite slate won about 40 seats, Allawi was not offered a top post in the new government. He has skipped the last two National Assembly sessions.

“That issue is still not settled,” said Hussein Shahristani of the United Iraqi Alliance, elected this week as a deputy speaker of the assembly.

In the north, residents of the Kurdish city of Sulaymaniya relished Talabani’s victory, putting up his picture, dancing and singing in street celebrations and wearing traditional Kurdish clothing.

“Now we can say that this is really the end of one era and the start of another,” said Omar Fatah, prime minister of the Kurdish regional administration in Sulaymaniya province. “In this new era, Kurds will be equal citizens in Iraq.”

Talabani, who battled Hussein’s rule for decades, will be in a prime position to assist Kurds with their drive to win control over the oil-rich province of Al Tamim, of which Kirkuk is the capital, and in their effort to retain some measure of self-rule under Iraq’s new constitution.

In his speech Wednesday, Talabani made only passing references to Kurdish issues, focusing instead on questions of adopting Islamic beliefs into the law and removing U.S. troops from Iraq. He earned his most enthusiastic applause when speaking about the need to combat terrorism and warning neighboring countries not to interfere in Iraq’s affairs.

“We will establish security in the country,” he promised.

President Bush called Talabani’s election a “momentous” step. “The Iraqi people have shown their commitment to democracy, and we, in turn, are committed to Iraq,” he said.

Talabani’s election was followed by about an hour of debate and discussion in the assembly, focusing chiefly on allegations about corruption and misuse of power in the outgoing government.

The assembly also voted to relocate its headquarters outside the U.S.-controlled, fortified Green Zone into a facility along the Tigris River.

Times special correspondent Azad Seddiq in Sulaymaniya contributed to this report.