The mysterious kidnapping and then killing of a Kurdish journalist in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil has unnerved Iraqi Kurds.
Demonstrations have swept several areas in the region and political parties are demanding an independent investigation.
The journalist Sardashet Othman was critical of the Kurdish regional government and its head, Massoud Barzani.
He wrote extensively on how corrupted Barzani’s government has become. But it seems the Barzanis – the powerful tribe which Massoud leads – could not tolerate his criticism, particularly in an article which appeared in the online journal, Kurdistan Post.
In that article, Othman talks of a dream he had about being Barzani’s son-in-law. He imagined what would happen to him and his family and his tribe if the dream was true.
He said he would suddenly become one of the wealthiest in the Kurdish region and his family and his tribe would immediately turn into millionaires.
Only days after that article, Othman was kidnapped in front of a mosque in the heart of Arbil, then killed and his body dumped in the outskirts of the restive Iraqi city of Mosul, one of the main strongholds of Qaeda in Iraq.
Othman’s killing has fueled anger across the region and sparked demonstrations demanding an investigation.
The Barzani family and tribe take almost everything for granted in the region and have done what they have done with total impunity.
But Othman’s murder has put the family and the tribe under immense pressure.
In a strongly worded statement, Massoud Barzani, who is also head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and leader of heavily armed Kurdish militias, warned that he would “chop off the black hands” of those disturbing peace and the ‘democratic’ experiment in his region.
The journalist was a member of the opposition Kurdish party the Change List, the movement which enjoys a large following particularly in the Kurdish Province of Sulaimaniya.
Source: Barzani says he will “chop off the black hands” of Iraqi Kurds protesting murder
of journalist By Basel al-Khateeb Azzaman in English
