Iraqi National congress

The Iraqi National congress was a Political party Iraq IEN formed in 1992; it was financed by the the United States which supported it, because it legitimated the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

History

Creation

Created to coordinate about thirty Iraqi parties of opposition, shortly after the War of the Gulf. It is Ahmed Chalabi, Iraqi opponent exiled of long time in the United States, and which practically never knew its country, which takes the direction of it. It is then the first effort of importance to gather the forces of opposition to Saddam Hussein, that they are the two Kurdish principal parties (Kurdish Democratic party and Kurdish patriotic Union), the Arabs sunnites or Shiites, as well as the democrats, nationalists or former officers. In June 1992, a meeting takes place with Vienna. In October of the same year, the Shiite independent groups join the coalition. A directory of three men is elected: the moderate Shiite Moslem clerk Mohammad Bahr Al-Ouloum, the general Hassan Naqib, and Massoud Barzani. An executive council of 26 members is also elected.

The program of the CNI included then human rights, a democratic and pluralist constitution, conservation of the Integrity of the Iraqi territory, and the respect of the international law.

Divergences

Divergences appear and cause a virtual bursting: the two Kurdish groups are opposed to the other members on in particular territorial questions. In front of the increasing difficulties of the CNI, the United States are diverted some to seek other opponents able to treat with the Iraqi capacity, like the Iraqi national Accord of Iyad Allawi.

Moreover, the internal competitions of the CNI push the Kurdish Democratic party to seek the support armed with Saddam Hussein in order to take the town of Arbil to its rival the PUK. Military operation allowed the arrest of 2000 people, of which 600 were carried out and 650 others were evacuated.

Support of the invasion of 2003

It becomes an important component in the American means-Eastern policy when George Bush request with the CIA to find the elements making it possible to make fall Saddam Hussein. John Rendon finds his name to him, and the CNI receives strong subsidies of the Congress of the United States: several million dollars in the Years 1990, eight million in exceptional circumstances in 1998 at the time of the vote of the Iraq Release Act which granted 97 million dollars of support for the Iraqi parties of opposition. Supported by the State Department, it unloaded in the vehicles of the American army, which discredited it in the Iraqi opinion.

This party is practically given up by the State Department in July 2003, shortly after the fall of Baghdad.

In January 2005, it integrates the Iraqi unified Liste, list supported by the Ayatollah Ali Sistani for the elections under American protection. This list comprised parties representing all the ethnos groups of Iraq (Turcomans, Arab, Kurdish) and all the religions (Sunnites, Chiites, Chrétiens).

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