U.S. Rep. Elton Gallegly
Serving the 24th District of California

http://www.house.gov/gallegly/media/media2008/media2008.htm

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 30, 2008
Contact: Tom Pfeifer, (202) 225-5811

Gallegly Iraq Provision Signed by President

WASHINGTON, DC—A resolution authored by Congressman Elton Gallegly (R-Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties) that calls for semiautonomous federal regions in Iraq, in keeping with Iraq’s constitution, was included in the National Defense Authorization Act, signed into law Monday by President Bush.

Under the non-binding resolution, which Gallegly introduced in September, Iraq would remain unified, but regional governments would be granted powers to conduct most day-to-day governmental functions such as law enforcement and education. The central government would continue to be in charge of national issues such as border security, the sharing of oil revenues and the conduct of foreign policy.

“The Dayton Accords are the precedent for such a solution,” Gallegly, a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, noted. “In the 1990s, Bosnia—which had been ruled by ruthless dictator Slobodan Milosevic—was riven by an ethnoreligious war that claimed more than 200,000 lives and left behind 2 million refugees. The United States, along with some of our allies, stepped in and helped facilitate an agreement—the Dayton Accords—that created two largely self-governing entities in Bosnia.

“This helped both to end the violence and preserve the territorial integrity of the country. The alternative would probably have been continued violence or the creation of separate states run by Croats, Serbs and Bosnian Muslims.”

Gallegly, as chairman of the House Subcommittee on Europe, was charged with oversight of the implementation and progress of the Dayton Accords.

“No two situations are the same,” he said. “However, like Bosnia, I believe decentralization and regional self-government offer the best opportunity for U.S. military successes to lead to long-term stability and peace in Iraq.”

In addition to voting for a constitution in 2005 that contemplates semiautonomous regions, Gallegly noted the Iraqi people voted overwhelmingly for sectarian parties during subsequent parliamentary elections.

A political solution along those lines, Gallegly said, would build on and complement recent military successes in Iraq. A similar bipartisan resolution was introduced in the Senate last year.