Situation before the congress:

On July 17, 1994, the Kurdistan Students Union (KSU) was granted an official license by the Ministry of Interior of the Kurdistan Regional Government. According to the recommendations of the eighth congress, the ninth congress of the Kurdistan Students Union was supposed to be held in 1995, but this date passed three years. There were several reasons for the delay, the most important of which was the involvement of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in the series of civil war of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in May 1994. As a result, most of the headquarters of the Kurdistan Students Union were looted and its members were arrested and intimidated2.

Despite the uneven situation imposed, between 1993 and 1998, the Executive Committee of the Kurdistan Students Union held nine wide meetings to organize their ranks and manage the affairs of the students. In the last meeting, the ninth meeting of the Executive Committee on April 17, 1998, it was decided3 to hold the ninth congress of the Kurdistan Students Union. The Preparatory Committee for the Congress was formed and by May 20, 1998, elections were held to elect the representatives of the Congress in all branches4.

Conducting the Congress:

After all the preparations by the organizing committee, on Wednesday, July 27, 1998, in the presence of 260 delegates, the ninth congress of the Kurdistan Students Union, under the slogan (Science, Freedom, Education), in the presence of President Massoud Barzani Kurdistan Region was organized5.

On Wednesday, July 29, 1998, the congress delegates voted for the members of the new executive committee. For the first time in the history of the Kurdistan Students Union and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), quotas for women were appointed to the executive committee. As a result, four women benefited from the women's quotas.

At the congress, the executive committee was elected as follows:

1- Isa Ahmed Agha

2- Ali Auni Ni'mat

3- Shaban Shaban Ahmad

4- Shakir Abubakr Aziz

5- Awaz Abdulwahid Khidir

6- Ghalib Hussein Osman

7- Ahmed Mohammed Omar

8- Ali Tatar Tofiq

9- Musa Ahmed Agha

10- Hazhar Kako Ahmad

11- Hangaw Abdullah Khan

12- Shameran Ali Mohammed

13- Zuber Abdullah Hussein

14- Fakhir Hussein Sadiq

15- Mohammed Shukri Mohammed Saeed

16- Karwan Jalal Ali

17- Salam Hussein Mohammed

18- Samira Nader Qadir

19- Bayan Osman Hassan.

The reserves were as follows:

1- Nazim Rashid Ismail

2- Sirwan Osman Hassan

3- Mosleh Hassan Mirkhan

4- Murad Khoshawi Hussein

5- Shilan Jaafar Ali, known as Shilan Sheikh Jaafar.

On August 12, 1998, the Executive Committee elected Ali Awni as Secretary and the following members of the Secretariat Bureau at its first meeting:

1- Shakir Abubakr Aziz

2- Hangaw Abdullah

3- Shaban Shaban

4- Awaz Abdulwahid

5- Karwan Jalal Ali

6- Isa Ahmed Agha.

During this period, the KSU also had eight branches: Salahaddin University, Raperin, Erbil, Sulaimani, Duhok-Nineveh (Duhok University branch established in July 1998), Soran, and Akre.

Source:

1.kdp Encyclopedia Archive.