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IRBIL,
Iraq - (KRT) - The head of the Kurdish
Democratic Party, long one of the staunchest
advocates for going forward with Iraq's January
elections, said Thursday that he would be forced to
reconsider his position if Kurds were not allowed to
re-establish their ethnic majority in the strategic
city of Kirkuk.
The Kurds, an estimated 4 million people, would be
the second of the countries' three major ethnic
groups to raise objections to the elections.
Minority Sunni Muslims already have threatened a
boycott, arguing that continued violence in key
Sunni cities like Fallujah, Ramadi and Samarra will
prevent their voters from going to the polls.
Massoud Barzani, the populist leader of the
semi-independent territory known as Kurdistan,
delivered the warning to American military
commanders during a lunch at his sprawling compound
in the rugged foothills overlooking Irbil. "We will
defend the rights of our people," Barzani said.
Slowly and deliberately, Barzani laid out his
position: Residents of Kirkuk would vote only in a
national election. Scheduled elections to determine
leaders of the city and surrounding province would
have to be put on hold until Saddam Hussein's "Arabization"
of the region was reversed, restoring Kirkuk to a
Kurdish majority and ousting the tens of thousands
of Arabs who were brought to resettle the region in
the 1970s and `80s.
"If this is not done," he said, "that might oblige
the Kurds to take a different position regarding the
election."
Barzani did not explain what re-evaluating the
Kurdish position on elections might entail. But the
options are myriad, and most are troubling for the
new Iraqi government and the United States, both of
which want elections held as scheduled on Jan. 30.
Kurds in Kirkuk could boycott the elections; Kurds
in Kirkuk could vote for only national leaders and
not provincial ones; Kurds nationwide could refuse
to participate in the election because of the issue.
Speaking through an interpreter, Barzani told the
American commanders, "We are ready to take great
risks. We will risk everything we have in Kurdistan.
But we will not accept the Arabization of Kirkuk."
Thursday's meeting had begun with the customary
niceties - hugs and handshakes, small talk and
declarations of friendship - after two American
helicopters crested the Kurdish mountaintops and
touched down on Barzani's private twin helipads. But
within 20 minutes, Barzani's statements indicated
possible road bumps ahead.
Kirkuk, about 150 miles north of Baghdad and about
60 miles south of Irbil, is at the heart of Kurdish
national identity. The city and province were once
predominantly Kurdish until Saddam's regime
recognized the potential of the region's oil fields
and farmlands. Over two decades, the regime razed
thousands of Kurdish villages in the province, the
rubble of which can still be seen from the air
today.
On Thursday afternoon, Col. Lloyd Miles, the top
American commander in charge of Kirkuk province,
reminded Barzani that all decisions about the
elections must come from the interim government in
Baghdad. U.S. officials and military commanders
could not influence the situation, Miles insisted.
But Barzani dismissed such protests. He reminded the
colonel that the Kurds' loyalty to America dated to
1991, when Kurds rose up against Saddam after the
Persian Gulf war. Since then, Kurdistan has been
largely autonomous, with American and British air
patrols protecting the territory.
In the last war, Kurds provided key intelligence to
American military commanders on the ground.
"It has been the Kurds who fought side by side with
you. It has been the Kurds who died with you. It has
been the Kurds whose blood flowed with yours,"
Barzani said, suggesting that he believed the United
States could use some of its influence to help a
longtime ally.
But Miles, speaking outside Thursday's meeting, said
his orders are to ensure that U.S. troops do not
appear to be influencing the election in any way. He
has spent an increasing amount of time in recent
weeks focusing on training Iraqi National Guard
battalions and the Kirkuk police so that local
forces will be the ones to secure polling places.
"There is nothing that would be worse than to have
American soldiers standing outside polling sites,"
he said.
Miles, who commands the 2nd Brigade of the 25th
Infantry Division, has been in Kirkuk for nearly a
year. In that time, he has come to see the disparate
perspectives of all the citizens of Kirkuk, a city
that now is nearly equal parts Kurdish, Arab and
Turkomen, with a healthy population of Assyrian
Christians as well.
"None of it is as simple as the Kurds would like it
to be," Miles said. "To kick out the Arabs and send
them back to where they came from some 30 years ago
is going to create yet another chain of displaced
persons. To redraw borders in this province means to
redraw the borders of the surrounding provinces.
"It is very complex, but I truly believe that if we
can somehow get this right in Kirkuk we can get it
right in all of Iraq," he concluded. "The city is a
microcosm of the nation as a whole."
Clouding the Kirkuk situation is the interim
constitution that was implemented in March to guide
the interim government until elections could be
held. Article 58 states that the transitional
government "shall act expeditiously to take measures
to remedy the injustice caused by the previous
regime's practices in altering the demographic
character of certain regions, including Kirkuk."
Article 58 goes on to assert that residents
displaced by practices like Arabization will either
be given back their homes and property or
compensated for them; that individuals who were
moved to new regions under Saddam should be
resettled back in their original homes, and that the
new government should seek to restore altered
provincial borders.
"The unfortunate thing is that the TAL (interim
constitution) did not give us a timeline," Miles
told Barzani on Thursday.
Tense moments aside, Barzani, a jovial man dressed
in traditional Kurdish clothes, patted Miles on the
arm and motioned for him to eat lunch at the end of
their conversation. It was an elaborate feast of
lamb, chicken and fish, Kurdish salads and soups,
rice and breads.
As they began to make their way to the dining room,
Miles told his host, "The Kurds have been very good
friends to us."
Not missing a beat, Barzani looked at his guest with
a smile.
"In that case, sir, don't let your friends down," he
said.
© 2004, Chicago Tribune.
http://www.chicagotribune.com
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