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A group
of Iraqi Kurds presented UN officials with a
petition signed by 1.7 million Iraqis seeking a
referendum on whether northern Iraq should be made
an independent Kurdish state.
"The Kurds under international protection have been
exercising de facto independence in South Kurdistan
(northern Iraq) for the last 13 years and they do
not wish to be controlled by an Arab-dominated
Iraq," the group said.
Iraq's Kurds are ethnically, culturally and
philosophically distinct from Iraqi Arabs and "for
the last 80 years have been subjected by the Iraqi
Arab state to repression, enslavement and genocide,"
a group statement said.
The delegation of Kurds, including two from northern
Iraq and five currently living either in the United
States or Europe, identified themselves as "nonpartisan."
All the signatures had been gathered in Iraqi
Kurdistan, said Najmaldin Karim, president of the
Washington Kurdish Institute and a member of the
delegation.
"We have presented the petition to the Iraqi
government as well," Karim told Reuters.
Delegation members said a decision on a referendum
probably would have to wait until after scheduled
Jan. 30 elections as the country was now run by an
unelected interim government, which includes Kurds.
Iraq's current leaders have ruled out a separate
Kurdish state. So has the UN Security Council, which
has adopted several resolutions calling for the
preservation of Iraq's territorial integrity.
Reuters
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