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A
delegation of Iraqi Kurds has handed the UN a
petition calling for an independent Kurdistan. The
petition was signed by more than 1.7 million Kurds,
almost half the Kurdish population in northern Iraq.
The petition, signed by residents in "southern
Kurdistan, "calls for a referendum that will lead to
the independence of Kurdistan and the breakup of
Iraq.
UN spokesman Fred Eckhard confirmed that the
organistation received the petition on Wednesday
night, however, he said that the UN receives similar
petitions on a "routine" basis.
The petition was handed to Carina Perelli, director
of the UN electoral assistance division that is
helping to organize Iraq's January election.
The UN fears that an independent Kurdish state might
lead to the breakup of Iraq. It has also adopted
several resolutions stressing the need to preserve
Iraq's unity.
"We have all been working on the basis that you are
going to have a unitary state, an Iraq that is
united and at peace with itself and with its
neighbors," Secretary-General Annan said during a
recent press conference.
Eariler this week, a delegation from the Kurdish
Referendum Movement met with UN officials.
Iraq's interim government along with Turkey, which
has its own Kurdish population with aspirations for
independence, strongly oppose an independent Kurdish
state.
The statement, signed by the movement members,
demanded appointing a special UN envoy to the
Kurdish region and the dispatch of a delegation to
survey "the true will of the Kurdish people ... and
to take practical steps for conducting a referendum
to allow Kurdish people to exercise their right of
self-determination".
The Kurds, who form about 20 per cent of Iraq's 25
million population, have several well-organised
political parties and an elected parliament. They
eariler pledged that the Kurdish region will be
maintained under the new constitution due to be
drawn up after the Iraq’s elections, scheduled for
January.
However, the Referendum Movement's statement
stressed that "the Kurds are a distinctive nation
different ethnically, culturally and philosophically
from Iraqi Arabs".
"Kurdistan was forcibly annexed to Iraq without any
respect for the wish of the Kurdish people, (and)
that for the last 80 years the Kurds have been
subjected by the Iraqi Arab state to repression,
enslavement and genocide," the statetment added.
According to the statement, since 1991, "the Kurds
under international protection have been exercising
de facto independence ... (and) they do not wish to
be controlled by an Arab-dominated Iraq".
"Independence is the goal of the Kurdish people," a
California businessman who is the group's
coordinator, Ardi Rashidi, told reporters.
When asked about the international calls for a
unified Iraq, Mr. Rashidi said: "Of course that is
the current position of the UN. On the other hand,
the UN charter gives people the right for
self-determination. So we are trying to respect the
current applicable law" but at the same time we seek
independence by peaceful means.
aljazeera.com
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