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The two
main Kurdish parties in Iraq are joining forces in
Kirkuk to take advantage of a recent decision that
added tens of thousands of new Kurdish voters to the
city's voting lists.
The Kurdistan Democratic Party, KDP, and Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan, PUK, recently announced the
formation of the Kirkuk Brotherhood List,
specifically designed to run in Kirkuk's provincial
election. The list unites 12 different parties and
includes Kurds, Arabs and Turkoman - reflecting
Kirkuk's multi-ethnic population.
The KDP, PUK and other parties have formed a major
bloc to fight the election for Iraq's National
Assembly on January 30. But Kurdish parties had
threatened to boycott Kirkuk's provincial election,
scheduled for the same day, unless tens of thousands
of Kurds who were expelled from the province by
former president Saddam Hussein were allowed to vote
for the local body.
Earlier this month, the Independent Electoral
Commission of Iraq announced that displaced Kurds
would after all be granted the right to vote in the
Kirkuk election. That sparked protests from Arab and
Turkoman leaders in this tense, ethnically-divided
province.
Many Kurds view oil-rich Kirkuk as the future
capital and economic heart of a future autonomous
Kurdish entity, although the way Iraq's boundary
lines are currently drawn, the city lies outside the
three governorates that together make up the
Kurdistan region, which has its own regional
administration.
Since the fall of Saddam, tens of thousands of Kurds
have returned to the city to try to reclaim their
homes and register to vote in Kirkuk. Many Arabs and
Turkoman fear the commission's decision will skew
the vote in the Kurdish community's favour.
Mohammed Kamal, a top KDP official, said the Kirkuk
Brotherhood List will attempt to mend relations
among the city's different ethnic and religious
communities.
"Our list is the guarantee for fraternity among the
city's national groups,"
he said.
Jawad Jasim, one of the list's Arab candidates, said
the list would build its credibility by representing
all Kirkuk's ethnic and religious communities.
"My participation on this list is a response to
those who intend to damage the fraternal ties that
existed among the nations of the city," he said.
But Rizgar Ali, a top PUK official who heads the
Brotherhood List, said the list would also work to
implement article number 58 of the Iraqi
Administrative Law - a provision stating that all
Iraqis displaced in Saddam's time, including
Turkoman and Kurds, have the right to return to
their homes. Many of these properties are now
inhabited by Arabs resettled in the area as part of
the former regime's "Arabisation" policy.
Almas Fazil Kamal Agha, a deputy prosecutor-general
who is running on the list, said she would
concentrate on changing the Saddam-era laws that
altered the demographic make-up of Kirkuk. "My goal
is to use the rule of law to reverse all the
decisions the former Iraqi government made about
Kirkuk," she said.
Irfan Kirkuki, a leading Turkoman candidate on the
Kirkuk Brotherhood List, said he will work to erase
the legacy of Arabisation on his own people. He said
cooperation with the Kurds represents a good first
step towards healing Kirkuk's painful past.
"The slogan of our list is brotherhood - and that
means unity among the city's peoples," he said.
This story has not been bylined because of concerns
for the security of IWPR reporters..
http://www.iwpr.net
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