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Numerous
areas in Iraq were Arabized. Hundreds of thousands
of non-Arab inhabitants were forcibly dislocated
from their homelands where their ancestors lived for
centuries and where they legally owned and occupied
properties. In their places, the regime of Saddam
Hussein brought Arabs, mostly Shia, from southern
Iraq.
In November 1991 alone, more than 100,000 non-Arabs
were evicted from the Kirkuk area (Kirkukis). This
eviction occurred on orders of the Saddam regime,
after the regime was evicted from Kuwait, and while
the international community remained sharply focused
on Iraq and the war that occurred earlier that same
year.
Events centering on the 1991 war caused hundreds of
thousands of Iraqi families to flee to Turkey, Iran,
Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and to other countries.
Most were Iraqi Kurds who fled to Turkey and Iran.
UNHCR was heavily involved in supporting return and
resettlement of refugees (citizens of a country who
flee across international boundaries).
UNHCR also assisted evicted Kirkukis as IDPs
(internally displaced persons, citizens who flee one
part of their country to another part) by providing
them with housing, water service, sanitation
facilities, food and medicine, and other goods and
services. The international community responded
well, not perfectly perhaps, but nevertheless quite
well.
That was in 1991. From 1992 until 2003, during the
time when the end of the Saddam regime was
unimaginable and nowhere in sight, the Kurdistan
Regional Government (KRG) and the international
community supported the provision of improved
housing for IDPs within the KRG-administered part of
the Kurdistan Region. These IDPs were not only from
Kirkuk, they also hailed from other Arabized areas.
Most IDPs were living in substandard conditions.
Tens of thousands of housing units were built by the
KRG and the international community, many under the
oil-for-food program. The provision of these housing
units included allocations of lands and the
installation of essential services (electricity,
water supply, sanitation systems) and construction
of access and internal roads, schools and health
centers. All of this was provided free of cost to
the IDPs.
The 1991 war led to de-Arabization of areas within
the KRG-administered part of the Kurdistan Region.
Arabs who were brought in to occupy lands and
properties from which non-Arabs were forcibly
displaced relocated. This was a "natural and
voluntary process". There was no tension and there
were no incidents.
Those Arabs knew they were in the wrong place. Other
Arabs who had traditionally been living in the KRG-administered
area and were not part of the Arabization process
remained. They knew they were in the right place.
The 2003 war led to de-Arabization of the rest of
Iraq, except in Kirkuk. While the US and UK
governments professed to uphold and honor the
right-of-return, they prevented the "natural and
voluntary" process from happening in the Kirkuk
area. In the meantime, de-Arabization was happening
in Sinjar, Zimmer, Makhmoor, Khanaquin, and other
Arabized areas. The US and UK urged that an orderly,
examination, case-by-case approach be undertaken -
the Iraqi Property Claims Commission - but it never
really happened under their watch. This was more of
a stalling tactic to prevent what should happen from
happening. More and more time passed and returning
IDPs began living in substandard conditions waiting
for their rights to be granted after more than a
decade of deprivation.
In the meantime, the intrusion of a third party into
a "natural and voluntary" process led to tensions
rising and security incidents occurring. With the US
and UK adjudication process virtually suspended
before it began, and the Iraqi central government
failing to exercise its agreement per the
Transitional Administrative Law (TAL), alternative
plans and actions were instituted. These plans and
actions are based on the same plans and actions
implemented before the 2003 war by the KRG and the
international community for IDPs in the KRG-administered
part of the Kurdistan Region.
Tensions in Kirkuk are thus the result of delay in
allowing the "natural and voluntary" de-Arabization
process to proceed. Security incidents remain at a
relatively low level because of the authority and
influence of the Kurdistan leaderships.
Washington Post reporter Steve Fainaru has written
four articles which reveal an unfair and deliberate
anti-Kurd bias. The fourth, which is the least
biased, is presented below.
The first, on June 15th, alleged that Kurdistan
leaders authorized abductions of Arabs and Turkmen
from Kirkuk for political purposes. Fainaru cited
Arab and Turkmen sources who obviously have vested
interests. He treats such sources with much more
value over Kurdish sources. He deliberately missed
acknowledging the highly threatening security
situation and the process of detaining suspected
terrorists and their supporters employed by most if
not all Coalition forces. Some of his sources are
highly suspect, eg a former Sunni Arab air force
pilot whose background in the current Iraqi context
makes him a very natural suspect.
In his second article, on August 21st, Fainaru tries
to put the Kurdistan peshmerga into the same box as
militias operating in other parts of the country. He
obviously missed the fact that the peshmerga are not
militia; they are military by a law passed by the
Kurdistan National Assembly (KNA) in 1992 after
which military officer training academies and other
military training schools were established. The
peshmerga operate under the authority of the KRG
Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs.
Fainaru fails to give credit to the KRG by
acknowledging the superior environment of personal
security and political stability that prevails
throughout the Kurdistan Region which allow him and
his journalist colleagues to roam freely, alone
without guards, to talk with anyone anywhere at
anytime.
The KNA and KRG were established after regional
elections were held in May 1992. These elections
were certified to be free and fair by international
observers. Further to the peshmerga being military
according to law since 1992, this law was just
ratified in the national referendum that recently
approval the draft Iraqi Constitution.
The third article, on September 3rd, returns to
abductions of Arabs and they being "secretly
transferred to prisons in Kurdish-dominated northern
Iraq". Fainaru fails to acknowledge the security
context in which suspected terrorists are being
detained. Despite two authoritative letters to the
editor Fainaru continues to hammer away at his theme
of deliberately discrediting Kurds and Kurdistan
authorities.
The fourth article, on October 30th, attempts to
lead readers to believe that the Kurds are
deliberately changing the demographics of the Kirkuk
area in order to grab the oil. It is well known that
Saddam changed the demographics through Arabization.
The principle of right-of-return, which the US and
UK governments, and the UN, promote requires that
the situation be corrected. Numerous areas were
Arabized and, as mentioned above, all such areas
have been de-Arabized with the exception of Kirkuk.
Fainaru deceptively tries to lead readers to believe
that Kurds are doing something wrong by pursuing de-Arabization.
Regarding the oil, the approved constitution
underscores the principle of revenue sharing to
which the Kurdistan leaderships have long agreed.
It is curious that for one of his articles Fainaru
reported from Qaraqosh where Zinda Magazine and the
Assyrian International News Agency (AINA) have
wildly alleged the residents were prevented from
voting in the January elections by Kurds. Both run
Internet websites. Both Zinda and AINA have
published distinctively inaccurate, anti-Kurd
material, and their themes are revealed in Fainaru's
articles.
Before the recent referendum, an international
elections observers' group visited the area and
determined that the IECI (Independent Electoral
Commission of Iraq) Mosul Office failed to send
sufficient voting materials for the January
elections throughout a belt where non-Arab minority
groups are located, from Sinjar on the border with
Syria up to the Makhmoor near Erbil. This appears to
have been deliberate on the part of IECI-Mosul.
The Washington Post is normally among the more
credible news sources but in this case it is quite
apparent they have not been exercising sufficient
editorial oversight.
If you agree, or disagree, you all live in
democracies and have the right to freely express
your ideas and opinions. You may send your views to
the Washington Post at letters@washpost.com This is
going to the Washington Post. With more responses,
perhaps, perhaps they just might do something about
it.
New Address & Telephone Numbers :
Nijyar Shemdin
KRG USA Representative
1420 Spring Hill Road, Suite 600
McLean, VA 22102
Mobile: 703 731 1998
Tel.: 703 442 5314 Fax: 703 442 5316
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