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SALAHUDDIN, Iraq -- Flush with the strong
second-place finish of a Kurdish coalition in
national elections, the Kurdish leadership yesterday
issued a set of demands including a top government
post and an expanded autonomous area for Kurds,
Iraq's largest minority group.
Massoud Barzani, a Kurdish political leader speaking
for the Kurdish coalition that won more than 25
percent of the vote, said in an interview that Kurds
would expect their candidate to be named president
or prime minister in a new government.
Kurds also want to maintain the nearly-independent
status of their autonomous regional government and
to incorporate several cities into the Kurdistan
region, including Kirkuk, a contested oil city whose
population includes Kurds, Arabs, and Turkomen.
The demands could alarm Arab nationalists in the
Transitional National Assembly, as well as those who
fear that a Kurdish grab for power or territory
could destabilize Iraq. But a new government will
require the approval of two-thirds of the national
assembly, a hurdle that would be nearly impossible
to clear without support from the Kurdish bloc.
''An Arab alliance against the Kurds is impossible,"
said Sadi Ahmed Pire, a Kurdish official in Mosul.
''This shows that Kurds are an effective force in
Iraq and are no longer second-class citizens,"
Barzani added at his party headquarters outside
Erbil moments after the vote totals were announced.
Preliminary results released last week showed the
Kurds in second place, prompting interim Prime
Minister Iyad Allawi to visit Salahuddin, Barzani's
snow-shrouded headquarters, in a converted
mountaintop resort hotel.
While the top-finishing Shi'ite alliance tries to
settle on a nominee for prime minister, the Kurdish
bloc's political negotiating team is in talks in
Baghdad over the composition of the new government.
Two major rival Kurdish parties represent most of
Iraq's Kurds, who comprise about 20 percent of the
population. The parties put aside their longtime
feud in November to run as one coalition and
maximize their bargaining power. The parties agreed
that Jalal Talabani, head of the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan, would be the bloc's nominee for
president, while Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic
Party would control the Kurdistan Regional
Government. The agreement gives Kurds unprecedented
influence over the makeup of the central government.
Historically, Kurds have been at odds with Baghdad,
fighting several wars for autonomy or independence.
During the genocidal Anfal campaign in 1988, Saddam
Hussein's regime killed an estimated 100,000 Kurds.
After the fall of Hussein's government, Kurds
capitalized on their numbers, political
organization, and good relations with Washington to
secure a central role in the interim government.
Now, Kurds want what they see as their fair share of
power, including a Kurd as president or prime
minister. They also want two potentially explosive
issues resolved in the constitution set to be
written this year, Barzani said: Kirkuk and other
cities should be incorporated into Kurdistan, and
Kurdistan should preserve its independent Peshmerga
militia.
Barzani called these nonnegotiable ''red-line"
issues. ''It would be impossible for us to accept"
any new limits on Kurdish autonomy, he said.
Under the current agreement in Iraq's interim
constitution, the central government in Baghdad
controls foreign, defense, and monetary policy, with
all other powers in the hands of the autonomous
Kurdish regional government. But only Kurdish
security forces and Peshmerga fighters are allowed
inside the Green Line that separates Kurdistan from
the rest of Iraq. And Barzani reiterated that Iraqi
federal troops controlled by Baghdad could enter
Kurdistan only with the permission of Kurdish
authorities.
Kurdish officials contend that voting irregularities
disenfranchised about 300,000 Kurds who wanted to
cast ballots, mainly in the provinces of Erbil and
Nineveh. They have filed complaints with the
Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq and have
petitioned for additional voting in areas where
officials could not furnish ballots, Pire said.
But nothing could temper the enthusiasm of Kurds who
said the election enshrined a position they have
long been denied in Iraq society. In the city of
Sulaymaniyah, people celebrated by dancing in the
streets and firing machine guns into the air.
''All my life I have been waiting for this," said
Sandra Abdullah, 20, who is studying to be an Arabic
teacher. ''We want a good majority in the national
Parliament, we want a Kurdish president, and we want
independence as soon as possible."
Salman Saleh, 22, a student at Salahuddin University
in Erbil, cited an informal referendum on election
day on Jan. 30, in which more than 90 percent of
Kurds said they backed secession from Iraq. ''The
desire for an independent Kurdistan springs from
deep in our hearts," he said. Still, he was jubilant
yesterday over the Kurdish showing in the election,
even though he viewed it as a minor step. ''Finally
the Kurds are influencing decision-making," he said.
''These results give us power."
Barzani said the Kurdish political leadership did
not support independence for Kurdistan but could not
ignore popular sentiment. ''We had a bitter
experience in Iraq in the past," he said. ''A lot of
oppression has been committed against our people."
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