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KIRKUK, Iraq, June 23 (Reuters) - The new
governor of the Iraqi city of Kirkuk, a Kurd, says
Arabs have not been driven out of the disputed city
and those who have left have done so of their own
accord.
"We as the administration in Kirkuk never put any
pressure on anyone to leave, but some left because
they wanted to," said Abdul Rahman Mustafa Fattah,
who was elected governor this week after months of
dispute in the ethnically split city council.
"There is no pressure on anyone to leave Kirkuk, but
some Arabs, who we also consider as victims of the
former regime, decided to go back to their original
cities. It was their decision," he told Reuters in
an interview this week.
"Also, some of the Kurds and Turkmen who were
deported from Kirkuk came back," he added, speaking
at his fortified office in the centre of Iraq's
northern oil capital.
If anywhere in Iraq is a potential spark for a
long-feared but as yet unrealised civil war, it is
Kirkuk, a city of around one million people that
sits atop some of the country's richest oil fields,
about 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad.
The city, whose old sections are a charming if
crumbling collection of tightly knotted alleyways
filled with market stalls, is claimed by three
ethnic groups -- Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen, a
Turkish-speaking minority.
During Saddam Hussein's rule, Kurds and Turkmen were
forceably removed from the city and its outlying
areas to make way for poor Arabs from the south, who
were promised land and other incentives as part of a
process called "Arabisation".
Since Saddam's overthrow in April 2003, displaced
Kurds and Turkmen have flooded back to the city,
hoping to reclaim property and land.
Human rights groups say hundreds of Arabs have been
driven out during the same period and some Turkmen
who stayed under Saddam have also left for outlying
areas, although security has made it difficult to
catalogue the exact number.
Political parties keen to increase their presence in
the city have encouraged returns in some cases,
although Fattah denied any deliberate policy: "If
there was a plan, then all the Kurds who were forced
to leave would have been back by now."
Kurds are clear that they would like to make Kirkuk,
which lies about 25 km (15 miles) outside the
present boundaries of the Kurdish region, the
capital of Kurdistan, a goal strongly, even
violently, opposed by Arabs and Turkmen.
"NATURALISED CITY"
Earlier this month, Arabs and Turkmen in the city
said the police force, which is majority Kurdish,
and other Kurdish security forces had arrested
hundreds of Arabs and Turkmen on the streets and
removed them to jails in the Kurdish region.
The police denied it but U.S. officials said around
200 people had been detained and imprisoned in
Kurdistan. They said they were concerned about
rising ethnic tensions in the city and had raised
the issue with the Kurdish authorities.
The tensions have risen since January, when local
elections saw Kurds tighten their political hold.
Many Arabs and Turkmen boycotted the vote, accusing
Kurds of bringing more Kurds into Kirkuk to increase
their support. In the event, a Kurdish list secured
26 of the council's 40 seats, Turkmen took eight and
Arabs and others the remainder.
Disputes over the outcome, which delayed forming the
provincial council, were settled this week, even
though some Arabs and Turkmen again boycotted. The
head of the provincial council is now a Kurd, while
the deputy's post is open.
Governor Fattah was elected as part of the same
process.
Numbers in Kirkuk are essential because in the
coming months, under Iraq's interim constitution,
property claims must be resolved, a census held and
possibly a referendum conducted on the city's
status. The details are set out in the interim
charter's Article 58, which is held dear by Kurds.
For Fattah, everything about Kirkuk's future is
determined in the interim constitution, which all
Iraq's players signed.
"There may be differences on Kirkuk's political
views and its future," Fattah says. "But we have the
law, it is clear, and says that Article 58 should be
implemented to return things the way they were
before ... the regime.
"Everyone agrees on the naturalisation of Kirkuk,"
he said using a term favoured by Kurds to describe
their hopes for majority control. "There is a law
and everybody agreed on it.
"Everybody signed it."
Reuters
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