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Kurdish members of Iraq's constitutional committee,
fearing they might be sidelined during inter-Arab
haggling over federalism, have raised the stakes in
their talks with Shia and Sunni Arab representatives
about the future structure of the Iraqi state.
Amid ups and downs in Sunni-Shia bargaining, the
Kurds have issued a striking visual reminder of
their familiar demand for self-government, in the
form of a map of "historic KurdiÂstan".
It shows Kurdish territory covering all of northern
Iraq and even running southwards along the Iranian
border as far as Kut, 100km south-east of Baghdad.
As pressure on the drafting committee mounted to
meet an August 15 deadline, Kurdish negotiators are
"upping the ante", in the words of a Kurdish
political adviser.
Privately, Kurdish negotiators laugh at the idea of
a Kurdistan that "almost goes to Baghdad" and admit
that the territorial demands implied by the map are
negotiable.
Still, the map is meant to remind the constitutional
committee of the virtual veto power that the Kurds
can exercise in the nation-building process.
Although a short-lived walkout by Sunni Arab members
of the drafting committee in the past week diverted
international attention to the Shia-Sunni divide,
the Kurds said that the constitutional issues
dearest to them - including the status of oil-rich
Kirkuk - were still far from being resolved.
While the Shia sectarian bloc holds a slight
majority in parliament, the current government could
be formed only after three months of intricate
horse-trading that left important governmental posts
in Kurdish hands.
The Kurds bolstered their autonomy in the north,
while the disputes over the ethnically mixed
northern city of Kirkuk were deferred until later.
The Transitional Administrative Law, Iraq's
US-drafted interim constitution, calls on the
transitional Âgovernment to undo the former
regime's demographic alterations, particularly in
and around Kirkuk, and allow Kurds to move back to
areas that have been "Arabised". Kurdish
negotiators, meanÂwhile, are under mounting
pressure to deliver results to a separatist-minded
Kurdish constituency in the north.
"The politicians who come down to Baghdad are
regarded as a bunch of softies," the anonymous
Kurdish political adviser said. "Some back-country
Kurds even call them traitors."
Apparently to release pressure on the home front,
Kurdish constitutional negotiators say that they are
approaching the new Iraq as a voluntary union that
the Kurdish people can take some time to evaluate.
Kurdish committee members have also asked for the
right to hold an internal Âreferendum in eight
years' time so that the Kurdish-dominated northern
provinces can choose whether to remain a part of
Iraq.
Since US and UK air patrols imposed a "no-fly zone"
in the 1990s, the three self-governed Kurdish
provinces have fostered a strong sense of
independence from Baghdad.
But neighbouring countries, especially Turkey,
remain extremely wary of any talk of "Kurdistan" as
a sovereign state.
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