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As well
as the rights of Kurds returning to the "Arabised"
city, the issue of Kirkuk's future looms large for
Iraqi politician.
Kurdish lawmakers in Iraq's National Assembly and in
the Kurdistan regional parliament are stepping up
pressure to restore the rights of people forced to
leave the northern Kirkuk area under Saddam
Hussein's programme of "Arabisation".
Tens of thousands of Kurds and people from other
non-Arab communities were driven out of the city and
the surrounding region, while in their place - and
often in their homes - Saddam resettled Arabs from
southern Iraq.
The Kurds started coming back after Saddam was
ousted, and some tensions ensued as people tried to
regain their property and as the demographic swing
affected the political balance.
A Kurdish-led bloc won a decisive victory in the
provincial elections held simultaneously with the
January parliamentary ballot, and Kirkuk's Arab and
Turkoman communities felt disadvantaged by a ruling
by the Iraqi electoral commission that allowed more
than 70,000 displaced Kurds to vote.
The provincial council has suffered months of delays
as Arab and Turkoman members threaten to quit in
protest at what they see as an unfair imbalance.
The 2004 Transitional Administrative Law, TAL -
effectively an interim constitution for Iraq - seeks
to restore the Kurds' rights while safeguarding
those of the Arabs, many of whom were forced to
relocate to Kirkuk. Article 58 of the TAL requires
homes and property to be restored to those driven
out of the area, or if this proves impossible, to
provide fair compensation. The people who took their
place are to be offered compensation or assisted
with resettling in the provinces from which they
originally came.
As Iraqi parliamentarians draft the new constitution
that will render the TAL defunct, Kurdish
politicians are pressing for Article 58 to be
implemented in full before it is too late.
Sami Shabak, a member of the Kurdish Alliance, the
bloc which came second in the parliamentary
election, recalled that his group had a pact with
the winning Shia-led United Iraqi Alliance, UIA, to
implement the terms of the TAL's Article 58 - and he
called for this to happen sooner rather than later.
"We insist on the need to implement it at this
stage," he said.
For the UIA, member of parliament Ali al-Dabagh said
his bloc remained committed to Article 58 and denied
reports that it was seeking a delay, "There are no
differences as reported in the media; we agree that
displaced people from Kirkuk who suffered from
racial oppression should be given their rights."
The rights of displaced people is tied to the big
issue of who Kirkuk should belong to. The city is
claimed by Kurds - who would like to see
administrative boundary changes to incorporate it
into the Kurdistan region
- but also by the Arabs and Turkoman who live there.
Article 58 deals with this issue, too, saying a
"permanent resolution of disputed territories
including Kirkuk shall be deferred until after these
measures [restoration of rights] are completed, a
fair and transparent census has been conducted and
the permanent constitution has been ratified".
The law adds that the solution will be made "taking
into account the will of the people of those
territories", implying some kind of local
referendum.
At a press conference last week, Iraqi president
Jalal Talabani - who is a Kurd - reaffirmed that the
Kirkuk issue will not be resolved until after the
constitution has been drafted.
But Massoud Barzani, the president of Iraqi
Kurdistan, and other Kurdish politicians have been
calling for Kirkuk's status to be resolved
beforehand and then made explicit in the
constitution - which has to be finalised by August
15.
Earlier this month, the regional parliament in
Kurdistan, which covers three governorates but not
Kirkuk, said the terms of Article 58 must be
implemented before the deadline for finishing work
on the constitution. And it declared that Kurdish
politicians sitting in the Iraqi national parliament
should not approve a constitution that touches on
matters relating to Kurdistan without seeking the
assent of the Kurdistan assembly.
"Solving the Kirkuk problem is in the interest of
every Iraqi," said Gulnaz Aziz Qadir, who sits on
the Kurdish assembly's human rights committee. "The
people who are now in Kirkuk as a result of
Arabisation were brought there as a result of the
bad policies of Baathism and Saddam."
Kurdistan lawmakers also said Article 58 should be
implemented before the constitution is finished, as
Kirkuk is a crucial issue for Kurds.
Adil Muhammed, a member of the Kurdish parliament,
went further, saying that Article 58 did not go far
enough in addressing the Kurds' grievances, and
"that's why the issue needs to be addressed in the
constitution. It is a confused and unclear article
because there is no deadline for its implementation.
Kurdistan's boundaries should be defined in the
constitution and Kirkuk should be re-incorporated
into it".
Members of the National Assembly countered that
while they were addressing the issue, it could not
be resolved in the month that is left before the
deadline.
Among the topics still under discussion are
compensation for the thousands of Kurds and others
displaced by the Arabisation policy.
Hamid Majid Musa, the secretary general of the Iraqi
Communist Party and head of the parliament committee
charged with implementing Article 58, said the group
is meeting on a weekly basis to establish a formula
for compensating displaced people and resolving
other issues.
"But so far, the required amount for this process
has not been decided," he said.
Abbas al-Bayati, who heads the Islamic Union of
Iraqi Turkoman, and is also a member of the Iraqi
parliament, says it will be easier to resolve the
human rights issues than the matter of Kirkuk's
status.
"The humanitarian aspects of Article 58 say that
displaced Kurds and Turkoman can go back to their
lands, and there is no one who's against this," he
said.
But al-Bayati insisted that the constitution will
not contain an explicit definition of how Kirkuk
itself is to be governed. "The constitution will not
address the Kirkuk issue directly because it is not
a constitutional issue, and it will be dealt with in
a special way," he said.
The section of TAL's Article 58 that talks about
"resolution of disputed territories" - meaning the
possible adjustment of current administrative
boundaries inherited from Saddam's regime - is
contentious and will need extensive discussion, said
al-Bayati. He suggested Kirkuk may end up being
given some special administrative status of its own
that is acceptable to all sides.
Yaseen al-Rubaie and Talar Nadir are IWPR trainees
in Iraq.
www.iwpr.net
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