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BAGHDAD, 19 September (IRIN) - The Iraqi
government is to conduct a test census across the
country on 16 October as part of preparations for a
general count of its population in 2007, an official
said.
Faisal Abdel Amir, a senior official at the Ministry
of Planning and Development Cooperation, said the
planned national census in 2007 would also correct
the distortion created under an "Arabisation"
programme during Saddam Hussein's regime.
The programme forced Kurds, Turkmen and other
minorities to list their ethnicity as "Arab" or risk
losing their homes, jobs and lives.
More than 50,000 professionals including school
teachers will conduct the test census, including in
the three Kurdish provinces in north Kurdistan.
The last population census conducted in October 1997
found the Iraqi population to be just over 22
million, but without the people of Kurdistan. It
covered only 15 governorates unlike the 1987 census
which included all of Iraq's 18 governorates.
A separate census found that the population of the
northern Kurdish governorates stood at 2.8 million.
In 2004, a count was conducted after the Iraqi
National Assembly agreed that it was necessary to do
it in order to facilitate the January elections.
Officials, however, said the counting was
incomplete, especially after Sunni Arabs boycotted
the poll.
"We expect very good results," Abdel Amir added. "If
the population collaborates in this democratic
process our employees will find it much easier to
complete the coming census of 2007."
Dildar Karam, 41, a Kurdish resident of Kirkuk said
the Iraqi population was anxious about the new
census, especially locals from his area who wish to
see the problems of ethnicity in their oil-rich city
resolved.
"With God's blessing us, we will get back our rights
and the recognition of the true lands," he said.
The Arabisation programme, which started in the
1970s, banished Kurds from Kirkuk, placing Arabs in
wealthier residential areas. According to Human
Rights Watch (HRW), during the late 1990s some
250,000 Kurds and other non-Arabs were forced to
give up their homes and leave the city.
Most went to northern Iraq, some moved in with
relatives, but many ended up in squalid camps, such
as al-Salam near Chamchamal on the southern tip of
the northern region and Benislawa, near the northern
city of Arbil.
Since Saddam Hussein's fall in April 2003, Kirkuk
has been the scene of ethnic tension. The recent
return of Kurds has added to local problems and led
to the displacement of Arabs.
Abdel Amir said the census would also take into
account displaced people. It will be conducted a day
after the national referendum on a new constitution.
Organisers of the plebiscite have said they had
encountered numerous obstacles in the registration
of some 16 million people for the 15 October vote.
For example, a lack of security in the western Anbar
governorate, which has been the scene of fighting
between insurgents and US forces since 2004, had
presented difficulties for those involved in the
registration, due to threats from insurgents.
Officials said militant groups were threatening
people by placing messages on internet sites and
posting notices outside mosques.
www.irinnews.org
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