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Iraq's Kurds flexing autonomy
7.10.2006
By Yahya Barzanji |
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Oil, flag disputes raise worries for Sunnis,
Shiites
Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan Region (Iraq),
October 7 , -- With violence bloodying Iraq, Kurds
in the peaceful Kurdistan (north) have been showing
signs of going their own way, raising their own flag
and even hinting they could secede in a dispute over
oil wealth - moves that have alarmed Shiites and
Sunnis.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to
Kurdistan on Friday underlined American worries that
Kurds may be pushing too hard too soon for autonomy
powers at a time of increasing sectarian tensions.
Kurds insist they are only using the autonomous
powers given to them by the constitution passed last
year that laid down a federal system in Iraq. But
many of those powers - particularly the division of
oil wealth - remain vague.
Some Shiites are also pressing for their own
autonomous region in the south, but even mere talk
of federalism - amid a wave of Shiite-Sunni violence
that has killed thousands this year - has raised
fears of the country falling apart.
"I warn those who back federal regions," a top Sunni
Arab cleric, Harith al-Obeidi, said in his prayer
sermon Friday in a Baghdad mosque. "They should
think about security in Baghdad before claiming that
federalism will provide security for the regions.
... Federalism in its current form will lead to the
division of Iraq."
Sunnis in particular worry that a breakup of the
country will create strong Shiite and Kurdish
regions in the south and north - where Iraq's oil
wealth is concentrated - and leave Sunnis in an
impoverished central zone with no resources.
Backing for independence has always been strong in
the autonomous zone in Iraq's northernmost three
provinces, where the majority of the country's 5
million Kurds live. They have enjoyed self-rule
since 1991.
While much of the rest of Iraq has been torn by
violence, Kurdistan has remained largely at peace.
Sunni and Shiite Arabs who want to enter Kurdistan
must go through elaborate permit procedures - still,
many have flocked there seeking jobs in one of
Iraq's few areas that see significant private
investment.
Kurdistan's president, Massoud Barzani, sparked an
outcry last month when he ordered all Iraqi flags
removed from government buildings in the region and
replaced with the Kurdistan flag - a green, red and
white tricolor with a yellow sun.
The Kurdish flags remain in place, and Barzani
refuses to raise the Iraqi one - a holdover from the
rule of
Saddam Hussein, who persecuted the minority Kurds
and Iraq's Shiite majority - until a new national
flag is created representing all of the country's
communities.
Kurdish oil deals have also raised concerns in
Baghdad. The Kurdistan government signed a series of
agreements with foreign companies to develop new oil
fields this year. Over the summer, a
Canadian-Turkish consortium drilled a test well in
the area of Taq Taq, between Sulaimaniyah and Erbil.
Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said the central
government would review contracts signed separately
by the Kurdistan government - drawing a sharp
warning from the region's prime minister, who said
if Baghdad moves in on Kurdish deals it would fuel
independence sentiment.
"The people of Kurdistan chose to be in a voluntary
union with Iraq on the basis of the constitution,"
Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said in a statement
issued Sept. 28. "If Baghdad ministers refuse to
abide by that constitution, the people of Kurdistan
reserve the right to reconsider our choice."
At a news conference with Rice in the Kurdish city
of Irbil, Barzani underlined that Kurdistan, "like
any other nation, has the right to
self-determination." However, he said he is
committed to a "federal, democratic and pluralistic
Iraq."
For her part, Rice told Barzani, "I appreciate also
your important participation in the process of
national reconciliation."
Kurdish officials insisted they would move ahead
with developing their oil sector, arguing the
constitution gives them the right to do so.
"We will continue in exploring the oil resources in
Kurdistan in accordance with articles in the
constitution that allow each region to exploit its
resources," Kamal Kirkoukli, deputy president of the
Kurdistan parliament, told The Associated Press.
But the constitution remains vague on sharing oil
wealth. It calls for a fair distribution, but also
gives regions a hand in developing new oil fields.
Parliament has been debating legislation on dividing
oil wealth, but has yet to pass a law.
Kirkoukli and other Kurdish officials dismissed
worries of the Kurds pressing a bid to secede.
"This is nothing new. ... They always accuse the
Kurds that they want to break up Iraq," said Saadi
Ahmed Pira, the Irbil chief of the Patriotic Union
of Kurdistan, one of the region's two main parties.
"Today in the Iraqi government, there are strange
voices of Arab chauvinism and they mirror the ideas
of the previous Saddam government."
"The Kurds' decision not to withdraw from Iraq is
not for the sake of the Sunnis," he said. "In the
current political situation, the Kurds have chosen
to live in a united federal Iraq."
AP
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