|
Autonomy,
Oil Money Underlie Kurdish Goals in Iraq |
| Source
: NPR Radio - Dec 22, 2006 |
|
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the
content of news information on this page |
|
Autonomy, Oil Money Underlie Kurdish Goals
in Iraq
26.12.2006
By Anne Garrels and Steve Inskeep |
|
|
|
December 26, 2006
One group crucial to the future of Iraq is the
Kurds. They live mainly in the northern part of
the country, known as Iraqi Kurdistan. For decades,
Kurds fought for independence from Saddam Hussein's
government and paid harshly for it.
Under Saddam's rule, a series of military campaigns
and ethnic cleansing against the Kurds took place in
the 1980s, including the use of chemical weapons on
civilian populations.
The two leaders of the Kurds were once fierce
rivals. Jalal Talabani is now the president of Iraq,
but he is also the leader of the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan, or PUK, which represents about half of
the Kurdish population.
The president of Iraqi Kurdistan is Massoud Barzani,
the son of the legendary founder of the Kurdish
resistance Mustafa Barzani, who founded the Kurdish
Democratic Party, or KDP, in 1946. The PUK wasn't
founded until 1975. The KDP, based in the northern
city of Sulaymaniyah, represents the other half of
the Kurdish population.
For years, Talabani and Barzani were fierce rivals.
After the 1991 Gulf War, the United States put in
place a "no-fly" zone in Northern Iraq, covering
much of Iraqi Kurdistan. As a result, the Kurds were
mostly protected from Saddam -- but not from each
other. In essence, the PUK and KDP fought a civil
war during the 1990s which only ended in 1998, when
the United States brokered a peace deal. |
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani (left) and Kurdish
regional President Massoud Barzani - AFP |
The ultimate goal of both men is an independent
Kurdistan. But they realize that, for now, they must
work within a federal structure under a central
Iraqi government. There are Kurdish populations in
Turkey, Iran and Syria and all of those governments
fear separatist movements of their own if an
independent Kurdistan is formed. Turkey has long
fought a brutal campaign against Kurdish separatists
of the Kurdish Workers Party, known as the PKK. And
on occasion, Iranian forces shell Kurdish
separatists based near the Iraq-Iran border.
The two men are working for as much autonomy from
the central government as they can get, which so far
has been considerable. Iraqi Arabs must have
passports to travel to Kurdistan; the official
language is Kurdish, not Arabic; and the Iraqi flag
has been taken down in many places, replaced with
the Kurdish flag.
Even as they work within a federal structure, a
crisis may emerge in Kirkuk, a city that has
historically been an ethnic mix of Kurds, Arabs and
Turkmen. Saddam attempted to "Arabize" the area
during the 1970s and '80s, forcing Kurds from their
homes, and importing Arabs. Talabani and Barzani see
Kirkuk as the capital of Kurdistan, for historic
reasons and because the city sits astride the
largest proven oil reserves in Iraq.
The Kurdish government is attempting to reverse
Saddam's ethnic program with one of its own, forcing
Arabs out and forcing Kurdish families who lived
there in the past to abandon their new lives and
move to a very dangerous city. Unlike Kurdistan,
which is fairly peaceful, Kirkuk has become a hot
spot for attacks by various Iraqi factions.
A referendum on the future of Kirkuk is expected in
the next year. In a move that enraged both Talabani
and Barzani, the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan U.S.
panel that made recommendations to the White House
and Congress on Iraq strategy, called for the
referendum to be delayed. The study group also
recommended a stronger central government which
would control oil revenue; the Kurds desperately
want to retain control over that money.
The Kurds have worked well with both the Shiite-led
government and the United States so far. Many
Shiites want a similar autonomous region in southern
Iraq, where they are the vast majority, and they
have supported Kurdish autonomy. The United States
has relied on the Kurds to maintain peace in their
areas, and to supply the Iraqi army with members of
their militia, known as the Peshmerga.
But the future of Kirkuk and control of oil revenues
may become serious crises among the Kurds, the
United States and the central government. And as
Iraqi Kurdistan moves ever farther away from the
rest of Iraq, maintaining a federal system may
become ever more difficult.
npr org
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
|
|
® 