|
Many Iraqi Arabs feel strangers when they
visit Kurdistan (Northern Iraq)
8.7.2006 |
|
|
|
Many Iraqi Arabs feel strangers when they want to
go to their country’s north
SULAIMANIYAH, Kurdistan-Iraq, July 8, --
Iraqi Arabs seeking to escape the violence can find
the safety they crave in the Kurdish-ruled north -
but only after negotiating their way through a web
of bureaucratic rules that make some of them feel
like foreigners in their own country.
Iraqi Arabs who want to stay in the three provinces
of Kurdistan for more than 10 days must obtain a
residence permit from special police. To get one,
they need a local Kurd to vouch for them.
For Arabs traveling alone, the permit must be
renewed every month. For families, the permit is
good for three months.
Even for short stays, procedures can be complicated.
At the Bani Makkam checkpoint along Kurdistan’s
border, motorists who are not from the region must
surrender their car papers and receive a special
permit allowing them to operate the vehicle in
Kurdish areas for 10 days.
When they leave, they surrender the permit and get
their car papers back. Arab visitors are screened at
checkpoints to make sure their names do not appear
on lists of known insurgents and must explain the
purpose of their visit.
Even officials are subject to the same controls.
Recently, a delegation of the largest Sunni Arab
political party, including three members of
parliament, nearly missed their connecting flight
from Irbil to Turkey as they waited for clearance to
enter Kurdistan, one of them said.
“We told the officer in charge that we are an
official delegation and showed him our identity
cards and official documents. But still he treated
us in a very rude way, saying he was just following
orders,” said Ammar Wajih of the Iraqi Islamic
Party.
Complaints have been increasing recently since this
time of year, thousands of Arabs head north to
escape the sweltering heat of Baghdad and other
areas. In Kurdistan, they can wile away night time
hours in restaurants and stroll city streets without
fears of car bombs and drive-by shootings.
About 10,000 Iraqi Arabs live in Sulaimaniyah alone,
and 30 to 40 families arrive each day to spend some
time away from bombs, bullets and kidnap gangs,
according to Brig. Gen. Sarkot Hassan, head of
security in the province.
“I came with my family to Sulaimaniyah to forget the
problems, explosions and sectarian war,” said Khaled
Hussein, an Arab, who arrived from Baghdad with his
wife and three children for a short vacation. “We
wanted to take a breath of fresh air for a few
days.”
Kurdish officials insist such measures are necessary
to maintain the peace that millions of other Iraqis
can only dream of.
For construction foreman Adnan Mohammed who has been
living in Sulaimaniyah for two years after fleeing
Baghdad he doesn’t feel any racism from Kurds.
His 11-year-old daughter Mariam now speaks Kurdish
and most of her friends are from the region but
Baghdad seems to have a special place in her heart.
“I love Baghdad more than Sulaimaniyah,” said the
girl as she played with her sister and two brothers
in a public park.
Special controls were imposed after the Feb. 1, 2004
twin suicide attacks against two political party
offices in Erbil that killed 109 people. The Sunni
militant group Ansar al-Sunnah Army claimed
responsibility.
Many Iraqi Arabs worry that such measures could be a
first step toward secession and establishment of an
independent Kurdish state, although Kurdish
officials deny that is the intent.
The Kurdish region had been out of Saddam Hussein’s
control since the 1991 Gulf War, when the Kurds set
up their autonomous region under the protection of
US and British warplanes. After the US-led invasion,
Kurdistan was the only region that did not witness
major changes.
Since the early 1990s, Kurdistan has been controlled
by the two major political parties, the Kurdistan
Democratic Party of Massoud Barzani and the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan of Iraqi President
Jalal Talabani.
The new constitution recognizes Kurdish self-rule
and provides a legal mechanism for other areas to
govern themselves but within the Iraqi state.
“We see that the stable security is not the results
of today’s work but the result of 10 years of hard
work and we should do all we can to preserve it,”
Hassan said.
AP |
|
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 