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Iraqi Supreme Committee Attempts to
Normalize Kirkuk 5.2.2007 |
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February 5, 2007
The Iraqi Supreme Committee has issued a decision
for the application of Article 140 of its permanent
constitution, which seeks the normalization of the
situation in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk. The decision
specifies the return of the Arabs, who had come to
reside in Kirkuk [as a result of the Arabization
policy], to their places of origin in central and
southern Iraq, in addition to
providing them with financial compensation.
The
decision also stipulates the return of Kurdish and
Turkmen employees, who had been dismissed for
political reasons and who had been transferred
outside of the city, to their former jobs.
These developments came following a Supreme
Committee meeting that took place yesterday in
Baghdad, headed by the Iraqi Minister of Justice,
Hashim al Shebli. The minister described the
decisions “as the most important ones issued by the
committee so far.” Speaking from Baghdad in a phone
interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, al Shebli said that
the committee has submitted the decision to the
cabinet and was awaiting the Iraqi Prime Minister,
Nouri al Maliki’s ratification.
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No specific time frame was announced for the
implementation of these resolutions, the Iraqi
minister of justice explained, “The matter is
related to us insofar as passing the resolutions, as
for the implementation, it belongs to the related
executive bodies.”
Aside from the deportation of the Arabs living in
Kirkuk back to their places of origin in central and
southern regions of the country, the resolution
stipulates granting them twenty million Iraqi Dinars
(IQD), the equivalent of US $12,000, in addition to
a plot of land where they will be relocated.
According to al Shebli, the decision includes the
rest of the disputed areas around Kirkuk, in
addition to Sinjar and Khanaqin.
Kakarash Sidiq, member of the article 140 high
commission and head of the article's execution
committee in Kirkuk, revealed to the German Press
Agency that the committee has also decreed to
“cancel all agricultural contracts that were formed
during the Arabization campaign and to return of the
land to its rightful owners.”
Parliamentarian and Deputy of the Kurdistan
Alliance, Mahmoud Osman, welcomed the decision
stressing that the resolution will only be
implemented on the Arabs who arrived later and was
not applicable to the Arabs who had originally been
residing in the city, and added, “I welcome the
practical and acceptable implementation of Article
140, as it will lead to the normalization of the
situation in the city and therefore resolve the
conflict there.” He was, however, simultaneously
skeptical about the ability to implement these
referendums and said, “Even if the decision has been
made, I do not know how it will be implemented given
the dire state in the city.”
In a telephone interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, MP
and head of the Iraqi Turkmen Front, Saad al Din
Arkij, said that for his part he believes that
forcing the Arabs [of the Arabization era] to leave
the city and offering them financial compensation is
a mistake, as they should be given the right to
choose whether to stay or leave Kirkuk. Arkij added
that the city’s present instability and lapse in
security is an extremely grave matter, and said,
“issuing a decision such as this one at a time like
this will lead to a clash between the
nationalities.” He accused the Kurds of attempting
to change to the city’s demography and added that,
“Huge numbers of Kurds who came from the provinces,
and even from outside of Iraq after 2003 to settle
in Kirkuk [with the intention of] changing the
city’s demography,” calling for “the necessity of
the normalization of Kirkuk.”
The multi-ethnic city of Kirkuk is considered one of
the central controversial points between the Kurds,
Turkmen and Arabs. The city has witnessed sporadic
acts of violence of an ethnically related nature,
the last of which was the explosion of seven cars
loaded with bombs last Saturday, 3rd February, near
the two major Kurdish party offices; headed by Jalal
Talabani, [leader of the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan (PUK)], and the Kurdistan Democratic
Party’s (KDP) office, headed by political leader
Massoud Barzani.
aawsat com
* The former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein forced
more than 250,000 Kurdish residents to give up their
homes to Arabs in the 1970s, to "Arabize" the city and the region's
oil industry.
Kirkuk city is a Kurdistani city and it lies just south border of the Kurdistan
autonomous region and it is not under the full
control of Kurdistan Regional Government
administration.
Based on Iraq's Constitution, a referendum is to be
held in late 2007 to decide whether the oil-rich
Kurdish province should be annexed to the safe
semiautonomous Kurdistan region in Iraq's north.
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