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U.S. colonel joins Kurdish dance for peace 7.2.2007 |
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February 7, 2007
ALTUN KUPRI, Iraq-Kurdistan region border, --
A U.S. Army colonel danced the "debka" at a garden
party in this rural village in January, hand in hand
with half a dozen former Kurdish guerrillas.
They were a study in contrasts: Col. Patrick
Stackpole with crisp fatigues and a blond buzz cut,
pistol strapped to his thigh, stomping along with
swarthy peshmerga fighters with thick black
mustaches, baggy pants and Muslim prayer beads.
Stackpole's soldiers, based in nearby Kirkuk, joined
in or sat cradling automatic rifles as a military
interpreter explained the dual purpose of the dance.
"They do it for a wedding or a ceremony, something
like that," he said. "Or when they want to go to
war."
Resource-rich Kirkuk and its surrounding province
are prized by Iraq's various ethnic groups and could
soon become another full-blown battleground in the
widening civil war.
The rolling hills where Stackpole danced are
resource-rich, producing 40 percent of the country's
oil and 70 percent of its natural gas.
This year, Kirkuk residents face landmark votes that
military experts say could spark sectarian violence:
how to draw provincial borders, and whether to
conduct a census and join the semiautonomous Kurdish
regional government.
Kirkuk, says the recent report by the nonpartisan
Iraq Study Group, could prove to be a new Iraqi
"powder keg."
During the height of his rule as Iraq's president,
Saddam Hussein attempted to wrest control of the
area from the Kurds by settling it with Arab
families.
After Saddam's fall, displaced Kurds returned to
reclaim their property, nearly doubling their
numbers, by some estimates.
The area is now about 40 percent Kurdish.
The party Stackpole attended was held on land that
had been seized from a Kurdish family and settled by
Shiite Muslims. The property recently was returned
to the original owners
Stackpole and his troops are attempting to forestall
violence with a hearts-and-minds campaign that
includes reaching out to both Kurds and Arabs,
doling out reconstruction money and reinforcing
political parties. And dancing.
The fete in this small town, population 20,000, was
orchestrated by a politician who has been one of the
most receptive to U.S. overtures -- provincial
council Chairman Rizgar Ali Hamajan.
The Americans are counting on Hamajan, a Kurd and
former peshmerga, or Kurdish insurgent, to hold
Kirkuk's provincial council together. Arab and
Turkmen politicians are boycotting the council,
citing a list of grievances.
Hamajan meets with them privately to sign off on
legislation and the local budget. In February,
Hamajan is scheduled to meet with Iraqi Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki, President Jalal Talabani,
who is Kurdish, and the country's two vice
presidents to discuss the upcoming votes, mandated
by Iraq's new constitution.
la.times com
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