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Saywan Barzani: Kirkuk oil behind anti-Kurdish suicide
bombings
15.5.2007
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A wave of attacks in
northern Iraq on the border with Kurdistan sets off
alarm bells in the Kurdish region which had been
hitherto spared the type of violence that prevails
elsewhere.
Locals
complain about increasing impediments on movement
like the growing number of checkpoints and controls.
Kurdish government representative says attacks aim
at undermining the only example of democracy and
development in the area; he expects tensions to stay
high till the end of the year when a vote over
Kirkuk will take place. This issue tops Kurdistan’s
agenda.
May
15, 2007
Ankawa, Erbil, Kurdistan region (Iraq), --
“Even though attacks in northern Iraq are
increasing, Kurdistan won’t plunge in the type of
violence seen in the rest of Iraq”. Saywan Barzani,
top Kurdish representative in Europe, is convinced
of this as he spoke to AsiaNews about the rising
incidents of suicide bombings whose aim is to
destroy the “only example of democracy (Kurdistan)
in the region.
At the same
time he admits that the “risk for attacks shall
remain high until the end of the year when the vote
on Kirkuk will take place.”. |
Saywan Barzani, representative of the Kurdistan
regional government in Europe |
The al Qaeda-led Islamic State in Iraq group
yesterday claimed responsibility for a suicide truck
bombing against headquarters of the National Guard
and Kurdish Peshmerga forces that killed 50 people
in the hitherto peaceful town of Makhmour, just
outside the autonomous Kurdish region, which has
been largely spared the kind of terrorist and
sectarian violence commonplace elsewhere in the
country.
The attack in Makhmour was the second in Kurdish
areas in northern Iraq in four days.
The Islamic State in Iraq group had said it was also
behind another truck bomb which killed d14 people
last Wednesday in the city of Arbil, capital of
Kurdistan.
The situation is tense and many Iraqis already
believe that “the honeymoon in the north is over”.
Residents in Ankawa tell a sad story: “There are
more and more check points every day. Moving from
area to another of the region gets harder and harder
because police stop you for your ID card. For the
past few weeks things have been more difficult.”
The Kurdistan Region Government condemned what it
called the cowardly attack in Makhmour even though
the town lies outside its jurisdiction
Saywan Barzani, who is a nephew to Kurdish President
Massoud Barzani lists a number of factors that have
maintained and shall maintain peace in Kurdistan;
they are “the presence of stable political
institutions that benefit from popular support; the
existence of strong Kurdish security and
intelligence forces; the non-interference by the
multinational coalition in the affairs of Kurdistan;
and finally Kurdistan’s peaceful foreign policy
towards its neighbours and non-interference in the
Sunni-Shia conflict in Iraq”.
The referendum that should decide the status of
Kirkuk and might end with its incorporation into the
Kurdish region “plays a role in foreign countries
and terrorist and baa’thist organisations who are
trying to destabilise the region and attack first of
all the Kurdistan Democratic Party (like in Mosul)
and our government (Arbil attack) to prevent them
from implementing the constitution, which calls for
a referendum [in Kirkuk] before the end of 2007.
“Under current circumstances,” he stressed, “it is
impossible for Kurdistan to go the way of the rest
of Iraq, except if multinational troops withdraw.”
Barzani did acknowledge however that “limited
attacks might take place between now and December,”
insisting though that “Kurdish leaders won’t
surrender to threats. Taking back areas arabised
under Saddam Hussein’s regime will remain top
priority in Kurdistan’s political agenda.”
asianews it
**
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, its population
is a mix of majority Kurds and minority of Arabs,
Turkmen.
The former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein forced
about 250,000 Kurdish residents to give up their
homes to Arabs in the 1970s, to "Arabize" the city
and the region's oil industry.
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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