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Kirkuk tensions rise as fateful ballot
nears
8.8.2007
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Looming referendum to decide Kirkuk’s future fuels
sectarian violence in this mixed city.
August 8, 2007
Kirkuk, Kurdistan region border with (Iraq),
-- Sectarian conflict in oil-rich Kirkuk has
increased as Kurds, Arabs and Turkoman vie for
control of the city and its
resources, ahead of a referendum to decide if it
will become part of the Kurdish-controlled region of
northern Iraq.
Residents of Kirkuk - nicknamed “Little Iraq"
because nearly all of the nation's ethnicities and
religions are represented here - say they are being
targeted by rival sectarian political groups.
The intimidation and violence is such that Suni and
Shia Arabs do not dare to go to Kurdish
neighbourhoods; Kurds avoid Arabs; and Turkoman and
Christians rarely move from their areas.
Kirkuk's major religious and ethnic groups blame one
another for the violence that has increased ahead of
the referendum, which will determine whether Kirkuk
and some disputed territories close to Mosul will be
governed by the Kurdish Regional Government, KRG, or
the central authorities in Baghdad.
The constitution stipulates that the ballot be held
by the end of this year.
Representatives of some ethnic minority groups say
they are being marginalised by Kurdish-led local
authorities and are ready to take up arms to prevent
Kirkuk becoming part of the Kurdish region.
Turkoman officials say several businessmen from
their community have been killed, abducted and
blackmailed by Arab extremists. Kurds, and
particularly Kurdish parties, are regularly attacked
by the militants, while Arabs claim to be threatened
by what they say is a repressive Kurdish regime that
controls much of the northern province.
Many are calling for the referendum to be postponed
to avoid sparking further conflict.
Kirkuk has not always been so diverse. It used to be
predominatly Kurdish and Turkoman, who are ethnic
Turks, and also had smaller Arab and Assyrian
Christian communities. But in the 1980s, Saddam
Hussein engineered a major demographic change when
he forced thousands from the two main communities to
leave the city and replaced them with Sunni and Shia
Arabs.
Today, Kurds hold 26 of the 41 seats in the Kirkuk
provincial council, while Turkoman have nine, and
Arabs six.
Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution, which Iraqis
approved in 2005, makes provisions for the so-called
“normalisation” of Kirkuk. It calls for Arabs
settled under Saddam to return to their home
provinces, while Kurds and Turkoman who were
expelled are to be allowed to come back.
Kurds are now returning to the city en masse to
reclaim their properties as part of a repatriation
programme, which is overseen by a committee
comprising representatives of the central
government, the KRG, Kurdish parties, Arabs and
Turkoman.
But normalisation has not really taken place as
intended, creating divisions, as the political
grafitti on the walls of Kirkuk demonstrate.
“Kirkuk is Turkish forever”, “Kirkuk is Kurdistan's
Jerusalem”, “Kirkuk is for all Iraqis” are slogans
plastered on party offices across Kirkuk. The
divisions reflect the ongoing struggle for Kirkuk's
identity.
Tensions have increased since the fall of Saddam's
regime in 2003, with minority groups claiming that
Kurds are determined to control Kirkuk, which they
claim is historically a Kurdish province.
Arabs and some Turkoman are opposed to a Kurdish
takeoever. Many also object to the way in which the
normalisation process is being implemented.
They claim the Kurdish authorities are offering
financial incentives for Kurds to return to Kirkuk,
bolstering their number and possibly ensuring
Kurdish control of the city in the referendum.
In the spring, the government agreed to give Arab
settlers about 15,000 US dollars plus a plot of land
in their places of origin if they returned
voluntarily.
If, as a result of the referendum, the province is
incorporated in Iraqi Kurdistan, there’s a very real
danger of full-scale violence breaking out here.
“The implementation of Article 140 may escalate
violence in the area, and it will result in sinking
Kirkuk residents, in particular, and Iraq, in
general, in a new river of blood,” warned Sunni and
Shia Arab tribes earlier this year.
Independent observers confirm Kurd claims that Arab
extremists are mainly responsible for ongoing
violence, blaming them for the continued bombings
and attacks which primarily target civilian and
Kurdish institutions.
Sunni Arabs in the Iraqi cabinet oppose Kurdish
control of Kirkuk, as does neighbouring Turkey,
which regards itself as the guardian of Iraq's
Turkoman minority and is hostile towards the KRG.
While Shia Arabs and Kurdish groups are allies in
Baghdad, Shia parties fear a political backlash from
their own followers if they are seen to be handing
over Kirkuk, believed to have 60 per cent of the
country’s oil reserves, to the Kurds.
Kakarash Siddiq, director of the Kirkuk office of
the Article 140 committee, said that few Arabs have
applied to return to their provinces of origin. He
believes Sunni extremists have warned Arab settlers
not to leave the city.
Arabs are in an unenviable position, as they face
intimidation from extremists among them and are have
been targeted, along with Turkoman, by Kurdish
security forces, who they accuse of brutality and
illegal detentions.
In 2005, the Washington Post reported that Kurdish
police and security units had kidnapped hundreds of
Arabs and Turkoman as part of a “concerted and
widespread initiative” by the two leading Kurdish
parties “to exercise authority in Kirkuk in an
increasingly provocative manner”.
Khalid Awad, a 53-year-old Sunni Arab resident of
the Huzeyran neighbourhood, said innocent Arabs are
being arrested by Kurdish officers.
"I can't move around freely during the day, and at
night when I’m at home I fear raids by Kurdish
security forces," he said. "They arrest people and
hold them for a couple of months in prisons in
[Iraqi] Kurdistan."
But Kurds have similar fears themselves. In the
Kurdish neighbourhood of Rahimawa, north of Kirkuk,
Sama Jawhar, a 32-year-old Kurd, says he rarely goes
to Arab majority neighbourhoods. “I am afraid of
abduction by Arab militants," he said.
Representatives of the Arab Advisory Council, a
Sunni Arab association in Kirkuk, say that if the
Iraqi government does not curb Kurdish domination
and the detention of Arabs in Kirkuk, ”we will also
begin detaining and abducting Kurds”.
Abdul-Rahman Munshid al-Assi, the head of the
council, said that when the Americans leave, Arabs
will fight to ensure that Kirkuk is not incorporated
into the Kurdish region.
“We know [the Kurds] are strong economically and
have a militia, but we won't surrender. We will
defend Kirkuk, and clashes can be expected the
moment that the Americans withdraw," he said.
Assi said that while he welcomed Kurds returning to
Kirkuk, he opposed them doing so simply to drive up
their numbers.
He says he was also against the removal of Arabs,
insisting Kirkuk is a city for all Iraqis.
Rebwar Talabani, a Kurdish representative in the
Kirkuk provincial council, dismissed Assi’s threats
as “useless, fiery statements”, warning that the
Kurds would resort to violence if the normalisation
process is obstructed.
"Kurdish properties were confiscated by Arabs for
years. [Kurds] are waiting for justice and the rule
of law, and if they don't get this they will resort
to arms," he said.
Some Turkoman parties have now allied with the
Kurdish parties, which have pledged to guarantee
Turkoman rights if Kurds take control of Kirkuk.
Other parties, such as the prominent Turkey-funded
Turkoman Front, back the Arabs against the Kurds.
Ali Mahdi, head of Turkoman committee in the
provincial council, said Turkoman are part of the
Turkish nation and "if the Kurds force Kirkuk to
join [Iraqi] Kurdistan by force, I am the first one
ready to fight".
He also claims that not all Kurds who have come to
Kirkuk since the fall of Saddam are originally from
the city. "The Kurdish parties give money to any
Kurd who is ready to go back to Kirkuk to ensure
that Kirkuk is Kurdish," he said.
But Fou'd Ma'soum, the head of the Kurdish bloc in
the Iraqi parliament, denies these allegations. "No
Kurdish families, Iraqi or non-Iraqi, who don’t
originate from Kirkuk have been settled in Kirkuk,"
he said. “ I challenge any party to present the name
of a single person brought in from outside Kirkuk
who was not originally from Kirkuk.”
To vote in the referendum, residents must show
documents proving they are originally from Kirkuk.
Ma'soum said that many former residents of Kirkuk
are reluctant to return. "We face a problem of
Turkoman and Kurds from Kirkuk, who currently reside
in Erbil and Sulaimaniyah, who refuse to return to
Kirkuk because of the security situation. They are
demanding financial incentives to return to their
homes," he said.
Some accuse the Kurds of trying to gain complete
control of the area at all cost.
Mahdi compares the Kurds to the Ba'ath party,
accusing them of trying to assume absolute power,
and suggests the US military is sympathetic towards
their goals. "The American troops and consul [in
Kirkuk] are lenient regarding the Kurdish attitude
to Kirkuk," he said.
While he noted that Turkoman support the
constitution, he proposes the referendum be
postponed for a couple of years and Kirkuk be made a
federal province under the United Nations in order
to prevent Kurdish domination of the province.
The Iraqi army, in cooperation with US-led
multinational troops, has already prepared a
security plan for Kirkuk for the referendum period,
said General Anwar Hama Amin, Kurdish commander of
the Iraqi army in Kirkuk, which is based in Kaywan
military base on the outskirts of the city.
"We will stand against any violent acts by any
ethnic group," he said.
It remains unclear whether a plebiscite will be held
by the end of 2007.
Shia parties, such as Muqtada al-Sadr's loyalists
and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, as well as
leading Sunni Arab parties in Baghdad, are against
staging the ballot by the deadline, fearful that it
will deliver Kurdish control of the province.
The US Iraq Study Group, meanwhile, recommends that
it be postponed for a year, warning that it could
spark violence in the province. Turkey too has
called for it to be put back, drawing the ire of
Kurdish officials.
In March, the Iraqi Azzaman newspaper reported that
the referendum would be delayed beyond 2007,
following an agreement between Turkey and Iraq
during a visit to Ankara by Iraqi vice-president
Adel Abdul Mahdi.
But Bahruz Galali, representative for the Iraqi
Kurdish party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan,
said in an interview that it would go ahead as
planned. "We're not thinking about postponing it,"
he said.
Meanwhile, as the parties squabble amongst
themselves, Kirkuk residents feel increasingly
vulnerable.
“Party and government officials are creating a tense
security situation in the province,” said Abdul-Hadi
Awwad, a 46-year-old Sunni Arab.
“Arabs, Kurds, Turkoman and Christians in Kirkuk
have lived together for ages, but party and
government leaders are breaking their unity.”
Although Sabah Ali, a 32-year-old Kurd, insists that
party rivalry has not succeeded in dividing the
population.
On July 16, following a horrific car bombing,
hundreds of Kirkuk residents flooded into hospitals
to donate blood after urgent requests for donations
were broadcast via loudspeakers.
"I donated blood to a Turkoman injured in the
explosion without thinking about his ethnicity or
religion,” said Ali. “In the end, he is my
compatriot and a human being.”
iwpr net
**
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
over 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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