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Kirkuk: Kurdish academic killed in
disputed Iraq oil city
6.3.2008
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March 6, 2008
Kirkuk, Iraq's border with Kurdistan region,
-- A Kurdish academic who served as Iraqi
labour minister in the 1970s was gunned down near
the disputed northern oil Kurdish city of Kirkuk on
Wednesday, police said.
The killing of Abdul Sattar Taher Sharif, 74, who
held a New Zealand passport, came 10 days after he
wrote an article in the Kurdish-language monthly
Lizin criticising Iraqi Kurdistan leaders for not
pushing harder for the city's incorporation into the
autonomous Kurdistan region.
Sharif was shot dead by unknown gunmen at midday
(0900 GMT) on a road just north of Kirkuk, assistant
police chief Major General Torhan Yussef told AFP. |
Dr Abdul Sattar Taher Sharif, 74 |
Kirkuk University assistant president Mohammed al-Naimi
described the murder of the psychology professor as
"a big loss to Iraq."
Under the Iraqi constitution, a referendum had due
to be held by last year on longstanding Kurdish
claims for Kirkuk and its oil wealth to be
incorporated in their autonomous region in the
north.
But in December, Kurdish leaders agreed to a
six-month postponement of the vote at the
recommendation of the United Nations.
Kirkuk has been gripped by ethnic tension since the
US-led invasion of 2003, with Arab and Turkmen
residents fearful they would be marginalised if the
city were handed over to the Kurds.
Kirkuk city is historically a Kurdish city
and it lies just south border of the Kurdistan
autonomous region, the population is a mix of
majority Kurds and minority of Arabs,www.ekurd.net
Christians and
Turkmen. lies 250 km northeast of Baghdad. Kurds
have a strong cultural and emotional attachment to Kirkuk, which they call "the Kurdish Jerusalem.", Kirkuk is historically a Kurdish city.
Article 140 provides for normalization of Kirkuk
through having back its Kurdish and Turcoman
inhabitants and repatriating the Arabs relocated in
the city during the former regime's time to their
original provinces in central and southern Iraq.
The article also calls for conducting a census to be
followed by a referendum to let the inhabitants
decide whether they would like Kirkuk to be annexed
to the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region or having
it as an independent province.
The article currently stipulates that all Arabs in
Kirkuk be returned to their original locations in
southern and central Iraqi areas, and formerly
displaced residents returned to Kirkuk.
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.
Under article 140 of Iraq’s constitution a
referendum must be held on whether the city secedes
to control of the Kurdistan region al government KRG.
A referendum, provided for in the Iraqi
constitution, was scheduled to be held by the end of
the past year on including the city into the
Kurdistan region, but the UN mediated to
extend its time to July 2008.
Information for this report was provided by AFP |
Agencies
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