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Kurdish MP slams Gov’t forces deployment
in Diyala's disputed town
29.8.2008
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August 29, 2008
BAGHDAD, — A Kurdish lawmaker on Thursday
took on Iraqi government’s decision to send military
troops to the disputed town of Khanqin, considering
it a way to politically pressure Kurds.
Deputies passed the provincial election law last
month, but Kurdish MPs boycotted the session partly
because the bill delayed voting in Kirkuk. President
Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, then rejected the law as
unconstitutional and sent it back. Iraq's
three-member presidency council, which includes
Talabani, must ratify all legislation.
“The Iraqi government and the U.S side are exerting
pressures to scale down the role of Kurds in mixed
areas to make Kurds change stances on provincial
elections law,” MP Mahmoud Othman from the Kurdish
Coalition (KC) told VOI.
Kurdish forces are refusing Iraqi defence ministry
orders to pull out of Kurdish-populated areas of
ethnically divided Diyala province where they have
been deployed for the past two years. |
Dr
Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish legislator, member of the
Kurdistan National Democratic Union |
The Kurdish Lawmaker
pointed out “sending military troops to Khanqin was
hastily taken and was a way to wring wrists”, adding
“Khanqin is a disputed area and the central
government's decision must be coordinated with
regional Kurdistan’s authorities”.
Earlier, Khanqin mayor said large numbers of Iraqi
troops entered the town and set up checkpoints,
unleashing popular protest of local resients.
Kurdish official considered the area is relatively
safe and not in need of military operations
conducted by security forces in volatile areas.
Khanqin’s security has been controlled by Kurdish
troops Peshmerga in a request by the Iraqi
government in 2005 when violent actions were
overwhelming the fledgling forces.
The so-called Peshmerga troops made up of Kurdish
former gunmen have never been integrated into the
Iraqi army and continue to operate under the command
of the autonomous regional government that holds
sway in Iraq's three far northern provinces.
But with US backing,www.ekurd.net
the disciplined and
battle hardened troops have deployed elsewhere in
Iraq to support the army in its efforts to rein
armed groups, particularly those loyal to al-Qaeda.
The deployment in northern districts of Diyala
province is a sensitive one as they are
Kurdish-inhabited and Kurdish leaders have long
sought to incorporate them in the autonomous region
which they directly abut.
Diyala province, a restive part of Iraq outside the
Kurdish autonomous zone but home to many Kurds.
Commanders have long regarded Diyala as Iraq's most
dangerous province. Its volatile ethnic mix of Sunni
Arabs,www.ekurd.net
Shiite Arabs and Shiite
and Sunni Kurds has proved fertile ground for
insurgents loyal to Al-Qaeda who have made it one of
their main strongholds.
Since July 29, mainstream Iraqi security forces have
been engaged in a major offensive against Al-Qaeda
in the province involving 50,000 soldiers and
police.
Diyala province is just one of a number of areas
where longstanding Kurdish claims have drawn
opposition from their non-Kurdish neighbours.
Concerns among Arabs and Turkmen about Kurdish
claims to the northern oil province of Kirkuk was
the main factor behind the Iraqi parliament's
failure to adopt a provincial election law in time
for polls to go ahead as planned in October.
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,
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."
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 former regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
had 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.
Copyright, respective author or news agency, VOI |
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