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Iraq Backs Arab Relocation for Kirkuk
Saturday March 31, 2007 9:01 PM
By STEVEN R. HURST
Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraq's government has endorsed plans to relocate
thousands of Arabs who were moved to Kirkuk as part of Saddam
Hussein's campaign to force ethnic Kurds out of the oil-rich city, in
an effort to undo one of the former dictator's most enduring and hated
policies.
The contentious decision was confirmed Saturday by Iraq's Sunni
justice minister as he told The Associated Press he was
resigning. Almost immediately, opposition politicians said they feared
it would harden the violent divisions among Iraq's fractious ethnic
and religious groups and possibly lead to an Iraq divided among Kurds,
Sunni Arabs and Shiites.
The plan was virtually certain to anger neighboring Turkey, which
fears a northward migration of Iraqi Kurds - and an exodus of Sunni
Arabs - will inflame its own restive Kurdish minority.
At least 36 people were killed in a series of bombings and attacks
around the country, including nine construction workers who died when
gunmen opened fire on their bus south of Kirkuk. The deaths capped a
week in which more than 500 people were killed in sectarian violence.
Kirkuk, an ancient city that once was part of the Ottoman Empire, has
a large minority of ethnic Turks as well as Christians, Shiite and
Sunni Arabs, Armenians and Assyrians. The city is just south of the
Kurdish autonomous zone stretching across three provinces of
northeastern Iraq.
Iraq's constitution sets an end-of-the-year deadline for a referendum
on Kirkuk's status. Since Saddam's fall four years ago, thousands of
Kurds who once lived in the city have resettled there. It is now
believed Kurds are a majority of the population and that a referendum
on attaching Kirkuk to the Kurdish autonomous zone would pass easily.
Justice Minister Hashim al-Shebli said the Cabinet agreed on Thursday
to a study group's recommendation that Arabs who had moved to Kirkuk
from other parts of Iraq after July 1968 should be returned to their
original towns and paid compensation.
Al-Shebli, who had overseen the committee on Kirkuk's status, said
relocation would be voluntary. Those who choose to leave will be paid
about $15,000 and given land in their former hometowns.
``There will be no coercion and the decision will not be implemented
by force,'' al-Shebli told The Associated Press.
Tens of thousands of Kurds and non-Arabs fled Kirkuk in the 1980s and
1990s when Saddam's government implemented its ``Arabization''
policy. Kurds and non-Arabs were replaced with pro-government Arabs
from the mainly Shiite impoverished south.
After the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Kurds and other
non-Arabs streamed back, only to find their homes were either sold or
given to Arabs. Some of the returning Kurds found nowhere to live
except in parks and abandoned government buildings. Others drove Arabs
from the city, despite pleas from Sunni and Shiite leaders for them to
stay.
Adil Abdul-Hussein Alami, a 62-year-old Shiite who moved to Kirkuk 23
years ago in return for $1,000 and a free piece of land, said he would
find it hard to leave.
``Kirkuk is an Iraqi city and I'm Iraqi,'' said the father of
nine. ``We came here as one family and now we are four. Our blood is
mixed with Kurds and Turkmen.''
But Ahmed Salih Zowbaa, a 52-year-old Shiite father of six who moved
to the city from Kufa in 1987, agreed with the government's
decision. ``We gave our votes to this government and constitution and
as long as the government will compensate us, then there is no
injustice at all,'' he said.
There were fears that a referendum that was likely to put Kirkuk, 180
miles north of Baghdad, under Kurdish control could open a new front
in the violence that has ravaged Iraq since shortly after the U.S.-led
invasion. On March 19, several bombs struck targets in Kirkuk and
killed at least 26 people.
Al-Shebli, a Sunni Arab, also confirmed he had offered his resignation
on the same day that the Cabinet approved the plan. He cited
differences with the government and his own political group, the
secular Iraqi List, which joined Sunni Arab lawmakers Saturday in
opposing the Kirkuk decision.
He said he would continue in office until the Cabinet approved his
resignation.
The Iraqi List is led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a secular
Shiite. The group holds 25 seats in the 275-seat parliament.
Ali al-Dabbagh, spokesman for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said
al-Shebli quit before he could be fired in a coming government
reshuffle. Neither al-Dabbagh nor al-Shebli would say if the minister
had resigned over the Kirkuk issue.
In late February, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said
Iraq should delay the Kirkuk referendum because the city was not
secure.
Turkey fears Iraq's Kurds want Kirkuk's oil revenues to fund an
eventual bid for independence that could encourage separatist Kurdish
guerrillas in Turkey, who have been fighting for autonomy since
1984. That conflict has claimed the lives of 37,000 people.
Al-Shebli said local authorities in Kirkuk would begin distributing
forms soon to Arab families to determine who would participate in the
relocation program. He said he could not predict how long the process
would take.
Planning Minister Ali Baban said the relocation plan was adopted over
the opposition of Sunni Arab members of the Shiite-led government,
members of the Iraqi List and at least one Cabinet minister loyal to
radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
``We demanded that the question of Kirkuk be resolved through dialogue
between the political blocs and not through the committee,'' he told
the AP earlier this week. ``They say the repatriation is voluntary,
but we have our doubts.''
Osama al-Nujaifi, a Sunni lawmaker with the Iraqi List, also denounced
the decision, saying it fails to address key issues, including how to
deal with property claims.
``There are more than 13,000 unsolved cases before the commission in
charge of this point and it just solved no more than 250 of them,'' he
said of the property claims. ``The other thing is the huge demographic
change in Kirkuk as more than 650,000 Kurds have been brought in
illegally over the past four yea rs. We contest these resolutions and
we will raise to the parliament to be discussed.''
Saturday March 31, 2007 9:01 PM
By STEVEN R. HURST
Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraq's government has endorsed plans to relocate
thousands of Arabs who were moved to Kirkuk as part of Saddam
Hussein's campaign to force ethnic Kurds out of the oil-rich city, in
an effort to undo one of the former dictator's most enduring and hated
policies.
The contentious decision was confirmed Saturday by Iraq's Sunni
justice minister as he told The Associated Press he was
resigning. Almost immediately, opposition politicians said they feared
it would harden the violent divisions among Iraq's fractious ethnic
and religious groups and possibly lead to an Iraq divided among Kurds,
Sunni Arabs and Shiites.
The plan was virtually certain to anger neighboring Turkey, which
fears a northward migration of Iraqi Kurds - and an exodus of Sunni
Arabs - will inflame its own restive Kurdish minority.
At least 36 people were killed in a series of bombings and attacks
around the country, including nine construction workers who died when
gunmen opened fire on their bus south of Kirkuk. The deaths capped a
week in which more than 500 people were killed in sectarian violence.
Kirkuk, an ancient city that once was part of the Ottoman Empire, has
a large minority of ethnic Turks as well as Christians, Shiite and
Sunni Arabs, Armenians and Assyrians. The city is just south of the
Kurdish autonomous zone stretching across three provinces of
northeastern Iraq.
Iraq's constitution sets an end-of-the-year deadline for a referendum
on Kirkuk's status. Since Saddam's fall four years ago, thousands of
Kurds who once lived in the city have resettled there. It is now
believed Kurds are a majority of the population and that a referendum
on attaching Kirkuk to the Kurdish autonomous zone would pass easily.
Justice Minister Hashim al-Shebli said the Cabinet agreed on Thursday
to a study group's recommendation that Arabs who had moved to Kirkuk
from other parts of Iraq after July 1968 should be returned to their
original towns and paid compensation.
Al-Shebli, who had overseen the committee on Kirkuk's status, said
relocation would be voluntary. Those who choose to leave will be paid
about $15,000 and given land in their former hometowns.
``There will be no coercion and the decision will not be implemented
by force,'' al-Shebli told The Associated Press.
Tens of thousands of Kurds and non-Arabs fled Kirkuk in the 1980s and
1990s when Saddam's government implemented its ``Arabization''
policy. Kurds and non-Arabs were replaced with pro-government Arabs
from the mainly Shiite impoverished south.
After the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Kurds and other
non-Arabs streamed back, only to find their homes were either sold or
given to Arabs. Some of the returning Kurds found nowhere to live
except in parks and abandoned government buildings. Others drove Arabs
from the city, despite pleas from Sunni and Shiite leaders for them to
stay.
Adil Abdul-Hussein Alami, a 62-year-old Shiite who moved to Kirkuk 23
years ago in return for $1,000 and a free piece of land, said he would
find it hard to leave.
``Kirkuk is an Iraqi city and I'm Iraqi,'' said the father of
nine. ``We came here as one family and now we are four. Our blood is
mixed with Kurds and Turkmen.''
But Ahmed Salih Zowbaa, a 52-year-old Shiite father of six who moved
to the city from Kufa in 1987, agreed with the government's
decision. ``We gave our votes to this government and constitution and
as long as the government will compensate us, then there is no
injustice at all,'' he said.
There were fears that a referendum that was likely to put Kirkuk, 180
miles north of Baghdad, under Kurdish control could open a new front
in the violence that has ravaged Iraq since shortly after the U.S.-led
invasion. On March 19, several bombs struck targets in Kirkuk and
killed at least 26 people.
Al-Shebli, a Sunni Arab, also confirmed he had offered his resignation
on the same day that the Cabinet approved the plan. He cited
differences with the government and his own political group, the
secular Iraqi List, which joined Sunni Arab lawmakers Saturday in
opposing the Kirkuk decision.
He said he would continue in office until the Cabinet approved his
resignation.
The Iraqi List is led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a secular
Shiite. The group holds 25 seats in the 275-seat parliament.
Ali al-Dabbagh, spokesman for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said
al-Shebli quit before he could be fired in a coming government
reshuffle. Neither al-Dabbagh nor al-Shebli would say if the minister
had resigned over the Kirkuk issue.
In late February, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said
Iraq should delay the Kirkuk referendum because the city was not
secure.
Turkey fears Iraq's Kurds want Kirkuk's oil revenues to fund an
eventual bid for independence that could encourage separatist Kurdish
guerrillas in Turkey, who have been fighting for autonomy since
1984. That conflict has claimed the lives of 37,000 people.
Al-Shebli said local authorities in Kirkuk would begin distributing
forms soon to Arab families to determine who would participate in the
relocation program. He said he could not predict how long the process
would take.
Planning Minister Ali Baban said the relocation plan was adopted over
the opposition of Sunni Arab members of the Shiite-led government,
members of the Iraqi List and at least one Cabinet minister loyal to
radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
``We demanded that the question of Kirkuk be resolved through dialogue
between the political blocs and not through the committee,'' he told
the AP earlier this week. ``They say the repatriation is voluntary,
but we have our doubts.''
Osama al-Nujaifi, a Sunni lawmaker with the Iraqi List, also denounced
the decision, saying it fails to address key issues, including how to
deal with property claims.
``There are more than 13,000 unsolved cases before the commission in
charge of this point and it just solved no more than 250 of them,'' he
said of the property claims. ``The other thing is the huge demographic
change in Kirkuk as more than 650,000 Kurds have been brought in
illegally over the past four yea rs. We contest these resolutions and
we will raise to the parliament to be discussed.''