Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro
de la Prensa-Baszn Özeti
Muslims already have threatened a boycott, arguing that
continued violence in key Sunni cities like Fallujah,
Ramadi and Samarra will prevent their voters from going
to the polls.
Massoud Barzani, the populist leader of the semi-independent
territory known as Kurdistan, delivered the warning
to American military commanders during a lunch at
his sprawling compound in the rugged foothills overlooking
Irbil. "We will defend the rights of our people,"
Barzani said.
Slowly and deliberately, Barzani laid out his position:
Residents of Kirkuk would vote only in a national election.
Scheduled elections to determine leaders of the city
and surrounding province would have to be put on hold
until Saddam Hussein's "Arabization" of the region was
reversed, restoring Kirkuk to a Kurdish majority and ousting
the tens of thousands of Arabs who were brought to
resettle the region in the 1970s and '80s.
"If this is not done," he said, "that might oblige the Kurds.
to take a different position regarding the election."
Barzani did not explain what re-evaluating the Kurdish
position on elections might entail. But the options are
myriad, and most are troubling for the new Iraqi government
and the United States, both of which want elections
held as scheduled on Jan. 30. Kurds in Kirkuk could boycott
the elections; Kurds in Kirkuk could vote for only
national leaders and not provincial ones; Kurds nationwide
could refuse. to participate in the election because of
the issue.
Speaking through an interpreter, Barzani told the
American commanders, "Weare ready to take great risks.
Wewill risk everything we have in Kurdistan. But we will
not accept the Arabization of Kirkuk."
Thursday's meeting had begun with the customary niceties
- hugs and handshakes, small talk and declarations of
friendship - after two American helicopters crested the
Kurdish mountaintops and touched down on Barzani's
private twin helipads. But within 20 minutes, Barzani's
statements indicated possible road bumps ahead.
Kirkuk, about 150 miles north of Baghdad and about 60
miles south of Irbil, is at the heart of Kurdish national
identity. The city and province were once predominantly.
Kurdish until Saddam's regime recognized the potential
of the region's oil fields and farmlands. Over two
decades, the regime razed thousands of Kurdish villages
in the province, the rubble of which can still be seen from
the air today.
On Thursday afternoon, Col. Lloyd Miles, the top
American commander in charge of Kirkuk province,
reminded Barzani that all decisions about the elections
must come from the interim government in Baghdad.
U.s. officials and military commanders could not influence
the situation, Miles insisted.
But Barzani dismissed such protests. He reminded the
colonel that the Kurds' loyalty to America dated to 1991,
when Kurds rose up against Saddam after the Persian
Gulf war. Since then, Kurdistan has been largely autonomous,
with American and British air patrols protecting
the territory. In the last war, Kurds provided key intelligence
to American military commanders on the ground.
"It has been the Kurds who fought side by side with you.
It has been the Kurds who died with you. It has been the
Kurds whose blood flowed with yours," Barzani said,
suggesting that he believed the United States could use
some of its influence to help a longtime ally.
But Miles, speaking outside Thursday's meeting, said his
orders are to ensure that U.S. troops do not appear to be
influencing the election in any way. He has spent an
increasing amount of time in recent weeks focusing on
training Iraqi National Guard battalions and the Kirkuk
police so that local forces will be the ones to secure polling
places.
"There is nothing that would be worse than to have
American soldiers standing outside polling sites," he said.
Miles, who commands the 2nd Brigade of the 25th
Infantry Division, has been in Kirkuk for nearly a year. In
that time, he has come to see the disparate perspectives of
all the citizens of Kirkuk, a city that now is nearly equal
parts Kurdish, Arab and Turkomen, with a healthy population
of Assyrian Christians as well. "None of it is as
simple as the Kurds would like it to be," Miles said. "To
kick out the Arabs and send them back to where they
came from some 30 years ago is going to create yet another
chain of displaced persons. To redraw borders in this
province means to redraw the borders of the surrounding
provinces. "It is very complex, but I truly believe that if
we can somehow get this right in Kirkuk we can get it
right in all of Iraq," he concluded. "The city is a microcosm
of the nation as a whole."
Clouding the Kirkuk situation is the interim constitution
that was implemented in March to guide the interim
government until elections could be held. Article 58 states
that the transitional government "shall act expeditiously
to take measures to remedy the injustice caused by the
previous regime's practices in altering the demographic
character of certain regions, including Kirkuk."
Article 58 goes on to assert that residents displaced by
practices like Arabization will either be given back their
homes and property or compensated for them; that individuals
who were moved to new regions under Saddam
should be resettled back in their original homes, and that
the new government should seek to restore altered provincial
borders. "The unfortunate thing is that the TAL
(interim constitution) did not give us a timeline," Miles
told Barzani on Thursday. Tense moments aside, Barzani,
a jovial man dressed in traditional Kurdish clothes, patted
Miles on the arm and motioned for him to eat lunch at the
end of their conversation. It was an elaborate feast of
lamb, chicken and fish, Kurdish salads and soups, rice
and breads.
As they began to make their way to the dining room,
Miles told his host, "The Kurds have been very good
friends to us." Not missing a beat, Barzani looked at his
guest with a smile. "In that case, sir, don't let your friends
down," he said.
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