Kurds/Iraq

1.  Kurds Maintain Insistence that Kirkuk Returnees Be Allowed to Vote (RFE/RL) 01/10
2.  Electoral Commission Ruling Allows IDPs from Kirkuk to Register for Polls (Peyamner) 01/11
3.  Kurds Reach Tentative Deal to End Boycott of Kirkuk Elections (AFP) 01/14
4.  Kirkuk Election Deal Tips Power to Kurds, Angers Arabs, Turkmen (AFP) 01/15
5.  Kurdish Returnees Allowed to Register to Vote  Radio Link (National Public Radio) 01/17
6.  Turkey Cautions Iraq over Kurdish Voters in Kirkuk (AFP) 01/16
7.  Turkmen Front Threatens to Boycott Elections Over Kurdish 'Games' (AFP) 01/14
8.  Kurdish Parliament to Decide on Participation in Kirkuk Vote (Peyamner) 01/15
9.  Editorial: Being United Paid Off, at Last! (Xebat) 01/16
10. Election Process Stirs Ethnic Rivalries in Kirkuk (Los Angeles Times) 01/17
11. Kurds Want Justice in Kirkuk, and Oil (Telegraph) 01/18
12. Kurds Fear Renewed Oppression by Arab-Dominated Government (Herald) 01/15
13. Report: Former Baathists Candidates on PUK-KDP Election List (KurdishMedia) 01/15
14. Former Bathists on Kurdish Election List Withdraw from Polls (Peyamner) 01/15
15. Prospect of Iraq Polls Fails to Inspire Kurds to Broaden Political Horizons (Financial Times) 01/18
16. Barzani Urges Sunnis to Take Part in Iraqi Elections (AFP) 01/12
17. FM Zebari: Kurdish State Remains a Possibility (Peyamner) 01/14
18. 12 Kurds Found in Mass-Grave in Kirkuk (KurdishMedia) 01/11
19. Kurdish Peshmargas Killed in Mosul (Peyamner) 01/14
20. Editorial: To Citizens Of Southern Kurdistan: Boycott Iraqi Vote! (Kurdistan Observer) 01/12
21. Former US Officer Stationed in Kurdistan Responds to KO's Editorial (Kurdistan Observer) 01/18
22. Bashdar Ismaeel: Passage to Democracy and Kurdish Role (Online Opinion) 01/17
23. Nashville Kurds Eager to Cast Ballots (The Tennessean) 01/16
24. Saddam Lawyer: Witnesses Will Testify Iraq Not Responsible for Halabja (Associated Press) 01/17
25. Saddam Defense: Evidence Will Show Iraq Not Responsible for CW Attacks (Aljazeera.com) 01/17
26. Kurdish and Iraqi Journalists Receive Training to Cover Elections (IWPR) 12/30/04
27. Iraqi Flag Flap Prompts Paper to Appeal Against Boycott (Peyamner) 01/15
28. Youth Centre in Kirkuk Needs Support to Bring Communities Together (IRIN) 01/10
29. English Language Teaching in Kurdistan (Mathaba.net) 01/10
30. Kirmanj Gundi: Where Kurdistan Stands With Its New Experience! (Kurdistan Observer) 01/11
31. Gerald Honigman: Kurds Won't Be Making Jokes About WMD (MichNews.com) 01/10
32. Rashid Karadaghi: Have Kurds Gained from Operation Iraqi Freedom? (KurdishMedia.com) 01/18
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1) Kurds Maintain Stance On Kirkuk Elections
RFE/RL
By Kathleen Ridolfo
January 10, 2005

The local elections slated to be held in the northern Iraqi governorate of Kirkuk on 30 January may prove to be the most contentious in the country. Kurdish leaders have widely opposed the holding of an election there on the grounds that Article 58 of the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL) has not been implemented.

The article calls on the Iraqi Property Claims Commission and other relevant bodies to "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, by deporting and expelling individuals from their places of residence, forcing migration in and out of the region, settling individuals alien to the region, depriving the inhabitants of work, and correcting nationality."

The Property Claims Commission was instructed under the TAL to restore residents to their homes and property, or to provide just compensation to the displaced. It was also instructed to compensate Iraqi Arabs resettled in Kirkuk by the regime. The article also states that the permanent resolution of disputed territories, including Kirkuk, be deferred until after the above-mentioned measures are taken, a census completed, and a permanent constitution ratified.

The Resettlement Of Kirkuk

Kirkuk is currently inhabited by Kurds, Turkomans, and Arabs. The Arabization policies of the Hussein regime sought to change the demographic nature of the oil-rich city by forcibly resettling Iraqis from central and southern Iraq, and forcing out Kurds and Turkomans native to the area. The issue of Kirkuk remains one of the most sensitive issues for Kurds, who seek to incorporate Kirkuk into a federal Kurdistan. Kurdish leaders Mas'ud Barzani and Jalal Talabani said in December that they would advocate a postponement of local elections in Kirkuk until the outstanding issues of resettlement and a taking of the census are addressed. A national census had been planned for October, but the ongoing violence and organizational issues prevented it from being carried out. Moreover, the Property Claims Commission has yet to begin its work.

Kurdish officials began encouraging Kurds to move back to Kirkuk, which lies just south of the Kurdish-controlled areas of northern Iraq, soon after the U.S.-led war. Media reports indicate that as many as 7,000 Kurds are living in and around the city in tents, with little to no access to electricity and water. Moreover, the "Christian Science Monitor" reported on 7 December that thousands of Kurds originally from the city but living elsewhere have switched their voter-registration cards from their current places of residence back to Kirkuk ahead of the vote. Some 200,000 Arab residents that were resettled to the city some 20 years ago remain fearful that the situation could escalate into ethnic violence, heretofore seen on only a sporadic level, according to media reports.

The move has compounded relations with Turkoman residents of the city, who have claimed to be under threat from Kurdish returnees. The issue has prompted Turkey to take a stand in support of Turkomans -- ethnic Turks -- and has strained relations between Turkey and Kurdish leaders on more than one occasion in the past 20 months. Turkoman leaders have reportedly said they favor holding the election in Kirkuk, where they will offer up Turkoman candidates on one slate, iwpr.net reported on 7 January. "The majority of the Turkoman parties have formed electoral alliances," said Ryad Sari Kahya, head of the Turkoman Eali party. "In Kirkuk province, for example, all the Turkoman parties will form one list, while in the National Assembly elections, they will join the Shi'ite list." The two main Kurdish parties, on the other hand, have refused to field candidates for the governorate council election, Reuters reported on 4 January.

Iraqi election officials and the Allawi government have refused to delay voting in the city. "They can do as they please, but the elections will go ahead on 30 January," Independent Electoral Commission spokesman Farid Ayar said in early December.

U.S. Support

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage discussed the issue with Kurdish leaders Barzani and Talabani during his visit to Iraq last week. Speaking with reporters in Iraq, Armitage reiterated U.S. support for the implementation of Article 58, but stopped short of commenting directly on Kirkuk. Barzani told reporters that the issue of Kirkuk was addressed in the meeting, saying: "We, together, will make tireless efforts to arrive at a good end, both to bring the Iraqi general elections to a successful end and to resolve the Kirkuk issue in a way that serves the interests of both the people of Kurdistan and Iraq," Kurdistan Satellite television reported on 2 January. Armitage told reporters at a subsequent press conference in Ankara the same day that the United States remains sensitive to the claims of both Turkomans and Kurds over Kirkuk.

The meeting did little to alter the Kurdish position however. Barzani told Iraqi National Assembly speaker Fu'ad Ma'sum, deputy speaker Hamid Majid Musa, and assembly member Muhammad Baqir al-Ulum that "holding municipal elections [in Kirkuk] would set in place the reality of Arabization policies and other [policies] of the Ba'athist regime," Irbil's "Khabat" reported on 5 January. "If elections are to be held there then the people of Kurdistan would make their stance clear," he added.

Meanwhile, National Security Adviser Muwaffaq al-Rubay'i reportedly took a stand in support of Kurdish aspirations on the city, purportedly telling KurdSat television that he believes Kirkuk is part of the Kurdistan region, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) website reported on 3 January.

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2) Thousands of refugees to be registered in Kirkuk for polls
Peyamner
By Friyad Muhamad in Kirkuk
January 11, 2005

More than 145, 000 Kirkuki refugees of Kurdish origin will have the right to vote in Kirkuk's provincial polls, the High Commission for Iraqi Elections confirmed on Monday. The decision followed a number of intense talks between the Kurdish groups and the Commission during the last three weeks. In addition, more than 25,000 Kirkuki refugees of non Kurdish origin will be able to register for vote in Kirkuk.

Kurdish officials have insisted that the Kirkuki Kurd families, who were expelled from their hometowns between 60s and 90s and whose number exceeds 30000 families, should be able to vote in Kirkuk. Many of these refugees, Kurds say, are now resettled and registered in other Kurdish cities like Sulaimanyia and Irbil. According to the new Commission resolution, these families have a right to be registered in Kirkuk province and cast their vote, accordingly, there.

"The head of the Commission has accepted our request, and decided to implement it. However, Kirkuk governate council has not been informed of this decision," Ahmed Askari, a Kurdish member of the governate council in Kirkuk told Peyamner.

Although Kurdish leaders seem reluctant to the Kirkuk vote, much points to the fact that there will be a Kurdish turnout for polls tentatively set for the end of January. Kurdish party officials have several times before threatened to boycott the elections not only in Kirkuk but also in the rest of the country if article 58 of the Iraqi interim constitution, which conditions elections in Kirkuk by the return of the refugees to the province, is not put into practice.

Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan officially withdrew from election campaigns in Kirkuk last December, in protest against what PUK regards as injustice towards the Kurdish majority of Kirkuk.

Mean while U.S. State Department says it was not notified about recent remarks made by U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, Eric Edelman. Mr Edelman indicated in his interview with a Turkish daily last Friday that the United States and Turkey are agreed that Kirkuk should not be included into the Kurdish autonomous region.

"I did not see those remarks so I'd refer you to the Embassy for them." Adam Ereli, Sate Department deputy spokesman said at a briefing session in Washington Monday.

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3) Kurds reach tentative deal to end boycott of Kirkuk elections
AFP
January 14, 2005

BAGHDAD-- Kurdish parties have reached a tentative deal to call off a threatened boycott of elections in the oil-rich region around Kirkuk after Iraq's electoral board granted displaced Kurds the right to vote.

"The Kurds have decided to participate in the vote after we settled the problem of displaced Kurds. They will be allowed to vote in Kirkuk," said Farid Ayar, the spokesman for Iraq's Independent Electoral Commission.

"We had delayed the printing of the ballots in the province for this reason," Ayar said.

The Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan threatened to lead Kirkuk's sizable Kurdish population in a boycott of the January 30 election over the failure to resolve the status of Kurds who lost their homes in Kirkuk's Tamim province under Saddam Hussein.

The agreement is now awaiting formal approval from the Kurdish regional parliament.

"It's significant, but the deal is not final. Tomorrow there will be discussions in the Kurdistan regional parliament," said the KDP's official Dilshad Miran, the Kurdistan regional government's representative in Baghdad.

Nineteen parties had been on Tamim's provincial list, only five of them Kurdish. Outsiders feared the absence of the major Kurdish parties would aggravate tensions among the city's almost even mix of Kurds and Arabs.

Miran said the KDP now planned to put candidates forward, but it would take another week to know how many voters were added to the rolls in Tamim, which already has more than 460,000 voters on its rolls.

The US army puts the number of displaced persons in Tamim province at more than 46,000.

The Kurdish parties have ambitions to annex Kirkuk, with some of Iraq's richest oil reserves, to Iraqi Kurdistan. They have identified the city with their struggle to find justice after the fall of Saddam.

Starting in the 1960s, Saddam's regime brutally oppressed the Kurds and expelled tens of thousands of Kurds from their homes around Kirkuk, replacing them mainly with Arab Shiites from the south.

The move to grant displaced Kurds the vote could tip the balance of power in Kirkuk in the direction of the Kurds and enflame relations with Arabs in Tamim province.

The final status of Kirkuk is not due to be settled until a census is conducted and a permanent Iraqi constitution is ratified at the end of 2005.

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4) Kirkuk election deal tips power to Kurds, angers Arabs, Turkmen
AFP
January 15, 2005

KIRKUK - A deal averting a Kurdish boycott of provincial elections in Iraq's northern province of Tamim, home to the oil-rich Kirkuk, has effectively tipped the region's balance of power to the Kurds.

The agreement, reached with the Iraqi government Friday and formally approved by the Kurds' regional parliament Saturday, clears the way for an estimated 100,000 Kurdish voters expelled from Kirkuk under Saddam Hussein's regime, to vote for the Tamim province's new government.

"It's around 100,000 voters," said Adel Lami, a senior member of Iraq's Independent Electoral Commission.

Potential voters would have to furnish proof they had been uprooted by the old regime since 1975 when Saddam's policy of Arabisation began in earnest, Lami said.

Kurdish leaders rejoiced at the deal, which put them on the road to claiming the city for northern Kurdistan, even as it risked enflaming ethnic tensions.

Patriotic Union of Kurdistan chief Jalal Talabani said the deal paved the way "to normalise the situation in Kirkuk by allowing back the displaced (Kurdish) people... and also to drive back those Arab (settlers) who came to Kirkuk."

The influx of Kurdish voters will give the long-suffering population a solid majority in the province's parliament and destroy the carefully preserved equilibrium in Tamim, where outside observers fear ethnic feuding could spill over into large-scale violence.

Dilshad Miran, a Kurdish parliament representative assigned to Baghdad, said: "Our main concern as a principle was the Arabisation process. They (Arab settlers) should not be allowed to vote in the Kirkuk region."

Tamim, with an estimated 1.2 million people and rich in lucrative oil reserves, has an almost even split among Kurds and Arab Muslims, with the remaining 10 percent of the population consisting of Turkmen and Christians.

The communities have observed a tenuous truce for the 21 months since Saddam fell from power as they vied for power and tussled over the legacy of the Baath party's policy of uprooting Kurds and resettling Arabs in the region.

The issue of displaced Kurds was due to be taken up by an Iraqi property claims commission that was established to arbitrate property disputes between the estimated tens of thousands of Kurds who lost their homes and Arabs settlers.

But the commission, created under the defunct US occupation, failed to adjudicate any claims until this past autumn and Iraq's interim parliament recommended sacking the commission's director last month over the sluggish pace.

Iraq's US-sponsored interim constitution, approved last spring, defers the issue of Kirkuk's final status until after the country's permanent constitution is ratified at the end of 2005 and a census is conducted.

While the new election agreement does not affect the timeframe on Kirkuk's final status, it paves the way for the Kurds to control Tamim's 40-seat provincial council.

The Kurds had previously held 15 seats; Arabs 11; Turkmen nine and Christians seven, but with the estimated influx of nearly an additional 100,000 votes, the Kurds will be in the driver's seat as the city's future is determined.

News of the deal sparked outrage among Kirkuk's Arabs and Turkmen.

"We are studying all options including the choice of withdrawing from the elections if we are sure that names of outsiders who will vote in favor of the Kurds, are going to be registered," Riyadh Sari Kahiya, a senior Turkmen leader in Kirkuk, told AFP.

"A month or so ago we warned through a meeting held with the Tukrmen parties... that this move will result in denying Arabs and Turkmen our legitimate rights in the provisional council," said Sheikh Ghassan Muszhir al-Azsi, a local Arab leader.

The US military worries that a Kurdish election victory will encourage the Kurds to make a landgrab for territory below the "green line", the boundary separating Kirkuk and Diyala and Nineveh province from northern Kurdistan.

"I think Kirkuk is one of the ones we are most concerned about, simply because it is such a diverse city," a military intelligence officer told AFP.

"If Kurds win the city, we expect there will be a greater encroachment across the green line. Whereas if the Arabs win the city, we may see some Kurdish and some Arab violence in the city."

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5) Kurdish Returnees Allowed to Register to Vote
National Public Radio
January 17, 2005

link to radio broadcast: http://www.npr.org/dmg/dmg.php?prgCode=ATC&showDate=17-Jan-2005&segNum=2&NPRMediaPref=WM&getAd=1

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6) Turkey cautions Iraq over Kurdish voters in Kirkuk
AFP
January 16, 2005

ANKARA - A senior Turkish official has cautioned Iraqi electoral authorities to reject the registration of Kurdish voters in Kirkuk who are not legally entitled to vote in the oil-rich northern city, a Turkish newspaper reported Sunday.

The official was speaking after the Kurds reached a deal with the Iraqi government Friday that cleared the way for an estimated 100,000 Kurds expelled from Kirkuk under Saddam Hussein's regime, to vote for the new government in Tamim province, where the city is located, in the January 30 elections.

The deal effectively tipped the region's balance of power to the Kurds, at the risk of enflaming tensions in the ethnically volatile city.

Ankara is vehemently opposed to Kurdish control of Kirkuk, which many Kurds want to see as the capital of an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq, a nightmare scenario for Iraq's neighbors.

Osman Koruturk, the top Turkish diplomat on Iraq, told the Sabah daily that Ankara was not opposed to the return of displaced Kurds to Kirkuk, but warned that more Kurds than those who were actually expelled had settled in the region following the US-led occupation of Iraq.

"What is important is that the (Independent Electoral) Commission... gives the right to vote to those who have really lived in Kirkuk in the past," he said.

Iraqi electoral officials have said that potential voters would have to produce evidence that they had been uprooted by the old regime since 1975 when Saddam's policy of Arabization began in earnest in the region.

Kirkuk is also home to a large number of Turkmens, an ethnic community of Turkish descent backed by Ankara.

The Iraqi Turkmen Front, one of the main groups representing the community, threatened Thursday to boycott the elections unless the Kurds put an end to "games" to influence the outcome of the vote in Kirkuk.

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7) Turkmen Group Threatens To Boycott Iraqi Elections Over Kurdish 'Games'
AFP
13 January 2005

An Iraqi Turkmen party Thursday threatened to boycott the January 30 elections in the conflict-torn country unless Kurds in northern Iraq put an end to "games" to influence the outcome of the vote in Kirkuk, the oil-rich city which both communities claim.

"We will be forced to reconsider our decision to participate in the elections... if the election structure and arrangements are continously tinkered with," a statement issued by the Ankara office of the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITC) said.

The ITC is one of the main groups representing the Iraqi Turkmen, an ethnic community of Turkish descent, which enjoys Ankara's support.

The statement accused the two main Kurdish groups in northern Iraq -- the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan -- of having "stepped up efforts to upset Kirkuk's demographic structure after failing to postpone the elections."

It claimed that thousands of Kurds were being improperly registered as voters and objected to an extention of the registration period in the city.

"We find it strange and unacceptable for the Independent Iraqi Election Commission to bow down to the wishes of the two spoiled Kurdish parties and allow itself to be manipulated in the games that are being played in Kirkuk," the statement said.

Some Iraqi Kurds want Kirkuk to be incorporated in an enlarged, autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, while many others want the city to become the capital of an independent Kurdish state.

Turkey is also vehemently opposed to Kurdish control of the city, which also has a large population of Turkmens, and has repeatedly warned against any moves to change its demography.

Ankara worries that Kurdish control of local oil riches will strengthen possible Kurdish attempts to break away from Baghdad, a nightmare scenario for Iraq's neighbors.

Iraqi Kurds, however, say Kirkuk was overwhelmingly Kurdish in the 1950s before Baghdad started a campaign of "Arabization" during which thousands of Arabs were encouraged to settle in the city.

They are now trying to chase the Arabs out and thousands of Kurds have resettled in the region following the US-led occupation of Iraq.

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8) Kurdish parliament to decide on Kirkuk vote
Peyamner
January 15, 2005

Kurdish political factions on Saturday discussed whether they would take part in Kirkuk provincial elections set for the end of January. In an extraordinary session, the Kurdish parliament is assessing the outcome of the final talks between the Kurdish leadership and the US in Baghdad. PUK leader, Jalal Talabani, accompanied by the Kurdish PM, Nechirvan Barzani, returned from Baghdad talks Friday where they had been in intense negotiations with representatives from the US embassy and Iraqi government in Baghdad.

Peyamner has learned that more than 170000 Kirkuki refugees of Kurdish origin are now fully eligible to vote in polls in Kirkuk. Many of these refugees are currently living in camps outside the Kurdish capital or in provisional tents in the outer suburbs of Kirkuk. Sources also indicate that Kurds will enter elections in Kirkuk based on the population census of 1957, the year before the Arabization process kicked off.

Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and Kurdistan Democratic Party are in all probability to participate in Kirkuk polls on a joint list known as Brotherhood List. The list remains unchallenged in the absence of other lists as in the rest of the Kurdish region.

The current governor of Kirkuk Abdulrahaman Mustafa, a Kurd, will most likely to remain in his position even after the elections. Both KDP and PUK seem to endorse Mr Mustafa for another term in office.

Aides said here that Kurdish leaders are to hold a press conference after the parliament session today.

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9) Editorial: Being united paid off, at last!
Xebat (KDP) (from Peyamner.com)
January 16, 2005

In the presence of President Barzani and Mr Talabani and the representatives for various political factions enlisted on Kurdistan Alliance, the Kurdish Parliament gathered for its session in Irbil Saturday. President Barzani delivered an important speech on the upcoming elections to the Parliament touching upon the successes achieved by the Kurdish nation after the visit of the U.S. deputy secretary, Richard Armitage, to Kurdistan.

The general attitude (outside Kurdistan) seemed to be in favour of a Kurdish entrance into the polls in Kirkuk without shifting anything. But state of matters changed and the Kurdish Parliament gave its approval to a Kurdish turnout for polls as Armitage came to Kurdistan and conferred with President Barzani, facing the resolution of Kurditsan's nation in implementing certain conditions, giving necessary assurances to the Kurds in eradicating the Arabization process.

The decision made by the Parliament should be seen in line with many other assurances including the letters from Iraqi Cabinet and Iraqi National Assembly directed to the Kurdish leadership, in which they ask for a Kurdish participation in January elections in Kirkuk assuring the Kurdish leaders that what ever Kirkuk's poll outcomes turned to be, it would not affect Kirkuk's future. They also stress the implementation of the Iraqi interim constitution, article 58 in particular, and the rights of more than 170000 Kurdish refugees from Kirkuk to vote, previously being prevented from voting.

The unified stance of the Kurdistani people regarding their resolution in gaining necessary assurances for entering elections turned to be beneficial. Particularly the reiterations shown in the two letters from Iraqi officials calling for a total end to the Arabization process, and the Kirkuki refugees right to vote, also stating that a general referendum must take place after the elections for the integration of Kirkuk into the Kurdish region

These assurances are all in line with the objectives of the Kurdish leadership in wiping out Arabization. The Kurdish aspiration was a just one, which now also gains achievement benefiting the Kurds.

May the unified standpoint of Kurdistan's nation live evermore!

(This article was written for the Editorial column of the Kurdistan Democratic Party's mouthpiece Xebat 20050116. The translation is Peyamner's and is not an official one.)

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10) Vote Stirs Ethnic Rivalries in Kirkuk
Contention is growing between Arabs and the region's long-repressed Kurds and Turkmen.
By Edmund Sanders
Los Angeles Times
January 17, 2005

KIRKUK, Iraq  Looming elections in this ancient city are igniting the kind of ethnic strife that many have long feared.

Militants kidnapped a local Kurdish politician two weeks ago, and seven Kurdish refugees were slain in a Sunni Arab neighborhood late last month. Last week, gunmen sprayed the main Turkmen political party headquarters with bullets. Campaign posters for the leading Arab slate have been torn down or crossed out with black paint.

On Saturday, a mortar round landed near the Kurdistan parliament building in Irbil shortly after leaders debated whether to boycott the Kirkuk local election.

"If this continues, we are headed for a civil war," said Riad Sari Kehya, the political chief of the Iraqi Turkmen Front in Kirkuk.

Since the invasion of Iraq, U.S. and Iraqi leaders have feared that Kirkuk, with its evenly divided population of Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen, was the most likely place for sectarian violence to erupt. To everyone's surprise, the city, capital of Kirkuk province, remained relatively calm even as insurgent attacks rocked other towns.

Now, the Jan. 30 vote is testing the groups' fragile coexistence.

Tensions escalated in recent weeks as Kurds began pushing to postpone local elections, saying any decision on the fate of the disputed province must wait until the return of tens of thousands of Kurds displaced during an ethnic cleansing campaign by Saddam Hussein.

"Saddam Hussein expelled the real citizens of Kirkuk," said Gov. Abdulrahman Mustafa. "We can't have elections until this is resolved."

On Saturday, the Kurdistan parliament reached a tentative deal to participate in the vote, pending the registration of an additional 100,000 Kurdish voters.

Along with a 275-member transitional national assembly, Iraqis in each of the nation's 18 provinces will choose regional councils. In addition, the three Kurdish provinces in the north are to elect a Kurdish parliament.

But now Kirkuk's Turkmen and Arab leaders are threatening to pull out. They accuse Kurds, who currently hold most of the seats of power in the province, of attempting to steal the election.

All three groups claim to represent the majority of residents in the province.

"This is the Jerusalem of Iraq," said Col. Lloyd Miles, the U.S. Army commander in charge of the province.

Census figures are of little use because Hussein not only replaced as many as 100,000 Kurds with Shiite Arabs from southern Iraq, he also forced many Turkmen and Kurds to identify themselves as Arab or face deportation. The discovery of a mass grave outside the city served as evidence of what happened to Kurds who refused to leave.

Rivalry over Kirkuk is fueled by oil  the province sits atop one of the world's largest known petroleum reserves, representing about 40% of Iraq's supply.

"It's all because of the oil," said Adnan Ridha Baba, who manages Kirkuk's census office. "All the parties are lying about their population numbers because they are driven by self- interest. It's all a political game."

Kurdish leaders, eager to absorb the province into their semiautonomous region, say they aim to reverse the effects of Hussein's "Arabization" campaign.

Many Kurds view Kirkuk as a future capital and economic heart of a long-desired independent Kurdish state. After the U.S. invasion, Kurds flooded back to Kirkuk, with nearly 75,000 returning last summer, U.S. military officials estimate. Some sought to reclaim their old homes, but most lived in refugee camps scattered around the city's edges, receiving financial assistance from the two major Kurdish parties, with promises of more to come.

At the same time, Kurds  with U.S. support  gained control of the governorship, a majority of seats on the city council and the top jobs in the police force and Iraqi national guard. Kurdish flags were raised around the city until U.S. officials forced them to come down.

"For 35 years we had to live with the Arabization of Kirkuk," said Col. Burhan Tayeb, a Turkmen and the city's police chief. "Now we are living with the Kurdization of Kirkuk. Their aim is to change the demographic map."

The issue has become a political hot potato that neither the U.S. nor the interim Iraqi government wants to deal with. Under Article 58 of Iraq's Transitional Administrative Law, Kurds are allowed to return, and Arabs, if relocated, must be compensated. But the details and timing have not been spelled out. A commission created to handle resettlement claims remains unfunded and inactive. Not a single claim has been processed.

Arabs worry that returning Kurds will force out families who have lived in Kirkuk for more than 30 years, creating new refugees. Hundreds have fled in fear.

"They are threatening our existence in Kirkuk," said Ghassan Muzhir Assi, head of the Arab Gathering and Tribes Council.

Sukayna Ghazi Said, whose family moved to Kirkuk from Basra in the early 1980s, worked in the city's Customs and Smuggling Office for four years. When Kurds took over, they disbanded the office and left her without a job or even a desk.

"When I asked what I was supposed to do, they said, 'You are from the old regime. Go back to Basra,' " she said.

Her mother fears the family will be forced to leave.

"We have committed no crime," the mother said. "What's wrong with us? We are good citizens. Aren't we Iraqis?"

Despite such fears, efforts to repopulate Kirkuk with Kurds have largely failed. As winter approached and the new school season began, most of the refugee families returned to more comfortable, secure residences in Irbil or Sulaymaniya, leaving behind ghost camps of empty tents along the highway. Many refugees were disappointed when assistance never materialized. Others left when it became clear that the Iraqi government would not conduct an all-important census to measure the ethnic make-up of the province.

"The repopulation is not going as fast as the Kurds would like," said Joost Hiltermann, Middle East Project director in Amman, Jordan, for the International Crisis Group. "In fact, the joke in Kirkuk is that the Kurds came to town for summer camp."

Several thousand impoverished refugees, as many as 30,000 according to U.S. estimates, remain in the city's sports stadium and other neighborhoods. But the dwindling numbers have caused Kurdish leaders to rethink their support for the Jan. 30 election.

"The Kurds made an assessment a few months ago and realized that they don't have the numbers to win," said Miles, the U.S. commander. "That's when they started talking about boycotting."

Earlier this month, all sides began discussing a compromise under which they would join forces on a united slate, in effect duplicating the current government council structure. The council has 13 Kurds, 10 Arabs, 10 Turkmen and seven Assyrian Christians. Since Kurds and Christians often vote together, the arrangement has created a virtual deadlock.

Negotiations on the united slate broke down over how many seats each side would receive.

The latest battle is over voter registration. Kurds are demanding that election officials register 100,000 additional Kurds to vote in the city, claiming their names were mistakenly or intentionally left off registration lists.

The missing voters include people like Taha Latif Hassan, who was expelled from Kirkuk in 1972 at age 20. He now lives in Sulaymaniya, where he is a well-known photographer. Though he has no plans to move back, he wants to register himself, his wife and their four grown sons, all born outside Kirkuk, to vote in his hometown.

"For 30 years there has always been the hope that some day we could go back," Hassan said. "We have a lot of memories there. But I won't go back to live without guarantees that I will not be expelled again and that my rights will be protected." On election day, his family intends to make the one-hour drive to Kirkuk.

Turkmen and Arabs accuse the Kurds of artificially inflating their support by sending such "commuter voters." They also accuse the Kurds of forging identification papers. According to census director Baba, a Turkmen, there are approximately 200,000 more food-ration cards issued in Kirkuk than the actual population supports.

"It's not logical," he said. "Some of them, about 25,000, are for actual refugees. We believe the rest are fake." Kurdish party officials insist all the refugees and registered voters once lived in Kirkuk and that they have the documentation to prove it.

Over the weekend, Kurds announced that they'd reached a deal with the nation's electoral commission to register the additional voters and accelerate the return of Kurds to Kirkuk.

Turkmen leaders promptly vowed to boycott the election.

"We will not accept the annexation of Kirkuk to Kurdistan," said Kehya of the Turkmen Front.


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11) Kurds want justice  and the oil
Telegraph
By Jack Fairweather in Baghdad and Mohammed Fawzi in Kirkuk
January 18, 2005

Iraq's Kurds want one thing in particular from this month's election and the political horse-trading to follow: oil-rich Kirkuk.

Kurdish politicians insist that justice demands that the city, lying just outside the Kurdish autonomous zone in the country's north, is theirs.

For decades Saddam Hussein's forces pursued a brutal policy of Arabisation in Kirkuk, driving out Kurdish families to replace them with Arab settlers.

The problem is that the Kurds share the city with substantial Arab and Turcoman communities who have staked their own claims to the territory. In the run-up to the election on Jan 30 the various ethnic groups have agreed a truce, proof of the ballot box's impact on Iraq.

Until the weekend, Kurdish politicians threatened to boycott the poll, arguing that unless Kurds could return to their homes, the election would only legitimise Saddam's ethnic cleansing.

The communities' rival demands have provoked violence and the outcome of the tension is likely to determine Iraq's future as a multi-ethnic state. Many fear that the election's only result will be more stalemate and more of the conflict which has claimed dozens of lives.

The city has the feel of an armed camp, with election slogans marking the divide between Kurdish, Arab and Turcoman communities.

Mohammed Ahmed, the head of the Kurdish Democratic Party, one of two main Kurdish groups, said: "We've decided to take part in the elections. No one wants war. We just want what is ours."

Belligerent comments by politicians such as Mr Ahmed reveal the mix of confidence and frustration felt by many Kurds and the reversal of roles that has meant that, to many people, they have become the aggressors.

At the heart of Kirkuk's troubles is the dilemma of how to deal with the legacy of Saddam's rule. Over three decades he tried to make Kirkuk an Arab stronghold in the Kurdish north, authorising the eviction of an estimated 200,000 Kurds from the city and the destruction of dozens of villages. He filled their places with Shias from the south and Ba'athist officers. Kurds now want their property back and the Arab settlers to leave.

The Kurds accuse the Iraqi government of deliberately stalling at America's behest.

American officials, mindful that Kurdish control of the city could be the first step towards an independent Kurdistan, say the legal process must be observed and will take a long time.

In the meantime, Kurdish politicians encourage Kurds to return and 100,000 have done so, many now living in abject poverty in refugee camps on the city's outskirts.

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12) Kurds fear renewed oppression by Arab-dominated government
Sunday Herald (UK)
Seb Walker in Arbil, northern Iraq
January 15, 2005

As uncertainty grows in Iraq over the feasibility of holding elections in a country ravaged by violence, the mountainous Kurdish region in the north is one of the few areas where polling could be carried out in relative safety.

In the Kurdish capital, Arbil, traffic wardens issue parking tickets, foreign businessmen relax in newly built hotels and gunfire is seldom heard.

But while security conditions are favourable here, Kurds are reluctant to press ahead with polling while the rest of Iraq is in turmoil. There is unease that the US-appointed government is rushing towards elections .

"If everybody wanted elections to go ahead in our area there would be no problems and everything would happen normally," said Ahmed Abdulwahid, a senior member of the Kurdish parliament in Arbil.

"We have all the means to hold an election properly, but we want it to happen everywhere at the same time and there are some important issues we want to see resolved first."

Kurdish factions have been running their own affairs ever since the first Gulf war in 1991 forced Iraqi forces to pull out of the area, holding their own elections in 1992 and building up an army of around 70,000 soldiers known as "peshmerga".

The peshmerga (meaning "those ready to die") fought alongside US forces during the 2003 invasion. Afterwards they were transformed into the local security forces and have prevented violence spilling into the Kurdish territory.

But Kurds face an uncertain future. Many in Arbil fear an Arab-dominated government in Baghdad will curtail the freedoms they achieved after decades of oppression. Under Saddam's regime, more than 100,000 Kurds were killed or taken away by Iraqi security forces and never seen again. The memory of Iraqi planes dropping gas bombs on Kurdish villages makes Kurds distrustful of ceding authority to Baghdad.

"We want a central government and stability for all Iraq, but Kurds must have a significant role so that we are protected," said 29-year-old Farouq Abdulgheni, seated behind the counter of a busy grocery store.

In a deal struck in Baghdad on March 18, 2003, Kurds ensured their right to federal autonomy was enshrined in the new constitution of Iraq. Kurdish leaders insisted on retaining a degree of control over their own territory.

Even this resolution was regarded as a compromise and many Kurds see federalism as simply a step towards their dream of creating an independent state, but central to this plan is the inclusion of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk within the Kurdish zone. Kurds claim the city's population was predominantly Kurdish before Saddam's "Arabisation" campaign  deporting the Kurds and replacing them with Arabs from the country's south  to change the city's demographic structure, thus safeguarding his control of Iraq's largest oilfields.

But following the US-led invasion, more than 100,000 Kurds returned to Kirkuk and are now living in refugee camps in and around the city, creating friction with Kirkuk's large Arab and Turkomen communities.

Kurdish politicians are determined that Arabisation should be reversed and Kurdish refugees allowed to vote in the upcoming elections to determine the city's status, yet the issue remains unresolved.

"Pre-existing questions such as the 'normalisation' of Kirkuk have not been addressed, so it is not logical for this election to go ahead at the appointed time," said parliamentarian Abdulwahid. Control of Kirkuk is vital to Kurdish hopes of self-determination and Kurdish leaders have frequently stated they won't compromise on this.

In the marketplaces and cafés of downtown Arbil, conversations are dominated by the issue. "Kurds were kicked out of Kirkuk and the Arabs were brought in by Saddam," said Kurdish labourer Shawkat Denha, 42, sipping a glass of black tea. "Those Kurdish refugees are originally from Kirkuk so they must be allowed to vote there . the authorities will have to postpone things and examine this problem."

Watching the violence in the rest of Iraq, many Kurds are sceptical about the chances of holding elections outside the Kurdish zone  most acknowledge that a delay could work in their favour. "Holding elections on time would be a blow to those trying to destabilise Iraq," said Abdulwahid. "But we are expecting everything to be delayed at the last minute."

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13) Baathists are candidates in the PUK-KDP election list: Kurdish weekly
Kurdish Media
January 15, 2005

London: The three-pronged elections in Iraq to elect a 275-member transitional assembly, a 111-member Kurdistan Parliament and provincial elections to select local councils for each of Iraq's 18 provinces will take place in Iraq on the 30th January 2005. The role of the transitional assembly is to draft a constitution and put it before a referendum before holding full constitutional elections in October 2005.

Kurdish political parties competing in the elections include the KDP, PUK, an Islamic group (Yekgirti Islami) and the Kurdistan Communist Party. These four parties, along with others smaller parties, are competing as a single entity known as the Democratic Patriotic Alliance of Kurdistan.

A number of high-ranking members of the ousted former Iraqi ruling party, the Arab Baath Party, are candidates in the joined KDP-PUK list to contest for the Iraqi parliament, as reported by the Kurdish weekly Hawlati on 29 December 2004.

These people who were once known as "Rafiq Hizbi," i.e the "Comrades," were high-ranking members of the Baath Party, and Mustashar's, advisers, heads of Saddam's Kurdish paramilitary and mercenary groups.

Hawlati also revealed the names and positions of some of them in the former Baath party.

On the PUK list there are Faiysal Karim Khan Mahmum, candidate number 85 from Arbil, who is a former Mustashar; Abdul-Bari Mohammed Faris from Mosul, candidate number 86, a former Mustashar; and Faris Younis Krido, candidate number 74, from Duhok, who is a former Baathist.

On the KDP list there are Namiq Raqib Mohammed Surchi, candidate number 88, who was the head of the committee which was responsible for banning the Kurdish language in the Kurdish city of Mosul; Jawhar Muhedin Jihangir, candidate number 88 from Mosul, was head of the Jash [Mercenaries]; Omer Khizir Hamad, candidate number 119, from Arbil, who was a Mustashar.

Samyi Ahmed Shabak, candidate number 35, was a former Rafiq Hizbi [Comrade] of the Baath Party. His current party affiliation was not revealed.

This controversial list has provoked a group of university students to write a letter to the KDP and PUK leaders, Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani, expressing their disappointment of the PUK-KDP list, reported the Kurdish news website Peyamer.com, 11 January 2005.

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14) Former Bathists on the Kurdish joint list withdraw from polls
Peyamner
January 15, 2005

Two former members of Saddam Hussein's toppled party, the Baath Pary, voluntarily withdrew from participating in elections, Weekly Medyia reports. Namiq Reqib Surci and Jewko Muhammad Kelhi, both enlisted on the Kurdistan Alliance ballot ticket, said that they will not participate in provincial elections in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

The two former candidates have reportedly given their slim chances of winning in the elections as a reason of withdrawal.

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15) Prospect of Iraq polls fails to inspire Kurds to broaden horizons
Financial Times
By Gareth Smyth
January 18 2005

Thirteen years ago, a coalition of Kurdish parties held elections in northern Iraq amid the rubble of 4,000 villages destroyed by Saddam Hussein's army.

Young and old queued for hours to vote for a Kurdish parliament in a poll judged free and fair by international monitors.

Yet, after 14 years of self-rule, in which the Kurds have rebuilt their villages and modernised their cities, there is little enthusiasm for Iraq-wide elections only two weeks away.

In the city of Suleimania, billboard advertisements for Asiacell's $49 local network Sim card vastly outnumber election posters.

A first special election issue by the Hawlati, the independent Kurdish weekly newspaper, yesterday met with a lukewarm response, news agents in the city said.

"People feel everything is already decided," said Asos Hardi, the editor-in-chief.

The over-riding Kurdish aim is to consolidate the region's autonomy from Baghdad, especially through the new constitution the Iraqi assembly will draft.

Hence the two main parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic party, have agreed a joint list, including three other Kurdish parties.

"We want to concentrate on getting the highest number of seats so we can agree with [Arab] secular and moderate Islamic parties on a federal Kurdistan," said Ari Qaradaghi, KDP representative on the five parties' joint campaign committee for Suleimania province.

But the KDP and PUK are also running a joint list in simultaneous elections for the Kurdish regional assembly, meaning that the only real contest in Iraqi Kurdistan on January 30 will be in the third tier of elections for provincial councils - weak new bodies with ill-defined powers.

"People do not regard the whole process warmly," said Mr Hardi.

"There is a lack of competition in the election for the Kurdish [regional] assembly and the Kurdish position on Iraq's future will not change because of the number of seats we win in the Iraqi [national] assembly."

Nawsherwan Mustapha, a senior PUK official, reiterated that federalism was non-negotiable.

"We will separate from Iraq in two circumstances: if an Islamic state is established or if federalism is denied," he said.

Security for the election within Kurdish-controlled areas is less a concern than elsewhere.

But deadly violence is scarring the mixed northern cities of Mosul and Kirkuk, both of which were under Saddam Hussein's control until the US-led invasion two years ago.

On Thursday, gunmen killed three KDP officials in Mosul and there has been a wider spate of sectarian killings of Kurds, including beheadings.

The return of thousands of Kurds who lived in Baghdad has also reinforced the sense of separation from the rest of Iraq.

"People's horizons get smaller all the time," said a telecommunications manager. "I used to think about Kurdistan, then about Suleimania and now mainly about my family. How can I think about Iraq as a whole?"

A Kurdish referendum movement, which last month gave the United Nations a petition containing 1.7m signatures calling for a referendum on independence, has said it will place tents near polling stations for its own unofficial poll.

While the Kurdish parties still support autonomy within a federal Iraq rather than independence, some members have helped the referendum campaign.

"Perhaps the leadership thinks this strengthens them in negotiations in Baghdad or with the Americans," said Mr Hardi.

But the parties also recognise that a new generation of Kurds of voting age finds Arab society and politics unattractive.

"The difficulty is how to integrate Kurds, especially young people, into the new Iraq," said Mr Mustapha. "This is impossible without recognising Kurdish rights and so far people have been disappointed."

Nor is the government in Baghdad, even with Kurdish ministers, viewed as a success, said Mr Mustapha. "It hasn't even established security in Haifa street [in central Baghdad]."

Party and tribal loyalties may help mobilise most of the 4m Kurdish voters, perhaps 25 per cent of Iraq's electorate, but there is scant sense of a new beginning.

"I won't vote for the [regional] Kurdish parliament because the two parties have already carved it up," said the telecoms manager. "I will probably vote in the Iraqi election but only because it might help get Kurdish self-rule. It's great the war of 2003 removed Saddam Hussein but nothing has happened since then to make me feel part of Iraq."

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16) Barzani urges the Sunnis to take part in Iraqi elections
AFP
January 12, 2005

ARBIL, Iraq-- Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani on Tuesday exhorted Iraq's Sunni Muslims to go back on a decision to boycott landmark elections later this month.

"We do not want it to be said that the Sunnis have taken a political position consisting in boycotting the elections because this is not at all in the interest of our Sunni brothers," Barzani said.

The leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) made the remarks during a meeting with Arab Sunni tribal chiefs from Mosul, Kirkuk, Al-Anbar, Salahaddin and Baghdad.

Barzani said he asked them "to examine the reasons why Sunnis are boycotting the elections" and pledged to cooperate to help them overcome their position.

"No one knows the interst of the Sunnis better than the Sunnis themselves," Barzani said.

"We are in favour of elections and for them to be held on time, but at the same time we say that they must be comprehensives and we do not support elections which marginalise a large faction of the Iraqi people," Barzani said.

Iraq's influential Committee of Muslim Scholars, which groups 3,000 Sunni mosques nationwide, called for a boycott of the January 30 vote after US troops stormed the Sunni flashpoint city of Fallujah in November.

Their call prompted a similar decision by the largest Sunni faction, the Islamic Party.

But over the weekend members of the committee held talks with US officials and demanded a timetable for a US withdrawal in return for endorsing the election, a US official has said.

"We're not going to do that," the official told AFP on Monday.

Barzani promised his interlocutors to transmit their proposals to the interim government, the United Nations, the United States and Britain.

Meanwhile, Sheikh Thamer al-Duleimi, secretary general of the union of Iraqi tribes, said the meeting with Barzani was "a sincere invitation to encourage the Sunnis to participate in the electoral process".

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17) Kurdish state a possibility: Iraqi FM
Peyamner
January 14, 2005

Iraq's foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, says that Baghdad most likely could do little to prevent any possible strives towards the formation of a Kurdish state in the north corner of the country after the January elections. Mr Zebari, who is also a top Kurdistan Democratic Party spokesperson, said that Iraq being a democratic country after the vote would do better off if it allowed its citizens to decide their future by themselves.

"Iraq is a democratic and free country, and nothing is proscribed for its future. After the polls, we are dealing with a kind of government; and if then, some factions abided by the lawfulness of the election outcomes, would ask for a government in the north, what could we do about it? This is why we say that only Iraqis could decide the future of their country," Mr Zebari was quoted in Egyptian daily of Al Ahram Thursday.

Speculations on a possible federal Shi'ia government in south have circulated unleashed in the media which many predict will have a crucial impact on the already semi-independent Kurdish enclave in north towards further independence from the central government.

"My experience in the Balkans tells me that it would be impossible to hold a country together if the diverse ethnic groups of the country are opposed to it," Peter Galbraith, a former US ambassador to Croatia, now working at the Centre For Arms Control and Non-Proliferation told Swedish Television December 19. Mr Galbraith who in the 1980s documented Iraqi atrocities against the Kurds for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, criticized the US policy in Iraq for not having an adequate "post-war strategy."

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18) 12 Kurds found in a mass-grave in Kirkuk
KurdishMedia
January 11, 2005

London: The bodies of 12 Kurds in Kurdish costumes were found in the Kurdish city of Kirkuk, in southern Kurdistan, reported peyamner.com on Tuesday.

The bodies were unearthed as machinery dug in the Wasit quarter of the city.

An eyewitness stated that the former Iraqi Arab Baath Party executed the Kurds and buried them in the same place. He did not give a date of their execution.

After ousting the former Iraqi government, a number of mass graves were found in Kirkuk, containing Kurdish people.

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19) Kurdish peshmarga fighters killed in Mosul
By Seaid Memuzini
Peyamner
January 14, 2005

A Kurdistan Democratic Party unit was attacked in northern Iraqi city of Mosul Thursday, as fresh violence continues to escalate throughout the province. The armed confrontation occurred in daylight in the suburb district of Islahi Ziraai of Mosul, where KDP forces have been located since they were stationed after deployment in November last year.

Another man was found dead in Qerqoush, some 10 miles north west of Mosul. A Patriotic Union of Kurdistan spokesman said on Thursday that the body was identified as a member of the PUK armed forces in the city.

Clashes between the unidentified insurgents and the Kurds have entered a new phase outside the semi autonomous region of Iraq's Kurdistan, near the Syrian borders. The border gate known as Rebiea gate was closed last week by the US military, as local residents of Kurdish origin claimed to have reportedly witnessed systematic incursion by militant insurgents from other side of the border into Iraq.

At least 12 bodies were also found in Kirkuk last Tuesday, local police said, buried in a mass grave. Identification of the bodies continues while police says most of the bodies wore Kurdish customary cloths.

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20) Editorial: To Citizens Of Southern Kurdistan: Boycott Iraqi Vote!
Kurdistan Observer
Jan 12, 2005

Ever since the American invasion of Iraq, the KDP and PUK appear to have been under a spell that has them placing the Kurds into a weaker position day by day.  There was that moment of resolve preceding the war, when the citizens of Southern Kurdistan and their leaders successfully stood up to the Americans against a potential Turkish invasion.  Since then, however, everything has gone downhill.

In the aftermath of the war, the KDP and PUK leaders had historic choices ahead of them.  Unfortunately, instead of coming together under one and only one strong leader to take advantage of an opportunity that may come once in a century, they chose to remain divided and weak.  And ever since, our leaders consistently turned every hand the Kurds were dealt into a losing one.

Kirkuk, the capital of Southern Kurdistan, displayed our weaknesses right from the start of the war, and Kirkuk promises to cement our losses this year.  As the war against Saddam was launched, the KDP and PUK were instructed by the Americans not to set foot in Kirkuk.  Had the Kurds one strong leader, their brave men could have entered Kirkuk despite American misgivings and that would have been the end of that story.  Instead, soon after entering the city, the PUK forces quickly retreated to avoid losing American approval, and as they say the rest is history.  Now, Kirkuk remains out of reach more than ever.

Since that sorry episode at the beginning of the war, each time the KDP and PUK protest in regard to Kirkuk, American officials visit their headquarters and dispense a favor or a threat.  As a result, the KDP and PUK consistently back off their claims to Kirkuk.  Gradually, Kirkuk's status has shifted from the capital of Southern Kurdistan to having special status, and now to city and region that will never be part of an autonomous Kurdish zone.

All told, the KDP and PUK have managed to shepherd Kurdistan into a political disaster.  Rather than asserting the right of Southern Kurdistan to independence, by engaging in the coming Iraqi vote they are formally accepting the Iraqi status of Kurdistan for a long time to come.  In effect, the KDP and PUK are declaring that Kurdistan is a nonentity with no say over its future.  Their insurance policy is that there will be veto power by any three Iraqi provinces over the constitution of Arab Iraq.  This is doubtful under current circumstances.  However, even if this were the case, what kind of ill-conceived strategy is it to pin the hopes and dreams of an entire nation on a veto?  What business do the good people of Kurdistan have engaging in the neanderthal politics of Arab Iraq?  The KDP and PUK leaders seem to have forgotten that it was Arab Iraq that murdered a large fraction of the population in Southern Kurdistan not too long ago just for being Kurds.

The only hope left for Kurdistan now is in the same people who protested against a looming Turkish invasion nearly two years ago.  To all the brave and good citizens of Southern Kurdistan: boycott all Iraqi votes!  A boycott by Southern Kurdistan of the Iraqi vote should undo the spell holding the KDP and PUK.  Perhaps then, a strong leader will emerge with the courage to guide our nation with pride and honor.

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21) Former US Army Officer Stationed in Kurdistan Responds to KO's Editorial
KurdistanObserver
By  Justin Thomas
Jan 18, 2005

As an American who spent a year in Iraqi Kurdistan, I find the premise and purpose of the January 12, 2005, editorial titled To Citizens Of Southern Kurdistan: Boycott Iraqi Vote! to be in direct conflict with the best interests of Iraqi Kurds. I do understand that, to some Kurds, the alliance between the two predominant Kurdish parties and the U.S. may give the appearance that the fiercely independent identity of the Iraqi Kurds and the role of its leaders has become somewhat compromised. However, although I can understand this view, I also believe that it is mistaken.

When I arrived in Iraqi Kurdistan in the spring of 2003, I was able to witness its historical transition from an embattled enclave to a true component of a nation state. Men like Dr. Barham Salah, once confined to a No Fly Zone, launched the Kurds as a force majeure into the Iraqi national, and, for that matter, international, arena. A once-persecuted minority became one of the recognized three ruling factions of Iraq. (Any citizen of the world who has read a newspaper in the last twenty-two months can tell you that the powers of Iraq are Kurd, Shia and Sunni.) Jalal Talabani and Massud Barzani suddenly became a mainstay in international papers, always portrayed in a positive light as the leaders of a people that defied tyranny, by both the pen and the sword, as well as by the Peshmerga.

No, the Kurdish leadership did not falter and collapse under U.S. pressure. It did not relinquish any independence. Rather, it placed the Iraqi Kurds in the best position in which they have ever been. When have the Peshmerga been better armed or trained? When have more goods flowed over the borders from Syria, Turkey and Iran? When has so much economic prosperity ever occurred in Irbil and Sulaymaniah? When have so many students had access to such education, at home and abroad? These leaders deserve praise, not parsing.

The author uses the argument of Kirkuk as his crux, accusing Kurdish leaders of political timidity in their inability to secure Kirkuk for the Kurds. I can understand this argument. The personal and emotional accounts by Kurds who were driven from Kirkuk through Saddam's brutal Arabization policies would be difficult for me to forget. Subsequently, it is easy for me to see how so many Kurds would equate the end of Saddam with the end of Kirkuk's Arabization. The reality is that the city is now of multiple cultures that happen to lie on a fault line of shifting ethnic, international and oil interests. To think that one politician, no matter how powerful or courageous, can simply claim Kirkuk (and its oil fields) exclusively for the Kurds is being unrealistic. The political solution to Kirkuk will take years to achieve. A politician or leader who concedes this fact is neither cowardly nor incompetent, but rather pragmatic and sophisticated.

I also understand the desire for total Kurdish independence, and believe that the Kurds' rights to self-determination should not differ from those of any other people around the globe. John F. Kennedy summed up my sentiments toward self-determination (which I believe to be a right of man), and those of my countrymen, in his inaugural address by referring to our belief that "the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God." So if all the Iraqi Kurds wish to secede from Iraq and all its resources, then so be it. But, as I said, the Kurds are major force in Iraq, and to unweave this fabric would be extremely difficult. The Iraqi Kurds should, instead, focus on their role in Iraq, a role that advocates the rights of man, no matter the ethnicity. The entire country would surely benefit from this advocacy, as would the entire world.

In the past decade, the Kurds of Iraq initiated their journey down the road to democracy. In this short time, they, through their strength, courage and determination, have found autonomy, prosperity, security, international admiration and international allies. To stop now would be turning back the clock to a time under Saddam, a time of fortified isolation when only the mountains were friends of the Kurds. The Kurds must vote, every one, and continue their journey towards democracy. In doing so, they will take their rightful place in the triumvirate of Iraqi government, and, more importantly, as national citizens within the international democratic forum.

The author of the above-referenced editorial ends by proposing that, should the Kurds boycott the upcoming Iraqi elections, "Perhaps then, a strong leader will emerge with the courage to guide our nation with pride and honor." I say to the Kurds of Iraq, your leadership is not in question. What you do with it is. It has done superbly thus far, and I hope that you empower it further through your votes.

Justin Thomas, Boston, USA


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22) The passage to democracy in Iraq
Online Opinion (Australia)
By Bashdar Ismaeel
January 17, 2005

"We're having elections on January 30th. It is a historical moment." - George W. Bush.

The three-pronged elections in Iraq to elect a 275-member transitional assembly, a 111-member Kurdistan Parliament and undertake provincial elections to select local councils for each of Iraq's 18 provinces, will take place in Iraq on January 30, 2005. The role of the transitional assembly is to draft a constitution and put it to a referendum before holding full constitutional elections in October 2005.

On the surface, this is a remarkable milestone, not only for the nation of Iraq, but for the Middle East where democracy has long been a traditional taboo. It is also a milestone for the greater war on terror. With mass terror - described by many as outright civil war - on the streets of Ramadi, Mosul and many other predominantly Sunni districts of Iraq, the election bandwagon rolls on. However, as with the selection of the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL), drafted in March 2004, this may prove to be merely another propaganda victory for the US.

Many of the Sunni population have not registered to vote, either through choice or through fear, and many Sunni parties have boycotted the elections outright. It is ironic that as one group is calling for a boycott of the elections, another group (Shia) is issuing Fatwa's (religious decree) for participation in the upcoming elections. For the Sunnis this represents a step back from their days of uncontested dominance and power but conversely for the Shia population this represents their first real opportunity to escape the chain of political oppression experienced under many years of Ottoman and Sunni rule.

Crucially, in Iraqi Kurdistan, elections are taking place without adequate representation. Results in Kirkuk, however democratic they may seem, will be effectively useless, simply because only inhabitants of the city, and the immediate surrounding area, will be adequately represented. Massaud Barzani, the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, through the party mouthpiece al-Taakhi was quoted as saying that the disproportionate representation in certain provinces, coupled with the current violence means that "carrying out the poll under the existing unstable security situation is not feasible and is fruitless". Many key politicians feel despondent. The prominent Sunni candidate, Adnan Pachachi, recently added his voice for delaying the elections claiming that the current climate "will leave a large segment of the population disenfranchised and many regions under represented". In essence, the conditions in Iraq will not be conducive to a representative election. It will not give a true picture of the overall opinions and desires of the Iraqi community.

The TAL and its implementation

The TAL was hailed as significant milestone, which set Iraq on the path to plurality, compromise and harmony. However, not much has been achieved in principle. The fundamental reasons are simple: the signing of the TAL was long delayed; it was only signed with considerable diplomatic pressure from the US; and even more importantly was finally signed with an enormous reservation from the majority group in Iraq - the Shia and their revered spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani.

The TAL never represented democracy and agreement in Iraq and many of the key articles have not, and probably never will be, implemented. The crucial article is 58, which refers to the Arabisation policy of the former Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein and its due and justified reversal. However, article 58, which directly referred to Kirkuk, has not seen a single claim processed by the commission charged with dealing with the thousands of displaced Kurdish families. Yet elections are going ahead. Furthermore, according to article 53 of the TAL, only Kurds residing in the areas of the current Kurdish self-rule zone (Duhok, Arbil and Suleimanyia provinces) are eligible to vote in the upcoming Kurdistan parliamentary elections, effectively leaving thousands of Kurds who have returned to areas around Kirkuk, Khanaqin and Mosul without representation, and without a voice in their own assemblage.

Crucially, the significance that the TAL portrayed was further undermined when under pressure from Sistani, the TAL was completely omitted from UN resolution 1456 and was in essence largely nullified.
The Kurdish Alliance and the Iraqi Electoral List

Two of the major Kurdish parties, the KDP and PUK have joined to form the Kurdistan Alliance along with the Islamic Party and a number of other smaller parties. They will take part as a joint list in the election to select a transitional Iraqi assembly and also in the selection of a Kurdish parliament.

As far as the latter is concerned, this is essentially democracy but with a pre-determined result. The two major parties are likely to split a proportion of the seats in the new Kurdistan Parliament for themselves and give another fixed proportion to the remainder of the smaller parties. They will essentially sit in the Iraqi National Assembly as one bloc and one voice for the whole Kurdish population. This is understandably necessary to ensure that Kurdish gains of the past 14 years are safeguarded and that further Kurdish gains in the new Iraq will be maximised, however, this is not good democracy.

The majority of the 15-million strong Shia community and the likely benefactors of the elections will be represented under the Unified Iraqi Alliance - a group amalgamated and supported by the influential Sistani himself. This group will be headed by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the current leader of the Iranian backed Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri). Some Sunni parties chose to fulfil their threat of boycotting the elections but a number of parties registered on the day of the deadline for registration. The main Sunni dominated alliance will be spearheaded by Pachachi and represented by the Iraqi Independent Democrats Party.

When analysing the Iraqi electoral list, it becomes apparent that the party list submitted to the Iraqi Electoral commission is essentially a combination of loose coalitions designed to gain the maximum advantage for each major group in Iraq.

With the exception of the KDP, PUK and some other major Shia parties, the lists consist of too many small parties and delegates and a range of loose alliances. It is not the same as Western democracy when two or three parties with established manifestos and popular support fight for the polls. This is simply, an indicator of the largely fragmented Iraqi society and lack of coherent voices from each major group. Even when the elections are over and the first democratic steps have been taken, no government will be truly representative of Iraq and cater for the needs of the greater nation. This will naturally only lead to disharmony and further bloodshed in Iraq, most probably in the form of sectarianism and civil war.
Post-election inevitability

There is one key problem in Iraq: Iraq itself is a British fabricated country that is loosely based on three former Ottoman provinces. There are three distinct groups in Iraq, which have never lived in harmony since its formation - the Kurds, Shia and Sunni. Each separate group is weary of conceding too much, and being oppressed by the others. With no concensus between each group, and a lack of common understanding and appreciation of the desires of one another, true democracy and co-existence is difficult if not impossible, no matter how much democratic progress is made in the country.

If the principles of democracy were applied to the area represented by each group then there could be a chance of achieving a successful outcome. When applied to Iraq as a whole, they will lead to inevitable post-ballot implications.

In any future Iraqi parliament, there will be too much pressure on the politicians of each respective ethnic group to work for their own group rather than the whole.

This is particularly true of the Kurdish region. In the Kurdish controlled area the cries and calling of the politicians are certainly in Kurdish, however, in the Iraqi government these same politicians will have to converse in the name of the greater Iraq and the majority. An example of these divided loyalties is Hoshyar Zebari who has been a senior Kurdish politician for many years, and is also the Iraqi Foreign Minister, and therefore a representative of greater Iraq.

In this situation, political disharmony will have already begun before the politicians have opened the doors to the parliament. Most likely, politicians will decide to enter parliament with a degree of compromise and perhaps resentment. Democracy in Iraq would work best with a very loose federation, bordering on independence, for each federative area representing each of the three major groups.
The Shia population

What is most likely is a Shia victory in the forthcoming Iraqi elections as the Shias form about 60 per cent of the population and therefore a clear majority. This likelihood has been hesitantly confirmed by the US, which has always tried to avoid, and to an extent deny, that an Islamic government will be formed. Colin Powell, in Middle East Online, claimed the future government is likely to be in a form "that may be majority Shia, but respects the rights of others".

Furthermore, Powell stated swiftly but without a lack of conviction that the Shia bloc will not be influenced by the regional Shia powerhouse of Iran. A Shia grip on power and domination of the parliament would clearly lead to dissatisfaction among the rest of the Iraqi community. Shias would choose to implement an Islamic state and thus many of their own policies, eradicating century old repression and seizing the chance to cement power. The Kurds would tolerate this as long as they maintained their federal unit of Kurdistan with Kirkuk as its capital and with a due proportion of the federative budget and natural resources.

For the Sunni community, who will clearly be under-represented in the elections in the current climate, democracy represents only uncertainty and a confirmation of their now inferior status in Iraq. This is in complete contrast to their 80-years of domination and rule in Iraq. With so much lost and so much more to lose, and a lack of clarity on their future status, the violence, boycotting of elections and discomfort they feel is inevitable. Anything but a democratic election would serve their purpose.

The Shia coalition, spearheaded by al-Hakim, as the likely winners of the vote, have tried their best to reassure their Sunni brethren and have emphasised that the "participation of all" is essential for the new government.

In addition Iraq's predominantly Arab-Sunni neighbours are concerned that the Sunni community will be sidelined in any new undertakings and are slowly beginning to exert diplomatic influence on the electoral process, aware that for many of these aforementioned regional Sunni countries with Kurdish minorities, a great Kurdish representation in a future Iraq would spell danger and potential instability. And in addition an overall Shia majority will undoubtedly side with Iran and in turn shift the regional balance of power in the habitually volatile Middle East.
Conclusion

The arrangement, logistics and staging of the elections will prove to be much easier to manage than the actual result, even in the current context of violence and trepidation in Iraq.

The results of these democratic elections are are inevitable and there is a feeling of gloom. What may appear to be the first steps to a true democracy in the Middle East may actually just be an excellent propaganda coup for the US occupation forces who believe that stability, democracy and crucially a victory, could be accomplished in Iraq with considerable ease. They find themselves looking at ways to cut their stay short. A three state solution has been proposed many times for Iraq, and unfortunately, given the current context and the relative disparity of the Iraqi community, only this solution would ensure that a true democracy could be established.

A good example of the lack of traditional democracy is the Kurdish Referendum Movement, which advocates a referendum on a separate Kurdish state. Although it has collected 1.7 million signatures, it has been largely ignored - it would be impossible to ignore such a large number in a real democracy.

How the new Iraqi transitional assembly can ever ensure that every group is happy or bind these groups together remains a burning question.

The interim government to its credit has put on a plucky and spirited front and tried with considerable effort to ensure overall participation and success of the elections, which according to Zebari "will consolidate national unity". However, looks can be deceiving and no one will under estimate the immediate task they face in the rocky transitional road to democracy.

Only time will tell if the elections in Iraq will prove to be a success, what is clear is that the writing on the wall, painted with the blood of many Iraqis, is becoming more and more visible.

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23) Nashville Kurds eager to cast their ballots
The Tennessean
By LEON ALLIGOOD
January 16, 2005

Rastgo Hawrami, a Vanderbilt University graduate student, said his professors will have to excuse him if he misses a class or two this week and next.

He's been summoned to the polls.

The physics major, a Kurd who fled his northern Iraq homeland when Saddam Hussein unleashed chemical weapons on his town in the late 1980s, said nothing could keep him from voting in the upcoming Iraq National Assembly vote.

''I'm really excited about being able to vote. I am encouraging others to come and vote. I will miss class to vote,'' said Hawrami, who has been in the United States for about five years.

''I was so scared in Iraq. We did not have a choice. We now have a great opportunity here.''

Nashville, home of the largest Kurdish population in the country, is one of five polling sites in the United States where Iraqi expatriates can cast a ballot in the election. The other sites are Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles and Washington.

According to the Iraq Out-of-Country Voting organizers, an estimated 16,000 Iraqi expatriates live in the Southeastern United States and probably would choose Nashville to cast their ballots.

Last night, about 70 Kurds gathered at the Salahadeen Center of Nashville, near Nolensville Road, to attend a voting seminar. They listened attentively as a Kurdish speaker explained the registration and voting procedures in detail.

Afterward, voting brochures and maps to the registration site were passed out to those in attendance, who are expected to spread the information to their families and other Kurds in the community.

''I feel that many people will come. We have heard that many are coming from Dallas and Atlanta and Memphis, too. People are opening their homes and providing food, like a welcoming committee,'' said Kamaron Ali, who moved here seven years ago.

''This vote means freedom. It means we are going to approach democracy in our homeland with this election.''

Ali said he has no fear for security concerns. ''None at all. Everything will be safe.''

Merowdal Ahmed said this vote is possible only because Saddam Hussein had been removed from power.

''Everyone now will be able to express their opinions without stepping on others' rights. We hope the vote will affect Iraq and be a model for all of the Middle East,'' Ahmed said.

Karen Hirschfeld, director of the Nashville Iraq Out-of-Country Voting effort, encouraged those gathered at the Salahadeen Center to ask their fellow Kurds to vote.

''We want as many as possible to come and vote. We've had to put this operation together in a short amount of time, but we're now ready for registration to begin,'' she said.

Mahdya Barwari, who has been in Nashville since 1996, was the only other woman, besides Hirsch-feld, in the room. She can't wait to register tomorrow.

''Thank you for President Bush for this,'' she said. ''Kurdistan likes America, and America likes Kurdistan. Thank you, America. We are very, very thankful.''

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24) Saddam lawyer says he has witnesses to testify on the fallen dictator's behalf
JAMAL HALABY
Associated Press
January 17, 2005

AMMAN, Jordan - Saddam Hussein's legal team claimed yesterday it has witnesses willing to testify that the fallen dictator's regime was not responsible for gassing thousands of Kurds in the northern Iraqi town of Halabja in 1988.

The claim, made by Saddam's chief lawyer Ziad al-Khasawneh, relates to one of the main charges against Iraq's deposed president, who is in US military custody along with 11 former lieutenants awaiting trial before a special Iraqi tribunal.

Saddam was arraigned in July on several counts, including gassing Kurds, killing rival politicians, invading Kuwait in 1990 and suppressing Kurdish and Shiite uprisings in 1991.

His defense team has not previously claimed to have witnesses to testify on his behalf. It has, however, said it has documents supporting its case that Iraq's army never possessed the chemicals used to kill about 5,000 people in the Kurdish city of Halabja on March 16, 1988.

Witnesses "are ready and willing to appear before the Iraqi court to testify that the regime of President Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with the chemical attack on the Kurdish population," al-Khasawneh claimed without identifying those willing to testify.

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25) Saddam not responsible for gassing the Kurds- Evidence
Al-Jazeera.com
January 17, 2005

The defense team of the toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein said it has witnesses willing to testify that the former Iraqi president was not responsible for gassing the Kurdish population in the Iraqi city of Halabja on March 16, 1988.

Saddam's chief lawyer Ziad al-Khasawneh's statement refers to one of the major charges raised against the ousted leader, held by the U.S. military at an undisclosed location in Iraq along with 11 officials of his regime awaiting trial.

In July, Saddam appeared before court to hear charges against him, including gassing thousands of Kurds, killing rival politicians, invading Kuwait, as well as suppressing Kurdish and Shiite uprising in 1991.

This is the first time for Saddam's defense to state it has witnesses to testify on his behalf. However, it asserts it has acquired documents supporting its case that the toppled Iraqi regime has never possessed chemical weapons used to kill nearly 5,000 Kurds in Halabja.

Witnesses "are ready and willing to appear before the Iraqi court to testify that the regime of President Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with the chemical attack on the Kurdish population," al-Khasawneh said.

"Those witnesses cannot be challenged in terms of the weight of their testimonies, their persons, positions and connection to the event."

Al-Khasawneh said that the defense team has heard that some "media" reports are suggesting that the Iraqi tribunal had dropped the Halabja charge against Saddam and his associates.

However, Salah Rashid, human rights minister in Iraq's northern Kurdistan, dismissed the claim.

"We gave them (court) some of our documents concerning Halabja and we have evidence and witnesses and the court should listen to them."

Saddam's final trial is to begin after Jan. 30 elections in Iraq. Currently 11 of his top lieutenants - including Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as Chemical Ali  are being questioned.

The tribunal holds Saddam and his associates responsible for the 1987-88 Al-Anfal campaign against Kurds.

Saddam's trial after polls

Iraqi interim President Ghazi al-Yawer announced recently that the trial of Saddam Hussein and his top lieutenants is to begin shortly after the country's national elections, scheduled for the 30th of this month.

According to Al-Yawer, the independent judiciary is to decide the sentences of Saddam and his associates.

"They will be tried. There is a judicial system and they will have the right to defend themselves . . . We will respect what the judiciary rules," Al-Yawar said, speaking from Paris with the Arab satellite station Al-Arabiya.

"I believe that trials will begin directly after the elections. It will begin with regime officials then reach the top of the pyramid," he said.

Of Saddam's 11 lieutenants, the only one who deserves to be freed, according to Al Yawar, is the former defence minister general Sultan Hashim Ahmad.

Al- Yawar defended Ahmed, saying that the former defence minister was a professional soldier, and was never involved in any of the killings, the former regime is charged with.

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26) Training conference: Iraqi Reporters Prepare for Elections
IWPR
December 30, 2004

Sulaimaniyah - IWPR held a groundbreaking training conference on December 30 for journalists covering the first elections of the post-Saddam era, which are a month away.

About 80 local journalists attended the event, which included panel discussions by international journalists, NGOs and election officials. The conference, held in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah, also gave a chance for representatives of five Kurdish political parties to outline their election platforms.

Participants were also given a manual put together by IWPR that included a handbook on election reporting; an Iraqi election backgrounder; a summary of Iraqi election laws and journalists' codes of ethics.

As organisers struggle to make the January 30 elections a success, local journalists are also grappling with how to cover the event. Iraqis will be voting for a 275-member national assembly, whose major task will be to draft a permanent constitution.

In the semi-autonomous northern region of Kurdistan, Iraqis will also be voting for a 111-member parliament.

Journalists who attended the IWPR event said such a conference was desperately needed, as local reporters have no experience in covering a free election and independent media are still in their infancy in Iraq.

Similar events will be held in the Iraqi cities of Erbil and Kirkuk before the elections.

"Almost all Kurdish and Iraqi media are mouthpieces for the political parties and for their candidates," said Bahez Hussein, an editor at Azadi television and radio, which is connected to the Kurdish Communist Party. "So this conference is very good for us to hear expert opinions on media coverage of the elections."

The event began on a sombre note, with a moment of silence in memory of the journalists who have died covering Iraq. It served as a reminder of the sacrifice reporters have made and of their public service role.

The first panel discussion touched on election coverage and security. The panellists included Laura Ingalls, a former CNN producer and IWPR trainer, Michael Howard, a correspondent for the Guardian newspaper, and John Reid, logistics adviser for IWPR.

Other panellists were Dr Fouad Hussain of the Iraqi Communications and Media Commission, Hama Salah of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq and Alaa Talabani of the Women Empowerment Centre.

Local journalists asked the panellists how they could remain impartial in their coverage and what they could do about pressure from editors to report on issues in a certain way.

"In the heat of the elections, we need to keep our personal feelings in check and let the facts tell the story," Ingalls told participants.

During a press conference given by Kurdish politicians, journalists asked questions about threats to boycott the elections, the Arabisation of Kurdish areas and whether solving problems of the electricity supply and other issues were part of party platforms.

"This is a very positive first step in educating local journalists," said Talar Nadir, an editor for the biweekly Rewan newspaper, which covers women's issues. "We need to be more aware of how we can perform in a professional manner."

IWPR has trained more than 250 Iraqi journalists, and stories produced by them appear on the widely read IWPR website.

Since 1991, IWPR has been training journalists in conflict and post-conflict regions, with current operations in Afghanistan, the Balkans, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Iraq and southern Africa.

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27) Do not boycott Peyamner
Peyamner
January 15, 2005

Angry readers have contacted Peyamner editorial office in Irbil urging the staff to remove the Iraqi flag on an election ad shown on the website. Peyamner will certainly take their advice into consideration and will contact the sponsors who ironically enough are those striving en route for further emancipation of the Kurdish nation.

But even if this was not the case, even if we are fully aware of the atrocities committed against the Kurds under this flowing Iraqi flag, could we really escape our own moral codes.

Peyamner has nothing to do with the Iraqi flag. It did not created it; and it will certainly do nothing to eradicate it. The reason is the same one provided by any journalist across the globe. Journalism does not create arenas for certain political games. It only tells about them. It never, at least not intentionally, alters the power plays towards a certain direction. It only notes the alteration. A journalist, by definition, is a bystander; a watcher, a witness not an accomplice or assistant.

"This does not help our quest," a reader writes in his e- mail referring to the flag. No, it does not but that is the reality here as well as chopping off the heads of civilians in Iraq and Kurdistan is the daily drama here, something we have witnessed on a daily bases. And where could we draw the line? Does telling about slaughtering young Kurdish girls in honour Killings help our quest either? And after all why would we tell about circumcision of Kurdish women if we are in the business of making the Kurds to stand out in a better light?

Well, we tell about it, or show it, because it is what is defined as reality here.

A part from all this, Kurdistan is not an independent county. But it has its land. It has no fully independent government. But it has its administrators. Should not there be a difference between having a country and not having it? Do Kurds have a country? And what is this mess for then? What is termed, as South Kurdistan, is still an integrated part of Iraq. We will tell you the minute it is not. It is with the rest of Iraq Kurds go to polls, and not separately. Even if unwillingly, Iraq is still Kurds' country and what happens to it, affects the Kurdish citizen to his inner bones. And the flag is still Iraq's national ensign.

History is full of standoffs between the colonizer and the colonized, an Arab thinker said once in regard to the Middle East conflict. And history, he noted further, was full of defeated colonizers, wherever they had emerged.

Kurdistan will become a country. Not because it is the land of the Kurds; rather because Kurds, as all other nations, belong to the human race, and no human should be left without a home. The Kurdish cause is a just cause. It should not be regarded solely as a Kurdish cause. Kurds, Arabs, Turks, Persians and others will be judged by the same history that is, and will be, defining them within its discourse, both now and in the future, for how they treated this human cause.

So, do not boycott us. Read us. We will let you know if and when the flag vanishes!

Peyamner staff

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28) Youth centre needs support to bring communities together
IRIN
January 10, 2005

KIRKUK - Set up a year ago, a Save the Children-run
youth centre in the northern city of Kirkuk is looking to expand its activities.

Established in a mixed Turkmen-Kurdish quarter on the city's eastern edge,
the cultural centre started working out of an old Baathist youth club in
September last year.

Catering to young people over the age of 14, it has a library, a sports
hall and Internet room.

At any one time, staff say, between 70 and 200 people are attending
courses it offers in computing, art and music.

"It is the only place of its kind in Kirkuk," said Asso Mohamed, who works
in the city's central market. Mohamed is an accomplished player of the
oud, the long-necked fretless lute played throughout the Middle East.

He now comes whenever he can for free lessons with the centre's resident
teacher. "I'm learning songs I'd heard before but never been able to play," he said.

Heartened by the success of the centre, manager Suhad Abdullatif has a
couple of new projects she wants to implement.

So far, the sporting facilities on offer have been weighted towards men.
It's an imbalance that female users of the centre have commented on and
one she hopes to remedy early next year with a gym for women.

"We have the space," she told IRIN, referring to a large room currently
inhabited only by a boxer's punch-bag. "All we need is 3 million Iraqi
dinars [US $2,000] to build three bathrooms and buy apparatus and mirrors
for the wall."

When completed, the facilities will offer 40 women the opportunity to keep
fit, 20 in the morning and 20 after lunch.

"There is a women's gym in Kirkuk, but it costs too much for most to be
able to afford," explained Abdullatif.

>From 12 December, the centre began hosting the first book fair Kirkuk has
seen since liberation. Due to run for two months, the fair is based on one
which took place in Sulaymaniyah, a Kurdish city an hour and a half to the east.

"Kirkuk people are poor, and the idea of the fair was to try to sell books
as cheaply as possible," said Abdullatif. "When he approached the city
authorities to ask for a venue, they were unable to provide anything. So
we offered him the use of our hall."

The programme manager for KSC's Kirkuk projects, Mustafa Ibrahim, knows
all about the difficulties of dealing with the municipality in this
ethnically-divided city. His greatest concern, though, is with keeping his
staff at their jobs.

Already overburdened with civil servants before the war, Iraq has seen a
massive increase in government jobs since. Understandably, since these
positions offer a good salary, stability and perks such as interest-free
loans, many Iraqis dream of transferring from the private sector.

"I've lost count of the number of people who've resigned since last year,"
said Ibrahim. "Replacing them is becoming increasingly difficult,
particularly in a city like Kirkuk, where education levels are low and
qualified people in low supply."

There is a silver lining even to this, though. "The heads of the music and
art departments of Kirkuk College of Arts 'graduated' from us," said
Ibrahim. "Though they've left us, they've taken our philosophy with them -
it is far easier to collaborate with them than with their predecessors."

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29) English Language Teaching in Kurdistan
Mathaba.net
January 10, 2005

The opportunity to pioneer ELT in Iraqi Kurdistan has never been better as English is perceived as a vital tool in education and business and is emerging as the second language in the region. Despite the recent instability in the rest of Iraq, ELT initiatives have taken off in the peaceful and secure Kurdistan Region.

'Pioneer' is an apt description of my work here in Iraqi Kurdistan, as most new initiatives to the region are modern and ground breaking especially in the development of up-to-date courses using the latest teaching and ICT methods available.

I first taught in the region in 2001/2 and had to leave because of the imminent war, this lead to me returning to the UK and forging a link with the British Council, whereby I partook in various projects such as the 'Vocational Partnerships' where 14 delegates from 7 Technical Institutes across Iraq spent 3 weeks looking at teaching methods and college organisation with backing from the Association of Colleges. We then invited 10 lecturers from 4 Universities in Northern Iraq on a 6 week intensive teacher training programme at Huddersfield Technical College, one of the main outcomes was the birth of the English Language Teachers' Association of Kurdistan (ELTAK).

Three of the lecturers who took part in the Teacher Training programme, head the English department of their respective universities and as a direct result of the course returned to make changes; such as in the University of Dohuk where team teaching and role-play have been introduced for the first time in the English conversation classes. Larger classes have been split into much smaller manageable groups, with many becoming more student centred. Motivation and participation has increased as a result, this can be seen most in the department's drama class who have put on productions of Macbeth and are now preparing for a production of the Merchant of Venice. One of the drama teachers commented on increased language awareness, usage, and understanding. She also added that students are becoming more actively involved in lessons and are eager to give up their free time to work on the plays, they have also noticed a direct improvement in grades as their confidence has increased.

The teachers themselves have found this more student centred approach to be more labour intensive especially in the preparation stage; but have found the students enthused reaction to be a most gratifying reward. As the situation in Mosul became unbearable over recent months many students have transferred to the University of Dohuk and they have noticed the different teaching methods applied there and have been very receptive to it as their English skills have shown a definite improvement. As a result they talk confidently about how effective the application of these methods have proved.

Another improvement has been in the introduction of a college notice board, where students can write and display their own articles, comments and poems, in Sulaymania they have gone one step further and the department produces its own newsletter in English with contributions from staff and students, Dohuk are hoping to do the same sometime this year.

The departments themselves are looking a lot brighter with posters on the wall. In Erbil and Sulaymania the whole department has had a complete refurbishment; but there is still a problem with a lack of resources. The English Departments of the Northern Iraqi Universities still lack specialised English Language books especially for those students studying towards a MA. In spite of this, they do their best and try to glean information from the internet; but they still need access to books and journals. On a smaller scale individuals have brought in books from the West; but it does little to fill the yawning gap. To try and plug this gap a little, we are planning within ELTAK to set up a database of English Language Resources, so that the English departments in Dohuk, Sulaymania, Erbil and Kirkuk can share resources and check on the database for access to a particular reference.

In September 2004 I returned permanently to Kurdistan and took up my post as an English language lecturer at the University of Dohuk, part of my role is to set up and run the University's English Language Centre, where in collaboration with an American English language teacher, we are hoping to run IELTS and TOEFL courses, we are also hoping to open and run a similar centre at the University of Salahddin in Erbil.

I have also been working on ELTAK; but that hasn't been without problems finding suitable times for meetings and the logistics of gathering the founding members together has not proved easy. We are now in the process of getting the association legalised by the Kurdistan Regional Government so that we can apply for funding and also be allocated a fully furnished office. We then hope to open the association to new members ranging from English Language University Lecturers to English Primary school teachers, but we will be doing this in stages.

With the increased stability of Kurdistan many families who fled the country in the 80's and 90's to Europe, neighbouring Middle Eastern Countries, America and Canada are now returning in large numbers. Subsequently the Ministry of Education has the task of integrating these children into the main stream education system. This has lead to new government initiatives such as the establishment of schools with a modified curriculum to help them. Consequently I have set up a pilot IGCSE scheme; whereby I have a class of students ranging between the ages of 14-17 many of whom have studied English abroad. This year they will take part in a foundation course which I hope will next year lead them to taking the International GCSE in English. If this pilot scheme proves successful I would like to broaden it into other subjects and introduce it to similar schools across Kurdistan and Iraq.

His Excellency, The Minister of Education, Mr Abdul-Aziz Taeeb has been very supportive of these new programmes and has given both personal and financial support from the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. He is also supporting the introduction of English to primary school education at year 3; which is a first in Iraq. New text books and curriculum have been devised and are now being piloted in selected schools in Erbil and Dohuk, if this proves successful then it will be extended to all primary schools in the region.

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30) Where Kurdistan Stands With Its New Experience!
Kurdistan Observer
By: Kirmanj Gundi     
Jan 11, 2005 

In the wake of the Sykes-Picot Treaty, which was drafted in 1916 and implemented after WWI, the ever-beautiful Kurdistan was repartitioned among Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and the former Soviet Union. The Vilayat of Mosul (Kurdistan-Iraq) was forcefully annexed to the newly created (out of nothing) Iraq.
Vilayat of Mosul included the city of Mosul and other parts of Kurdistan that are no longer considered by the Kurdish political apparatus as parts of Kurdistan! The Kurds gave up their territorial ownership to Mosul; that is why the Arab-Chauvinists claim Kerkûk!

Even after the collapse of the Ba'athist-bloody-beast regime, the newly CIA created democrats, such as Allawi and his entourage have not taken the slightest step toward the normalization of the obliterated situation created by the former ugly King of Baghdad and efface the scars of their crimes in Kurdistan.

The Kerkûk situation has not improved to a satisfactory level! Nothing has been done to return the Kurdish districts that were given to the Arab provinces! The Kurdish AWAREKAN (displaced) still live under tents! And, the Kurdish political leadership is still waiting for a LAW to come from the lawlessness of BRA EREBEKAN (the Arab brothers) in Baghdad to normalize the situation. The very same brothers who do not believe in democracy and federalism!

The Article 58 of the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL) of Iraq that provided a ground for normalizing the situation of Kurdistan has been abrogated, particularly with regards to the Kerkûk province by NOT allowing the forcefully displaced Kurds to go back to their homes and reclaim their ancestral lands. The greater majority of the Arabs whom were brought to arabize Kerkûk are still in Kerkûk!

Due to the two-administration system in Kurdistan, the Kurdish political slogans have not been very effective. The distrust between the two main Kurdish political parties has weakened the national unity front, which could have been used to hinder if not eliminate the obstacles that have been intended to create difficulties for the people of Kurdistan. Instead, the two-head-mentality has grown over the ambitions of nurturing the political denomination! There has been little room for democratic observance. As a result, a huge gap has been created between the two parties, where unstable elements have grown in Kurdistan to destabilize the livelihood of ordinary citizens. Democratic values need to be strengthened to a greater extent. A civic intelligence should be promoted to lay down a ground for the creation of a civil society.

The Kurdish political establishment has been stretching out its hands to the Arabs to accept them as equal partners in Iraq, but they have not been willing to accept each other as equal brothers. After the collapse of the Iraq's tyrannical regime, they have been louder than Iraqi Arabs to keep Iraq's territorial integrity together, but have divided KurdistanÎ -bin-destÎ -Iraqê (Kurdistan-Iraq) across their party lines!

In hotels, in territories under either administration one cannot watch the satellite channel of the other administration, because it is not available, but there are many Arabic channels for the guests to enjoy! 

On one hand, the Kurdish political slogans have been dwelling on the notion of repudiating the second class citizenship. They wanted to be recognized as Iraq's first class citizens. On the other hand, they wanted the new Iraq to become a federal country, where the Kurdistan Federate State (KFS) is established and its borders are drawn on the national geography and historical realities, and Kerkûk is an undisputable part of it. Here, one could question the authenticity of the Kurdish political slogans! For, wanting the first class citizenship indicates that Iraq's current political map is sanctified. One country, from north to south, and east to west would be a divine land sacrosanct for all. Why bother to even think about federalism? Under such a criterion, Iraq's territorial integrity becomes a sacred contract, and a taboo to say it is not a part of the (Uma Al-Arabiya) Arab Nation.

Nurturing the nature of federalism for Kurdistan automatically establishes the identity of first class citizenship. For, federalism rejects the majority rule over the minority. It imprints into the legal system equality for all citizens regardless of their national, ethnic, or religious background. 

Even American administration has been against first class citizenship for the people of Kurdistan. They have not hidden their preference for the Arab domination in Iraq by telling the Kurdish leadership NOT to ask for either of the two top posts (President or Prime Minister) in which in the 1930s-1960s of the 20th century, the Kurds occupied the office of Prime Minister several times. At the dawn of the 21st century, US, the protector of all democracies does not allow its most compassionate allies to have their democratic rights!

American soldiers have been murdered on a daily basis in the central and southern parts of Iraq and have been viewed as occupiers. On the contrary, they have been barraged with flowers in Kurdistan and considered as liberators. Not a single US soldier has lost his/her life or was wounded in the areas under the Kurdish authorities. In return, to satisfy the Arab-Chauvinists, American administration has always pressured the Kurds to win the Arab satisfaction!

The U. S. policy with regards to Kurdistan has not been straightforward. In the TAL, the U. S. supported a federal system based on the national geography and historical realities. However, in June 2004, U. S. and U. K. replaced the TAL by the UN resolution 1546 that has mentioned federalism only in the preamble section not as an article in the resolution! The U. S. hardly had friends as loyal as the people of Kurdistan; and America knows if they are to be left alone in the Iraqi Arab the consequences would be unbearable for them. The people of Kurdistan have infuriated the Arabs in Iraq and the already hostile neighbors only for cooperating with Americans. The people of Kurdistan cannot afford to be left at the mercy of the Iraqi Arab-Chauvinists once more. America has nothing to lose for helping the people of Kurdistan to achieve their national and democratic rights. On the contrary, America will find the most considerate and supportive friends in the most disputed region in the world.  

On January 1, 2005, the President of Kurdistan Democratic Party, Mr. Masoud Barzani, in his press conference with the US under Secretary of State, Mr. Richard Armitage, reminded the world about his people's strong alliance with the United States. He also said, "He was optimistic about the future." Only, on January 4, 2005, the American Special Forces bombarded one of the dormitories of Salahaddin University in Hawler without even informing the Kurdistan authorities about their intended operation. This was American appreciations to Mr. Barzani's sincerity and good gestures! This lawless action was followed by an apology. However, the apology did not come from where the decision to attack was made; it came from a low rank local commander. Another humiliation to the people of Kurdistan! Such action of the US forces in Kurdistan undermines the authority of the people who assisted them in their Operation Iraqi Freedom! The very people who mixed their blood with American blood to facilitate American success in Iraq.

The Kurdish political leadership encourages the people of Kurdistan to vote. Their rationale is, the more we vote the more seats we secure in the Iraqi National Assembly. Voting under such circumstances, where Saddam's fingerprints are all over the (still viable) racist policies that were intended to Arabize Kurdistan is a disservice to the Kurdistan martyrs. The people of Kurdistan shall not participate in Iraq's national election prior to returning the 1958 demographic status to Kurdistan!

85% of the voting forms appeared to be intentionally erred, which reminded the people of Kurdistan of another improper behavior of the Chauvinists in Baghdad. It was a clear indication that these forms were prepared without the Kurdish participation. Another proof that the Arab-Chauvinists do not see the people of Kurdistan as their equal partners in the so-called new Iraq!  

In this dire situation, what the people of Kurdistan need now more than ever before is less political partisan and more orientation toward the glorification of the sacred national and democratic rights under one strong joint leadership.
It is essential that the Kurdish political parties create a Kurdistan Leadership Council to jointly lead the beloved people of Kurdistan toward a better and more prosperous future. They can have their own different administration under one leadership council. It is not a good image for the people of Kurdistan to have the foreign guests visit both leaderships in Qala Chwalan and Pirmam for the same purpose!

Kirmanj Gundi is a professor at Tennessee State University in Nashville-Tennessee.

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31) Who Won't Be Making Jokes About WMD
By Gerald A. Honigman
MichNews.com
Jan 10, 2005
 
The Bush Administration has come under increasing fire due to its inability to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, one of the main reasons it gave in launching its attack in the first place.
 
While Jay Leno & Co. continue to crack jokes, and AP writers such as Matthew Fordahl have also made light of the subject in papers such as The Herald in Rock Hill, South Carolina ("For Today's Giggle, Try Asking Google To Find weapons Of Mass Destruction," 7/16/03), there is one people who surely will not be joining in the laughter. And they were not the only ones for whom the subject is deadly serious--literally.

"The Kurds have no friends but the Mountain" is a piece of aging Kurdish wisdom. And while the mass gassings and other slaughter of this people have too often been treated as "yesterday's news," all the current hype about whether or not Adolph -- er Saddam -- Hussein had/has weapons of mass destruction brings their tragic story back onto center stage...or at least should.

Thirty million stateless, used, and abused Kurds are the native, non-Arab, non-Turkic, non-Semitic people who were promised independence in Mesopotamia -- the ancient heartland of Kurdistan -- after the Ottoman Turkish Empire collapsed in the wake of World War I. They were the Hurrians of the Bible and the Medes of Persian history. Saladin, the mighty medieval Muslim warrior, was a Kurd.
Unfortunately, they soon saw these earlier promises sacrificed on the altar of British petroleum politics and Arab nationalism. Arab Iraq was born instead.

It's imperial navy having recently switched from coal to oil power, Great Britain did not want to anger the strategically important "Arab" world, possessing its own oil wealth, by agreeing to support a Kurdish nationalism which was viewed by Arabs with the same disdain as they display towards the nationalist movement of Israel's Jews (one half of whom descended from refugees from the "Arab"/Muslim world) or any other of the subjugated peoples -- Berbers, Black African Sudanese, etc. -- who dared to assert their own identities and demanded political rights.

Despite their own internal differences, Kurds from all over the region had largely put their hopes and dreams into the creation of that one independent Kurdish state, not unlike situations involving Greeks, Armenians, and Jews in their own respective earlier diasporas. The frustration arising from the abortion of that earlier Mesopotamian dream (a cause supported by such personalities as President Woodrow Wilson, Mark Sykes, and others) lead to decades of revolts and problems in Syria, Turkey, and Iran as well.

In a post-imperial age when other dormant nations were reawakening, the Kurds were repeatedly told that they were unworthy of such desires... by so-called "friends" and foes alike. That brings us back to current times.

While repeated partitions have occurred and are still being demanded of the geographic area of "Palestine" (the first occurring when the Arab nation of Jordan was created in 1922 as a result of Colonial Secretary Churchill's separation of all the land east of the Jordan River from the 1920 borders), none have been allowed for a much larger Mesopotamia.. Only Arabs have been allowed to have their nationalist desires sanctioned in a land in which millions of Kurds and others have lived long before the Arab conquests in the 7th century C.E. and the continuing forced Arabization ever since. In their frustration, the Kurds have subsequently been caught up in numerous regional and global rivalries, being used and abused by all...Syrian and Iraqi Arabs, Turks, Iranians, Soviets, Brits, Russians, Americans, etc.

Post-World War I Iraq was largely divided between two major factions: Arab nationalists, who saw Iraq simply as one part of the overall greater Arab patrimony, and Iraqi nationalists. The latter -- some Kurds, Assyrians, Turkmens, a few Arabs, etc. (with few exceptions, Iraq's 200,000 Jews basically watched carefully from the sidelines) -- deluded themselves into believing that Arabs would allow a true equality to emerge within the country. Yet earlier Iraqi history should have taught another lesson: the Arab Caliphate of the 'Umayyads based in Damascus had been replaced in the 8th century during the Abbasid Revolution. The latter established its imperial base farther east in Baghdad and was supported largely by non-Arab converts to Islam, the Mawali, who demanded an equality that Arabs back then had also refused to give.

Short of another major Abbasid-like revolution, Iraq's Arabs (Shi'a or Sunni)--having once again regained their position of dominance -- were not likely to give it up. Sure enough, subsequent massacres of non-Arab populations and the continued forced Arabization of their cultures and lands helped squash most of the modern "Iraqi" nationalist delusions. While, in theory, this would be a nice, American-styled democratic solution, centuries of reality regarding actual Arab practices and attitudes tell quite a different story. Added to this, think about Sunni Arabs blowing apart Shi'a Arabs (along with everyone else) as Iraq now attempts to enter into some semblance of a democratic age.

In the 1970s, after promoting Kurdish military support for the Shah of Iran against Iraq, America pulled the rug out from under Mullah Mustafa Barzani when the Shah made his temporary peace. Tens of thousands of Kurds were subsequently slaughtered as a result. A repeat performance came in 1991, when President George Bush, Sr. called for the Kurds and others to revolt in order to topple Saddam from within. When they heeded his call, he then stood by and watched as Kurdish men, women, and children were massacred by the thousands. Just a bit earlier, thousands more had been gassed to death -- 5,000 in Halabja alone...all of this with the might of the U.S. military within a stone's throw of the action. The pathetic excuse meekly offered later on was that America had been "tricked" by the Iraqis in agreements regarding terms of the ceasefire. This will forever be a stain on America's honor, despite after-the-fact "no fly" zones subsequently set up by the Allies.

Besides the thousands of Kurdish civilians who were immediately killed, tens of thousands of others have subsequently died due to the lingering effects of the poison, etc. Remember this the next time someone offers up a chuckle about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction.

Adding insult to injury, at a time when much of the world is now demanding that the sole, miniscule, resurrected state of the Jews accept that a terrorist 23rd Arab state -- and second Arab one in Palestine--be created in its own backyard, these same alleged voices of ethical enlightenment still insist that there will be no "roadmap" for the creation of an independent Kurdistan. Even earlier talk of a federalist solution, whereby Kurds would at least gain some local autonomy within a united Iraq, now seems to be losing out to the majority Shia's other plans for dominance and demands.

While other butchers do indeed exist elsewhere, and America cannot simply assume the roles of the world's policeman, judge, and jury, there were still very good reasons to bring about the end of Saddam's regime...whether we're ever able to locate his WMD or not. Just ask those Kurdish parents who bore witness to mass graves holding hundreds of their children being unearthed...a scene right out of the Holocaust.

Just how do we define weapons of mass destruction?

Thanks to Israel's surgical strike removing the immediate nuclear threat some two decades ago (for which it was universally condemned -- James Baker and George Bush, Sr. leading the pack in his pre-presidential days), Saddam's nuclear option suffered a severe setback. But ample evidence suggests that he didn't give up on this endeavor, and Iranians and probably others as well were also gassed by Saddam, so no one doubts his possession and willingness to use this latter type of WMD.

It's not too difficult to hide poison gas -- or even its delivery systems -- in a country as large as Iraq, especially since weapons inspectors had been out of the country for a long time. And we now know that Syria has been up to its eyeballs in collaboration with Iraq regarding all kinds of things. Syria has its own huge stockpiles of such weaponry, so it would theoretically be easy to hide Iraqi WMD this way.

Additionally, Saddam had plenty of time to learn the lesson of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war that it wasn't a good idea to leave your weapons exposed. No one ever claimed that the Iraqis are stupid....even if some of Saddam's actions antagonizing America (and giving it little choice but to act) in recent decades might suggest otherwise.

So what's all the current fuss about WMD really all about?

Could it be just domestic politics being played out by opponents of Tony Blair and Dubya ( I voted for the "other guy" the first time around ) and/or another example of the hypocrisy and double standards of the rest of the world which put Israel under a high power lens in judging its struggle to survive while ignoring the literally millions of non-Arab people -- such as the Kurds -- who have been massacred, seen their cultures and languages "outlawed," and such for simply daring to assert their own identities and resisting forced Arabization?

Is it that the murder of hundreds of thousands of Kurds over the decades simply doesn't matter? And if it really did, would it matter if we could or could not locate the hidden WMD we already know that Saddam had and used against this people?

The current real concern and debate should therefore not be about locating Saddam's WMD, but providing the long term justice the victims of his WMD deserve.

What will happen once America gets fed up with the Arab mess in post-Saddam Iraq, packs up and leaves the country, and the tax payers, Turks, and others get tired of the "no fly" zones?

Unless we work out an arrangement for our own long term presence (i.e. bases in Iraqi Kurdistan seem to be the best choice), the tanks and planes Iraq's Arabs mostly kept leashed in confronting America will very likely once again wreak vengeance against America's strangely loyal Kurdish friends. A mounting toll of American dead and maimed, along with other costs, will bring ever increasing pressure for an American retreat...right or wrong.

One of the biggest booboos we made was ending the war too quickly, allowing Saddam's military to cast off their uniforms only to soon bleed us in an ongoing guerilla war of attrition. Locating an enemy scattered among a civilian population is a helluva bit harder and more complex than pinpointing him on the battlefield. We were played for dummies, and quite likely due to pressure from the State Department to end the war prematurely so as not to anger its Arab buddies elsewhere even more than they were already.

Yet, despite all of this, America insists that -- at the most -- a modified federal version of a failed "Iraqi" nationalism will be all that Kurds may be offered in post-Saddam Iraq...as if Saddam alone was the problem and created those subjugating Arab attitudes towards non-Arabs himself. It's more than doubtful that a post-Saddam Iraq will view "political equality" any differently than when Saddam was forcibly removing Kurds from their ancient oil-rich lands around Mosul and Kirkuk and replacing those he didn't kill with Arabs.

Once again...the American occupation, despite the good that it has brought to the land, will increasingly--as we are now seeing--be resented. And those who aligned themselves with America -- the Kurds in particular -- will once again be sought out for revenge. Yet, without a prolonged, guided, and powerful American occupation, there is no chance whatsoever for an inclusive "Iraqi" nationalism to emerge. With America's presence, this still has only a slight chance for success. There are simply too many powerful forces working against it.

While America has been playing a delicate balancing act trying to soothe Turkey's fears regarding its own large Kurdish population and not angering the Arab oil sheikhs and autocrats with the prospect of the loss of what they see as "purely Arab land" to the Kurds, it must begin to reassess this policy.
Certainly if Arabs, most of whom still deny Israel's right to exist, are deemed deserving of their 22nd or 23rd state, with most of the world's hypocrites clamoring for it as well, some thirty million stateless Kurds living in varying degrees of danger and subjugation are, at long last, deserving of one.
This should be the issue being debated and under scrutiny right now...not Saddam's weapons of mass destruction. And America must not leave the Kurds at the mercy of Arab butchers as it has done in the past.

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32) What have the Kurds gained from Operation Iraqi Freedom?
KurdishMedia.com
By Dr Rashid Karadaghi
18January 2005

The question millions of Kurds are asking today is: "What exactly did we get out of Operation Iraqi Freedom?" Surely, Saddam is no longer, but there is an infinite number of his clones waiting in the wing and it is only a matter of time when one of them, or a collective of them, will assume power to continue on their master's path. Surely, we are safe for now from Saddam's chemical attacks, but there is no telling what the neo-Saddams will do when they come back to power with a vengeance.

I do not mean in any way to belittle the historic importance of Operation Iraqi Freedom for the Kurdish people. There is no doubt that the Kurds feel more secure because of removing Saddam and his murderous regime from power, for which they are, and will always be, grateful to America, even though they know that they were only coincidental beneficiaries of OIF, for it was not launched with them in mind despite all the pre-OIF rhetoric and the sudden awakening by the West to the suffering of the Kurds --- now forgotten again.

But while the Kurds are applauding the Bush Administration for removing Saddam and his criminal regime from power, they are shocked and puzzled by the antagonistic attitude of this same Administration towards Kurdish national rights despite the justness of those rights, the well-publicized and recognized Kurdish participation in the US-led Operation Iraqi Freedom, and the miss-perception in the Middle East that America is behind the Kurds.

It may come as a surprise to the families and loved ones of the one thousand plus brave American men and women who gave their lives so others could be free, and to the five thousand plus who have been maimed or injured, and also to those who will undoubtedly pay with their lives or limb to find out that since the fall of Saddam not only has America done nothing to promote legitimate Kurdish national rights but has opposed them vigorously, siding with those who have terrorized the Kurds for over eighty years and committed genocide against them, instead of supporting Kurdish freedom fighters who fought the same tyrannical regime that America overthrew almost two years ago. The American people are entitled to a convincing explanation from their government of the gap between the declared noble goals of OIF and the actual, on-the-ground, anti-Kurdish American policy, despite the fact that the Kurds are indisputably the truest and most reliable American ally in the whole region, reliable because they, too, believe in the fundamental American ideal of liberty and the inalienable human rights and have fought for that ideal and those rights for as long as history can remember.

The irony is that while America is standing against the national rights of the Kurds and does not recognize Kurdistan except as "northern Iraq," where not only has a single American or Coalition soldier not been killed but they have been welcomed, and rightfully so, with open arms as heroes, it is supporting those who have never had one good word to say about America. America is punishing its real friends while rewarding those whose whole political philosophy and creed is rooted in fighting and hating America and Americans. Can the State Department tell us how this twisted policy serves United States' interest?

The Kurds cannot understand why America and its allies insist on the unity of the failed state of Iraq, thereby denying the Kurds the right to their own state like the other 192 nations in the UN, even though the Kurds are more numerous than the majority of these nations. In this regard, it must be said that America and its principal ally, Britain, which is historically to blame for most Kurdish ills, and the United Nations have all trampled on the rights of the Kurdish people by refusing to implement the will of over1 ,700, 000voting-age Kurds who signed a petition a year ago demanding that a Referendum be held in Kurdistan so the Kurdish people would vote on whether they want to remain part of Iraq or not. Those signatures gathered dust for months at Paul Bremer's office in Baghdad first and now at the UN headquarters in New York. So much for the will of the people and all the United Nations' Declarations on peoples' right of self-determination!

What American policy-makers fail to understand is that the American blueprint, while working so well in America (and I can testify to that after spending two-thirds of my life in this country), will never work in a country like Iraq with its long history of hatred and bloodshed between the ethnic groups (Kurds and Arabs) and even to some extent the sectarian groups. Those who are pinning their hopes on the upcoming election will be sorely disappointed because even with the cleanest and most democratic elections, the eighty-year-old problems of Iraq will not go away as long as the country is kept whole by force, which has always been the case. The only solution for Iraq's problems is to stop forcing disparate people to live under the same roof. And what have we accomplished by keeping Iraq whole for almost a century other than mass graves and devastation and suffering? And after all, if family members who can't get along well should have the right to go their separate ways, why can't nations have the same right? It doesn't really take a genius to understand this simple logic, despite what people who have a vested interest in keeping the world in turmoil say.

Apart from removing Saddam, which, in my view, will go down in history as one of America's noblest acts despite the inevitable, tragic loss of many lives, the lofty goals of Operation Iraqi Freedom have proven rather empty for the Kurds, for instead of helping to reverse the ethnic cleansing of Kurds by Saddam and his predecessors, America is making ethnic cleansing permanent by not allowing the Kurds who were expelled from their ancestral homes and properties to return to those homes, still occupied by pro-Saddam Arab settlers brought to Kerkuk and other Arabized areas of Kurdistan, mainly in the eighties and nineties, to change the demography of Kurdistan. Thus, whether we like it or not, even though America overthrew Saddam, it is keeping his legacy alive.

And while it is true that South Kurdistan is thriving economically and is relatively secure for now, the much more important and larger issue, namely, the Kurdish national cause, has suffered some setbacks since the liberation, for the Kurds are not an inch closer to realizing their goal of independence than they were before Saddam's fall, thanks largely to the US-led Coalition's lack of faith in its own ideals and its submission to the evil demands and threats of the occupiers of Greater Kurdistan. Very simply put, Kurds are puzzled by the Coalition's (and the rest of the Western democracies') refusal to support the Kurds' legitimate right to establish their own independent state, even though a Kurdish democratic, secular state would enhance Western ideals in the Middle East. The West's insistence on perpetuating British colonialism's terrible crime against the Kurds is a deep mystery to every Kurd, for any fair and rational person can look at eighty years of bloody history and conclude that the patchwork called "Iraq" has been like a plague to its people and, optimistic claims notwithstanding, will continue to be a plague since it is held together by force.

Within the last three weeks, two more mass graves have been found in Kurdistan, one in Silemani ( 28December2004 ) with the remains of sixty Kurds in it, and the other in Kerkuk ( 8January2005 ) with the remains of six Kurds in it. This is in addition to the hundreds of other mass graves that have been uncovered in Kurdistan since the fall of Saddam, and God knows how many more will be uncovered in the future. Despite all these horrible crimes committed against the Kurdish people by Arab Iraq, America and its principal ally, Britain, (and all the other Western democracies) insist that Iraq must remain whole, that the Kurds must not become independent, all of which means that the Kurds will continue to be subjugated by extremist Arab nationalists and Islamic radicals and must brace themselves up for more mass graves and genocides in the future.

Of the hundreds and hundreds of news reports about actual events on the ground in Kurdistan and Iraq, the following is perhaps as telling as any about what Operation Iraqi Freedom has evolved into for the Kurds. It was reported a few days ago that the Iraqi Election High Commission, which has the blessings of America and Britain and the UN, has disqualified a Kurdish political party from participating in the election because it has the word "Independence" in its name! The Commission required this Kurdish party to change its name if it wanted to participate in the election because, the Commission claimed, its name implied "separatism," which prompted the Kurdish party to boycott the election because it stood on principle and refused to change its name. Just imagine! Kurds are not free even to choose the names of their political parties! How can we reconcile this and countless other violations of basic Kurdish rights with the noble goals of Operation Iraqi Freedom? Was this the fate that launched a thousand missiles? Could someone in the State Department or the Foreign Office explain --- -without double-talk?

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Washington Kurdish Institute

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