KurdistanObserver.com

Protest Against U.S. Iraq Study Group Report Held in Kirkuk

AP

KIRKUK, (Southern Kurdistan), December 12, -- About 1,500 people marched through Kirkuk city on Tuesday to protest a recommendation by the U.S.
Iraq Study Group that a referendum on the future of this oil-rich city be delayed.

The commission, headed by former U.S. Republican secretary of state James A. Baker III and former Democratic congressman Lee Hamilton said: "Given the very dangerous situation in Kirkuk, international arbitration is necessary to avert communal violence. A referendum on the future of Kirkuk would be explosive and should be delayed."

The protesters carried placards with slogans such as "No, no for Baker" in three different languages: Arabic, Kurdish and Turkoman.

Iraq's constitution stipulates that the fate of the northern, oil-rich city of Kirkuk be decided in a regional referendum by the end of next year.

The city is claimed by the Kurds, who want to annex it to their self-rule region. But Kirkuk's Arab and Turkomen residents reject that claim, and the city has been plagued by sectarian violence and insurgent attacks since 2003.

Iraq's Kurds and Shiites combine for about 80 percent of Iraq's 26 million population. They suffered the most under Saddam Hussein's ousted Sunni-led regime.

The Kurds and Shiites are Iraq's strongest proponents of federalism, enshrined in a new constitution adopted last year.

Sunni Arabs, however, see federalism as a prelude to partitioning the country into a Kurdish north, a Shiite south, leaving them in a central Iraq bereft of oil and other natural resources.

They have also opposed purging members of Saddam's now-ousted Baath party from government jobs and the armed forces, saying this was a roundabout way to punish members of their community.

Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani, a longtime Washington ally and president of the 15-year-old autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, has angrily rejected Iraq Study Group recommendations, warning that any delay in deciding the fate of an oil-rich region the Kurds claim would have "grave consequences."

President Jalal Talabani, also a Kurd, agreed with Barzani's assessment, saying the report sought to give too much authority to the central government.