BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraq's Kurdish deputy prime minister warned Monday that failure
to resolve the fate of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk could result in more strife
and accused people within the government of blocking a solution.
"We have a choice,'' Barham Saleh told The Associated Press. "We can either turn
Kirkuk into an example of national Iraqi unity ... or turn it into a battlefield
for strife between the components of Iraq.''
A referendum is expected later this year on whether Kirkuk will join the
semiautonomous Kurdish zone to its north, or continue to be ruled by Baghdad.
Saleh said it was unacceptable to leave the dispute unresolved and accused
unnamed people within the government of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of
trying to stymie a solution spelled out in the 2005 constitution.
"I am a Kurd and see Kirkuk as part of the Kurdish region,'' Saleh said,
explaining that because Arabs and Turkomen - the other two main ethnic groups
inhabiting the city - see it differently, the issue must be resolved under
current law.
Kirkuk's Arab and Turkomen residents dispute the Kurdish claim to the city,
which has over the past 4 years seen hundreds of deadly attacks with sectarian
or ethnic motives.
Leaders of Iraq's Shiite majority fear allowing Kirkuk to join the Kurdish
region could undermine their new status as the country's dominant power, while
the once-dominant Sunni Arab minority sees the loss of the city as a prelude to
the breakup of the nation along sectarian or ethnic lines.
Saleh, like President Jalal Talabani, is widely viewed as a moderate Kurd and
his assertion that Kirkuk is part of the Kurdish region reflects a universal
conviction among Kurds. But his charge that government parties were working
against a solution in Kirkuk reflects tension between the Kurds and their close
Shiite allies.
The Kurds and Shiites, who combine for about 80 percent of Iraq's population,
have been close allies since Saddam's ouster in 2003, but recent Kurdish
assertions of independence, like the conclusion of oil exploration deals with
foreign companies, without involving the central government, have led to harsh
public exchanges.
The constitution, which most of Iraq's Sunni Arabs voted against in a 2005
referendum, provides for the "normalization'' of Kirkuk - allowing Kurds
forcibly moved from the city under Saddam Hussein's "Arabization'' program to
return and inviting Arabs lured there decades ago by financial reward to leave
in return for compensation.
