Interview-Little
Chance Of Kirkuk Vote In 2007 - Iraqi MP
BAGHDAD, Sept 20 (Reuters) - A referendum to decide the status of the potential
flashpoint Iraqi city of Kirkuk has little chance of being held this year,
partly because time has run out to prepare for the vote, a senior Iraqi
politician said.
The referendum for the ancient northern city, provided for in the Iraqi
constitution, was due by the end of the year.
But the Independent Electoral Commission would need at least seven months from
now to get ready, deputy parliament speaker Khaled al-Attiya told Reuters in an
interview late on Wednesday.
Parliament also has to pass a law setting a date for a plebiscite that is hotly
disputed by the different sects in the oil-rich city.
"Even if we issued a law today and said hold a referendum in Kirkuk, we would
not be able to unless the technical side was covered," said Attiya, an
independent Shi'ite lawmaker and senior member of the ruling Shi'ite Alliance.
"The commission said it needs at least seven months to do this. So I think it
will not be possible to do it this year."
RED LINE
Kirkuk is a mixed city of Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen, 250 km (155 miles) north of
Baghdad.
Kurdish nationalists want Kirkuk included in their northern autonomous region
and the referendum held by the year's end, regarding the plebiscite as a "red
line" issue.
Arabs and Turkmen fear they will be pushed out of the city if it goes ahead and
want the referendum stalled or put off for good. Analysts fear a bloodbath if
the vote goes ahead against the wishes of other sects.
Attiya acknowledged that not holding the vote in 2007 would breach the
constitution, but he said there was little choice. Technical difficulties were
not the only obstacle, he added.
"There are still political difficulties. It is a sensitive matter and it needs
some time," he said, without elaborating.
"The Kirkuk issue ... has regional and international implications."
Among the issues that need to be dealt with before a referendum goes ahead is a
census and a "normalisation" process mandated under Article 140 of Iraq's 2005
constitution.
"Normalisation" involves paying compensation to Arab settlers to reverse Saddam
Hussein's Arabisation policy of the 1970s and 1980s, when thousands of Kurds and
Turkmen were expelled from Kirkuk to be replaced by Arabs.
Sunni Arabs fear that "normalisation" -- under which Arab families have been
offered $15,000 and land to return to their original home towns -- is an attempt
to influence the outcome of the vote by changing Kirkuk's demographics.
Others believe it is an unsubtle attempt by Kurds to deny others a share of the
area's oil wealth.
Neighbouring Turkey, meanwhile, fears Iraqi Kurds will wrest control of Kirkuk
and turn it into the capital of a new state, possibly reigniting separatism
among its own sizeable Kurdish population.
