Baghdad warns ethnic factions in Kirkuk
BAGHDAD - Iraq's government warned ethnic factions in the northern city of Kirkuk that it would not allow any party to unilaterally decide the region's future.
BAGHDAD - Iraq's government warned ethnic factions in the northern city of Kirkuk that it would not allow any party to unilaterally decide the region's future.
The government was reacting to a threat by Kurdish provincial council members to declare the oil-rich city a part of Iraqi Kurdistan.
The dispute is emerging as one of the biggest threats to the Shiite-led Iraqi government's efforts to heal the country's sectarian rifts and prevent a new cycle of violence.
Kurdish officials are worried that the national parliament might approve an electoral-procedure law, both delaying local elections in Kirkuk and imposing a quota system for the 40-seat provincial council.
Parliament is scheduled to discuss the matter during an emergency session tomorrow.
Such a move would force the Kurds, who dominate the current system, to split power with ethnic Arabs and Turkmen. The controversial version of the electoral law also calls for the removal of the current Iraqi security forces from Kirkuk, which Arabs and Turkmen say is controlled by Kurds.
"The Iraqi government is refusing any individual step to change the situation in Kirkuk, and it is considering it illegal and unconstitutional," government spokesman Ali Dabbagh said in a statement yesterday.
Dabbagh warned that the country's enemies could exploit escalating tensions.
Yesterday, three Iraqi soldiers died in a roadside bombing in Kirkuk, where relations remained frayed among Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen after a suicide bombing Monday targeted Kurdish protesters, leading to ethnic clashes.
The suicide attack and clashes left at least 25 people dead.
Kurds say Kirkuk belongs to them and see claiming it as justice for their oppression under Saddam Hussein, who expelled them from the province and resettled Arabs in their place.
Similar tensions abound across northern Iraq from the province of Nineveh to sections of Diyala that also witnessed Hussein's policy of uprooting Kurds and replacing them with Arabs.
The rift threatens to delay provincial elections across Iraq if parliament cannot decide on Kirkuk's status. Kurdish lawmakers walked out of parliament recently after they were surprised by a secret vote on Kirkuk written into the election law.
