Reuters
July 22, 2004
SALAHADDIN - Iraq's Kurds have a
''natural right'' to reclaim their old land in the
northern city of Kirkuk after being driven out by
Saddam Hussein, interim Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawar
said today.
Ethnic tensions have risen
between Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen in oil-rich Kirkuk,
home to 750,000 people, as groups jostle for advantage
following the handover of power in Iraq from US
occupying forces to the interim government on June 28.
On a recent visit to Kirkuk,
Yawar aroused Kurdish suspicions by declaring that
nobody would be forced to leave their homes in the new
Iraq.
But at a news conference with
Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani today, during his first
official visit to the Kurdish zone as president, Yawar
said those who had moved to the city after 1968 --
when the Baathists seized control of Iraq -- would be
given financial incentives to leave.
''The government cannot force
people to do something unwillingly...but for those
that were displaced it is their natural right to go
back and take their lands,'' Yawar said.
''The situation in Kirkuk should
return to what it was before 1968.'' Iraq's Kurds
regard Kirkuk as a Kurdish city and want to reverse
Saddam's ''Arabisation'' policy, which forced Kurds
from their homes, replacing them with mostly Shi'ite
Muslim Arabs.
But the issue is explosive, with
many Arabs deeply suspicious of Kurdish efforts to
expand their territory and influence. Turkmen, with
close linguistic and ethnic ties to Turkey, insist
they are the original inhabitants of Kirkuk.
In the past year, Kurdish,
Turkmen and Arab groups have clashed several times as
they wrestle for dominance and several local leaders
from the three groups have been assassinated.
Yawar said the incentives for
people to leave would be funded by the central
government and Kurdish authorities.
Speaking at the headquarters of
Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party, Yawar reaffirmed
his commitment to a federal structure for Iraq's
Kurdish zone.
''Federalism is a reality, it is
not something under discussion... We support this 100
percent -- and the administrative law,'' he said.
Kurds have threatened to
withdraw from participating in the new government if
the interim constitution, or transitional
administrative law, which enshrines the Kurdish right
to federal autonomy, is not adhered to.
Yawar said his government would
honour the March document.
''We respect what we have signed
-- unlike past governments which used to sign
agreements and then break them,'' he said.
