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Iraq: UNAMI Proposal Provokes Anger
20.6.2008
By Zaineb Naji in Baghdad
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Kurds, Turkomans and Arabs criticise recommendations
on how to resolve territorial disputes in north.
June
20, 2008
Rival political factions have slammed a United
Nations proposal to settle disputes over control of
a number of areas in the north of the country,
arguing the recommendations are more likely to
deepen their disagreements than resolve them.
Sunni and Shia Arab, Turkoman and Kurdish
representatives have cited a variety of reasons for
their opposition to the UN Assistance Mission for
Iraq, UNAMI, plan, which was presented to the Iraqi
government by the Secretary-General’s Special
Representative for Iraq, Staffan de Mistura on June
5.
Kurds say the proposal goes against article 140 of
the constitution,www.ekurd.net
under which the status
of disputed areas in Iraq should be decided by
referendum; Turkomans complain it is biased towards
the Kurds; and Turkomans and Arabs warn it could
mark the beginning of the partition of Iraq.
The UNAMI proposal suggests that the Kurdistan
Regional Government, KRG, and central government
split control of four contested northern areas –
across the governorates of Nineweh, Diyala and
Erbil.
It is the first of three proposals on how to resolve
the status of Iraq’s disputed regions which the
mission expects to issue in the coming weeks.
The initial proposal suggests that the KRG be given
two areas it essentially controls already – Akre in
Ninewa, and Makhmour, which lies between Nineweh and
Erbil provinces. It also advises that central
government continue to administer Mandali district
in Diyala, and Hamdaniya in Ninewa province.
UNAMI has been tasked by the Security Council to
advise and support the government on resolving
control of disputed territories. But the suggestions
only appear to have exacerbated tensions.
Politicians are concerned that the UN agency will
issue similarly unacceptable recommendations in
relation to settling the status of oil-rich Kirkuk –
Iraq’s most hotly contested province, where Kurds,
Turkomans and Arabs vie for power – which will be
addressed in the third proposal.
Many of Iraq’s disputed areas are in the north,
where, under Saddam's so-called Arabisation policy,
thousands of Kurds, Turkomans and Assyrians were
uprooted and replaced with Arabs.
Many observers believe that resolving control of
these contested regions – particularly Kirkuk – is
key to the country’s long-term stability. The
province of Kirkuk is referred to as “Little Iraq”
because it is home to nearly all of the country’s
ethnic and religious groups. The region is now
sometimes referred to as a “powder keg” because many
fear the battle for control over it could become
explosive.
The most fervent opposition to the first UNAMI
proposal came from Kurdish leaders, who have
criticised the mission for skirting Iraq’s
constitution that provides for a referendum to
settle the status of disputed territories – a
process the Kurds are keen on.
A plebiscite was set to take place in Kirkuk at the
end of 2007, but was delayed for six months and is
expected to be delayed again.
Arab and Turkoman leaders instead advocate a
power-sharing agreement in Kirkuk – a position also
backed by many international analysts, who see it as
the most realistic solution to the dispute.
According to the KRG website, a senior official,
Mohammed Ihsan, met UNAMI’s team in Iraq on June 16,
telling them their proposal was unacceptable.
“The [UNAMI] proposal is superficial,” said Abdul-Khaliq
Zangana, a member of the Iraqi parliament on the
Kurdish list. “It has the potential to deepen
conflicts in many of the disputed areas, especially
Kirkuk.”
He also criticised it for failing to acknowledge the
history of ethnic cleansing and demographic changes
which have caused the territories to be disputed
now.
Turkomans and Arabs in the north, meanwhile, are
angry that UNAMI took into account the results of
2005 provincial polls, which were held throughout
the country and boycotted by Sunni Arabs, when
drafting its proposal.
Kurds won the elections throughout the north and now
dominate Kirkuk’s provincial council. At the time of
the elections, the Turkoman minority accused Kurdish
leaders of increasing their support by drafting in
Kurdish voters from outside the province.
Turkomans and Arabs in the north resent the KRG’s
growing influence in Kirkuk and Nineweh since Saddam
was ousted in 2003.
“Turkomans are rejecting the UN proposal because it
has been influenced by the Kurdish factions,” said
Hassan Weli, a leader of the Turkoman Front.
He said they are also opposed to external actors
resolving internal crises, “Turkomans are trying to
unite Iraq and believe that it is in the interests
of Iraq and Iraqis to solve their problems by
themselves rather than resorting to outside parties,
even if that party is the United Nations.”
According to a June 15 article on the Turkoman Times
website, the Turkoman Nationalist League’s response
to the UNAMI report was to recommend that the
mission consider the Kurdistan capital of Erbil a
disputed area because Saddam’s regime declared it
part of the Kurdish region in 1970.
UNAMI has stressed that the Iraqi government will
ultimately decide how to resolve the disputed areas
issue.
Andrew Gilmour, political director for UNAMI,
acknowledged that most of Iraq’s political factions
were unhappy with the mission’s proposal – although
he said this wasn’t surprising.
“We were not expecting any party to welcome the
proposals. No party was getting 100 per cent of
their [demands],” he added, noting that “compromises
are never agreeable to hard-liners in any party”.
He said the mission will make “minor adjustments” in
future proposals based on the responses from
politicians,www.ekurd.net
but gave no further
details on what these might be. Gilmour did say,
though, that senior officials from a number of
parties said they support UNAMI’s efforts as a whole
and want to resolve the disputes.
Qassim Daud, chairman of the Al-Tadhamun bloc in
Shia-led United Iraqi Alliance, said UNAMI remains a
credible agency, despite the widespread rejection of
its proposal.
“Just because Iraqi parties have different views
about UNAMI, this won’t undermine the agency’s role
in Iraq,” he said.
Zaineb Naji is an IWPR-trained journalist in
Baghdad. Middle East editor Tiare Rath contributed
to this report.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
Institute for War and Peace Reporting, iwpr net
*
Kirkuk city is historically a Kurdish city
and it lies just south border of the Kurdistan
autonomous region, the population is a mix of
majority Kurds and minority of Arabs, Christians and
Turkmen. lies 250 km northeast of Baghdad. Kurds
have a strong cultural and emotional attachment to Kirkuk,
which they call "the Kurdish Jerusalem."
The article 140 in Iraqi constitution calls for conducting a census to be
followed by a referendum to let the inhabitants
decide whether they would like Kirkuk to be annexed
to the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region or having
it as an independent province.
These stages were supposed to end on December 31,
2007, a deadline that was later extended to six
months.
The former regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
had forced over 250,000 Kurdish residents to give up
their homes to Arabs in the 1970s, to "Arabize" the
city and the region's oil industry.
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