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Iraq government to hold special session on
Kirkuk
31.7.2008
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July
31, 2008
BAGHDAD, — Iraq's parliament went into summer
recess Wednesday without resolving key disputes
holding up this year's provincial elections, forcing
the speaker to announce a special session to discuss
a power-sharing formula for the oil-rich city of
Kirkuk.
Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, a Sunni, adjourned
the session as scheduled
but ordered lawmakers to meet again Sunday
in a final effort to resolve the issue. His Shiite
deputy, Khalid al-Attiyah, criticized the decision
and said the legislative session should be extended
until the matter is resolved.
"The committee discussing Kirkuk could not find a
solution and has asked for more time," al-Mashhadani
said. "The problem of Kirkuk is a complicated one,
and failure to reach a solution will lead to more
bloodshed," he warned.
Failure to compromise on a new law establishing
rules and funding for the U.S.-backed provincial
vote will likely force the vote to be delayed until
next year. Under previous legislation,www.ekurd.net
the election had been
scheduled for Oct. 1 but now will probably be put
off until December at the earliest -- a blow to
efforts to heal Iraq's sectarian rifts.
The elections are expected to redistribute power in
Iraq's 18 provinces in what is considered a
necessary step toward reconciliation. Many Sunni
Arabs boycotted provincial balloting in January
2005, enabling Shiite Muslims and Kurds to win a
disproportionate share of power.
The new law says the provincial council in Kirkuk
should be divided equally among Kurds, Turkomen and
Arabs. But Kurds and their allies, who currently
hold a majority on the council, fear that will
dilute their power. Kurds consider Kirkuk part of
their historical homeland and are seeking to
incorporate the oil-rich area into their
semiautonomous region to the north.
Lawmakers pushed through a draft of the elections
law earlier this month despite a walkout by the
Kurdish bloc, but the measure was vetoed by the
presidential council, which is led by a Kurd, Jalal
Talabani.
The standoff over the law has left Kurdish leaders
at odds with the central government. Parliament
failed to approve an additional budget of $21
billion after Kurdish lawmakers walked out Wednesday
to protest the law.
Finance Minister Bayan Jabar said the failure could
delay government expenditures on food rations, fuel
for power plants and pay raises for civil servants.
The extra budget would increase the overall budget
to $70 billion this year.
The United Nations offered a possible compromise and
suggested delaying a vote in Kirkuk while going
ahead in other provinces,www.ekurd.net
according to a copy of
the proposal obtained by The Associated Press from
an Iraqi lawmaker. It suggested the parliament
should wait for recommendations from a committee
until Dec. 31 at the latest and fix a date for the
vote in Kirkuk then.
Al-Mashhadani called the U.N. proposal "reasonable"
but said that national elections should be held this
year.
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 also 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 to end in July 2008.
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.
Copyright, respective author or news agency, AP |
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