Iraqi Kurdish Leader Demands Guarantees
A top Kurdish leader said Saturday that Iraq's Kurdish minority would not sign on to guidelines being formulated for a transitional government unless Kurds were guaranteed an expanded region of autonomy and an ironclad commitment to expel Arabs settled in the area by deposed president Saddam Hussein.
Massoud Barzani, leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, or KDP, said he lacked faith that a future, elected Iraqi government would fulfill Kurds' ambitions for self-rule in regions they consider their historic homeland -- including the oil-rich Kirkuk area.
"We do not see any justification for postponement," he said in an interview, discussing the Kurds' demand. "Any voice that would oppose this does not show good intent. As far as a majority imposing its will on the Kurds, this cannot be tolerated."
The so-called basic law meant to guide the transitional government is being hammered out by members of the Iraqi Governing Council, a U.S.-appointed assembly. Barzani said that enshrining Kurdish aspirations in the law would ensure that a future constitution could not reverse them.
The Kurds face significant opposition to their plans. U.S. officials have indicated that Kirkuk should not be part of Kurdish territory. Arab parties in the Governing Council have also questioned Kurdish demands. Syria, Iran and Turkey, all countries with Kurdish minorities, oppose significant autonomy for Iraq's Kurds. On Friday, a top Turkish general, Ilker Basbug, warned, "If there is a federal structure in Iraq on an ethnic basis, the future will be very difficult and bloody."
Kurdish designs on Kirkuk have already ignited ethnic conflict, not only with Arabs but also with the city's large Turkmen population. To ease tensions, the ethnically mixed city council was expanded this week to include more Turkmen and Arab delegates.
The Kurdish position poses another complication for the Bush administration's goal of handing over power to the Iraqis by July 1. Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the influential spiritual leader of Iraq's majority Shiites, opposes U.S. transition plans because the new government would be appointed rather than elected. His followers have called for demonstrations and strikes to back up his demand for a quick general election.
The Kurds oppose Sistani's demand, saying it does not allow time for a census to be taken or voting rolls to be prepared.
President Bush's chief administrator for Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, and members of the Governing Council are traveling to New York to try to persuade the United Nations to dispatch an envoy to Iraq to change Sistani's mind.
The KDP is one of two parties that control far northern Iraq with the aid of thousands of militia forces. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, or PUK, the other main Kurdish party, agrees on the need for a consensus on autonomy before power is transferred from the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority to a transitional Iraqi assembly, Iraqi officials have said. Both Kurdish parties have agreed to create a single administration for the north to bolster their call for a single autonomous region, which would be free from central government control except in the areas of foreign policy, finance and national defense.
For more than a decade after the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Kurds in the mountainous far north enjoyed virtual independence from Hussein's government, with U.S. and British warplanes protecting the area. The zone, however, lay north of Kirkuk and other towns that traditionally contained Kurdish populations.
Barzani's plan envisages the autonomous area encompassing the part of northwest Iraq known as Sinjar, Kirkuk and adjacent areas as well as a region in the east that extends as far south as Khanaquin, 100 miles northeast of Baghdad. Barzani has said he wants these areas detached from their current provinces and attached to the Kurdish autonomous area.
The Governing Council has agreed in principle to autonomy within the zone but not beyond it.
Under a policy called "Arabization," Hussein settled Arabs in and around Kirkuk and other towns to reduce Kurdish influence during his three decades of his rule. He also expelled Kurds to the northern regions. The Kurds want that policy reversed.
"Kurds have been very patient, but it is impossible to wait another 10 or 15 years. That would lead to major problems. How can we accept that hundreds of thousands of Kurds have been evicted and outsiders brought in?" Barzani asked.
Barzani contended that the Kurds should be rewarded for aiding the United States in the war to overthrow Hussein. The PUK and KDP put their militias under American command and helped U.S. Special Operations troops pinpoint targets for aerial bombing along the Iraqi northern front.
"We lost lives. We will definitely turn to American public opinion" if Washington opposes expanded autonomy, Barzani said. Last spring, a son and a brother of Barzani's were injured when U.S. jet bombers mistakenly struck a convoy in northern Iraq.
Kurds harbor memories of American betrayals of their cause. U.S. governments encouraged Kurdish uprisings in 1975 and 1991, only to withdraw support. "We hope there will be no repetition of the past," Barzani said.
He dismissed opposition from Syria, Turkey and Iran, saying, "this is an internal matter."
Barzani spoke inside the Green Zone, the high-security area in Baghdad housing the occupation authority headquarters on the grounds of what was one of Hussein's palaces. Barzani, son of the late Mustafa Barzani, KDP founder and guerrilla fighter, wore a blue suit rather than his preferred traditional Kurdish dress of baggy pants and sash.
"We had the power to force people out of our area. We avoided that," he said. "But if things don't go right, maybe things will get beyond our control and people will take matters into their own hands.
"We have never lived like normal people," he said. "We have to assure our people we will be able to live in peace."
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