Spoetnik
10-12-04, 16:47
Key ally might skip Iraq vote
2 hours, 2 minutes ago
By Kirsten Scharnberg Tribune correspondent
The head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, long one of the staunchest advocates for going forward with Iraq (news - web sites)'s January elections, said Thursday that he would be forced to reconsider his position if Kurds were not allowed to re-establish their ethnic majority in the strategic city of Kirkuk.
The Kurds, an estimated 4 million people, would be the second of the countries' three major ethnic groups to raise objections to the elections. Minority Sunni Muslims already have threatened a boycott, arguing that continued violence in key Sunni cities like Fallujah, Ramadi and Samarra will prevent their voters from going to the polls.
Massoud Barzani, the populist leader of the semi-independent territory known as Kurdistan, delivered the warning to American military commanders during a lunch at his sprawling compound in the rugged foothills overlooking Irbil. "We will defend the rights of our people," Barzani said.
Slowly and deliberately, Barzani laid out his position: Residents of Kirkuk would vote only in a national election. Scheduled elections to determine leaders of the city and surrounding province would have to be put on hold until Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s "Arabization" of the region was reversed, restoring Kirkuk to a Kurdish majority and ousting the tens of thousands of Arabs who were brought to resettle the region in the 1970s and '80s.
"If this is not done," he said, "that might oblige the Kurds to take a different position regarding the election."
Barzani did not explain what re-evaluating the Kurdish position on elections might entail. But the options are myriad, and most are troubling for the new Iraqi government and the U.S., both of which want elections held as scheduled on Jan. 30. Kurds in Kirkuk could boycott the elections; Kurds in Kirkuk could vote for only national leaders and not provincial ones; Kurds nationwide could refuse to participate in the election because of the issue.
(...)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/chitribts/20041210/ts_chicagotrib/keyallymightskipiraqvote&cid=2027&ncid=1478
En.. Zijn jullie al voorbereid op de derde wereld oorlog?
2 hours, 2 minutes ago
By Kirsten Scharnberg Tribune correspondent
The head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, long one of the staunchest advocates for going forward with Iraq (news - web sites)'s January elections, said Thursday that he would be forced to reconsider his position if Kurds were not allowed to re-establish their ethnic majority in the strategic city of Kirkuk.
The Kurds, an estimated 4 million people, would be the second of the countries' three major ethnic groups to raise objections to the elections. Minority Sunni Muslims already have threatened a boycott, arguing that continued violence in key Sunni cities like Fallujah, Ramadi and Samarra will prevent their voters from going to the polls.
Massoud Barzani, the populist leader of the semi-independent territory known as Kurdistan, delivered the warning to American military commanders during a lunch at his sprawling compound in the rugged foothills overlooking Irbil. "We will defend the rights of our people," Barzani said.
Slowly and deliberately, Barzani laid out his position: Residents of Kirkuk would vote only in a national election. Scheduled elections to determine leaders of the city and surrounding province would have to be put on hold until Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s "Arabization" of the region was reversed, restoring Kirkuk to a Kurdish majority and ousting the tens of thousands of Arabs who were brought to resettle the region in the 1970s and '80s.
"If this is not done," he said, "that might oblige the Kurds to take a different position regarding the election."
Barzani did not explain what re-evaluating the Kurdish position on elections might entail. But the options are myriad, and most are troubling for the new Iraqi government and the U.S., both of which want elections held as scheduled on Jan. 30. Kurds in Kirkuk could boycott the elections; Kurds in Kirkuk could vote for only national leaders and not provincial ones; Kurds nationwide could refuse to participate in the election because of the issue.
(...)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/chitribts/20041210/ts_chicagotrib/keyallymightskipiraqvote&cid=2027&ncid=1478
En.. Zijn jullie al voorbereid op de derde wereld oorlog?