Region | Iraq
Kirkuk compensation 'is transparent'
The process of paying compensation for Arabs to leave Kirkuk and settle in other places, which was approved by the Committee for the Normalisation of Kirkuk [north of Iraq], has begun seriously and effectively, said the governor of the city.
- By Basil Adas, Correspondent
- Published: 00:21 October 5, 2007
- Shiite pilgrims attend a religious ceremony marking the death anniversary of Imam Ali, at the shrine in Najaf, 160km south of Baghdad on Wednesday night.
- Image Credit: Reuters
Baghdad: The process of paying compensation for Arabs to leave Kirkuk and settle in other places, which was approved by the Committee for the Normalisation of Kirkuk [north of Iraq], has begun seriously and effectively, said the governor of the city.
Abdul Rahman Mustafa, Governor of Kirkuk, told Gulf News, "The compensation process has already begun and each Arab individual who wishes to leave Kirkuk is paid about twenty million Iraqi dinars [about Dh59,647]."
He added, "The process is transparent and without any external pressure, and this is the first phase to help implement Article 140 and it will be followed by ... referendum process to determine Kirkuk's fate."
According to Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution, compensations will be paid to Shiites and Sunni Arabs residing in the province to facilitate the process of returning to their original areas before fleeing to Kirkuk in the 1980s.
Identity struggle
Kirkuk is facing a struggle for its identity between Kurds, on the one side and Arabs and Turkmen, on the other, because of the Kurdish population's displacement during Saddam Hussain's regime and resettling thousands of Shiite Arabs from southern Iraq.
According to Kurdish sources, Kirkuk's population is 1.5 million citizens, 60 per cent of them are Kurds and 25 per cent are Arabs and the remaining are Turkmen.
The process of returning the Arab settlers to their original areas will facilitate the return of more than 200,000 Kurdish immigrants who were forced to flee from the city by the former regime.
Mohammad Arslan, a member of the Turkmen Front in Kirkuk, said to Gulf News: "The two Kurdish parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdish Democratic Party, are trying to change the province's demography by forcing Arabs and Turkmen to leave Kirkuk and I think paying compensations is being done with force, and this will lead to confrontation."
Elite sources in former prime minister Ayad Allawi's group, says that an essential part of the recent Shiite-Kurdish agreement is to normalise the situation in Kirkuk because Kurds bartered with Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki to support this normalisation in return for their support.
Talal Al Sa'adi, a prominent leader in the Shiite Sadr trend, warned of the continuation of attempting to "normalise the situation" in Kirkuk.
He said, "The ideal situation is for Kirkuk to be an Iraqi city, not a Kurdish city or else it will lead to an escalation of violence and tension."
General Anwar Mohammad Ameen, army commander in Kirkuk said, "Kirkuk is a stable and calm province after the process of compensation payment and there is some understanding between Arab, Kurdish and Turkmen clans."
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