"Kirkuk question” must be resolved! Hillary Clinton must help resolve the conflicts over nationality

US Foreign Minister Hillary Clinton must do all she can in Baghdad after the withdrawal of the American troops from the towns of Iraq to help resolve quickly the "Kirkuk question” and thus to reduce the conflicts concerning the nationalities. "Without a referendum concerning the demand of the Kurdish majority in this province for annexation to the autonomous federal state of Kurdistan the problem of security will become increasingly precarious”, warned the chairperson of the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV), Tilman Zülch, in his letter to Clinton. But also in the districts with a predominantly Kurdish and Christian population in the provinces of Mosul and Diala there must be an election concerning the possibility of an annexation to Kurdistan, the safest and quietest region of Iraq. For terror groups like Al-Quaida and also some of Iraq’s neighbouring countries have an immediate interest in destabilizing the country. Particularly in the three north-Iraqi provinces they could provoke conflict between Kurds, Christians, Arabs and Turkmens.

In Kirkuk relations between the ethnic groups are tense because hundreds of thousands of Kurds, Turkmens and Christian Assyrian Chaldeans were driven out of the region under Saddam Hussein and in their place Arabs from southern and central Iraq were settled there. Most of the people who were driven out have since returned to their province and will be deciding on the future of Kirkuk. They are hoping for the annexation to Iraqi Kurdistan. The Arab population, which has now been living there for decades, is now in the minority once more. These people feel themselves drawn towards Baghdad. The Iraqi government has so far avoided taking sides in this conflict although it is supposed, in accordance with Article 140 of the constitution, to be removing traces of the "policies of suppression” practised by the dictator and to be taking proper measures for compensation. All those driven out should be enabled to return and a plebiscite should be held on the future of

the region.

In the province of Mosul also there is disagreement as to how certain districts or sub-districts like Sinjar, Shekhan, Telkaif, Karaqosh, Zammar, Bahshiqa and Aski Kalak, which are inhabited in the main by Kurds (Moslems and Yezidis), Christians and Shabak should be governed. Moslem and Yezidi Kurds and a large majority of the Christians and Shabak favour the annexation of the regions in which they live to Iraqi Kurdistan. In the provincial elections at the end of January 2009 these ethnic groups voted overwhelmingly for the pro-Kurdish list "”Brotherhood for Nineveh”. However in the province as a whole the election was won by the "Al Hadaba List”, which is a catch-basin for radical Islamist and Arab nationalist groups. It has not so far been possible to establish any cooperation on the Council.

The province of Diala with the capital of Baquba is inhabited mainly by Sunni Arabs. Here three districts have a Kurdish majority: Khanaqin (96% Kurds), Kifri (95% Kurds) and Mandali (90% Kurds). They are also factually administered by Kurds, but are formally governed by the central government in Baghdad.