Terrorists are trying to stir up the ethnic groups against each other

After the devastating bombing in the early morning in a town near Mosul in northern Iraq the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) warned on Monday that terrorists are trying to start up a new civil war in this multi-ethnic and multi-religious province. "Today the Shabak minority was the target of the attack in the village of Khaznan”, reported the GfbV Near-east consultant, Kamal Sido, after a telephone call with colleagues of the human rights organisation on the spot.

At least 36 people were killed. The number of the injured is estimated at around 200. Dozens of houses collapsed through the power of the explosion of two lorries loaded with explosives at 04.50 local time. Khaznan lies some 17 km east of Mosul.

In the province of Nineveh there is dispute over the question of the allocation of several districts or sub-districts like Sinjar, Shekhan, Telkaif, Karaquosh, Zammar, Bahshiqa and Aski Kalak, which are inhabited in the main by Kurds (Moslems and Yezidi), Christians and Shabak. Moslem and Yezidi Kurds and a large majority of the Christians and Shabak favour the annexation of their areas to peaceful Iraqi Kurdistan.

The Shabak, who number between 60,000 to 100,000, live in more than 780 villages to the east of Mosul, among them Eski Kalak, Ali Rash, Yangija, Khaznan, Qahrawa and Talara on the River Zap. The ethnic background of the Shabak is not clear. While some believe that they are Proto-Indo-Europeans from Persia, other sources suggest that they came in the 17th century from the Hawraman area in Iraqi or Iranian Kurdistan.

The Arab word "shabaka” means "intertwining” and the Shabak belong to various tribes with different histories. Their language Shabaki is related to the Kurdish dialect of Hawrami-Gorani, but it also has traces of Persian, Arabic and Turkish. Over 70% of the Shabak are Shiites and 30% Sunni. But the Shabak also make pilgrimage to the shrines of the Yezidi.

The Shabak were seen under the British rule up to 1952 as being an independent ethnic group. The Baath regime registered them as Arabs. Because 3,000 Shabak families counted themselves in the 80s as being Kurds they were deported to Kirkuk and Arbil. Their 22 villages were destroyed.

The GfbV has a list of 675 Shabak who have been killed since 2003 by terror attacks. Many Shabak have emphasised their loyalty to the north-Iraqi Kurdish administration. However a small group of Shabak led by the Iraqi deputy Hanin Qado rejects an annexation to Iraqi Kurdistan.

The GfbV Near-east consultant, Dr. Kamal Sido, is available to answer questions nahost@gfbv.de