Americans accused of ignoring violence

By KIM SENGUPTA in Kirkuk

A bitter conflict is unfolding in northern Iraq between two of the country's minority communities, and the United States is being accused of turning a blind eye to killings and ethnic cleansing.

The Kurds, oppressed by Saddam Hussein and previous regimes in Baghdad, are being blamed for a violent campaign of intimidation against the Turkomans. Turkoman organisations want British and European troops to protect them because, they say, the Americans are acquiescing to what is taking place.

Kirkuk, a much sought-after prize for its hinterland of the country's richest oil wells, is a city with a history of communal violence and a focal point of the internecine struggle.

About 5000 US troops yesterday moved into Mosul to take control of another strategic flashpoint in northern Iraq, where well-armed Arab, Kurdish and Turkoman factions are vying for power.

The retired US general in charge of rebuilding Iraq, Jay Garner, travelled to Dukan in northern Iraq for talks with the main Kurdish leaders and promised the new government would be a "mosaic" representing "all the Iraqi people".

In Kirkuk, peshmerga fighters of the two Kurdish factions (Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and Massoud Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party), - Turkoman militia, armed Arab fighters and US forces form a combustible mixture.

Eleven people are said to have been killed and more than 50 injured in the past 10 days. It is also claimed that the Kurds have driven dozens of families, mainly Turkoman but also Arabs, from their homes.

There is also friction between the Kurdish groups. The Democratic Party accuses the Patriotic Union of breaking an agreement and bringing its fighters into Kirkuk.

It says this has forced it to call in some of its own peshmerga.

The Turkomans claim they form 65 per cent of the 600,000 population of greater Kirkuk, Arabs 25 per cent, and Kurds and Assyrians the rest. But the Kurds insist that they form the majority.

All the communities claim to have received disproportionately little benefit from the region's oil and demand more in the future.

The Turkomans, who began to settle in Mesopotomia in the 11th century, have long been subject to harsh, often brutal, treatment.

The British, after occupying Iraq in 1918, tried to force them to assimilate into Kurdish and Arab societies. Turkomans were massacred by Iraqi forces in 1924 and 1959, and successive Baath regimes had a policy of dispersing both Turkomans and the Kurds from the area and replacing them with Arabs from the south and the east.

Both the Kurdish parties assert that Kirkuk and the neighbouring city of Mosul must be part of any Kurdish autonomous region.

They have kept their peshmergas in both places, purportedly to help the Americans with security.

"But their real role is to harass and attack us," said Mohammed Kemal Yaycili, an executive officer of the Turkoman Front.

"They want to kill us or drive us out. We have had a series of attacks as soon as the war ended and the Kurds moved in.

"The Americans said at first that they had asked the Kurds to leave, but nothing happened. When we complained to the Americans about the attack, nothing happened either. The Americans favour the Kurds. They are working hand in hand."

Yaycili, who was until recently the organisation's London representative, added: "We believe the aim of the Patriotic Union and the Democratic Party is to drive out enough Turkomans so that we are no longer the majority. Then, no doubt, they will resume fighting each other like they have always done."

Turkoman Abdul Bayazid, who owns two office equipment shops, has a bandaged injured arm, caused, he said, by Kurdish bullets, and bruises on his chest and shoulders. Majid Ali Nasim said his furniture shop was looted by Kurds.

Mohammed Kamal Salah of the Democratic Party admitted there had been some killings of Turkomans by Kurds.

"But that is a problem between them and the Patriotic Union. The Patriotic Union brought armed men into here, which is a breach of the agreement we had with them. But let us get one thing clear, the Kurds are the majority here, not the Turkomans."

- INDEPENDENT

Herald Feature: Iraq