Life In Iraq's Kirkuk Still Away From Normal
Tempest
By Ali Helni, Imam el-Leithy, IOL Iraq Correspondents
http://www.islamonline.org/English/News/2003-05/22/article01.shtml
KIRKUK, May 22 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - More than 40 days
into the ouster of Saddam Hussein and the U.S forces rolling into, life
in this northern oil-rich province has not yet been back to normal.
Tension still spreads into the air days after the end of infighting
between Kurds and Arabs, the two ethnic groups along with Turkmen in the
city on Monday, May 19.
The U.S. forces opened indiscriminate fire on the two sides. The death
toll reached 90, including 70 Arabs, raising suspicions that the
occupying powers cash in on such conflicts to incite more violence in
the war-torn country.
"It is insecure here, leave the area now," one of the gas sellers
advised IOL reporters on Wednesday, May 21, accusing the new comers of
turning the situation down the road to worse.
"They corrupt our life here. They triggered infighting with Arabs when
they installed a former intelligence officer and a Baath member governor
of the province," a Kurdish resident told IslamOnline.net.
There is no movement in the streets and markets are closed; only gas
sellers doting the sidelines of the road are seen waiting for their rare
clients. In fact, it is a ghost city.
The civil administration of the province has not yet been formed, said
Abdel-Rahman Sediq, a Kurdistan Islamic Party official.
He even complained that the U.S. and British occupying powers did not
pay attention to the varied ethnic fabric of society here when they
formed a transitional council entrusted to run daily affairs.
Inhabitants were also seething with anger as "Americans did not make
good on their promises to boot Baathists out of sensitive posts," in
Kirkuk, said Seddiq, an engineer.
Sediq complained that Baathists "are still directors of the North Oil
Company and even stole most of its files," the main source of living for
most of people here.
To add up to the bleak picture, looting and lawlessness still have a
strong hand in Kirkuk and ethnic clashes still going on.
"Clashes occur every night, Americans enjoy this," said police officer
Goma.
He said that many are still concerned over the lack of security, with
police members still few in number and unarmed.
"Police are mostly formed of Kurds, but they are under control of the
U.S. forces," Goma added.
Fears of geographic changes raised among residents, who warned that
annexing Kirkuk to other neighboring provinces will threaten its ethnic
co-existence harmony.
The British Administrator in Iraq John Sawers was quoted as saying that
"borders of northern Iraq might be reconsidered".
--
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