Seaview
08-21-2008, 12:42 PM
The United Nations will publish an analysis of territory disputes between Iraq's Kurds and other communities by October in a bid for a "grand deal" to end tension over Kirkuk, its Iraq mission chief said on Wednesday.
In a two-hour briefing to reporters, Staffan de Mistura gave one of his fullest accounts yet of the U.N.'s efforts to resolve a looming row without fresh bloodshed.
He said the U.N. would publish its report in September or October, outlining results of six months of field investigations into the history and make-up of some 30-40 parts of Iraq where local government is in dispute -- including the city of Kirkuk.
Instead of holding a referendum on the city's fate which would pit Arab and Turkmen residents against Kurds, the aim would be to negotiate a broad political deal which could then be put to a "confirmatory referendum", backed by all sides.
"We are pushing for a grand deal, looking at the whole area," de Mistura said.
"Our aim is to draw up options by October, which if all Iraqi parties work consistently on those, could provide a peaceful political solution which eventually may be confirmed or sanctioned through a confirmatory referendum."
Fifteen U.N. experts have been pouring over Iraqi archives and holding town meetings to draw up the report, which will analyze the merits of competing claims to govern disputed areas.
The bitterest differences are over Kirkuk, an oil-rich city in northern Iraq that Kurds claim as their ancestral homeland and want to incorporate into their autonomous region, a move fiercely opposed by Arab and Turkmen residents.
Kurds say many of the others were moved into the area under Saddam Hussein, the Sunni Arab dictator who planned to "Arabize" the region. Other groups say they fear the Kurds now want to drive them out.
ELECTIONS STALLED
The dispute has already stalled efforts to hold provincial elections throughout the country after parliament failed to pass an elections law because of divisions over Kirkuk this month.
Diplomats and Iraqi politicians fear the dispute could lead to a new outbreak of fighting between Arabs and Kurds, even as the sectarian violence between Shi'ites and Sunnis that ravaged Iraq over the past three years has begun to subside.
Iraq's constitution calls for a referendum on Kirkuk's fate, initially scheduled to take place at the end of last year. The United Nations helped persuade Kurdish leaders to postpone it.
"I told them it would have been totally counterproductive, and there could be a better solution if we have a political framework," de Mistura said.
The U.N. research team includes lawyers, academics and diplomats, producing what in effect will be the first history of the local administration of the disputed areas.
The team published their findings on the first four disputed districts in June, covering areas in neighboring provinces that are seen as less fiercely contested than Kirkuk itself.
"What is incredibly surprising in this whole exercise is what a mature and functioning bureaucracy Iraq has had throughout the whole of its contemporary history," said team leader Peter Bartu.
http://pukmedia.com/english/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5970&Itemid=1
In a two-hour briefing to reporters, Staffan de Mistura gave one of his fullest accounts yet of the U.N.'s efforts to resolve a looming row without fresh bloodshed.
He said the U.N. would publish its report in September or October, outlining results of six months of field investigations into the history and make-up of some 30-40 parts of Iraq where local government is in dispute -- including the city of Kirkuk.
Instead of holding a referendum on the city's fate which would pit Arab and Turkmen residents against Kurds, the aim would be to negotiate a broad political deal which could then be put to a "confirmatory referendum", backed by all sides.
"We are pushing for a grand deal, looking at the whole area," de Mistura said.
"Our aim is to draw up options by October, which if all Iraqi parties work consistently on those, could provide a peaceful political solution which eventually may be confirmed or sanctioned through a confirmatory referendum."
Fifteen U.N. experts have been pouring over Iraqi archives and holding town meetings to draw up the report, which will analyze the merits of competing claims to govern disputed areas.
The bitterest differences are over Kirkuk, an oil-rich city in northern Iraq that Kurds claim as their ancestral homeland and want to incorporate into their autonomous region, a move fiercely opposed by Arab and Turkmen residents.
Kurds say many of the others were moved into the area under Saddam Hussein, the Sunni Arab dictator who planned to "Arabize" the region. Other groups say they fear the Kurds now want to drive them out.
ELECTIONS STALLED
The dispute has already stalled efforts to hold provincial elections throughout the country after parliament failed to pass an elections law because of divisions over Kirkuk this month.
Diplomats and Iraqi politicians fear the dispute could lead to a new outbreak of fighting between Arabs and Kurds, even as the sectarian violence between Shi'ites and Sunnis that ravaged Iraq over the past three years has begun to subside.
Iraq's constitution calls for a referendum on Kirkuk's fate, initially scheduled to take place at the end of last year. The United Nations helped persuade Kurdish leaders to postpone it.
"I told them it would have been totally counterproductive, and there could be a better solution if we have a political framework," de Mistura said.
The U.N. research team includes lawyers, academics and diplomats, producing what in effect will be the first history of the local administration of the disputed areas.
The team published their findings on the first four disputed districts in June, covering areas in neighboring provinces that are seen as less fiercely contested than Kirkuk itself.
"What is incredibly surprising in this whole exercise is what a mature and functioning bureaucracy Iraq has had throughout the whole of its contemporary history," said team leader Peter Bartu.
http://pukmedia.com/english/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5970&Itemid=1