HUNDREDS OF ARABS, TURKMEN DEMONSTRATE IN DISPUTED IRAQ OIL CITY

Agence France-Presse
February 11, 2005

http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?ID=37245

KIRKUK -- Hundreds of Arab and Turkmen protestors took to the streets of Iraq's disputed northern oil city of Kirkuk Friday, charging that last month's election had been riddled with fraud and demanding a re-run.

"No, no to federalism! No, no to fraud!", chanted the demonstrators, who gathered in the city center before heading south to march past the offices of the two main Kurdish parties.

Kurds want Kirkuk to be made the capital of an enlarged autonomous region, and thousands of Kurds who were displaced from the city under Saddam Hussein were allowed to vote two weeks ago.

"There are documents and plenty of evidence showing that fraud took place during the elections in Kirkuk," said a statement which was distributed to protestors and signed by 16 Arab and Turkmen groups.

Among the signatories were the Ankara-funded Iraqi Turkmen Front, the Shiite religious party Dawa, and the movement of Shiite radical leader Moqtada Sadr.

"We ask for new elections to be held in Kirkuk to guarantee they are transparent, because Kirkuk is on the edge of a flaming pit," the document said.

Sunni and Shiite Arab parties pulled out of the election in Tamim province around Kirkuk to protest the authorities' registration of tens of thousands of non-resident Kurds who argued their families had been forced out of the city under Saddam.

The decision effectively tipped the balance in favor of the Kurds in the city, prompting dire warnings of sectarian violence from Arabs and Turkmen as well as their supporters in Ankara.

A Kurdish weekly reported the main Kurdish alliance was poised to win two-thirds of the vote and take 26 of the 41 seats on Tamim provincial council.