UNHCR's ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES FOR ASSESSING THE ...
UNHCR's ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES FOR ASSESSING THE ...
UNHCR's ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES FOR ASSESSING THE ...
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Turkmen communities in Kirkuk have sharply increased in 2006 and early 2007, in<br />
particular after the killing of Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, former leader of Al-Qa’eda in Iraq,<br />
with a number of his supporters having moved to Kirkuk apparently to further stir tensions<br />
among Iraq’s communities. 434 Sunni extremist groups such as Al-Qa’eda and Ansar<br />
Al-Sunna have been recruiting Sunni Arabs and even Sunni Turkmen, many of whom had<br />
been forced to leave Kirkuk by the Kurds. 435 There is fear of further escalation in view of<br />
the forthcoming referenda on the status of “disputed areas”, which, most analysts agree, the<br />
Kurds are expected to win. 436<br />
b) “Kurdification”<br />
Turkmen, Arab, Christian and Shabak parties claim harassment and forced assimilation by<br />
Kurdish militias in Kirkuk and other mixed areas such as villages in the Ninewa Plain, with<br />
the aim of incorporating these areas into the Region of Kurdistan. 437 Ethnic minorities have<br />
repeatedly accused the Kurdish parties and their military forces of acts of violence and<br />
discrimination, 438 arbitrary arrests and detention on sectarian basis, political<br />
marginalization 439 (including through electoral manipulations), 440 monopolizing of<br />
434<br />
According to UNAMI HRO, “(I)nter-ethnic tensions between Arab, Turkoman and Kurdish communities<br />
are escalating in Kirkuk”; see UNAMI HRO, December 2006 Human Rights Report, p. 13, see above<br />
footnote 5. See also: Louise Roug, Northern Iraq seen as next front in war, Los Angeles Times, 2 February<br />
2007, http://www.ft.com/cms/s/f3e52750-b1d4-11db-a79f-0000779e2340.html; IRIN, Iraq: Ethnic tensions<br />
mount in Kirkuk, 16 November 2006, http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=61946; Senanayake,<br />
Iraq: Ethnic Tensions Increasing In Oil-Rich City, see above footnote 45; Michael Howard, As violence<br />
grows, oil-rich Kirkuk could hold key to Iraq’s future, The Guardian, 27 October 2006,<br />
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1932789,00.html; RFE/RL, Kirkuk Could be Engulfed by Sectarian<br />
Violence, Experts Say, 17 August 2006, http://www.rferl.org/releases/2006/08/431-180806.asp; Ali Windawi<br />
and Julian E. Barnes, Violence surges in contested city of Kirkuk, Los Angeles Times, 20 July 2006,<br />
http://www.peyamner.com/article.php?id=54461&lang=english.<br />
435<br />
According to the Washington Institute, the majority of the twenty suicide bombings perpetrated in Kirkuk<br />
from July to October 2006 were presumably the work of Al-Qa’eda; see: Cagaptay and Fink, see above<br />
footnote 44.<br />
436<br />
See, for example, Roug, see above footnote 434, and Iraq Study Group Report, p. 19, see above<br />
footnote 35.<br />
437<br />
UNAMI HRO reported that “Kirkuk is heavily controlled by security forces and Kurdish militias. Kurdish<br />
militias (Peshmerga) exercise to a large degree effective control of the city; most senior official positions are<br />
occupied by Kurds or their allies from other ethnicities”; see UNAMI HRO, December 2006 Human Rights<br />
Report, p. 24, see above footnote 10.<br />
438<br />
UNAMI HRO expressed concern over the intimidation of minorities in Kirkuk through the use of Kurdish<br />
security forces and the power of detention to prevent minorities from playing a significant role in the city’s<br />
affairs; see UNAMI HRO, December 2006 Human Rights Report, p. 23, see above footnote 10. The US State<br />
Department reported that “Kurdish authorities abused and discriminated against minorities in the North,<br />
including Turcomen, Arabs, Christians, and Shabak. Authorities denied services to some villages, arrested<br />
minorities without due process and took them to undisclosed locations for detention, and pressured minority<br />
schools to teach in the Kurdish language”; see USDOS, 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices –<br />
Iraq, see above footnote 333.<br />
439<br />
UNAMI HRO expressed concern over the situation of minorities in Kirkuk and “their ability to effectively<br />
participate in its political, economic and social development”; see UNAMI HRO, December 2006 Human<br />
Rights Report, p. 23, see above footnote 10.<br />
440<br />
AFP, Kurds accused of rigging Kirkuk vote, 8 February 2005, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/archive/<br />
archive?ArchiveId=19677; AFP, Ethnic tensions deepen over vote in northern Iraqi city, 6 February 2006,<br />
http://www.institutkurde.org/en/info/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1107790140&archive=&start_from=<br />
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