Kurds demand removal of Arab settlers

KIRKUK: Scores of Iraqi Kurds took to the streets of Kirkuk on Sunday to demand that Arab families settled in the northern oil centre by Saddam Hussein’s regime now leave. In a second day of demonstrations in the ethnically divided city, protestors brandished banners calling for the “departure of the Arabs” and “the return of Kurds chased from their homes” as part of Saddam’s efforts to change its population makeup. Demonstrators also called for the departure of loyalists of the old regime they accused of blocking the return of displaced Kurds. The question of the Kurds’ return and the continuing presence of Arabs installed in the city before the overthrow of Saddam in April 2003 has fuelled tensions in Kirkuk, which is also inhabited by Turkmen. The interim government has so far roundly rejected calls for the expulsion of the settlers. “Kirkuk should be a city of peaceful coexistence and the new Iraq will not force anyone to leave their home,” President Ghazi al-Yawar said during a visit to the city in June shortly before his government assumed full powers. “Your remarks are harsh and I can’t accept them,” the Sunni Arab head of state said in response to a call from the city’s Kurdish deputy governor, Hassib Ruj Bayani, to “chase foreigners out”. afp

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