UN warns of looming crisis in Kirkuk (ethnic cleansing of Turkmen and Arabs)

[Barrett808]

UN warns of looming crisis in Kirkuk
Mark Tran
Tuesday January 16, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

The deteriorating human rights situation in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq could be a prelude to a looming crisis in the Kurdish region, the UN warned today.

In its bi-monthly human rights report on Iraq, the UN voiced concerns at reports of mistreatment of ethnic Turkmen and Arabs by the Kurdish majority.

"They face increasing threats, intimidations and detentions, often in KRG (Kurdish regional government) facilities run by Kurdish intelligence and security forces," the report said. "Such violations may well be the prelude of a looming crisis in Kirkuk in the coming months."

While media attention has focused on Baghdad, which accounts for most of Iraq's bloodletting, Kirkuk could be lurching towards its own mini-crisis.

(more)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1991752,00.html

[lovuian]

1. Kurds are gonna have to fight a bunch of countries for those

oil wells everybody wants them

[TexasLawyer]

2. Gee, who could have predicted this?

:sarcasm::crazy::sarcasm::crazy::sarcasm::crazy::sarcasm:

[maddezmom]

4. not one person at DU

:sarcasm: But more likely over a hundred...:banghead:

[roamer65]

3. I doubt Turkey will stand idly by...

...and let it happen without getting involved.

[RaleighNCDUer]

5. Nope. No way Turkey will allow an oil-rich, independent

Kurdistan to be established on its border.

[IndianaGreen]

12. Turkey will protect the Turkmen and...

it won't permit an independent Kurdistan.

The Kurds have made enemies of the Shia as well, a very dangerous game.

This is another example of how easily an oppressed people can quickly become oppressors.

[schmuls]

6. So the Kurds get shafted again. Who would have guessed?

(sarcasm).

[LynnTheDem]

8. It's the KURDS doing the ethnic cleansing.

Just like it's the KURDS who've killed more Kurds than Turkey, Iran & Hussein combined.

But shhh! Mustn't let Americans discover the facts about the poor innocent wittle Kurds!

[BestCenter]

9. Kurds kill more Kurds than other groups?

Don't Americans kill more Americans than other groups? Don't Iraqis kill more Iraqis than other groups? Doesn't any group kill more of their own than other groups kill them?

Or are you one of those people who also believe that Zionists were behind the Holocaust or that the Armenians are lying?

[LynnTheDem]

10. research & facts can be your friends

"For decades main Kurdish military-political groups, under the misleading title of parties, waged a self-destructing war against each other. It is not an exaggeration to state that this long fratricide cost the Kurds more lives than the murderous actions of Saddam, Turkey and Iran combined."

http://home.cogeco.ca/~kurdistan3/2-6-04-opinion-zorab-sense-of-frustration.html

FACT: It is the KURDS doing the ethnic cleansing in Kirkuk; read the OP article (properly this time).

Or are you one of those people who don''t bother with facts and far prefer stupid strawman bullshit?

[BestCenter]

11. I'm well aware that the Kurdish gov't has been doing ethnic cleansing.

But you're making it sound like they're committing genocide on their own people. If it's fratricide, that's unfortunate, but then again then that kind of puts them in the same boat as the Palestinians- victimized people who victimize themselves.

Your earlier statement makes it sound like they don't deserve any sympathy as an oppressed people.

[LynnTheDem]

13. Perhaps it's not my sound but your hearing.

:)

[nealmhughes]

7. Partion of Kurdistan has been almost if not equal to the partions of Saxony

and Poland in the past.
Got a regional problem? Take a chunk from the Kurds...it takes the former occupier off their hands and adds to the "gloire" of the conquerer...and sets up new calls for revanche from the former occupier and the Kurds as well.
The age old trick the Brits and the Ottomans and Austrians played so well in the past.

[annabanana]

14. huh. . Another new and exciting wrinkle in the mysterious

internecine stuggles of the Middle East...

We might as well be on the planed Romulon for how well we can finesse the intricacies. The most well versed expert would tread lightly. This administration stomps around in cleats.