Kurds celebrate on day of reckoning
QARA ANJIR, Iraq -- Oppressed and culturally marginalized for centuries, the Kurds of northern Iraq were euphoric yesterday as they sensed an election outcome that will probably enhance their political power and deliver them the fabled and contested oil city of Kirkuk.
Women in sequined dresses and men in suits or baggy pants streamed through city streets and navigated snowy mountains in an atmosphere resembling a sprawling block party. Security was tight, but the Kurdish north, alive with dancing, honking horns, and fluttering banners, was more at ease than other parts of the country.
"God has shined himself upon us," said Saima Said Haider, an embroidered veil bordering her face as she waited to vote amid hillsides scattered with shepherds and Iraqi army snipers. "It is like a feast. We are voting for peace and prosperity and to remember the blood of our martyrs killed by Saddam Hussein. I hope through my vote I'm securing the happiness of my children."
The Kurds were seeking two victories in the election. The first was to collect enough seats in the 275-member Iraqi national assembly to grant the north wider autonomy and a stronger influence in drafting a federal constitution. The second was to seize a political majority in Kirkuk, which accounts for 40 percent of Iraq's oil supply and is revered by Kurds as their cultural and historical right.
Voter turnout around the northern capitals of Erbil and Sulaymaniyah was more than 70 percent, according to the independent Kurdish Institute for Elections. Kurds are about 18 percent of Iraq's population, but could emerge as a key bloc in the assembly if they capture a projected 65 to 70 seats and ally themselves with the Shi'ite Muslim majority.
"This means the Kurds get a loud voice in the new Iraq," Kurdish police officer Abdullah Sabir Othman said.
The Kurds entered the election with more experience in democracy than the Shi'ite and Sunni populations. Oppressed by Iraqi regimes for decades, the Kurds won a degree of autonomy in 1991 when a US "no fly" zone protected northern Iraq from Baghdad's armies. This recent history has emboldened Kurds to widen their stake in a new Iraq by demanding to hold the nation's presidency and key government ministries.
Kurdish desire to control Kirkuk and make it part of a semiautonomous north was evident across muddy villages where Kurds expelled by Hussein were permitted to vote in local elections. An estimated 70,000 internally displaced Kurds were expected to cast ballots, a move that could give Kurds a political edge over the city's Arabs, Turkomen, and Christian Assyrians. The multiethnic mixture has long made US officials concerned about the possibility of civil war.
Kirkuk political parties estimated that about 90 percent of Kurds in the province came out to vote. Shi'ite turnout was about 40 percent, and the participation of Sunnis, whom Hussein imported to the region to replace the Kurds he forced out, was about 25 percent. Sunnis had threatened to boycott the election, but their low turnout was mainly attributed to fears of terrorist attacks.
"The Iraqi police arrested a lot of terrorists who wanted to agitate the situation," said Khidir al Hamdani, director of the Kirkuk National Center for Dialogue and Social Development. "There has been no major violence."
Colonel Lloyd Miles, the US military commander in charge of operations in Kirkuk, said of the election: "My concern is if the Kurds win more seats in the city and the political equation gets out of balance. Right now there's a creative tension between the ethnic parties. My concern is how the parties will handle the long-term political changes."
In this village fringed by minefields and cinder-block homes, once barracks for Hussein's army, children played soccer and parents cast ballots in green tents. They emerged with indelible ink on their fingers and defiant smiles on their faces. Some shed tears; others waved to the Iraqi and US troops patrolling the rocky hills.
"We've spilled a lot of blood over Kirkuk for years," said Nawzad Ali Faraj, who was forced from the city in 1988. "Two of my children died at the hands of Saddam's forces and police. I vote because I want Kirkuk back." 