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Rival Groups Eye Northern Iraq Oil

(New York Times) Craig S. Smith - Three rival ethnic groups in northern Iraq are already squabbling over the spoils of any future war. Kirkuk, a city with vast reserves of high-quality oil so close to the surface that in one area natural gas escaping from the ground has been on fire since antiquity, is today controlled by Saddam Hussein and provides a principal source of his oil income. Iraq's Arabs, ethnic Kurds, and Turkmen all want power over the city and its oil if Saddam Hussein falls. In an attempt to change the ethnic makeup of the Kirkuk area, Hussein has settled Arabs in the city and pressured the Kurds and Turkmen to change their legal ethnic identity to Arab. The Arab majority will certainly try to retain control of the region if Hussein is removed. The Kurdish Democratic Party, the more powerful of two Kurdish groups that control northern Iraq, is determined to make Kirkuk the political capital and economic heart of a Kurdish federal state in a future Iraq. The Iraqi Turkmen Front, a coalition of 26 groups vying for representation in a post-Hussein Iraqi government, has the backing of Turkey. The dispute suggests that any fighting inside Iraq will not end with Saddam Hussein's ouster.
2002-09-13 00:00:00
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