February 1, 2006

Marwa As’ad, a Turkoman resident of Kirkuk, is heartbroken. She had been planning to marry a local Kurdish man but her family broke off the engagement after her brother was carjacked by a Kurd.

She believes rising tensions among different ethnic and religious groups in Kirkuk contributed to her break-up. Like many others interviewed in this ethnically and religiously diverse city, As’ad said the atmosphere has deteriorated since Saddam Hussein's regime was overthrown in April 2003.

The province of Kirkuk - home to about a million Turkoman, Arabs, Assyrians, Chaldeans and Armenians - is sometimes referred to as a little Iraq or as Iraq's melting pot, but some believe the area, in particular the city of Kirkuk, is a powder keg waiting to explode.

The situation has worsened since Iraq changed from a one-party dictatorship under Saddam's Ba'athist regime, maintain local leaders and residents. Political parties in Kirkuk, most of which represent ethnic or religious groups, are battling for control of the city and its surroundings.

While there are no reliable statistics on the ethnic and religious make-up of the province, Kurds are believed to be the largest ethnic group. Indeed, Kurdish slates won five of Kirkuk's nine parliamentary seats in the December elections, and they hold the most seats on the provincial council.

Saddam had tried to reduce the Kurdish majority in the area by moving significant numbers out of Kirkuk city and replacing them with mainly poor Arabs from the south.

But now Kurds are fighting to bring Kirkuk city back under Kurdish political control. The move isn't popular among its other communities who effectively control certain neighbourhoods, which are adorned with often-confrontational flags and banners.

"You see many provocative slogans such as 'Long live Turkoman;
'Long live Mam Jalal' (a reference to Iraqi president and Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani); or 'Kirkuk is an integral part of Kurdistan'," said Omar Muhammad, a 29-year-old Arab resident.

Muhammad said the problem grew worse during parliamentary elections, and that political parties have fuelled sectarianism.

On January 29, several car bombs went off near churches in Kirkuk, killing one person.

Silvana Buya Nassir, a Chaeldan Assyrian, said Christians were concerned about safety prior to the bombings.

"We used to hold evening ceremonies to pay tribute to Christ, but because of the deteriorating security situation and violence against our group, we have to do it during the day," she said.

"The tension has forced many families to emigrate and seek asylum in European countries to escape this terrible situation."

Ali Mahdi, vice president of Turkoman Iliy party, accused Kurdish parties of fomenting division by working only for their own interests and demanding the city return to Kurdish control.

"They are following the same path as the Ba'ath regime to create hatred and differences among Kirkuk's people to the extent that it has affected daily relations between people," he said. "They are responsible for planting the seeds of segregation in Kirkuk."

But Kurds themselves are also falling victim to the growing tensions.

Waleed Ali, a 30-year-old Kurd from Hawija in southern Kirkuk province, moved to Kirkuk city's suburbs after several Kurds were killed by Arab militants, although local Arab tribesmen insisted the killers had no connection with their community.

"I lived in Hawija for 30 years, but after the fall of regime their views towards us changed. They accused the Kurds of helping the Americans to topple Saddam," said Ali.

Just as Kurds are blamed for helping the Americans, some in Kirkuk now equate Arabs with Ba'athists. "They hold us accountable for what Saddam and his regime did, as if all Arab people participated in those acts," said Sami al-Ne'mi, a 32-year-old Arab.

Kurdish leaders in the area insist that they are not behind the tensions. "We don't differentiate between ethnic groups," said Nasreen Khalid, a Kurdish member of Kirkuk provisional council. "We work for the interests of all of Kirkuk's people."

Khalid insisted that bonds between groups are much stronger than they were in the past. "Contrary to claims by some factions and satellite channels that civil war will break out in Kirkuk, coexistence is strong here," she said.

But local observers are not so sanguine. "There is no peaceful coexistence among ethnic groups as is claimed by politicians and the media," said Muhammed al-Jabar, a sociologist." As different governments have come to power (after Saddam's regime) and different policies have been laid down, mistrust has been created among the different groups and tensions are rising."

"The policies of the political parties and sectarianism have infiltrated everything," said As'ad. "It even affects family relationships, like what happened to me. We hoped for so many years for democracy and freedom to come to us, and this is the price we are now paying."

Samah Samad is an IWPR journalist trainee in Kirkuk.