- Title: IRAQ: NIGHT CURFEW AFTER CLASHES BETWEEN KURDS AND TURKMEN IN KIRKUK.
- Date: 1st March 2004
- Summary: KIRKUK, IRAQ (FEBRUARY 29-MARCH 1, 2004) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) (NIGHT VIEWS) 1. GV: NEAR DESERTED STREET, CAR BEING STOPPED; POLICE ON STREET; CAR STOPPED AND DRIVER QUESTIONNED; POLICE CHECKING BOOT AND BACK OF CAR, POLICE CAR DRIVES PAST IN BACKGROUND (3 SHOTS) 0.38 2. GV/GV/PAN: POLICE WALKING ON STREET; PAN TO STOPPED CARS; POLICE ON STREET; BARBED WIRE; VEHICLE MOVING SLOWLY (2 SHOTS) 0.55 3. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) SABAH, EMERGENCY SERVICES WORKER, SAYING: "The curfew was set for 6 o'clock (1500 GMT) this evening until 6 o'clock in the morning (0300 gmt). It was set after a demonstration by Turkmen and Kurds and some friction between the two sides. These frictions were contained safely and we were told that the curfew was set to guard the citizens" 1.22 4. GV: DESERTED STREETS (2 SHOTS) 1.32 5. GV/PAN: POLICE TRUCK MOVING BY/ POLICE RIDING IN BACK 1.42 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 16th March 2004 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: KIRKUK, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Reuters ID: LVA8AB3QRUI5N98IXVJ6B7UEU83
- Story Text: Curfew extended in northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk
following night time clashes between Kurds and Turkmen.
A curfew was entended in the northern Iraqi city of
Kirkuk on Sunday (February 29) after violence erupted
between Turkmen and Kurds and a fire broke out at Turkmen
headquarters.
An existing curfew starting at 11pm local time
(2000GMT) was brought forward to 6pm (1500 GMT), lifted at
6 am (0300 GMT).
The move follows an agreement by the U.S.-appointed
Iraqi Governing Council to leave the city under its current
Iraqi federal control rather than bow to Kurdish demands to
place it under Kurdish authority.
Hundreds of Turkmen took to the streets to celebrate
the news. Kurds, however, see Kirkuk as the heart of their
Kurdistan homeland, and leaders are pressing for the city
to eventually hold a referendum to determine if it will
join the Kurdish federal region - a step opposed by Arabs
and Turkmen.
Unconfirmed reports indicate that one Turkmen woman was
killed, but but it was unclear whether this actually
occured during the violence or the earlier celebrations.
"The curfew was set for 6 o'clock (1500 GMT) this
evening until 6 o'clock in the morning (0300 gmt). It was
set after a demonstration by Turkmen and Kurds and some
friction between the two sides. This friction was contained
safely and we were told that the curfew was set to guard
the citizens", said Sabah, an emergency services worker.
Oil-rich Kirkuk has seen increasing ethnic tensions,
occasionally erupting into violence, as Kurds, Arabs and
ethnic Turkmen jostle for domination.
Kurds, who have effectively had self-rule in three
northern provinces of Iraq since the 1991 Gulf War, are
pushing to enshrine and possibly expand that autonomy in
the interim constitution document.
Early on Monday morning the Governing Council put aside
its differences and agreed on the interim constitution, a
key step in Washington's plan to hand sovereignty back to
Iraqis by June 30.
The issue of Kurdish autonomy had been one of the
sticking points that led to council lawmakers missing a
U.S.-agreed February 28 deadline to agree on an interim
constitution. Under an appendix to the federal proposal,
the council agreed that Kurds will preserve governing
institutions they set up after prying northern Iraq from
Baghdad's grip after the 1991 Gulf war as well as militias
of two main Kurdish parties. The Kurdistan regional
government with its parliament and judiciary will be
recognized as the government of Iraqi Kurdistan and will
continue to exist and exert is authority in local matters.
However these plans are opposed by Arabs on the Council
who warn it would be a step toward the breakup of Iraq, and
members of the Council and the U.S.-led occupation
authority have suggested the details of that question will
be left for finalisation much later in the full
constitution.
The Turkmen claim they make up about 13 percent of
Iraq's population of 25 million, or slightly more than
three million people, making them the third largest ethnic
group after the Arabs and Kurds.
However, according to the last Iraqi census conducted
in 1977, their people, who live almost exclusively in and
around Kirkuk, account for no more than two percent of the
population.
The Turkmen moved into what is now Iraq in the 11th
century and were later encouraged by the Ottoman empire to
settle in Kurdish regions in the north. They say they are
60 percent Sunni Muslim and 40 percent Shiite Muslim.
Kurds, however, claim Kirkuk as the heart of their
homeland and say they were forced out of the region by
Iraqi forces. It is estimated that between 1974 and 1991,
780,000 people were evicted from nearly all 4,460 villages
in the Kurdish region
In the past five months about 350 families have come
from the northern regions to set up camp in a stadium in
Kirkuk to mark their claim to the land.
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