Iraqi Kurds seek UN referendum

TVNZ/KurdishMedia.com ^ | 23 December 2004

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Iraqi Kurds seek UN referendum 23/12/2004 TVNZ A group of Iraqi Kurds presented UN officials with a petition signed by 1.7 million Iraqis seeking a referendum on whether northern Iraq should be made an independent Kurdish state.

"The Kurds under international protection have been exercising de facto independence in South Kurdistan (northern Iraq) for the last 13 years and they do not wish to be controlled by an Arab-dominated Iraq," the group said.

Iraq’s Kurds are ethnically, culturally and philosophically distinct from Iraqi Arabs and "for the last 80 years have been subjected by the Iraqi Arab state to repression, enslavement and genocide," a group statement said.

The delegation of Kurds, including two from northern Iraq and five currently living either in the United States or Europe, identified themselves as "nonpartisan."

All the signatures had been gathered in Iraqi Kurdistan, said Najmaldin Karim, president of the Washington Kurdish Institute and a member of the delegation.

"We have presented the petition to the Iraqi government as well," Karim told Reuters.

Delegation members said a decision on a referendum probably would have to wait until after scheduled Jan. 30 elections as the country was now run by an unelected interim government, which includes Kurds.

Iraq’s current leaders have ruled out a separate Kurdish state. So has the UN Security Council, which has adopted several resolutions calling for the preservation of Iraq’s territorial integrity.