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[Tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>]

And who should recover the Saddam-stolen Kirkuk and Kirkuk oilfiields 
now occupied by Sunni Baathists.

Iraq is probably now in the process of dissolution, more than any 
large-scale rebuilding, and facing a huge three-way fight over control 
of Iraq, by Shiites, Sunni's and Kurds.  The only possible way to defuse 
this is by firm guarantee of minority rights, so the Shiite majorithy 
will not run roughshod over the nasty Iraq Sunnies and good-guy 
Kurds---a very unlikely outcome, like expecting a peacable outcome from 
three wildcats fighting in a gunnysack.


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Kurds Demonstrate for Kirkuk's Incorporation in Autonomous Region
The Associated Press
Published: Oct 2, 2004

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SULEIMANIYAH, Iraq (AP) - About 100,000 Kurds demonstrated outside 
provincial government offices Saturday, demanding that the turbulent, 
oil hub of Kirkuk be made part of the autonomous Kurdish region in 
northern Iraq.

A tense confrontation has been building in Kirkuk, with hardline Kurdish 
politicians demanding the departure of some 200,000 Arabs who settled 
here during a campaign by Saddam Hussein's regime to increase the Arab 
population in oil-rich parts of northern Iraq.

"Kurdistan means nothing without Kirkuk," read banners carried by the 
demonstrators marching in Suleimaniyah. They called for a referendum to 
decide the future of all Kurds in Iraq. They also demanded that the two 
main Kurdish parties that now control the north unite under one banner.

A second, similar protest, drawing about 1,000 demonstrators, occurred 
in Kirkuk itself. Demonstrations were reported in other northern cities.

Demonstrations such as Saturday's appear aimed to increase pressure 
ahead of Iraq's general election in January, with the Kurdish parties 
looking to bring Kirkuk province into the orbit of the autonomous 
Kurdish lands.

Sunni Arabs in particular oppose incorporating the city into the Kurdish 
zone.

"We, as Kurds, demand that Kurdish people have a say in the vague 
political process in Iraq," said one of the Suleimaniyah protest 
organizers, Sherko Becks. "Kurdish leaders and officials in the central 
government should heed our opinion regarding the future Iraq. The 
Kurdish people have suffered a lot in the past, so we want our full 
rights, especially geographical ones."

Under the fallen regime, the Kurdish minority were brutally persecuted, 
but an autonomous region was created for them in the north following the 
1991 Gulf War.

The Kurds, who make up about 20 percent of Iraq's 25 million people, 
have been promised that their autonomous region in the north will be 
maintained under the new constitution due to be drawn up after the 
January elections.

AP-ES-10-02-04 0834EDT