Kirkuk aflame: Committee offers plan to restore security to disputed Iraqi province
Since then, Kurdish parties have accused the acting governor, Baghdad-installed bureaucrat Rakan Saeed al-Jabouri, of enacting divisive policies that have increased tensions among the peoples of the ethnically diverse province. Kurdish residents have also alleged that the current administration has allowed those with Saddam-era property documents to return to the area and reclaim what is not theirs.
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Ahmed Abdul-Rahman, a member of the Sargarran Sub-district Council, told Kurdistan 24 of his concerns over the actions, or lack thereof, of the governor in response to the events. He charged that the underlying issues of Kirkuk have been exacerbated by Jabouri's policies and suggested the acting governor's ouster as the only solution.
"All the problems stem from the governor. If the governor were a Kurd, we would be facing fewer problems," said Abdul-Rahman. The previous office-holder was then Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) member Najmaldin Karim, the last to be elected to the post by the provincial council.
The Kurdistan Region's parliamentary committee that deals with disputed territories affairs issued a statement on Friday in which they condemned the ongoing situation as a "new Arabization" campaign, in which Kurds are terrorized into leaving their homes and lands from the region to seek safety to the north in provinces administered by the KRG.
The body suggested that the situation could be rectified with a comprehensive effort to re-enact key elements the security and administrative plan that was in place before October 2017.
The committee's proposal pushed for "the return of Kurdistan's Peshmerga to the previous areas and joint-protection of Kirkuk [Province] with the Iraqi army," arguing the security file of all cities in disputed areas must be handed over to local police and security forces with the goal of "ending militarism" in Kirkuk.
On matters of administration, it demanded that the acting governor be sacked as well as all other officials in provincial departments who were installed by Baghdad following the events of October 2017. The proposal also called for "serious" efforts be made to implement the much-anticipated Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution "for a foundational solution to all the issues of those regions."
Editing by John J. Catherine