BAGHDAD — The president of Iraq's Kurdish region warned Monday that Kurdish leaders would resist efforts to scrap plans for a referendum on the fate of the multiethnic city of Kirkuk. His tough comments came a day after nearly a dozen political parties in Baghdad challenged Kurdish designs by calling for the central government to impose a solution.
Iraqi Kurdistan leader Massoud Barzani fired back at his Arab opponents who argued that Kirkuk -- a home to Kurds, Arabs and Turkmens -- is no longer subject to an article in the Iraqi Constitution calling for a general referendum on disputed territories to be held by the end of 2007.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday, January 18, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 58 words Type of Material: Correction
Kurdish reburial: An article in Tuesday's Section A about Kurdish demands for a vote on the fate of an Iraqi city said that Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani spoke Monday at a reburial ceremony for victims of Saddam Hussein's Anfal campaign. Although the coffins of the dead were present at the event, the reburial did not occur until Thursday.
"There is no turning back," Barzani said in Irbil. "The referendum must be conducted in the next six months."
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was traveling with President Bush in Saudi Arabia, traveled to Iraq early today to press for political reconciliation, officials said.
Meanwhile, a large fire erupted at an oil refinery in Shuaiba, west of Basra, early today. The cause of the fire, which sent large clouds of smoke into the air, was not immediately determined.
Some witnesses said the refinery, which produces oil for southern Iraq but not for export, was sabotaged. Other sources said a technical problem had caused the fire.
Barzani, the Kurdish leader, spoke at the reburial of 365 victims of the bloody 1988 campaign known as the Anfal, which the Iraqi government waged against its Kurdish population. The bodies were recovered from graves across northern and southern Iraq and returned to families in a reminder of how Kurds had suffered at the hands of Saddam Hussein's regime.
"This is our past and we have the right to ask for guarantees in the new Iraq in order to avoid any genocide against the Kurdish people," Barzani told mourners.
If the referendum is not held in the next six months, he said, the Kirkuk provincial government should be able to sponsor its own referendum. The Kurds, who dominate the provincial government, have long dreamed of making oil-rich Kirkuk part of their northern region and believe the area belongs to them historically.
The Kurds also insist that they have been robbed of areas in the northern provinces of Diyala and Nineveh through Hussein's policy of "ethnic cleansing." A referendum would settle the fate of all contested locations.
Barzani appeared to be reacting to the Arab political groups who read their communique Sunday opposing a referendum on Kirkuk's fate.
