Kirkuk's Arabs oppose oil law

KIRKUK, Iraq, July 12 (UPI) -- Arabs in the contested Iraqi city of Kirkuk, home to a large oil field, are opposed to the current draft of the oil law.

The Arab Consultative Council in Kirkuk released a statement calling on the Parliament to reject the law for subjugating federal interests to "narrow regional interests," Azzaman reports.

The law is opposed by Sunni parties and oil technocrats for the same reason, and the powerful unions fear it will allow too much access to foreign oil companies. Kurds, also, now are against the law as written, saying it was altered too much by the Council of Ministers, which passed it last week.

Dissent from Kirkuk, however, is small compared with the problems it faced. Historically a Kurdish city, though with a diverse number of ethnicities and religions living there, Saddam Hussein displaced Kurds and some Turkomen with his fellow Sunni Arabs.

But as part of the reconciliation process dictated in the 2005 constitution, a de-Arabization process is under way, with government funds to pay for moving Arabs out and Kurds back in.

Then, after a voter identification process, a referendum is to be held by the end of the year to decide if the Kirkuk area -- and its oil -- will be part of the Kurdistan regional government.