BAGHDAD, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- An Iraqi Kurd leader is complaining the group enjoyed more autonomy under Saddam Hussein's regime than under the proposed U.S. plan.
The Kurds want to keep the mini-state in northern Iraq they ruled after Saddam withdrew his army in 1991. They also want the United States and the Iraqi Governing Council to recognize the Kurdish identity of the oil-rich province of Kirkuk and other districts from which Kurds were forced to flee by the deposed dictator.
Massoud Barzani, the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, told Britain's Independent it is important for the Kurdish right to home rule to be enshrined in the Iraqi Basic Law that is now being drawn up.
While the Kurds broadly supported the U.S.-led coalition's military efforts, they are expressing growing anger at the failure of the United States and its allies to give them full control of their own affairs and to allow the Kurds to expel Arabs placed in Kurdistan by Saddam Hussein, which Barzani called "Arabization."
"We are not against Arabs who have always lived there but those who came because of Arabization must go back," Barzani said.
