Kurds accused of mass abductions

KIRKUK, Iraq — More than 250 Arabs and dozens of Turkmen have been seized off the streets of Kirkuk or arrested in U.S.-Iraqi raids and sent to prisons in Kurdish northern Iraq, Arab officials in the city said yesterday.

Ahmed al-Obeidi, secretary general of the Iraqi Republican Gathering, a small Arab party, said the arrests had started shortly after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, but had become more common since an election in January, when Kurdish parties gained influence in Kirkuk's local council.

The State Department is investigating "serious and credible" reports that minorities in Kurdish-held areas of northern Iraq have been wrongly arrested and detained, spokesman Sean McCormack said yesterday. McCormack denied U.S. forces had participated in joint raids or played any role in the detentions.

The Washington Post reported yesterday that police and security forces led by Kurdish political parties, and backed by the U.S. military, abducted hundreds of minority Arabs and Turkmen in Kurdish areas. The newspaper said the abductions began more than a year ago and accelerated after the Jan. 30 election.

Kirkuk's Kurdish police chief denied arrests were made on ethnic grounds but said some detainees were sent to Kurdish prisons.

"We have documents and information confirming that around 250 people are detained in Kurdish prisons in Arbil and Sulaimaniya," Obeidi told Reuters in the disputed city, claimed by Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen and known for its oil wealth. During former President Saddam Hussein's rule, Kirkuk was the center of an "Arabization" policy aimed at changing the ethnic balance of the strategic oil city by offering Arab migrants homes and economic incentives. The plan angered Kurds and Turkmen.

After the U.S.-led invasion, Kurds returned to the city in large numbers and have had an ever-growing influence over the city, to the dismay of Arabs and Turkish-speaking Turkmen.

Kurdish political parties hope to gain control of Kirkuk and its oil reserves. Saddam forced thousands of Kurds out of the city and replaced them with Arabs. The Turkmen, meanwhile, have a special attachment to Kirkuk because it was under Turkmen control during the Ottoman Empire.

The area, among others, has been struck by violent opposition to the new Iraqi government and to the U.S.-led military coalition.

Kirkuk's police force includes Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen, but locals say Kurds are dominant, with more than 50 percent of the force Kurdish by some estimates.

That dominance has caused tensions to rise in the city over the past two years. Each group claims to have the largest population in the city of around 1 million, and historically each has a claim to having roots there.

The Washington Post, quoting U.S. government documents and families of the victims, said yesterday that detainees had been abducted by police and security units led by Kurdish political parties and sometimes with the knowledge of U.S. forces.

The newspaper said it had obtained a confidential State Department cable addressed to the White House, Pentagon and the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

The cable described the detentions as being part of a "concerted and widespread initiative" by Kurdish political parties "to exercise authority in Kirkuk in an increasingly provocative manner," the newspaper said.