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Blanchard

Saddam deporting non-Arabs from strategic province

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Thusday, February 14, 2002

ANKARA Ñ The regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is said to be proceeding in its policy of deporting non-Arabs from the northern area under government control.

Iraqi opposition sources said Saddam's efforts are focused on the oil-rich northern Iraqi province of Kirkuk. They said those regarded as non-Arabs are being forced to leave the area for the nearby Kurdish autonomous zone or the south. This includes Assyrians, Kurds and Turkmans.

It was the latest allegation by Iraqi and Kurdish sources that Saddam was expelling or threatening to eject Kurds and other non-Arabs from the north. The sources said Iraqi government agents had launched attacks on key Kurdish families to ensure their flight.

The allegations come amid Saddam's preparations for a U.S.-led attack on Iraq. Saddam's agents have tried to evacuate Kurdish areas in the north for the establishment of anti-aircraft bases. Kurdish leaders have publicly opposed a U.S. attack on the Saddam regime.

[In a related development, the British Guardian daily reported on Thursday that the Pentagon and the CIA have begun preparations for a military campaign on Iraq that would involve up to 200,000 U.S. troops. The newspaper said an attack could take place later this year.]

So far, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan said, 111 members from 18 Kurdish families have been expelled from the Kirkuk region, about 240 kilometers north of Baghdad, for the autonomous zone. Another 37 Turkman families were expelled to southern Iraq in January. The vast majority of Kirkuk's population has been Kurdish.

Opposition sources said Saddam has launched a policy of Arabization in the north as part of an effort to reclaim his rule, lost after the 1991 Gulf war. The autonomous Kurdish zone does not teach Arabic in schools and conducts much of its trade with neighboring Turkey.

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