Kirkuk divided on polling day
2005-01-30 11:31
Kirkuk - True to their divided status, inhabitants of the northern Iraqi oil centre of Kirkuk were uncertain whether to vote in Sunday's election with joy or trepidation.
As in other Iraqi cities, insurgents sought to disrupt the landmark first election in five decades and strict security was enforced around polling stations.
Three mortars were fired into the main airport, which is now a US army base, as voting started.
The US military said in a statement said that five men suspected of placing bombs and carrying out kidnappings had been detained in the early hours of Sunday.
Kirkuk and the surrounding province of the same name sits on huge oil reserves that will play a crucial role in Iraq's economic future.
But its ethnic mix of Kurds, Arabs, ethnic Turkmen and a range of other minorities ranging from Christians to Jews and Assyrians makes Kirkuk a tinderbox.
Some Kurds in the autonomous region of northern Iraq would like Kirkuk and its well to be part of their territory.
Ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein tried to make Arabs the dominant community, forcing out Kurds and bringing in Sunnis and Shiites from other parts of the country.
Hence the hesitation of the scores of residents who queued to vote after polling stations opened on a grey winter day in northern Iraq.
At a polling station in the Al-Watan school, about 50 people, mainly women, were waiting in line just after the building, surrounded by barbed wire, opened.
Vigilant police took away bags and mobile phones from people entering to cast ballots.
Sirens rang out after the mortar attack near the US base. But General Sherko Shakir, the provincial police chief, sought to reassure the population.
Freedom day
"This is our freedom day," he said.
"People should not forget what happened during Saddam's era. We have a voice... and people should be thankful our voice can now be heard."
Abdullah Mardan Omar, a 32-year-old ethnic Turkmen, was not convinced.
"I can't go now to the ballot to choose one of the Turkmen parties because I feel frightened after the bombs and the sirens."
Kafiah Jabbar, a woman in her 60s, was more determined and went with her daughter to the station.
"I came today to vote for the Kurdistan list in order to guarantee the rights of the Kurds and help rebuild the Iraq that was destroyed along years of wars and oppression."
Ismael Ahmed Rajab, a 42-year-old Arab, said he voted for a Kurdish dominated list on the ballot. "For the first time, I feel free to choose whom I want in Iraq," he said.
"Iraq will witness a progressive building of democracy building. This can be done through freedom of expression and freedom to choose who is best to lead the nation after years of tyranny and oppression."