Iraqi Kurds consider autonomy

Sistani warned of "grave consequences" if the TAL was included in the UN Security Council resolution, and thousands of Shiites demonstrated in Baghdad on Tuesday afternoon shortly before the vote in New York.

Haidar al-Sittar, a Shiite student at Baghdad University, says a federal Iraq risks aggravating sectarian or ethnic divisions, citing the example of Lebanon which suffered a 16-year civil war.

"Just like what they [the Americans] did in Lebanon, they aim to do in Iraq by dividing it and starting a civil war," he says.

As top Kurdish leaders met Wednesday to discuss their response to the UN resolution, Nesreen Berwari, a Kurdish member of the interim government, said "Now our future is ambiguous.... The interim constitution would have been the clear and bright road map to all the components of the Iraqi people."

According to Associated Press, Mrs Berwari added that she would resign if asked to do so by the Kurdish leadership.

Even before the row over the UN resolution, the Kurds were unhappy in what they see as an underrepresentation in the new government, says Mahmoud Othman, an independent Kurdish leader and former Governing Council member.

"If I was a party leader and a minister I would withdraw from the government," he says. "The TAL mentions human rights, citizens' rights, women's rights, separation of powers, democracy, federalism, and the Kurdish language.... It's a very good law, and we are disappointed it was not included in the resolution."

The Kurds have enjoyed effective autonomy in northern Iraq since 1991, and many are reluctant to yield their hard-won self-rule to an untested government in Baghdad.

"The Kurdish people suffered during Saddam Hussein's regime. We paid the price and now we want to enjoy democracy," says Osama Hourani, a Kurdish student at Baghdad University. "We all know Kuwait was part of Iraq and they got their independence. We speak a different language and have our own nationality but still we are not allowed this right."

Talk of Kurdish independence causes ripples of concern that spread far beyond the confines of Iraq. Turkey, Iran, and Syria all have sizable, and in some cases restive, Kurdish populations. Turkey has made it abundantly clear that it will not tolerate an independent Kurdistan along its southeast border.

"The Turks and the Iranians don't want Kurdish federalism and they are against Kurdish rights. They think it's a threat to them," Mr. Othman says.

For now, the Kurds say they are willing to remain within a federal and democratic Iraq, playing down their deep-rooted desire for an independent state.

But Mr. Dulame, the Iraqi analyst, says that eventually the Kurds will push for full independence.

"The Kurds are going to create their own state," he says. "It's just a matter of time. What they are doing now is just short-term political maneuvering."

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