Kurdish Returnees Revive Village Leveled During Saddam's Era By TINI TRAN - The Associated Press
Aug. 23, 2005 - Even a year ago, the dusty, rolling hills north of Kirkuk were largely barren. But the horizon has changed rapidly in recent months with a flurry of newly constructed cinderblock homes dotting the hillsides. Thousands of returning Kurds have transformed pockets of land around this northern city into small settlements leading to the rebirth of villages once emptied out by former dictator Saddam Hussein under his "Arabization" plan to force out ethnic Kurds and Turkomen.
In this village 15 miles northeast of Kirkuk, hundreds of new houses have sprouted since January as the flow of displaced Kurds returning to the area grew steadily after the U.S.-led ouster of Saddam in 2003.
"We are starting from the beginning again," said Mayor Abdul Samad Rahim Karim. "God willing, we will succeed in making Shwan better than before."
The returnees are a legacy from Saddam's era when the Baathist Party forcibly expelled tens of thousands of Kurds and Turkomen and replaced them with Arabs from the south to consolidate government control over oil resources and farmlands located in northern Iraq.
In other places, the Kurds' return, many to squatters' camps around the city, along with their demands for restoration of their property, have provoked sharp protests from many Arabs as well as Turkomen in the community.
The interim constitution's Article 58 sets out vague guidelines for resolving property disputes, but there has been no final ruling on it. The Iraqi Property Claims Commission, set up last year to resolve disputes, has recorded some 35,000 claims. Only 1,800 cases have been adjudicated so far, according to the U.S. military.
But in places like Shwan, which borders the autonomously ruled Kurdistan, there has been little protest since the land had not been used for residential areas.
Holding up a copy of the June 1987 edict where Saddam ordered the "cancellation" of Shwan, the mayor recounted how the town and surrounding villages were razed and turned into a restricted military training area.
The building now being used as City Hall was one of only three left standing in the area when he came in 2003, said Karim, a Kurd whose family was forced from nearby Kirkuk in the 1980s.
The area's resurrection, and the accompanying construction boom, has come in part because of American forces, who have spent $2 million on new schools, water wells, and roads in this one northern sector since January.
"We consider this a success story," said Staff Sgt. Mike Blair, with the 1st Battalion 148th Field Artillery Regiment from Idaho, who has helped coordinate infrastructure projects as part of the unit's civil affairs team.
"Seven months ago, nothing was here. Only a few foundations had been laid. It's amazing what's happened here," he said.
Citing close cooperation with coalition forces, Karim happily rattled off a list of American-supported projects, among them $81,000 to rehabilitate the government buildings, $29,000 for the police headquarters, and $49,00 for a primary school named after an American military commander.
Earlier on, the area had been a "tent city" with many returnees setting up temporary shelter, but most of the tents are now gone since most people have managed to put up roofs and start rebuilding homes.
Many have gotten help from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of the two main Kurdish political parties, which has given each returning family $1,500 and 10 tons of cement, Karim said.
The rebuilding boom has left much of the village in a state of dust-covered construction. Tractors and bulldozers rumble over the roads as new water and sewer pipelines are being installed.
Under a hot sun on a recent morning, resident Mohammed Fatih, 37, labored beside his construction crew as they worked on his half-built, two-story house.
"We were farmers here. When we returned in 2003, it was rubble here. Nothing was left. It was all gone. Once we got funds, we decided to rebuild a year ago. Hopefully we will finish in two or three months," he said.
For Fatih, the memory of his departure from his hometown remains clear: "It was June 17, 1987. The government came here and asked us to leave within three days or we would be arrested. I was 19 years old."
As he walked through the skeleton of his home, Fatih softly patted a bare wall: "We have been anxious to come back home. The dream has come true."
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Kurdish Returnees Revive Village Leveled During Saddam's Era