Kurds Reclaim Kirkuk and Dreams After Saddam

K I R K U K, Iraq, May 7 -- No place in Iraq has more to gain from Saddam Hussein's fall than the oil-rich Kurdish city of Kirkuk. And perhaps no place is more grateful for its liberation.

"Thank you Boosh and Bleer," reads graffiti spotted on a crumbling city wall; a misspelled thanks to President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain.

In a real sense, Kirkuk is the capital of a country that has never existed. Kurds think of its ancient city center as their own Jerusalem, yet they have never been able to secure a homeland around it. A nation of Kurdistan, if it were independent and unified, would be the size of Switzerland; instead, it spills across the borders of other autonomous nations, including Iraq, Turkey and Iran.

For decades, Saddam Hussein sought to remake much of Kirkuk and Iraqi Kurdistan in his own image. In an attempt to stamp out Kurdish culture, Saddam's regime flattened Kirkuk's old city, banned the Kurdish language, and offered Arabs from southern Iraq financial incentives to move north to the region, displacing thousands of Kurds.

As many as 5,000 Kurdish villages were destroyed, and more than 100,000 Kurds were slaughtered — some of them gunned down in the street, others tossed from the roof of Kirkuk's Saddam Hospital, their bodies left to decay by the side of the road. Human bones and other evidence of these atrocities surface almost daily.

"We know of 32 graves so far in this vicinity," an elderly Kurdish man disclosed this week.

New Life in Old Home

Now that Saddam has been unquestionably deposed, thousands of banished Kurds have returned to Kirkuk to reclaim their homes. Yet sorting out the many new property disputes that arise might prove difficult, because looters have torched most property records.

In the heady aftermath of regime change, freedom is taking on unexpected forms. There is optimism about what Americans have to offer, but many locals are also hedging their bets.

Every street corner is marked with the graffiti of one faction or another — even with the hammer and sickle. Last week, the communist party of Kirkuk held its first ever May Day celebration.