Bones of contention on Iraq constitution

12 Aug 2005
13:26:41 GMTSource: Reuters
......KIRKUK - Since Iraqi Kurdistan is already an autonomous region, the drafting committee is faced with deciding where the borders of its three provinces are and what proportion of their revenues can be retained for local use without passing through the central government in Baghdad.
The north oil city of Kirkuk, just outside present-day Kurdistan, is an emotive issue because the Kurds consider it their ancestral capital and resent the forced settlement of Arabs during Saddam Hussein's rule. Arabs say it is an Arab city and Turkish-speaking ethnic Turkmen say it is by rights theirs.
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