Perspective: Oil-rich Kirkuk's ethnic time-bomb could explode at any time

Aftermath of a car-bombing in Kirkuk

BAGHDAD, 22 January (IRIN) - The oil-rich city of Kirkuk, some 290km north of the capital, Baghdad, was long considered a microcosm of Iraq with its diversity of ethnic and religious groups. With Turkomen, Kurds, Assyrians, Chaldeans and Arabs living together in peace, it was a melting pot of the various communities that reflected Iraq's demographic makeup.

However, the government of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein changed all that. Its 'Arabisation' policy in the early 1980s and during the 1990s forced tens of thousands of Kurds and other non-Arabs to flee Kirkuk. They were replaced with pro-government Arabs from the impoverished south.

But after the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 brought Saddam's rule to an end, Kirkuk was widely seen as a tinderbox as Kurds and other non-Arabs streamed back with their house keys in hand only to find their homes were either sold or given to Arabs.

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