By Ubaid Rashavayi SHINGAL, Kurdistan Region— The head of the Nineveh provincial council says the newly liberated city of Shingal “desperately needs” $100 million to provide basic services such as electricity and healthcare before the possible return of some 400,000 refugees—both Yezidis and Muslims—from the area. Bashar Kiki told Rudaw he had visited the city after it was recaptured from ISIS militants and saw “a devastated town” which “makes it impossible to secure a safe return for the refugees.” “We have already asked all parties, including international aid agencies, to give us donations or help us reconstruct the town,” said Kiki, who headed a provincial delegation to Shingal immediately after Peshmarga forces declared the area was under their control last week. Shingal, which is a predominantly Yezidi town, still has a sizable Muslim community which includes both Muslim Kurds and Arabs. The region where the city is located is part of the so-called disputed areas under the Iraqi constitution and is claimed by both Kurds and Arabs. A referendum in 2007, which was indefinitely postponed, should have decided the fate of the town along with the rest of the disputed areas in Iraq defined by article 140 of Iraq’s constitution. Though historically and politically under Kurdish influence, Shingal is outside the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and is part of Nineveh province, where Mosul is the capital. Some 400,000 refugees fled the area after the ISIS takeover in 2014. Authorities hope to gradually return the refugees to their areas now under Kurdish control. Kurdish and foreign experts have already begun demining the city after ISIS turned Shingal into a mine field in order to halt Kurdish offensives into the city. Authorities also fear that ethnic tensions between Yezidis and Muslim Arabs in the area could deteriorate into sectarian unrest, as many Yezidi families in the past year have accused their Arab neighbors of collaborating with ISIS in attacks on Yezidis in the city and villages. This is partly why various Kurdish political parties justify their armed presence in Shingal where no central authority exists yet. “Not all of Shingal is liberated, let’s free all areas and the people there, normalize the situation, reconstruct the city and return self confidence to the people, then there is no need for us to be here,” Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) spokesperson Demhat Jvian told Rudaw. But Kiki from the provincial council said the presence of armed forces in Shingal has complicated things, as many buildings are “occupied” by various Kurdish forces. “We have asked them to evacuate the city buildings, and if they don’t, we will bring the case to the court of law because our civil servants need these offices to work,” Kiki said. He added most Kurdish political parties, including the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the PKK have occupied public buildings, which he said had impacted the work of city officials. KDP official Qasim Rasho told Rudaw they have done so to protect the town and “whenever police forces arrive, KDP forces will withdraw.” More than 12,000 Peshmarga supported by US-led airstrikes effectively pushed back ISIS from Shingal and retook control of the city on November 12.
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