“The Arab settlers have brought an army letter saying they own the land and are not allowing Kurdish farmers to do their work,” Mohammed Amin, head of the farmers’ defense committee in Sargaran subdistrict, told Rudaw on Saturday.
Disputes between Arab settlers and Kurdish farmers date back to the Baathist era. Land in several villages was taken away from Kurdish farmers by the Iraqi government in 1975 on the grounds that they were located in prohibited oil zones. Two years later, under Decree No. 949 issued by the Baath Supreme Revolutionary Court, the land was given to Arabs who were resettled in the area from elsewhere in Iraq.
In May, heightened tensions between Kurdish farmers and Arab settlers reached a boiling point near the village of Palkana after the settlers prevented farmers from harvesting their crops, citing ownership documents for the land that date back to the Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein.
This forced the Iraqi government to send a delegation to the village to resolve the issue, allowing Kurdish farmers to harvest their crops.
“After the committee arrived, an agreement was reached to harvest, then not to work the lands until November 1, until the problem is completely resolved. That is why we did not work [the lands],” said Amin, recalling the events of May.
“Now, the Arab settlers have brought a letter from the [Joint] Operations Command claiming they own the land according to the 1957 census. We have repeated before and will say it again that if they own the land according to that year’s census, it should be theirs, but they are not being truthful,” he stated.
After 2003 and the fall of the Baath regime, Iraq began a policy of de-Arabization within the framework of Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution, which aims to reverse the demographic changes carried out by former dictator Hussein. The article has never been fully implemented, however, and land disputes still exist.
A bill drafted by Kurdish lawmakers seeking to return confiscated lands to their original owners is currently in the Iraqi parliament. It is one of three major pieces of legislation that are expected to be voted on soon.
Soran Hussein contributed to this report.
