ANKARA - The U.S. Embassy in Ankara said on Friday that some recent reports which suggested that the United States was engaged in an effort to change the demographic balance in and around Kirkuk were false and stated that a commission which would begin its work in February 2004 would adjudicate property disputes in Iraq.
Releasing a statement, the U.S. Embassy said that some recent reports in Turkish newspapers have suggested that U.S. forces in Iraq were engaged in an effort to change the demographic balance in and around Kirkuk by encouraging Arab families who settled in the area during the time of Saddam Hussein to leave their homes and noted that these reports were false.
It underlined that the United States was committed to a free, democratic Iraq in which the rights of all Iraqi citizens- Turkmen, Kurds, Assyrians, Sunnis, Shiites and others- were afforded equal protection under the law.
''Property disputes in Kirkuk and elsewhere in Iraq will be adjudicated by an Iraqi property claims commission, which is scheduled to begin its work in February 2004. We expect the commission to resolve such disputes in a fair and open process, without regard to the ethnic or religious origins of the parties of the dispute,'' it noted.
The statement said that they recognized that this would be an emotional and difficult process, but also a necessary one and added, ''the United States is actively engaged with the Iraqis to ensure that the property commission carries out its work with full transparency, thereby contributing to the stability and social harmony of the new Iraq.''
(EÖ-Öª) 12.12.2003