Turkoman political parties and NGOs have lobbied for their release, but neither the local authorities nor the American forces were ready to hear their plight until the Washington Post published a report on 15 June exposing these detentions.

According to the report, "Police and security units, forces led by Kurdish political parties and backed by the US military, have abducted hundreds of minority Arabs and Turkoman in this intensely volatile city and spirited them to prisons in Kurdish-held northern Iraq." The report cited American and Iraqi officials, government documents and families of the victims.

A source close to the Iraq Turkoman Front, a political party, told Al-Ahram Weekly on condition of anonymity that Kurdish authorities began searching for the person responsible for giving the information to the Washington Post in order to punish him. The source added, "For the last two years hundreds of Turkoman have been abducted from Kirkuk, Tuz, Tel Afar, Khanaqeen and other Turkoman towns and were taken to unofficial detention centres. They were and are still being tortured to confess to crimes they did not commit. We've heard that many detainees have died."

The Post article cited a confidential US State Department cable addressed to the White House, Pentagon and the US Embassy in Baghdad that raises concerns about the unlawful detentions and transfers. The cable described the detentions as part of a "concerted and widespread initiative" by Kurdish political parties "to exercise authority in Kirkuk in an increasingly provocative manner". According to the cable, the abductions had "greatly exacerbated tensions along purely ethnic lines" and endangered US credibility.

In the offices of the Iraqi Turkoman Front, the Iraq Turkoman Council, the Iraqi Institute of Human Rights and other NGOs and parties, long lists of the names of the "missing" are being posted. In the meantime, those lucky enough to escape their unlawful detention are providing information about those who shared the jails with them.

Yashar Fadhil, a civil worker, was taken from his house along with his father and younger brother. He was released, but his father and brother remain in jail. In an interview with the Weekly, Fadhil said "Kurdish speaking gunmen forced themselves into our house, arresting my father, younger brother and I. They cuffed our hands, blindfolded us and forced us into their car.

They did not give us a chance to ask them why. We were taken to a detention centre in Erbil, then Aqra, then back to Erbil, then to Kurdish security force offices in Sulaimaniya. We were tortured and forced to admit that we are terrorists, that we've killed people. I do not know how I was released. Hundreds of Turkoman and Arabs are still there."

Yilmaz Sami, who was kidnapped from his shop in Kirkuk's Qala'a bazaar, told the Weekly, "They forced themselves into my shop, one put his gun to my head, the others cuffed my hands and pushed me into their car. I was taken to Erbil, then to Sulaimaniya." After being tortured, he signed a document admitting being a terrorist and that his commander was a well- known Turkoman officer. He was later released, and the named officer was arrested.

Mulla Aydin was taken on the charge of "occupying a house". Despite the fact that he had all the documents proving his rights to the home, a Kurdish official claimed that he had bought the house from Aydin, though Aydin claims never to have seen the Kurdish official before. Aydin was arrested, tortured and released only to empty the house of his belongings. Aydin commented, "Under Saddam Hussein, Baathists used to take the houses of Turkoman, but at least they compensated the owners."

The situation in Kirkuk continues to deteriorate, not only between Turkoman, Arabs, and Kurds, but among the Kurds themselves, as clashes between followers of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and those of the new President of the Kurdish region, Masoud Barzani, take place. Two weeks ago, Talabani received a delegation of ten Turkoman notables in Baghdad. They visited him to congratulate him as the new transitional Iraqi president, and to present him with the issue of the suffering of Kirkuk's Turkoman and Arab residents, questioning him about the missing people taken to Kurdish detention centres in Erbil, Sulaimaniya and Zakho.

Nawzad Awchi, a member of the delegation, told the Weekly, "Talabani told us that he was a high school student in Kirkuk in 1953 and he is aware that the majority of the city is Turkoman."

Talabani took a first step towards solving the problems peacefully by appointing a Turkoman adviser to address Turkoman concerns in the city. However, Awchi remains sceptical, saying, "We should wait and see." Meanwhile, violence continues, and thousands of Turkoman and Arabs have been demonstrating all week in Kirkuk. Dr Modhaffer Arslan, the Iraqi President of Turkoman Affairs told the Weekly, "Kirkuk is the key to solving all of Iraq's problems." Indeed, it is at the core of the conflict. If Kirkuk is successfully annexed by the Kurdish region, while the majority of the population of the city is non-Kurdish, the partition of Iraq along sectarian lines may indeed take place.

Meanwhile, in Baghdad, fears of increased sectarian strife mounted as a top aide to Shia Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani was shot dead with two others on his way to Friday prayers. The aide, Kamal Ezzuddin Al-Ghuraifi, had been an aide to Al-Sistani for a decade and was the third aide to Al-Sistani killed recently.

In another incident in the same Baghdad neighbourhood, five masked gunmen stormed a Sunni mosque and abducted Imam Sheikh Amer Al-Tikriti. It was not immediately clear if the shooting and the kidnapping were connected.

by Nermeen Al-Mufti from Baghdad.