Iraq beats critics to hold first census
Source: Agencies |
January 17, 2010, Sunday
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PLANS are on track to hold Iraq's first complete census in 23 years, answering questions critical to the future of its northern oil fields, such as "how many Kurds live in Kirkuk?"
The long-delayed count, which may shut down the country for two days in October, is also expected to determine how many Iraqis live abroad and how many have been forced to move within Iraq in seven years of war, census chief Mehdi al-Alak said this week.
The census was postponed for a year over worries it was being politicized. Ethnic groups in contested areas like the northern city of Kirkuk, home to Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen and a valuable part of Iraq's oil fields, opposed it because it might reveal demographics that would undermine political ambitions.
The count could provide answers or create more squabbles in a diverse nation riven by sectarian violence following the US invasion in 2003 and now trying to bolster fragile security gains while deciding how to share its vast oil wealth. Iraq has the world's third-largest crude oil reserves.
The autonomous Kurdish region in the north claims Kirkuk as its own. The census will determine whether Kurds are the biggest ethnic bloc in the city, which could bolster that claim.
It will also find out how many people live in Iraqi Kurdistan, which will define its slice of central government revenues that is currently 17 percent. If the census finds Kurds are a greater percentage of the total population, the constitution says the region gets more money, and retroactive payments.
What it won't do, Alak said, is attempt to determine which of the hotly disputed areas belong to whom.
"It is not our business to decide their destiny," Alak, the head of the Central Organization for Statistics and Information Technology, said this week.
"We count the people in the province where they live. Deciding the destiny of the areas is the business of the politicians."
The census will be the first to include the Kurdish region since 1987. A 1997 census counted 19 million Iraqis and officials estimated there were another 3 million in the Kurdish north.
The current national population is believed to be "not less than 30 million," Alak said.
"We started three months ago the listing and mapping process that is the backbone of our work," he said. "We have initial numbers of houses, buildings, families and individuals."
The census will show the religious makeup of a predominantly Muslim nation but will deliberately not ask a resident's sect.
The long-delayed count, which may shut down the country for two days in October, is also expected to determine how many Iraqis live abroad and how many have been forced to move within Iraq in seven years of war, census chief Mehdi al-Alak said this week.
The census was postponed for a year over worries it was being politicized. Ethnic groups in contested areas like the northern city of Kirkuk, home to Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen and a valuable part of Iraq's oil fields, opposed it because it might reveal demographics that would undermine political ambitions.
The count could provide answers or create more squabbles in a diverse nation riven by sectarian violence following the US invasion in 2003 and now trying to bolster fragile security gains while deciding how to share its vast oil wealth. Iraq has the world's third-largest crude oil reserves.
The autonomous Kurdish region in the north claims Kirkuk as its own. The census will determine whether Kurds are the biggest ethnic bloc in the city, which could bolster that claim.
It will also find out how many people live in Iraqi Kurdistan, which will define its slice of central government revenues that is currently 17 percent. If the census finds Kurds are a greater percentage of the total population, the constitution says the region gets more money, and retroactive payments.
What it won't do, Alak said, is attempt to determine which of the hotly disputed areas belong to whom.
"It is not our business to decide their destiny," Alak, the head of the Central Organization for Statistics and Information Technology, said this week.
"We count the people in the province where they live. Deciding the destiny of the areas is the business of the politicians."
The census will be the first to include the Kurdish region since 1987. A 1997 census counted 19 million Iraqis and officials estimated there were another 3 million in the Kurdish north.
The current national population is believed to be "not less than 30 million," Alak said.
"We started three months ago the listing and mapping process that is the backbone of our work," he said. "We have initial numbers of houses, buildings, families and individuals."
The census will show the religious makeup of a predominantly Muslim nation but will deliberately not ask a resident's sect.
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