IRAQ: Jay Garner, the retired general overseeing Iraq's post-war econstruction, held out the promise yesterday of a Bosnia-style commission to resolve disputes between Arabs, Kurds and Turkomans displaced in northern Iraq during Saddam Hussein's regime.
He said that a commission to "arbitrate what is just and fair" would help to reverse "years of ethnic cleansing" of Kurds and other minorities around the cities of Kirkuk and Mosul.
But details of the proposed commission remain vague.
Yesterday a US official accompanying Gen Garner said it could be similar to the system used to handle the consequences of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. He said the Iraqi version would be set up "within weeks or months" and could operate with an independent monitoring body.
The issue of land and property reclamation is one of the most delicate facing a new Iraqi administration.
Human Rights Watch says that as many as 120,000 Kurds were displaced. - (Guardian service)