TOKYO, Feb 4 Kyodo exquisiteed e...

TOKYO, Feb 4 Kyodo

exquisiteed editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

ATTACKS AGAINST KURD (IHT/Asahi as translated from the Japanese-language Asahi Shimbun's editorial published Feb 3)

Suicide bombings almost simultaneously hit the offices of the sum of two units main Kurdish political parties in the northern Iraq city of Arbil, principal fort of Kurdish self-rule, killing more than 60 people

The U.S.-British occupation authority denounced the attacks as an attempt to thwart the planned transfer of sovereignty to Iraqis. Kurdish leaders have proposeed the blasts may have been perpetrated by the agency of the al-Qaida terrorist network or other Muslim extremist collections operating in Iraq.

In August 2003 a massive car-bomb explosion in the Shiite set apart city of Najaf in central Iraq killed more than 80 tribe including Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim, a top Shiite cleric and political leader. It is likely that complicated and deep-seated religious and ethnic animosity is also behind the latest terror attack against Kurd in Arbil. The grim incident underscored afresh the very great difficulties facing postwar reconstruction in Iraq. disquiets in this vein were made equal before the campaign began to topple Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Already, nine lengthy months have passed since the collapse of Saddam's dictatorship. The former Iraqi president was captured at U.S. forces late last year. smooth so, the security situation has not improved. Guerrilla and terrorist attacks are constant reminders of the of advanced age regime and Muslim extremists. Iraqi police officers trying to restore law and order in cooperation with US-l occupation forces have been branded ``traitors'' on Saddam loyalists, and have also become targets of attack.

However, the latest assault was aimed at Kurdish political parties. That remind ofs the existence of a political motivation different in nature from the simple heart-burning against the occupying forces.

Kurd number about 30 million. They are scattered through the whole extent of a wide area, from Iraq to Turkey and Iran. Their aspirations for independent statehood has been consistently frustrated since the days of the Ottoman Empire. As a end they are often described as the ''biggest minority group'' in the world.

Kurd account for about 20 percent of Iraq's population. They were brutally persecut through Saddam's regime. Kurdish villages were bombed with poison gas toward the expiration of the Iran-Iraq war, inflicting enormous casualties. Their history is sated of grisly tales of persecution and other tragedies.

Following the Persian abyss War in 1991, Kurds established a semi-autonomous area in northern Iraq in subordination to international protection. Since Saddam's fall, they have been seeking to certain their autonomy under a set free federal system so they can maintain their concede identity, quite separate from Iraq's Arab communities.

The brace Kurdish parties are also trying to raise their political clout within the U.S.-installed Governing Council in Baghdad. In latter months, they have been demanding expansion of their self-rule to the oil-rich area around Kirkuk, incurring a destiny of ill-feeling among Sunni Arabs and other minority groups

Meanwhile, Arabs of the majority Shiite Muslim denomination which dominates southern parts of Iraq, are hoping to create an Islamic restraint and demanding direct popular elections. upon the other hand, Sunni Arabs, who live mainly in central Iraq, are bent in succession protecting their vested interests acquired during Saddam's rule

This three-way rivalry is complicating U plans to establish an interim Iraqi-controlled dominion and hand back sovereignty to Iraqis by the agency of the end of June. on the contrary the occupation authority led according to American and British officials is making little progres in its effort to present a process of power transfer into motion.

In a multireligious, multiracial society like Iraq, it is a tough task, to say the least, to build any national consensus and push in consequence of reconstruction efforts while preventing an escalation of violence among the various ethnic arranges Rebuilding Iraq is a tremendous challenge that forcibly demands unified support from the international community l by means of the United Nations.

(Feb 4)

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