To the guards at the gates to Iraq's oldest oilfields, the bickering in Baghdad over the internal boundaries of a federal Iraq is irrelevant. What counts, they say, are facts on the ground. They have daubed "Kurdistan" on the security barricades and replaced Saddam Hussein's portrait in their guardhouse with that of Jalal Tala-bani, the Kurdish leader in their part of the region. One of five Kurds on Iraq's 25-strong American-appointed Governing Council, Mr Talabani describes Kirkuk, which lies to the south of what was the Kurds' pre-war safe haven, as "the Kurdish Jerusalem". For two decades, Mr Hussein systematically Arabised the area, bringing in Arabs and expelling Kurds, who had to move north. Now the reverse-Kurdisa-tion, as Kurds like to call it-is in full swing.
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