MATTHEW CARNEY : For 25 years, the Kurds of Iraq had been waiting for this day - the fall of Baghdad and the end of Saddam Hussein. The streets in Erbil, the biggest city in Iraqi Kurdistan, erupted into euphoria.
PEOPLE CHANT: Down, down with Saddam! No more Saddam!
CARNEY : For the Kurds, the Iraqi war was truly one of liberation. They suffered brutally under Saddam's regime, and now their dream of real independence is in sight. Since the end of the first Gulf War in 1991, the Americans protected the Kurds with the northern no-fly zone. They built a de facto state called the Kurdish Autonomous Zone with Erbil at its centre. But most Kurds see Kirkuk, just outside the zone, as their true capital. In a quiet part of Erbil, Marouf Sayid is preparing to make the journey of his lifetime. For 15 years, he has lived here as a refugee. Two days ago, Kirkuk was liberated by Kurdish forces. Now, he's going home.
MAROUF SAYID (Translation): We're happy to be going back to our homes. Until now, it was like night for us. Now the day is dawning.
CARNEY : Sayid is just one of about 100,000 Kurds that Saddam Hussein expelled from Kirkuk in a savage ethnic cleansing program. They were marched from their homes and forced north into the Kurdish-controlled part of Iraq.
MAROUF SAYID (Translation): I felt terrible. How would you feel if someone took your house? What feeling would you have left?
CARNEY : Their houses were given to Iraqi Arabs. Sayid has been told that the Arab man who was in his house fled a few days ago. Thousands of other Kurds have jammed the roads to come and share in the dream of a liberated Kirkuk - a place they see as the heart of Iraqi Kurdistan.
MAN #1 IN TRAFFIC JAM(Translation): This is my happiest hour. I'm from Kirkuk and I want to go back. If I breathe its air for one hour, that will be the ultimate. We never believed it.
WOMAN IN TRAFFIC JAM: It's wonderful, and we've waited so long for it.
MAN #2 IN TRAFFIC JAM: Thank God, it's liberation. We're going back and may God protect Bush and Blair.
CARNEY : We get through the final checkpoint, and Sayid prays. It's a defining moment for him.
MAROUF SAYID (Translation): I won't feel anything until I see my house. Once I see it, then it will be different.
CARNEY : Sayid, once again, is walking the street to his house. Most Kurdish families in this street were expelled from their homes. The Kurdish man who greets Sayid at his house was one of them. Sayid was born in this house and raised his family here, but he is also haunted by its memories. Sayid saw his 14-year-old son dragged from here and executed by Saddam's agents, because he was suspected of having links to the Kurdish resistance. But slowly, Sayid's neighbours and relatives come and greet him for the first time. The Kurdish community in Iskan, a suburb of Kirkuk, is coming back and reconnecting. Sayid hasn't seen his cousin Jamil Ali in 15 years.
JAMIL ALI (Translation): Being separated from each other was awful. To meet each other again, it's like being reborn. A human being needs something more important than food. That is, thinking about those people, wondering what happened to them.
CARNEY : These two girls are the neighbour's daughters. Sayid has never seen them before. They represent his lost years at Kirkuk. This city has served as a powerful symbol of Kurdish suffering and this is why there is such a strong emotional attachment to regaining it. In the coming weeks, Sayid will bring the rest of his family back to his house.
MAROUF SAYID (Translation): Yes, of course. What could be better than to die on your own land?
CARNEY : For nearly 20 years, the Iraqi army used Kirkuk's ancient citadel to keep a watch on the city. Now the people are coming back to examine a past that has been steeped in 5,000 years of conquest and conflict. Kirkuk is seen as the Jerusalem of northern Iraq, because of the many ethnic groups who lay claim to it. But the reality is that the Kurds are not a majority in Kirkuk any more. While Saddam was forcing Kurds out, he brought in 250,000 Arabs from southern and central Iraq to replace them. Abu Ahmed Salim was one of them coming from Baghdad in 1991. For 10 years loyal service in the Iraqi army, he was offered 200 square metres of land in Kirkuk and about US$10,000 if he moved.
ABU AHMED ALI (Translation): I married during the Iraq-Iran war but because of the housing problem...and I didn't have the financial means, so I had to make use of the government offer.
CARNEY : While many Arabs have fled Hay al-Nasar, an area of Kirkuk, Abu Ahmed doesn't accept he's taken Kurdish land, and refuses to leave the house he has built.
ABU AHMED ALI (Translation): It is Iraqi land.
CARNEY (Question to Abu) : Aren't there Kurds in Baghdad?
ABU AHMED ALI (Translation): Here, this area? It was vacant land.
CARNEY : Kurds like Mohammad Rathar, who lived under Saddam's rule, had no choice but to change their ethnicity from Kurdish to Arab.
MOHAMMAD RATHAR (Translation): This document makes you an Arab.
CARNEY : If Mohammad didn't sign these correction papers, he had no rights to own a property, register a business or a marriage.
MOHAMMAD RATHER (Translation): I bought land with my own money. I applied twice. Last time a lawyer took it to the council because I had evidence of Arabic nationality, because you can have property in your name if you have Iraqi Arab nationality.
CARNEY : The Kurdish forces or Peshmerga captured Kirkuk without much of a fight. The Iraqi army fled their posts. But the real conflict is about to start. Saddam kept a tight lid on the community tensions in Kirkuk, but with his regime gone, ethnic hatreds and rivalries have taken over. Many Arabs are wondering if one tyranny has been replaced by another. This Arab family living in Wahid Hozayran says gangs of Kurdish militias are terrorising their neighbourhood.
MAN (Translation): She was alone at home.
WOMAN (Translation): They barged in, I was with the little children. In the morning. They took the car. "Take it out! Now!"
CARNEY : After taking their car, they are now threatening to take the house.
MAN (Translation) We live at home, but they came at 6am, before breakfast. They came and told us to get out. We'd rather go to Israel than stay like this.
WOMAN (Translation): They had machine guns.
CARNEY : On the streets, other residents quickly emerge to tell similar stories. It's not a good sign for future coexistence between Arabs and Kurds.
WOMAN (Translation) They made us hate even the Kurds.
MAN (Translation) They said "You're Arabs. You don't belong here."
WOMAN (Translation) We have nowhere to go. We have nothing in Iraq.
CARNEY : Down the road, this Arab man, who had his car torched, wants Saddam Hussein to come back and restore order.
MAN (Translation): Now there's nothing at all. It was better before. There's nothing now. There's no market for food, the food is bad and expensive... No water, no electricity.
CARNEY : Not only are communities at war with each other, but also against themselves. This Kurdish woman worked as an agent for Saddam's regime, informing on fellow Kurds. She claims she's been bashed by Kurdish Peshmerga. These women have brought her here as a collaborator, to be dealt the justice of the streets.
WOMAN IN STREET (Translation): She's a Ba'athist!
POLICEMAN (Translation): Calm down, calm down...
WOMAN IN STREET (Translation): Saddam is gone, Amira! Saddam is gone, Saddam is gone!
POLICEMAN (Translation): That's enough. This is shameful! Enough!
CARNEY : The Americans have come in to secure the city and its vast oilfields, but not to bring order back to this lawless town. Instead, this show of force at the former Ba'ath Party headquarters is largely for Turkey. The Turks have threatened to invade northern Iraq if Kurds seize and control Kirkuk. They fear Kurdish self-rule here will ignite similar aspirations among their own 12 million Kurds. The Kurds have obeyed US orders and largely withdrawn their fighters from the city, but politically, it's a different story. The Kurdish party, the PUK, has appointed a governor of Kirkuk, Rozgar Ali.
ROZGAR ALI (Translation): We came here in order to help because the city was without security, water and electricity. It's our city, populated by many Kurds, and they're all Iraqis. We came to do these things.
CARNEY : The Kurdish administration has filled a power vacuum. They say they are putting together a town council of 24 members to reflect the ethnic diversity of Kirkuk, but it's a process they're in charge of.
ROZGAR ALI (Translation): It seems that people listen to us because of what we have done.
INTERPRETER: Now, because I think that people have obeyed them. Because we could do all these things. And we could do to make all these things. This means that the people love us and we have a lot of supporters in the community.
CARNEY : The biggest prize in Kirkuk is oil, and it's why the rivalry has been so intense. These oilfields will produce a third of Iraq's output, so the Americans made it a priority to control them. For the moment, the Kurds are agreeing with their American backers. Publicly, they are saying they will accept Kirkuk as a multi-ethnic city with the oil being used for all Iraqis.
ROZGAR ALI (Translation): The Kurds in Kirkuk want the city of Kirkuk to be a city of brotherhood for the different ethnic groups.
CARNEY : But there is one other ethnic group that claims Kirkuk as its own - the Turkmen. They dominate trade and commerce and claim to be the majority in the city. For historical and ethnic reasons, they claim allegiance to Turkey. What worries the Turkmen is the de facto control their Kurdish rivals now have over the city. The Turkmen, like the Kurds, also suffered under Saddam's regime.
MAN (Translation): I'm a Turkmen. I was born in 1962. Since Saddam Hussein came, I've had nothing. I'm still not married and I don't have a house. We had a house, he took it from us.
CARNEY : The Turkmen now feel they are being targeted by the Kurds. The death of this 9-year-old boy who was gunned down carrying a Turkmen flag has given the community its first martyr. It's not certain if he was killed by Kurds, but Turkmen leaders orchestrated these demonstrations to unite the community in calling for Turkey's protection and direct intervention.
ALI JANGEZH, TURKMEN COMMUNITY LEADER (Translation): Of course, if this situation goes on, of course we'd like Turkey to enter Kirkuk. If these two parties...the PUK or the KDP, if they use force against us, for example, we will be forced to.
CARNEY : And this would inevitably start another and bloodier battle for Kirkuk. Months before the war, Turkey massed 40,000 troops at its border, ready to strike if the Kurds took Kirkuk. The Kurds have always made it clear that if the Turks invade, they will fight them to the death. To avert this nightmare scenario, the Americans have invited in 15 Turkish military observers to show them the Kurdish fighters have left the city. But with many armed Kurds still present, it's a tenuous truce at best. This is where the senior members of Saddam's Ba'ath Party resided in Kirkuk, isolated from the people living in luxury. The head of the feared Mukabarat - or Iraqi secret service - Abu Aqab, lived in this house.
ABU AQAB (Translation): He used this house for that kind of stuff. He used it for political work and for immoral purposes. Not even the neighbours could come and see the house. This neighbour says he couldn't come and see this house.
CARNEY : The liberated city is now revealing its secrets. Amongst the documents the intelligence chief left behind are arbitrary arrest orders for Kurdish civilians and details of their network of agents. One in particular is a rude shock to the Kurds here. In the documents, Changul Kadre, a famed beauty and renowned artist, is revealed as one of Saddam's agents. She was known for her humanitarian work and friendship with Kurdish leaders. Kurdish forces may be justified in taking over the former centres of power of their oppressors, but what is questionable is how Kurds are randomly taking houses as their own. Zaman Mohamad has spray-painted his name on this house and is about to move his family in.
ZAMAN MOHAMAD (Translation): First of all I feel happy to come back to Kirkuk after 16 years. Secondly, I don't like to go and occupy someone else's house. But I feel it's a Kurdish house. That's why I came here.
CARNEY : This house was never owned by Zaman and he admits that he doesn't know much about the man who lived here, only that he was an official in the Ba'ath Party. (Question to Zaman) So what crimes did this man commit?
ZAMAN MOHAMAD (Translation): Because we were away, we don't know. But he's definitely an Arab from the south, I think from the Rumadi area. They all came here to occupy Kurds' lands, to Arabise them. They were given privileges and good money.
CARNEY : Zaman says he has a right to throw out the family who lived here because the Iraqi regime did the same to him. (Question to Zaman) So will they investigate this person?
ZAMAN MOHAMAD (Translation): We love the law to be above everything. There's no need to try them, they are guilty and they have to go, they come to Kirkuk to reduce the number of Kurds. They came to Arabise and they have to go. There's no need for a law. Everyone knows that they wanted to wipe out the Kurds.
CARNEY : Only a few kilometres away, we found the Arab man and his family who have been kicked out of their house by Zaman. He tells us how Zaman justified the eviction.
NADIR LABED MOHAMMAD (Translation): He said, "For 35 years we've been living in tents while you were living in European comfort. What's our fault?
CARNEY : Nadir Labed Mohammad admits he was a member of the Ba'ath Party in charge of the fire department for the regime's oil company, but he says he never committed any crime. He says the house just came with the job.
NADIR LABED MOHAMMAD (Translation): It's based on an employee's service and position, which determine the housing he's allocated. These houses are allocated by the oil company. No, they have no right because it is the property of the oil company. But if the government tells me to get out, I will. It's not an issue.
CARNEY : Since the fall of Kirkuk, Human Rights Watch has reported on hundreds of similar cases. The majority are not about justice, but more about misguided revenge. And it begs the question will the oppressed become the oppressor? The Americans have brought in extra recruits to Kirkuk, but they remain outmanned and outmanoeuvred. The Kurds are deepening their control in the city. Meanwhile, the Turkmen are enlarging their own militia and Turkey is giving them the guns. Last week, the US intercepted a Turkish convoy of arms destined for the Turkmen. Sorting out Kirkuk will be crucial for the Americans, as it will be the key to a lasting peace in northern Iraq, or the reason why deep ethnic hatreds will explode into years of conflict.
PEOPLE CHANT: Down, down with Saddam! No more Saddam!
CARNEY : For the Kurds, the Iraqi war was truly one of liberation. They suffered brutally under Saddam's regime, and now their dream of real independence is in sight. Since the end of the first Gulf War in 1991, the Americans protected the Kurds with the northern no-fly zone. They built a de facto state called the Kurdish Autonomous Zone with Erbil at its centre. But most Kurds see Kirkuk, just outside the zone, as their true capital. In a quiet part of Erbil, Marouf Sayid is preparing to make the journey of his lifetime. For 15 years, he has lived here as a refugee. Two days ago, Kirkuk was liberated by Kurdish forces. Now, he's going home.
MAROUF SAYID (Translation): We're happy to be going back to our homes. Until now, it was like night for us. Now the day is dawning.
CARNEY : Sayid is just one of about 100,000 Kurds that Saddam Hussein expelled from Kirkuk in a savage ethnic cleansing program. They were marched from their homes and forced north into the Kurdish-controlled part of Iraq.
MAROUF SAYID (Translation): I felt terrible. How would you feel if someone took your house? What feeling would you have left?
CARNEY : Their houses were given to Iraqi Arabs. Sayid has been told that the Arab man who was in his house fled a few days ago. Thousands of other Kurds have jammed the roads to come and share in the dream of a liberated Kirkuk - a place they see as the heart of Iraqi Kurdistan.
MAN #1 IN TRAFFIC JAM(Translation): This is my happiest hour. I'm from Kirkuk and I want to go back. If I breathe its air for one hour, that will be the ultimate. We never believed it.
WOMAN IN TRAFFIC JAM: It's wonderful, and we've waited so long for it.
MAN #2 IN TRAFFIC JAM: Thank God, it's liberation. We're going back and may God protect Bush and Blair.
CARNEY : We get through the final checkpoint, and Sayid prays. It's a defining moment for him.
MAROUF SAYID (Translation): I won't feel anything until I see my house. Once I see it, then it will be different.
CARNEY : Sayid, once again, is walking the street to his house. Most Kurdish families in this street were expelled from their homes. The Kurdish man who greets Sayid at his house was one of them. Sayid was born in this house and raised his family here, but he is also haunted by its memories. Sayid saw his 14-year-old son dragged from here and executed by Saddam's agents, because he was suspected of having links to the Kurdish resistance. But slowly, Sayid's neighbours and relatives come and greet him for the first time. The Kurdish community in Iskan, a suburb of Kirkuk, is coming back and reconnecting. Sayid hasn't seen his cousin Jamil Ali in 15 years.
JAMIL ALI (Translation): Being separated from each other was awful. To meet each other again, it's like being reborn. A human being needs something more important than food. That is, thinking about those people, wondering what happened to them.
CARNEY : These two girls are the neighbour's daughters. Sayid has never seen them before. They represent his lost years at Kirkuk. This city has served as a powerful symbol of Kurdish suffering and this is why there is such a strong emotional attachment to regaining it. In the coming weeks, Sayid will bring the rest of his family back to his house.
MAROUF SAYID (Translation): Yes, of course. What could be better than to die on your own land?
CARNEY : For nearly 20 years, the Iraqi army used Kirkuk's ancient citadel to keep a watch on the city. Now the people are coming back to examine a past that has been steeped in 5,000 years of conquest and conflict. Kirkuk is seen as the Jerusalem of northern Iraq, because of the many ethnic groups who lay claim to it. But the reality is that the Kurds are not a majority in Kirkuk any more. While Saddam was forcing Kurds out, he brought in 250,000 Arabs from southern and central Iraq to replace them. Abu Ahmed Salim was one of them coming from Baghdad in 1991. For 10 years loyal service in the Iraqi army, he was offered 200 square metres of land in Kirkuk and about US$10,000 if he moved.
ABU AHMED ALI (Translation): I married during the Iraq-Iran war but because of the housing problem...and I didn't have the financial means, so I had to make use of the government offer.
CARNEY : While many Arabs have fled Hay al-Nasar, an area of Kirkuk, Abu Ahmed doesn't accept he's taken Kurdish land, and refuses to leave the house he has built.
ABU AHMED ALI (Translation): It is Iraqi land.
CARNEY (Question to Abu) : Aren't there Kurds in Baghdad?
ABU AHMED ALI (Translation): Here, this area? It was vacant land.
CARNEY : Kurds like Mohammad Rathar, who lived under Saddam's rule, had no choice but to change their ethnicity from Kurdish to Arab.
MOHAMMAD RATHAR (Translation): This document makes you an Arab.
CARNEY : If Mohammad didn't sign these correction papers, he had no rights to own a property, register a business or a marriage.
MOHAMMAD RATHER (Translation): I bought land with my own money. I applied twice. Last time a lawyer took it to the council because I had evidence of Arabic nationality, because you can have property in your name if you have Iraqi Arab nationality.
CARNEY : The Kurdish forces or Peshmerga captured Kirkuk without much of a fight. The Iraqi army fled their posts. But the real conflict is about to start. Saddam kept a tight lid on the community tensions in Kirkuk, but with his regime gone, ethnic hatreds and rivalries have taken over. Many Arabs are wondering if one tyranny has been replaced by another. This Arab family living in Wahid Hozayran says gangs of Kurdish militias are terrorising their neighbourhood.
MAN (Translation): She was alone at home.
WOMAN (Translation): They barged in, I was with the little children. In the morning. They took the car. "Take it out! Now!"
CARNEY : After taking their car, they are now threatening to take the house.
MAN (Translation) We live at home, but they came at 6am, before breakfast. They came and told us to get out. We'd rather go to Israel than stay like this.
WOMAN (Translation): They had machine guns.
CARNEY : On the streets, other residents quickly emerge to tell similar stories. It's not a good sign for future coexistence between Arabs and Kurds.
WOMAN (Translation) They made us hate even the Kurds.
MAN (Translation) They said "You're Arabs. You don't belong here."
WOMAN (Translation) We have nowhere to go. We have nothing in Iraq.
CARNEY : Down the road, this Arab man, who had his car torched, wants Saddam Hussein to come back and restore order.
MAN (Translation): Now there's nothing at all. It was better before. There's nothing now. There's no market for food, the food is bad and expensive... No water, no electricity.
CARNEY : Not only are communities at war with each other, but also against themselves. This Kurdish woman worked as an agent for Saddam's regime, informing on fellow Kurds. She claims she's been bashed by Kurdish Peshmerga. These women have brought her here as a collaborator, to be dealt the justice of the streets.
WOMAN IN STREET (Translation): She's a Ba'athist!
POLICEMAN (Translation): Calm down, calm down...
WOMAN IN STREET (Translation): Saddam is gone, Amira! Saddam is gone, Saddam is gone!
POLICEMAN (Translation): That's enough. This is shameful! Enough!
CARNEY : The Americans have come in to secure the city and its vast oilfields, but not to bring order back to this lawless town. Instead, this show of force at the former Ba'ath Party headquarters is largely for Turkey. The Turks have threatened to invade northern Iraq if Kurds seize and control Kirkuk. They fear Kurdish self-rule here will ignite similar aspirations among their own 12 million Kurds. The Kurds have obeyed US orders and largely withdrawn their fighters from the city, but politically, it's a different story. The Kurdish party, the PUK, has appointed a governor of Kirkuk, Rozgar Ali.
ROZGAR ALI (Translation): We came here in order to help because the city was without security, water and electricity. It's our city, populated by many Kurds, and they're all Iraqis. We came to do these things.
CARNEY : The Kurdish administration has filled a power vacuum. They say they are putting together a town council of 24 members to reflect the ethnic diversity of Kirkuk, but it's a process they're in charge of.
ROZGAR ALI (Translation): It seems that people listen to us because of what we have done.
INTERPRETER: Now, because I think that people have obeyed them. Because we could do all these things. And we could do to make all these things. This means that the people love us and we have a lot of supporters in the community.
CARNEY : The biggest prize in Kirkuk is oil, and it's why the rivalry has been so intense. These oilfields will produce a third of Iraq's output, so the Americans made it a priority to control them. For the moment, the Kurds are agreeing with their American backers. Publicly, they are saying they will accept Kirkuk as a multi-ethnic city with the oil being used for all Iraqis.
ROZGAR ALI (Translation): The Kurds in Kirkuk want the city of Kirkuk to be a city of brotherhood for the different ethnic groups.
CARNEY : But there is one other ethnic group that claims Kirkuk as its own - the Turkmen. They dominate trade and commerce and claim to be the majority in the city. For historical and ethnic reasons, they claim allegiance to Turkey. What worries the Turkmen is the de facto control their Kurdish rivals now have over the city. The Turkmen, like the Kurds, also suffered under Saddam's regime.
MAN (Translation): I'm a Turkmen. I was born in 1962. Since Saddam Hussein came, I've had nothing. I'm still not married and I don't have a house. We had a house, he took it from us.
CARNEY : The Turkmen now feel they are being targeted by the Kurds. The death of this 9-year-old boy who was gunned down carrying a Turkmen flag has given the community its first martyr. It's not certain if he was killed by Kurds, but Turkmen leaders orchestrated these demonstrations to unite the community in calling for Turkey's protection and direct intervention.
ALI JANGEZH, TURKMEN COMMUNITY LEADER (Translation): Of course, if this situation goes on, of course we'd like Turkey to enter Kirkuk. If these two parties...the PUK or the KDP, if they use force against us, for example, we will be forced to.
CARNEY : And this would inevitably start another and bloodier battle for Kirkuk. Months before the war, Turkey massed 40,000 troops at its border, ready to strike if the Kurds took Kirkuk. The Kurds have always made it clear that if the Turks invade, they will fight them to the death. To avert this nightmare scenario, the Americans have invited in 15 Turkish military observers to show them the Kurdish fighters have left the city. But with many armed Kurds still present, it's a tenuous truce at best. This is where the senior members of Saddam's Ba'ath Party resided in Kirkuk, isolated from the people living in luxury. The head of the feared Mukabarat - or Iraqi secret service - Abu Aqab, lived in this house.
ABU AQAB (Translation): He used this house for that kind of stuff. He used it for political work and for immoral purposes. Not even the neighbours could come and see the house. This neighbour says he couldn't come and see this house.
CARNEY : The liberated city is now revealing its secrets. Amongst the documents the intelligence chief left behind are arbitrary arrest orders for Kurdish civilians and details of their network of agents. One in particular is a rude shock to the Kurds here. In the documents, Changul Kadre, a famed beauty and renowned artist, is revealed as one of Saddam's agents. She was known for her humanitarian work and friendship with Kurdish leaders. Kurdish forces may be justified in taking over the former centres of power of their oppressors, but what is questionable is how Kurds are randomly taking houses as their own. Zaman Mohamad has spray-painted his name on this house and is about to move his family in.
ZAMAN MOHAMAD (Translation): First of all I feel happy to come back to Kirkuk after 16 years. Secondly, I don't like to go and occupy someone else's house. But I feel it's a Kurdish house. That's why I came here.
CARNEY : This house was never owned by Zaman and he admits that he doesn't know much about the man who lived here, only that he was an official in the Ba'ath Party. (Question to Zaman) So what crimes did this man commit?
ZAMAN MOHAMAD (Translation): Because we were away, we don't know. But he's definitely an Arab from the south, I think from the Rumadi area. They all came here to occupy Kurds' lands, to Arabise them. They were given privileges and good money.
CARNEY : Zaman says he has a right to throw out the family who lived here because the Iraqi regime did the same to him. (Question to Zaman) So will they investigate this person?
ZAMAN MOHAMAD (Translation): We love the law to be above everything. There's no need to try them, they are guilty and they have to go, they come to Kirkuk to reduce the number of Kurds. They came to Arabise and they have to go. There's no need for a law. Everyone knows that they wanted to wipe out the Kurds.
CARNEY : Only a few kilometres away, we found the Arab man and his family who have been kicked out of their house by Zaman. He tells us how Zaman justified the eviction.
NADIR LABED MOHAMMAD (Translation): He said, "For 35 years we've been living in tents while you were living in European comfort. What's our fault?
CARNEY : Nadir Labed Mohammad admits he was a member of the Ba'ath Party in charge of the fire department for the regime's oil company, but he says he never committed any crime. He says the house just came with the job.
NADIR LABED MOHAMMAD (Translation): It's based on an employee's service and position, which determine the housing he's allocated. These houses are allocated by the oil company. No, they have no right because it is the property of the oil company. But if the government tells me to get out, I will. It's not an issue.
CARNEY : Since the fall of Kirkuk, Human Rights Watch has reported on hundreds of similar cases. The majority are not about justice, but more about misguided revenge. And it begs the question will the oppressed become the oppressor? The Americans have brought in extra recruits to Kirkuk, but they remain outmanned and outmanoeuvred. The Kurds are deepening their control in the city. Meanwhile, the Turkmen are enlarging their own militia and Turkey is giving them the guns. Last week, the US intercepted a Turkish convoy of arms destined for the Turkmen. Sorting out Kirkuk will be crucial for the Americans, as it will be the key to a lasting peace in northern Iraq, or the reason why deep ethnic hatreds will explode into years of conflict.