Ethnic minorities living in northern Iraq face a human rights "catastrophe" as Arabs and Kurds vie for control, Human Rights Watch has warned.

Yazidis, Shabaks and Christians faced attacks by Sunni Muslim extremists and harassment by Kurdish forces, it said.

HRW called on Kurdish leaders in the north and the government in Baghdad to improve protection of Iraqi minorities.

The Kurdistan Regional Government said the report was flawed, but promised it would look into all of the allegations.

"[It] reveals a systematic misperception of the circumstances in Nineveh and a worrying ignorance of Iraqi history. HRW therefore produces an inaccurate portrayal of the situation," it said.

"The KRG has done more for the protection of minorities than any other entity in Iraq, and continues to insist on tolerance and peaceful coexistence in the region and throughout Iraq."

‘Repressive measures‘

HRW’s report focused on the province of Nineveh, which lies to the south and west of the Kurdish autonomous region in the north of the country.

The province is one of Iraq’s most ethnically diverse, but both Kurdish and Arab leaders lay claim to it.

" Iraqi authorities, both Arab and Kurdish, need to rein in security forces, extremists and vigilante groups to send a message that minorities cannot be attacked with impunity "  Joe Stork Human Rights Watch

Since the US-led invasion that led to the fall of Saddam Hussein, Kurdish groups have grown in strength after decades of repression.

But HRW said the Kurdish Regional Government had "offered minorities financial and other inducements to win their support, while simultaneously using repressive measures to keep them in line".

These included "arbitrary arrests and detentions, intimidation, and in some cases low-level violence", it added.

Meanwhile, HRW said, extremist elements in the Sunni Arab insurgency – which is strong in Nineveh, particularly in the provincial capital, Mosul – regarded the minority groups as "crusaders" and "infidels".

Simultaneous truck bombings, "presumably by Sunni Islamists" in August 2007 killed more than 300 Yazidis and wounded more than 700 in the single worst attack against civilians since the start of the war, the report said.

And in late 2008, a "systematic and orchestrated campaign of targeted killings and violence" left 40 Chaldo-Assyrians dead and more than 12,000 displaced from their homes in Mosul.

"Iraqi Christians, Yazidis, and Shabaks have suffered extensively since 2003," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

"Iraqi authorities, both Arab and Kurdish, need to rein in security forces, extremists and vigilante groups to send a message that minorities cannot be attacked with impunity."

The Yazidis are an ancient sect whose religion blends Zoroastrianism, Islam and other faiths. About half a million of them live in Iran, Russia, Turkey and northern Iraq.

Shabaks also follow a religion that blends Islam with other faiths, and speak their own language, Shabaki, which originates from Iran.

Earlier this week, Iraq’s government set parliamentary elections for 21 January 2010.

There had been political deadlock for weeks over the electoral law, with voting in the ethnically mixed northern, oil-rich city of Kirkuk a key sticking point. Both Arabs and Kurds lay claim to the city.

BBC News – http://news.bbc.co.uk/