Wary U.S. allies against Iraq

Kurdistan: Despite a deep hatred for Saddam Hussein, Kurds want to ensure that they will maintain their autonomy.

Baltimore Sun
June 27, 2002
By Joshua Kucera

ERBIL, Iraq - Internet cafes, satellite television, opposition political parties, even ersatz McDonald's restaurants. This is Iraq, but it's not Saddam Hussein's.

People here call it Kurdistan, an autonomous semi-state that broke free from Baghdad's control 10 years ago and has since provided its mostly Kurdish population with a life relatively free of the hardships and restrictions most Iraqis face.

Now, with a U.S. attack on Iraq seeming likely, Kurdistan is being watched closely as a possible ally and staging ground. But despite pro-Western leanings and a deep hatred for Hussein - his forces destroyed 4,500 Kurdish villages and attacked several with chemical weapons in the 1980s - people here say they are not going to be merely the foot soldiers of the United States.

"We are not going to be the initiator of any military action," says Sami Abdul-Rahman, a deputy prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government. "But if a military conflict takes place, we'll behave in the best interests of the Kurdish people and Iraqi people."

Specifically, Kurds want to make sure that Hussein's successors don't remove Kurdistan's autonomy.

"The status quo is the best thing our people have had in their recent history and it would be good if it continued," Abdul-Rahman says. "We hope that such a successful experiment will not be strangled for no reason."

After the 1991 Persian Gulf war, an uprising by Kurds in northern Iraq was brutally repressed by Iraq, leading the United States and Britain to impose a "no-fly zone" protecting three Kurdish provinces, Dohuk, Erbil and Sulaimaniya. (Two other provinces, Mosul and Kirkuk, are still under Baghdad's control but are considered by the Kurdistan government to be part of Kurdistan.)

In that vacuum, Kurds established a parliament and government structures. Infighting between rival Kurdish factions, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, in the 1990s left about 1,000 dead. But a deal in 1998 ended that conflict and the two share power - the KDP controlling Dohuk and Erbil provinces, and the PUK controlling Sulaimaniya province.

Kurdistan has its own police, army and tax administration. It has no postal system, but Internet access is easy and cheap in major cities, and several mobile phone operators compete. The currency is the old Iraqi dinar - the ones without Hussein's face on the front.

Kurdistan is subject to the same embargo as the rest of Iraq, and its industry has been crippled as a result. The state-owned bottled water factory was closed for two years because of a lack of proper filters, which were eventually procured by smugglers, said the PUK's director of incomes, Osman Shwani. The cigarette company can produce only low-quality cigarettes because the area can grow only one kind of tobacco, and to make a proper blend requires other kinds unavailable here.

But Kurdistan gets a disproportionately large share of funds from the United Nations' oil-for-food program. In addition, Iraq's best smuggling routes to Turkey pass through here, and the area has Iraq's best agricultural land. So salaries here are much better than in Baghdad - $50 a month for an ordinary worker, compared with about $3 a month in Baghdad.

"In 1991, when we started our administration, [Kurdistan] was completely destroyed," Shwani says. "We had two sanctions - from the U.N. and Iraq. And all of the neighboring countries wanted our democratic experiment to fail. The only thing supporting us was the no-fly zone. But since the oil-for-food program was implemented, our people have been able to improve their situation."

Wasfi Barzanjy, who owns a computer shop in the capital, Erbil, is expanding because business is getting better. "In a year and a half, everyone will be able to buy a PC," he predicts.

The talk of war worries him, though. "People are afraid of the news about the U.S. and Iraq; people are afraid of what will happen in the future," he says. "If Saddam Hussein is gone, we don't know if anyone better will come."

Comparisons have been drawn between the Kurds and the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, but Kurds and U.S. officials say the similarities are superficial. The Kurdish troops, called peshmerga, are ill-equipped, and the Iraqi forces are much stronger than those of the Taliban.

The Kurdish forces also are not under a single command, but are loyal to the rival factions. "Until [the KDP and PUK] reconcile their differences, they can't be an effective partner in any action," says Salahaddin Bahauddin, general secretary of the moderate Party of Islamic Unity.

Kurdistan may be more useful as a staging ground. Local residents report that U.S. and British troops have already started installing communications equipment and radar in a U.N. facility in Sulaimaniya province.

U.S. military officials in Turkey, where the planes patrolling the no-fly zone are based, say that Iraqi sniping against the patrols has increased, but the Iraqis seem more interested in defense since talk of war began, Kurdish officials say. "So far, they're busy with themselves and are trying to protect themselves," says Interior Minister Karim Sinjary.

At the village of Kalak, Iraqi troops are visible across the river. Peshmerga say that the Iraqis have been sending more troops and tanks in recent weeks. The Iraqis and their heavy artillery could easily overwhelm the peshmerga and their small arms, but the border is quiet. Government officials say that is thanks to the no-fly zone.

The United States squandered some of its trust among Iraqi Kurds by encouraging and then abandoning the uprising in 1991. It also failed to back another in 1996. "Broken promises cannot be forgotten," says Abdul-Rahman, the deputy prime minister. "Still, this situation we're in is largely thanks to the United States." Others echo that sentiment.

"If nothing like in '91 or '96 happens, then we'll help" a U.S. attack, says Jamal, a retired bazaar salesman in Erbil. "But if it's like then, we don't want to have the U.S. anywhere near here."

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