Hussein Reasserts Influence in Kurdish Region

Seventeen months after Iraqi troops poured into this Kurdish enclave, Iraqi Arabs are again arriving in the northern region in droves. This time, however, they’re coming as tourists.

The sight of such visitors in the self-declared regional administration of Iraqi Kurdistan would have been unthinkable until recently.

But contradictory U.S. policies in the region, meddling by the Turkish and Iranian armies and the failure of the Kurds to make peace among themselves have allowed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to reassert his influence in the U.S.-protected haven, Kurdish leaders say.

Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani, who once led his independence-minded warriors against Hussein, now says that fighting the Iraqi government is no longer an option, and he does not rule out an agreement with Baghdad on the region becoming a federal state within Iraq.

“Baghdad is the center of [Iraq’s] government, and in the end our problems will be solved in Baghdad,” Barzani, leader of the Democratic Party of Kurdistan, or KDP, said in an interview. “Our ongoing dialogue with the Iraqis is very natural.”

The turnabout means that the Kurds, a key part of the U.S.-led coalition against Hussein during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, cannot be counted on this time as Washington lobbies its allies for a military strike to force Iraqi compliance with U.N. weapons inspectors.

Barzani attributes his change of heart mainly to Washington, which he says has used Kurdish rebellions to unsettle Hussein’s regime without supporting Kurdish demands for independence.

When the Gulf War ended with Hussein’s retreat from Kuwait, U.S., British and Turkish air forces declared a “no-fly” zone north of Iraq’s 36th parallel to dissuade the Iraqi leader from retaliating against the Kurds for an uprising that had been encouraged by the United States.

But Barzani now charges: “The Americans do not have a policy for the Kurds. They have sentenced us to remain the enemies of Iraq and also to remain part of Iraq.”

*

In 1996, an angry Barzani invited Iraqi tanks to help him drive a rival Kurd’s forces from the enclave for a month and seize control of Irbil, the regional capital.

The unexpected move, which the allies failed to counter, undermined a CIA-backed anti-Hussein coalition in northern Iraq and forced U.S. personnel to leave for good.

“It was the most humiliating blow ever to our Iraq policy,” a U.S. official conceded.

Washington continues to talk to Barzani, provide air cover for the Iraqi Kurds and promote peace talks between the Kurdish rivals.

“The Kurds remain a key component in fencing in Saddam Hussein,” a Western diplomat said.

But Kurdish leaders on both sides say that the U.S. peace initiative is dead and that Hussein is maneuvering to extend his influence with a mediation offer of his own.

“Saddam Hussein is now the major force in northern Iraq,” said Ahmad Chalabi, president of the Iraqi National Congress, a coalition of Iraqi opposition groups.

Most Kurds say privately that they still support American aims. They blame their own leaders for wasting what many view as a historic opportunity to run their own affairs.

Under allied protection, Barzani and his rival, Jalal Talabani of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, or PUK, had set aside long-standing differences, held the region’s first parliamentary elections in 1992 and formed a joint regional government. The Kurds of northern Iraq appeared to be consolidating their autonomy.

But the two men soon revived a bitter personal feud, with each claiming to be the Kurds’ true leader. By 1994, their factions were waging a war that has claimed thousands of lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians.

Turkey and Iran, with restive Kurdish minorities of their own, have added to the enclave’s instability with periodic military incursions in support of Barzani and Talabani, respectively.

*

Washington has not objected to the raids by Turkey, a U.S. official said, because good relations with its NATO ally are more important.

Turkey’s main objective is to strike at Kurdish rebels in the country who are fighting for an independent state within Turkish territory and have bases in northern Iraq.

Since November, however, Turkish troops have been attacking Talabani’s forces as well, saying they provide arms and bases for the Turkish rebels. Those attacks have strengthened Barzani’s forces and undermined peace efforts by the United States, Britain and Turkey.

“One of the mediators has become a party to the conflict,” another Western diplomat said. “It’s just one huge mess.”

Tens of thousands of Iraqi Kurdish villagers uprooted by the conflict live in misery in much of the enclave. In recent days, hundreds have traveled by land across Turkey, boarded ramshackle boats and washed ashore in Italy, seeking asylum there or elsewhere in Europe.

“I have no heating, no light, no proper bed, and I don’t know where my next meal is going to come from,” said Sadiqa, a gaunt 70-year-old woman who, along with her three sons, two daughters and seven grandchildren, camps in the cold, damp basement of a derelict building in the center of Irbil.

She and her family were kicked out of their home by Talabani’s forces in Sulaymaniyah province last month, she said, “because they said we were pro-KDP.”

U.N. officials say the conflict has disrupted aid distribution programs across northern Iraq.

While ordinary Kurds live in poverty, their leaders are enriching themselves through illicit trade with Turkey and Iran.

Barzani’s forces control nearly two-thirds of northern Iraq, including the Habur border crossing with Turkey. They levy “taxes” on Turkish trucks that carry consumer goods into northern Iraq and leave with Iraqi diesel oil from Hussein’s refineries in Mosul.

U.N. officials say Barzani’s party rakes in at least $500,000 a day from this sanctions-busting trade and that his refusal to share the wealth with Talabani’s faction has complicated the peace talks.

Lately, however, there are signs that the wealth is trickling down.

Hussain Sinjari, the region’s tourism minister, is spending what he calls “Habur money” on popular civic improvements.

He is also luring Iraqi Arab tourists who brave the sporadic fighting to enjoy the lush mountain village of Shaqlawa or this city, where Western-made goods and alcohol are readily available.

A flamboyant figure in Saville Row suits, Sinjari takes pride in showing visitors a huge park his ministry is building and an ancient minaret it is restoring. Another of his special projects is a zoo.

“I am now negotiating the purchase of an elephant for $20,000,” said Sinjari, a fierce proponent of restoring ties with Hussein’s regime. He added with a wink: “The elephant is coming from Baghdad.”