Iraqi Kurds build factories, new roads
Iraq Press

May 31, 2002
Though ringed with enemies, Iraqi Kurds are building a modern country in their semi-independent enclave.

The region's local government has drawn up an ambitious economic plan to breathe life into large swathes of Iraqi Kurdistan laid waste during military campaigns President Saddam mounted to quell their rebellion.

Even today, Saddam's tanks are parked a few kilometers away from their major urban centers. Halting their advance to reoccupy the region are the U.S. and British warplanes policing a no-fly zone over northern Iraq.

In the ten years since the Kurds wrested control of most of Iraqi Kurdistan, living standards in the region have seen noticeable improvement, leading to a decline in child mortality rates and better conditions for the majority of the 3.5 million people there.

Dirt roads are being transformed into silky highways and hundreds of schools and hospitals have been renovated and others built from scratch.

Under U.N. regulations, the Kurds receive 13 percent of Iraq's oil sales revenues. The other major source of income is Iraq's illicit border trade with Turkey.

Iran, Turkey and Syria fear Iraqi Kurds success in building a new society will foment dissent among their already restive Kurdish populations.

The three countries now keep physical access to the enclave under strict control. But Iraqi Kurds open market polices have enabled them to overcome their forced isolation.

The Internet and satellite communications are flourishing in the region with Kurds living in America and Europe helping to spearhead the area's reconstruction boom.

Work on some 2,000 housing units is under way and scores of villages are being rebuilt and furnished with schools, roads and other utilities.

In the province of Arbil, the seat of the Kurdish self-rule administration, several bridges are currently under construction as well as roads extending for about 250 kilometers.

A vegetable ghee factory has been opened recently in the agricultural town of Agra, the first such economic project in the region in the past 10 years.

A highway linking Duhok, Akrê and Arbil is expected to be completed by the end of the year. The road is of strategic significance to the region's economy.

In Duhok, and in coordination with the World Health Organization, scores of health centers equipped with latest medical equipment are under construction.

But the Kurdish economy, though prospering, is still fragile and largely depends on allocations from Iraq's U.N.-approved oil program.

Meantime, local investors are jittery due to the presence of heavily armed Iraqi troops which Saddam has massed along Kurdish borders.

The investors are also wary as speculation about American intervention to change Saddam's regime drags on without any tangible steps on the ground.

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