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in Iraqi Kurdistan kills boy, 4, wounds two others: police
Bahceli: Barzani's Statement Is Unacceptable How Kurdistan's first suicide bomber changed his mind Interrogations link Al Qaeda to Iraq Two hundred Iraqi Kurdish immigrants land in southern Italy Turkey, Iraqi Kurdish Tensions High Jalal Talabani Interview with Asharq Al-Awsat Iraqi Kurd Fighters Seen More Organized Iranian troops deployed on Iraqi border: Kurds Saddam's son says Iran not al-Qaeda behind Kurdistan Islamist group KDP Slams Berlin Embassy Seizure as "Terrorism" Barham Salih: The Radical group Ansar al-Islam Plans Attacks Talabani Wants US Date for Post-Saddam Poll U.S. Monitors Kurdish Extremists raq orders banks to be opened in Kurdistan Saddam will not stop me being a Kurd
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Crumbling banknotes cost worried Iraqi Kurds jobs Reuters Sep 17, 2002 Some 80,000 Iraqi Kurds have lost their jobs because of recent currency volatility in a region that could play a key part in U.S. plans to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, local officials said on Monday. Currency worries are adding to other causes of uncertainty in northern Iraq, a mountainous breakaway enclave facing turmoil if the United States takes military action against Iraq, which it accuses of developing weapons of mass destruction. Northern Iraq has been outside Baghdad's control since local Kurdish groups broke away after the 1991 Gulf War. The region, protected from Iraqi attack by U.S. and British air patrols operating from Turkey, uses old Iraqi dinar banknotes printed in Switzerland. A different set of banknotes is in use in the rest of Iraq. No new Swiss Iraqi dinars have been printed for years and local officials say the well-used notes are falling apart. "Most of them are stuck together with tape or staples," Safeen Dizayee, the Turkish representative of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, one of two groups that run the enclave, told Reuters on Monday. As the bills fall apart, the supply of Swiss Iraqi dinars falls, pushing up the unit's value against the dollar, he said. "The dollar has dropped from a high of 18 Swiss Iraqi dinars a few months ago to a low of less than 13 Swiss Iraqi dinars this week," the Kurdistan Regional Government, a fragile umbrella uniting the two main parties, said on its website. Dizayee said that reports of large purchases of Swiss Iraqi dinars and an influx of hard currencies from United Nations projects and from Kurds living in Europe had also contributed to the stronger exchange rate. The Kurdistan Regional Government said local building contractors who carry out U.N.-sponsored infrastructure projects had been forced to stop work because of the strength of the local currency. The contractors are paid in dollars by the United Nations and could no longer afford to pay their employees in Swiss Iraqi dinars after the exchange rate shift, it said. As a result more than 80,000 Kurds have lost their jobs in a region holding an estimated 3.5 million people. The jump in unemployment has added to the problems caused by Turkey's decision earlier this year to cut off a trade in diesel fuel across the border between Turkey and northern Iraq which was a significant source of income for the region.
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