Kurdistan people dream of forgotten peace

SULEIMANIYEH, Iraq, Feb 10 (AFP) -

"In other countries, people dream of progress, but here, we would just like to go
backwards 20 years," sighed Mustapha Hussein, selling vegetables in the northern Iraqi
city of Suleimaniyeh.

"We are tired of hearing the sound of guns. We just want peace and security for
Kurdistan," he said.

Hussein, 45, who works in the inappropriately named quarter of Ashti -- peace, in
Kurdish -- in the old city, laments the problems of daily life for ordinary people in a land
torn apart by Kurdish guerrilla fighting against the Baghdad regime in the 1980s, the
uprising that followed the Gulf War in 1991, and the fighting between Kurdish factions
since then.

Aisha Ahmad, 60, says the conditions "are wearing us out."

"My husband's salary is barely enough. There is no power for 22 hours of the day, and
we have to use some of our money to get electricity by other means," she explained.

"There is no longer a middle class, only rich and poor."

The average monthly wage in Kurdistan is about 350 dinars, or 18 dollars at the going
rate. But even for that wage, jobs are thin on the ground, since all development projects
have been stopped, and the only alternatives are trading, or smuggling goods from
neighbouring Iran.

Suleimaniyeh's markets are cram full of Iranian merchandise, such as textiles, as well
Turkish goodies, like confectionary and alcohol, but they are out of reach of most
ordinary shoppers.

Long lines of Turkish lorries laden with food, soap and textiles process along the road to
Suleimaniyeh, while Iraqi lorries take tobacco down to Baghdad and return with
vegetables.

"We are trying to build an economy, to create farms, to develop textile, cement and
tobacco factories in order to tackle unemployment," said Jamal Fuad, "minister" of
cooperation and humanitarian aid in the unrecognised government of the Patriotic Union
of Kurdistan (PUK) which controls that part of Iraqi Kurdistan.

"But we suffer from a severe lack of electricity, because the rains have been so poor this
year, and because it is so difficult to obtain aid from abroad."

The last census, which dates back to 1986, shows Iraqi Kurdistan as a whole having a
population of some three million. The region is now divided between the zone held by the
PUK, on the border with Iran, and that held by its bitter rival, the Kurdistan Democratic
Party (KDP), on the border with Turkey.

More than 3,000 people are estimated to have died in fighting since the two parties fell
out in 1994 over tax revenues, two years after a power-sharing agreement under which
they formed a government on a 50-50 basis.

The two sides met in Washington in June and agreed on measures to normalise their
relations, but "the only part of the Washington agreement with the KDP that has been
implemented is the exchange of prisoners", said Adel Murad, in charge of information for
the PUK.

The issue of the customs duties collected by the KDP at the Turkish border, the opening
of missions of each party in areas controlled by the other, freedom of trade and the return
of refugees all still remain to be dealt with, he said.

Although the Kurdish provinces slipped out of Baghdad's control after the Gulf War, they
still receive Iraqi oil at subsidised prices, but not in sufficient quantities to satisfy the needs
of the population.

The PUK recently built a small refinery near Suleimaniyeh, using the skills of Kurdish
engineers and technicians, PUK chief Jalal Talabani told AFP.