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COPYRIGHT 2008 Kurdish Library
In a report for Crossing Continents, Kate Clark peered into the gulf between rhetoric and reality in Iraqi Kurdistan. "Erbil looks like a boom town. Cranes and new multi-story buildings litter the skyline," she wrote. "There are shopping malls, luxurious gated communities, conference centers and grandiose headquarters for the factions who once fought Saddam and now rule Kurdistan--the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). The Regional Government [and the United States] is selling Kurdistan as flourishing, progressive and democratic ... But beneath the facade, ordinary Kurds are struggling to survive, while state money gets siphoned off into private pockets ...
"The state also punishes those who stand out of line. An unpublished report by the United Nations ... said thousands of people are detained each month in Kurdistan, mostly for political crimes. Most are held without trial or access to lawyers. Businessmen were generally too frightened to speak openly about the corruption they encountered. But Saman Jaff, a former peshmerga, did agree to an interview. 'If you are a relative of one of the political leaders,' he said, 'you may be given a government job with a budget or a contract worth, for example, $2m or $3m to rebuild a road.' He said it was immaterial whether the relative could actually build a road. The contract would be sold, repeatedly, until it reached a real construction company. By that time, there might only be half of the money left. 'Corruption is like a virus,' he said. ' It is killing Kurdistan.'
"Meanwhile ordinary Kurds are struggling to get by. People described rampant inflation, high unemployment and erratic water and electricity supplies .... 'Too many times, we have asked the government to help us,' said one woman who had lost her father-in-law and a baby to cholera. 'But it is in vain ... When I think of the budget and the millions and see my situation, I feel like I am dead."
Former peshmerga turned journalist Ari Harsin had this to say on the Kurdish leaders:, Ari Harsin, told her: "They used to be purists, partisans. Now they are driving land cruisers with dark windows and a lot of bodyguards. They see how ordinary people are living. They have no shame ... There is no transparency. They are dividing the budget of the Kurdish Regional Government between the PUK and the KDP: 52% for the KDP, 48% for the PUK."
Nonetheless Qubad Talabani described Iraqi Kurdistan as "a glimmer of hope in a very radical Middle East." Not so fast. "Qubad also seems to represent some of the problems in Kurdistan. He is certainly smart and speaks eloquently, but he is only 30 years old and has been the Kurdish representative to Washington since he was 22. His father is the President of Iraq and the leader of one of the two main Kurdish parties, the PUK. His brother is the head of one of the security services. The other major faction [KDP] fills the post of Kurdish president, prime minister and head of the other security service. 'Obviously I can see how it could be perceived as nepotism,' said Qubad. But he said both families had sacrificed much during the struggle." And he insisted that although Kurdistan is not yet a democracy, it is "democratizing." (1.10.08) Not so Kurdish writer Nergiz Dohuki reacted in an article that appeared on Kurdish Media in the following week. "Kurdistan is not a democracy, and contrary to what Mr. Qubad Talabany suggests, it is not even democratizing." (1.17.08)
Meanwhile local Kurdish publications reported that a Kurdish driver from Suleimani was killed on the road between Kirkuk and Tuz Khormatu in the first week of January The body of a Kurdish youth was found in the province of Kirkuk. A Kurdish youth killed his sister and her Arab lover in the district of Shaykhan, prompting Kurdish families in the district to flee in fear of Arab reprisals. In Shaweys a peshmerga killed himself over family problems. A wealthy Kurd from Halabja was kidnapped. And in Suleiman Beg near Tuz Khormatu, seven civilians were kidnapped. (Kurdish Media 1.25.08
Party Power
Against all odds, Kurds are putting pen to paper to express their anger over the status quo. Among Kurdish websites, Kurdish Media and Kurdish Aspect are to be commended for airing their complaints and frustrations. Here are excerpts from an essay by Ako Muhamed Sabir (Kurdish Aspect 2.6.08):
"Wherever you go the party is there. Whenever you need a civil task to be done, you go back to the party. The government is party. Parliament is party. The colleges, the grades we get in our school exams, the factories and the companies, the offices and directorates are all party organizations. Even in the hospitals you need to see the party first before you see a doctor, even the bus lines are party lines. To get employed after a lifetime of hard work, you need the party. The hands of the party are controlling everything that is sacred. The party has become a stepfather feeding us, spending money on us, and thus forcing us to become his children and beg him.
"The party usurps all our talents and abilities and then tells us: without me you cannot create or achieve anything. You cannot be normal citizens,. Income and salaries are under my control. Posts and positions, water. light and life are in my hands. Come kiss my hands, beg me, applaud me, write poetry and plays in my praise, and sing for me.
"The parties tamed the birdsong of many poets and writers. They crucified many organizations and art teams. In our sports clubs all our wins and goals are for the party. Party is a towering building overlooking the ordinary homes telling them: do not sell your homes. I will buy them all. They turn the playgrounds of neighborhood children into companies for their own children. The children of the party are full of everything. The bazaars smell of parties. The fruit tastes parties. Parties are harassing us. They usurp our lives and sell them back to us. As if before them our country was just a desert without rain and sun, without young people ever having made sacrifices. Party is a mate with bushy moustache, sharp teeth and eyes always hunting tender and supple deer. Party investigates our dreams, interrogates our hearts. Silences the tongue of pens, strikes at our ears; the map of the homeland is in its pocket.
Wherever you go, you end up face to face with the party. To get bread, to get water, to get light you are obliged to shout, 'Long live party.' You need party to resist cold and care for your children in times of illness, hunger and nakedness. Party is making our life Hell. Party is the great polluter of our environment. Look, these are our young people, turning their back on the homeland of our fathers and grandfathers, escaping, searching for a breath away from the control of parties, making hopeless sighs of sadness within the borders of foreign countries." (Kurdish Aspect 2.6.08)
Here's another eloquent lament by Ako Muhammad: "When you walk around in the markets of Kurdistan, you can see everywhere around you heart-broken children. These uncivilized and ugly scenes attract your attention and hurt your conscience. Children are cigarette sellers, workers in front of the burning flames of bakery ovens, or in the biting cold winter wind on streets and pavements. They are shoe-polishers, blacksmiths, car fitters, porters, bus guards, handcart pushers. Whenever there is an opportunity for manual labor, you can see children with their faces covered in dust, their hands full of cracks, forced to work. Then suddenly you come face to face with a heart-breaking scene: a small child bowing in front of you begging you with a total lack of self-esteem: 'Uncle, please buy something from me. I do not have a father. We live in a rented house.' These are usually comely, dark-faced kids. If you refuse to buy from them, they run after you crying: 'Uncle, for God's sake! Buy something from me!'
"These broken children are our future generations. Worry about making a living and high inflation in the markets has become their destiny. This has completely detached them from their childhood. From early morning to late evening, the beautiful butterflies of their childhood drop dead on pavements and footpaths. At the mercy of big businessmen, they are powerlessly reduced to slavery. What is more sinister is that daily they face violence, physical and sexual abuse by those without conscience and humanity. They become afflicted with a number of diseases and deviations. They do all this to get something for their families. But usually they return in the evenings empty-handed.
"Who has the prime responsibility for these children? ... What has the Kurdistan regional government done for children in 17 years? What plans and projects has it had for children? ... The answers to these questions are found in the rubbish dumps on the outskirts of the cities. Go and see how our new generation has put their shivering hands deep in sand and rubbish looking for something that they can sell for a pittance ..." (Kurdish Media 2.13.08)
And there is this contribution to the literature by Hawraman Ali: "Our country can be described in many aspects as the country of strange and odd things in this world. Although we are only five million people, our government has more ministers than China, which has a population of 1.5 billion people. Until a few years ago, we had two ministers of industry, but we import even kettles and lamp coils from China. We have two ministers of electricity, but we do not have two hours of electricity a day. Although our country's soil and climate is the best for agriculture, and we have two ministers of agriculture, we import onions and turnips from Iran and Jordan. Kurdistan's oil reserves are enough for many decades of Europe's needs, yet people in my country die of cold. Sometimes we import fuel from Turkey. Kurdistan's water is sufficient to serve the needs of all Gulf countries, but the city of Sulaymaniyah is suffering from a shortage of drinking water. Although mankind learned agriculture from our Chamchamal, we cannot compete with the dust of Bangladesh and Somalia.
"It is as if our country has frozen at zero. Although a part of our government [PUK] claims to be social democrats, we organize prayer rituals for invoking rain onthe capital city of Arbil under government sponsorship. Although we follow Islamic law more than any other nation and have more mosques than other similar countries and we have several Islamic parties and long-bearded Islamic leaders, we are considered by our Muslim brothers Islamic leaders, we are considered by our Muslim brothers as the second Israel: we are the largest stateless nation in the world, but for our leaders [Talabani] our desire for independence is no more than a poetic dream! We have offered sacrifices for freedom more than any other nation, but still we have not assured even a fake autonomy. When the talk is about the rights of women and equality, we have more organizations for the defense of women than any other similar nation, yet we have the highest record on the massacre of women and violence against them. Every year we organize seminars and conferences in remembrance of women killed in the Anfal, genocide, but we kill more women than the number killed in Halabja every year.
"Let us count on our fingers to learn whether more Kurdish people have left the country for exile during the Ba'ath era or during the rule of the KDP and PUK. Yet there is no single institution to keep statistics or conduct a study on the slow anfalizadon of our young people. On every occasion our leaders talk about the atrocities committed against Halabja. When the Ba'ath regime destroyed Halabja, it built a new town in Malwan in three or four months and called it New Halabja. But the KDP and the PUK have not been able in 17 years to rebuild or clean up a single neighborhood in Halabja.
"Although we have many TV and media channels, when an explosion occurs near them, we have to hear it from Al-Jazira and other foreign channels first. Turkey has been bombarding Qandil villages for two months now, but we have yet to see an image of the victims.
"In the words of our leaders, our people are the sole ally of the US in the Middle East, yet the US does not give them a f ... role in any sensitive political issue. We now see that for the sake of the black eyes of Turkish generals, the US labels the just struggle of more than 20 million Kurds in Turkey as terrorism and our diplomatic leaders don't bat an eye. We are very odd. We never learn from anything. Our leaders play with our lives and destinies as they please and we simply acquiesce. With the elections for Parliament, there was also an unofficial referendum for independence. More than 90 percent of our people voted for independence. But our leaders led us like sheep and cows back to Baghdad and we said not a word! ...
"Although the history of our struggle for freedom and independence is more than a century old, we still do not differentiate between patriots and traitors, spies and strugglers, slaughterers and victims. Leadership in our country is the birthright and permanent possession of some families. They are born leaders and they die leaders ... Oh, what a poor and wretched people we are! In all countries of the world, the term of leaders and government is limited. A tin of food has an expiration date. The expiration date must be known by the consumer. Can anyone please tell me, when will our leaders expire?" (Kurdish Media 2.13.08)
The Winter of Their Discontents
The leaders are not expiring, but the same can't be said for far too many Kurdish women. Take this from the Dallas News for example: "Despite the economic boom in Iraqi Kurdistan ... the majority of Kurds live in poverty, eight people in one room, as does Iman Bakr and her family in Erbil. Iman poured kerosene on her body and set herself on fire." Since 2003, "an average of one female sets herself on fire each day in Iraqi Kurdistan," according to Khosro Omar, head nurse at the Emergency Management Center in Erbil ... Most of the women and girls say they immolated themselves because of unresolved problems with their families ... Those who survive suffer estrangement from their families and society. Married women who cannot work because of their injuries are often divorced by their husbands. No organizations in the region have long-term programs to help these women ... Iman Bakr is still alive but sees "little promise for the future. 'I gradually feel myself becoming hopeless again,' she said. 'So, I probably will one day succeed in killing myself.'" (12.30.07)
On New Year's Day the independent Kurdish paper Hawlati reported that during 2007 some 276 Kurdish women were killed by their relatives in the governorate of Dohuk alone. 26 were accused of disgracing the family honor and were...
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