Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

REVUE
DE PRESSE-PRESS REVIEW-BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RIVISTA STAMPA-DENTRO DE LA PRENSA-BASIN ÖZETi
In ~Kurdistan,' a D.ream Takes Shape
By John Darnton
New York Times Service
'ARBIL, Iraq - High in the treeless 'plateaus and sno'w-cllPped He goes to great lengths to insist
mountains ofnorthern Iraq, Kurds are rebuilding their devastated that "Kurdistan!' is not a secessiontowns
and villages and drawing them together into a de facto state ist state. Rather, the goal, at least
that stops just short of nationhood.' . for now, is to create a truly autono-
. Almost three years after they rose up in the wake of the Gulf War mous region within a federation,
and were crushed by the forces of President Saddam Hussein, close to and to work for the overthrow of •
.4.million Kurds livean autonomous, but precarious, existence. Mr. Saddam arlli' the installation of
They are dependent on $145 million in annual emergency aid' a democracy in Baghdad. .
.through the United Nations. Their lives are shielded by U.S., British "We recognize the territorial inand
}french rlanes that fly daily over a protected zone north of the: . tegrity of Iraq," he said. :
:~6th paralle . to keep ~r~gi trps at, bay. And they ar~ beset by .~ble~ ofll~!ionalist sen~:
.mternal strams and diVISions, mcluding a fundamentalist Islamic .ment are played down. True, the
.movement said to be sponsored by Iran.
.portraits of Mr;' Saddam have been
Neighbors on all sides, including Syria, Turkey and Iran, feel taken down and replaced by murals
threatened, by their own Kurdish minorities, and so a strong ~depen- , of guerrilla martyrs. But Kurdish
dent Kurdish state whose borders are internationally recognized is a: flags do not fly over' buildings.
long way from reality. . There is no Kurdish currency or
Still, the nascent quasi-state of "Kurdistan," a dream of the passport stamp. Many Iraqi laws.
Kurdish people for 75 years, is inexorably taking shape. . are still in place.
The Iraqi Kurds have an elected parliament evenly divided between There is a sense of play-acting to
two rival parties. They have kept 24 hospitals and smaller c~cs this, however. Everyone knows that
rurming, despite shortages of drugs and spare parts for machines... the elaborate show of limited aspi-
They have a court system, a police force, and a 36,QOO.strongarmy, rations is intended to assuage the
formed from an uneasy merger of the twomain groups of guerrilla.. fears of neighboring countries;.
fighters..
which have Kurdish populations of'
They run nearly 1,500 pnmary and' secondary schools and have. their own and fear insurrection. ;:
added a second and a third university. Some instruction is in the once-. The Kurds, who number about.
forbidden Kurdish language. ' 20 million, are clustered mainly m
"We are proud of our achievements so far, but we stilllive under th.c< bOT-der,1Ifeas. of.J1o..r.the,rnIr~9;:;
mortal threat from the Iraqi troops," Massoud Barzani, the 47-year~Syria;southeastern Turkey and
old triballea-