Kurds prove ethnic co-existence is alive in new Iraq

THE contrast between Iraq’s Kurdish provinces and the insurgency-racked cities to the south is evident in the 100 or so labourers gathered at the main square of this Kurdish town, looking for work.

They are among many Iraqi Arabs who have come from unemployment-stricken Baghdad and other cities to earn €7.50 for eight hours of work in a relatively safe environment. That they are Arabs among historically hostile Kurds suggests that ethnic co-existence is not dead in the new Iraq.

What draws the labourers, some as young as 14, as well as legions of investors, is a Kurdish economy flourishing on investment and capital that has been driven out of the insurgency areas.

“We expect terrorism to continue for another year or two,” said Mohammed Karim, director of the Board for Promoting Investment in Sulaymaniyah. “We don’t hope for this to happen, but if it does continue, the economy of the north will continue to flourish.” He said foreign investment, Iraqi capital and labourers continue to flow in.

In contrast to the rest of the country, hotels, offices, villas and high-rise apartment buildings are going up at a frenzied pace.

An international airport is up and running in Irbil and Sulaymaniyah’s airport is to open this spring.

Sulaymaniyah, a city believed to have more than half a million people, has big plans for a free-trade zone with offices, hotels and motels for foreign investors.

The advantage for Iraq’s three Kurdish provinces is their 13 years of semi-autonomy under Western protection, during which time they have gained political and diplomatic savvy, economic knowhow and a semblance of democracy.

The two main Kurdish groups - the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan - ran their territories under their own governments under a joint parliament.

The Kurds, allies in the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, won enormous influence in postwar Baghdad and received the second-biggest vote total in the January 30 election. Their two parties also have decided to merge into one power-sharing administration based in Irbil.

“For Kurds, it’s only been getting better,” Kurdish columnist Hiwa Osman said.