The Kurdish dilemma

Barham Salih, prime minister of Northern Iraq's Kurdistan regional government, talks about the recent attempt on his life, why he wants a regime change in Baghdad and what should happen in the days after Saddam is deposed.

By Asla Aydintasbas

Sept. 6, 2002 | In March 2002, Barham Salih, prime minister of the Kurdistan regional government in Northern Iraq, narrowly escaped an assassination attempt by al-Qaida-backed militants. These days, the straight-talking Kurdish politician is in Washington to talk to the Bush administration about war, taking out Saddam Hussein, and yes, how to deal with his own al-Qaida problem.

Whether they like it or not, Salih and his fellow Kurds are at the center -- literally -- of the current Iraq war plans. If Washington ultimately decides to unseat the regime of Saddam with military action, local opposition forces -- including some 80,000 armed Kurdish peshmerga (meaning "those who face death") fighters -- might end up playing a role similar to that of the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan. The Kurds are experienced in guerrilla warfare, have a safe base in Northern Iraq from which to launch operations, and are eager to see Saddam Hussein gone.

Long before "regime change" was a popular phrase in Washington, the Iraqi Kurds were fighting Baghdad for greater autonomy. Tens of thousands of Kurds perished when Saddam Hussein -- then a U.S. favorite in his war against Iran -- embarked on his famous Anfal campaign to quash the Kurdish opposition in 1988. Pompeii-like pictures of an Iraqi chemical attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja, which killed 5,000 in seconds, were among the first revelations the West had of the uncontrollable ferocity of the Iraqi dictator. When Kurds listened to Bush pere at the end of the Gulf War and rose up against Baghdad, and were quickly abandoned by the allied forces, 1.5 million fled to the Turkish border and thousands died. In 1996, Washington pulled the plug on an effort to topple Saddam at the eleventh hour, forcing more than 5,000 involved with the opposition into exile.

But since the Gulf War, the Kurdish safe haven -- z region the size of Austria, home to 4 million people and controlled by two main Kurdish factions -- has been going through a period of relative stability and prosperity, a "Kurdish spring." With international aid flowing and the American military protecting the skies, Kurds now have new schools, Internet cafes, newspapers and, according to Salih, "something tangible about civil society from the ashes of genocide."

As the prime minister of the fragile self-governing region acknowledged, Kurds have a lot to gain and a lot to fear from military action to topple Saddam. At best, they hope for an autonomous Kurdish federation and greater say in Iraqi affairs; at worst, they fear they might once again be the targets of Saddam's wrath.

As is always the case, Iraqi Kurdistan's two main ruling parties are divided on what to do. Salih's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) has already decided to join the U.S. effort to oust Hussein. Last week PUK leader Jelal Talabani invited American troops to the region. (During talks in Washington, Talabani also asked for gas masks and military guarantees to protect Kurdistan's citizens from chemical attacks.) A rival group, the Kurdistan Democratic Party, led by Mesud Barzani, is taking a more cautious approach and has not yet signed on to a U.S. strike.

And then there is the whole al-Qaida business. Soon after the war in Afghanistan started, rumors started going around of al-Qaida operatives taking their war to the Kurdish safe haven in northern Iraq. Under the guise of a local Islamic fundamentalist group, Ansar al-Islam, the jihadis staged a few attacks on local Kurdish officials, including last April's attempt on Salih's life, and caught the attention of the Bush administration. The PUK's claims initially drew skepticism, but have since been corroborated by numerous reporters in the region and by Washington's own intelligence. Rumors of Iraqi connections and speculation that the group might actually provide the White House with an excuse to go after Saddam have not gone anywhere. So far, at least.

Meanwhile, as he is making rounds in Washington, the 41-year-old Kurdish politician, who holds a Ph.D. in statistics and computer modeling from the University of Liverpool, is busy making a far more compelling case than all the saber-rattling from Vice President Dick Cheney and talk of preemptive strikes. "We are not embarking on anything new now -- we Kurds embarked on this decades ago," Salih says, "This is not a war against Iraq but a war for Iraq ... This should be about the freedom of Iraqi people -- about empowering Iraqis to reclaim their country as a nation at peace with its own people."

Let's start with the recent attempt on your life. You literally dodged a bullet when al-Qaida-related Islamic militants tried to assassinate you in northern Iraq last March.

Three people attacked my home when I was about to come out, killing five of my bodyguards. Two of the assassins were killed; the other one fled and was later captured by security services. After debriefing, he established to us that he was set up to assassinate me upon the orders of al-Qaida -- for they are unhappy about the secular approach that we have in our region and they consider our region a zone of American influence.

Coming at a time when there was relative peace in the north of Iraq, it must have shaken you.

My bodyguards were like a family to me. They had worked for me for a long time. The worst part is to think that people paid with their lives to protect me. That's a big issue for my conscience; it gives me a great sense of responsibility. I had never doubted that my job carried serious risks with it. We live in a tough neighborhood. We Kurds are trying to rebuild our shattered lives and build something new. I had expected that we would be subject to threats and assassinations and so on. But nothing is like seeing and feeling it, especially when you lose people close to you.

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