Kurds Keep Their Chins Up Over Reunification With Iraq

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/latimests/20040218/ts_latimes/kurdskeeptheirchinsupoverreunificationwithiraq&cid=2026&ncid=1480

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Kurdistan is a curious, lively corner of Iraq. Protected from Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s grasp for more than a decade, the 3.5 million ethnic Kurds in this northern, mountainous area have embraced capitalism and thrived — at least in relation to the rest of the nation — in a quasi-democracy. They have grafted the West onto the East, creating an autonomous region where an Eminem (news - web sites) riff may linger in the night air with the Muslim call to prayer.

Kurds wince at the insurgency and turmoil that for the most part still occur to the south. But the unified Iraq envisioned by the Bush administration is forcing Kurds to reattach themselves to a predominantly Arab nation in which they will be a minority. The Kurds fear that their strides in civil rights and a free-market economy may diminish if Islamic clerics seize the country's future.

"Our language and traditions are much different from the Arabs'," said Dlawar Hammid, a mechanical engineer who was sitting with friends in a teahouse here. "But we'll accept reunification so long as Iraq doesn't become a theocratic state."

Twin suicide bombings that killed more than 100 people at Kurdish political offices in Irbil early this month were a reminder of the volatility that can suddenly strike, even in the north. Since the end of the war to topple Hussein, Kurdistan has escaped much of the bloodletting that roils central and southern Iraq. In a posting on an Islamic website, a previously unknown group called Jaish Ansar al-Sunna claimed responsibility for the Irbil bombings.

Kurdistan is in a precarious part of the Middle East. Bordered by Syria, Turkey and Iran, its people have been denied independence for generations, and tens of thousands of them were killed by Iraqi security forces. Their predicament improved after the 1991 Persian Gulf War (news - web sites) when a "no-fly" zone patrolled by U.S. and British warplanes kept Hussein's forces out of the north.

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