User talk:JeGr Sorchi/sandbox

Iraqi Kurds Struggle With Their Past -- and Hussein

The Kurds speak eloquently of civil rights, but sometimes past tendencies appear. Journalists recently saw PUK police beat a man in custody. The party's counter-terrorism chief detained two American photographers and confiscated their film for taking photos of U.S. operatives near Sulaymaniyah. Translators hired by journalists in PUK territory are often considered spies in the KDP's zone and are sometimes banned from interviews.

"We are new to the environment of freedom and democracy," Barzani said in a recent interview. "Bear in mind we need some time to learn these things."

The story of the Surchi tribe offers a glimpse into the shadowy alliances that have often undermined Kurdish political unity. Made wealthy through contracting businesses, the northern tribe had close ties to Hussein and to members of both leading Kurdish parties.

In 1996, a strain emerged between the KDP and the Surchi. Barzani claimed that some tribal members were "raised on the milk of treachery" and were plotting against his organization. The Surchis contended that Barzani wanted to demolish a clan he viewed as a potential rival.

Barzani's fighters attacked a Surchi stronghold in the village of Kalakien, killing several men. The dead included a tribal leader, Hussein Agha Surchi, whose nephew Zeid assembled 1,400 loyalists and fighters and joined the PUK in its conflict with the KDP.

It was a familiar form of Kurdish horse trading, one faction facing off against another in messy turf battles. "Barzani is a blood enemy of the tribes in the region," Zeid Surchi said from his guarded compound in the PUK-controlled city of Sulaymaniyah. "I don't think the PUK and the KDP will ever have peace.... But outside pressures will force them together. If they don't, they'll lose Kurdistan."

Barzani, a deliberate man wearing a turban and a cummerbund, sat in a gold-inlaid chair in his compound above the city of Irbil during the recent interview. He spoke methodically, balancing his warrior heart with phrases of democracy and reconciliation. He accused members of the Surchi tribe of collaborating with Iraq and attempting to "put fuel on the fire between the PUK and the KDP."

"If they come back, then we welcome them," he said. "We have opened a new peace."

When told that one of the Surchi tribe wanted to kill him, Barzani moved slightly in his seat and half-smiled: "He knows very well he can't assassinate me."

Shalaw Askeri, who bears the strong face of his slain father, said the Kurds must stop this cycle of recrimination and unite to defeat Hussein.

"This is my son," said Askeri, pointing to a boy who has run into the living room. "He sees Saddam on TV. He says, 'Is Saddam our enemy? I want him dead.' " Askeri wants such hatred to end with Hussein.

Someone who was his son's age in 1991 is an adult today, Askeri noted.

"We told those children the history of what Saddam did to us. Then they grew up in the civil war between Kurds. They saw it was no good," he said. "They've seen 10 years of democracy and this is what we want to build.

"Sooner or later the checkpoints between the PUK and the KDP will be removed," he added. "The only revenge will take place in elections."