Iraq: Divided Kurds seek trade with

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JORDAN TIMES, 15. 05. 1995.


           *Divided Kurds seek trade with neighbours*
                    *to revive own economy*

ZAKHO, Iraq (AFP) - Feuding between rival Kurdish groups in northern
Iraq has left the region with an economy dependent on trade with  
neighbouring countries and divided according to the political affi-
liations of each area.

Those in the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) held western part of
the region depend on petrol exports to neighbouring Turkey, while
those in eastern areas under the control of the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan (PUK), trade on timber and tyres imported from Iran.

The hundreds of lorries queuing daily at KDP checkpoint near Zakho,
10 kilometres from Turkey's border, bear witness to the importance of
the trade in petrol, bought cheaply in Iraq and sold in Turkey below
the prices of state-run petrol stations.

"They bring in food from Turkey and ship back petrol bought in Zakho
or the oilrich region of Mosul," further south, in the Iraqi
government-controlled areas, said a Kurdish Iraqi petrol trader, Hamin
Hussein.

Suleyman Hawesh, a lorry driver from Gaziantep in eastern Turkey, said
that eight month ago he used to carry back as much as 20.000 litres, and
the Turkish authorities turned a blind eye.

"But afterwards, Turkey, allowed only 2.000 to 2.500 litres per lorry,  
because it feared our cheap petrol was beating its state-owned
petrol stations," he said.

KDP "customs" director Abdullah Ahmad Bengin told AFP that 500 to 7O0
lorries cross the border daily paying half an Iraqi dinar per litre in
tax.

This generates $10.000 to $15.000 in daily income which helps the KDP,
led by Massud Barzani, run the administration in the regions under his  
control, centred on the city of Dahuk.

Meanwhile, 500 kilometres east of Zakho on the other side of Iraqi
Kurdistan, hundreds of lorries queue daily near Penjween, 10 kilometres
from the Iranian border.

Here, however, they line up in front of a checkpoint manned by the
KDP's rival, Jalal Talabani's PUK.

>From there, lorries head to the nearby Iranian town of Meriwan to get
timber used by international aid organisations for building rooves for
houses in the destroyed villages of northern Iraq.

"Wood is cheaper in Iran," said Mohzin Kadir, the PUK "customs"
director.

The PUK-controlled areas around the town of Suleymaniya have also
become a transit point for tyres imported from Iran and sold in
government-held areas of Iraq affected by a U.N. trade embargo imposed  
since the August 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

"The PUK takes custom duties both at the Iran border and at the internal  
Iraqi crossing" to the government-controlled areas, said a Suleymaniyeh  
tyre trader, Mahmoud Aziz.

While Suleymaniyeh and Dahuk survive despite the political division of
northern Iraq, the region's largest city, Erbil is suffering, as it lies
near the demarcation line between the two territories.

People living in Erbil explained that although the PUK controls the
city, it does not pay salaries as it does in Suleymaniyeh. The KDP
also refuses to pay salaries, considering it a PUK matter, even though
many of its followers live there.

"The people in Erbil feel forgotten, some of them even hope that the
Iraqi regime  would come back," said a young Christian women, asking
not to be named.

KDP and PUK officials however, blame each other for Erbil's misfortune.

"The behaviour of both is a bad joke," said a young man in Dahuk,
who added: "Even children know that both the KDP and PUK use most of the
income generated by taxes for their own military purposes."

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