Yesterday's (Kurdish) heroes could soon be tomorrow's traitors

[muriel_volestrangler]

Do you hear much about what's going on in the Kurdish areas of Iraq? Since this report says it's a relatively peaceful area, you'd think we'd see more journalists there.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1267509,00.html

...
But nothing is quite what it seems, and beyond the attractive landscape and the security calm, the Kurdish region has serious unsolved problems. Its leaders try to project a united front in Baghdad and abroad, but few Kurds in the north or Arabs in the south have forgotten that the region's two dynasties spent four of their Saddam-free years fighting a civil war. Indeed one of them, Massoud Barzani, the head of the Kurdish Democratic party (KDP), based in Irbil, even committed the ultimate sin of inviting Saddam's tanks to come up and help him push back the forces of Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which had advanced from Sulaimaniya.
...
Many Kurds hoped victory would produce unity. They looked to a plan agreed with the US occupation authorities in June, under which all Iraqi militias were supposed to disband and become part of Iraq's national army. Barzani and Talabani accepted the deal but, as Iraq gradually becomes sovereign, they show no sign of implementing the so-called "peshmerger". "There are meetings and discussions and, of course, it would be good to have united Kurdish forces in the north. But there is no plan for a merger," as Simko Dizayee, the chief of staff of the PUK's peshmerga, puts it.

Kurdistan is due to hold elections for its regional assembly in January, at the same time as Iraq's national elections. They will be the first parliamentary vote for 12 years. But as long as the two big parties rule their areas like fiefdoms, Kurds fear that the peshmerga will act as intimidators during the forthcoming campaign.
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Compromising with the Arab majority is an understandable strategy but the ground needs to be better prepared. Unless they depoliticise their militias, accept open debate and cease to behave like warlords, the two big party leaders may end up producing a deal with Baghdad which their own people denounce. Yesterday's heroes can become tomorrow's traitors if they fail to change with the times.