IRBIL, Iraq (AP) -- Kurdish militiamen walk patrols armed with assault rifles and cruise the
streets in pickup trucks mounting heavy machine guns. Local officials, and not Baghdad,
make the decisions on what gets done. Foods and goods in short supply elsewhere in Iraq are
abundant.

Ten years after the Persian Gulf War, Iraqi Kurds have realized their dream of governing
themselves in a largely independent area of northern Iraq.

But the undeclared state is divided, fragile and dependent on the United Nations for food and
the U.S. Air Force for protection.

Kurds know their fighting men are no match for Iraqi helicopters and tanks just 20 miles
from Irbil, whose 750,000 people make it the area's biggest city. They worry about losing
the U.S. air patrols that have kept Saddam Hussein's troops at bay since a failed Kurdish
uprising a decade ago.

"If there were more planes, we'd feel even safer," says Ibrahim Amin Abdel Rahman, a
former militiaman.

Anxiety has been increasing as Iraq's government tries to weaken support for U.N. economic
sanctions that have devastated Iraq's economy by dangling the prospect of lucrative oil deals
to oil-consuming nations.

"Could the international community just drop this experience in freedom and democracy
after 10 years?" says Sami Abdel Rahman, a former Kurdish militia leader who is now a
leading figure in the local administration. "I believe there is a moral obligation, but
sometimes economic interests overrule moral obligations."

The Kurdish-run zone was established with the help of Washington and its allies after
Saddam brutally put down the 1991 Kurdish uprising that broke out after the Gulf War,
causing hundreds of thousands of Kurds to flee into Turkey and Iran.

Iraq's Kurds have thrived in their autonomy.

They have freedoms virtually unimaginable in the rest of Iraq. There are several political
parties and newspapers, and criticism of the Kurdish administration is tolerated although
discouraged. The Internet, which is banned by Saddam, is permitted.

Iraqi Kurds have been battling for their freedom for most of the last century. That fight has
been frustrated not only by Iraqi forces, but also by neighboring Iran and Turkey, which fear
Kurdish freedom in Iraq would encourage restive Kurdish minorities on their territory.

The economy in the Iraqi Kurdish areas is booming. New roads are being built, refugees are
being resettled and shops are kept filled.

But the sense of stability and prosperity is deceptive.

Although the Kurds are lobbying for the United Nations to keep the sanctions imposed on
Iraq after Saddam's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, they benefit from being one of the largest
violators.

An army of tanker trucks -- observers estimate as many as 40,000 _ haul oil from Iraqi
government areas to Turkey, a rampant business that can create traffic jams at the border
stretching six miles. The illicit trade funnels badly needed cash to both Saddam and the
Kurds, with the latter earning about $100 million a year.

Oil smuggling income would mostly disappear if sanctions are lifted.

The Kurdish economy also thrives on the United Nations' oil-for-food program, which has
pumped $4.6 billion into the north over the past four years. The program allows Iraq to sell
oil and buy food and medicine and repair infrastructure as an exception to U.N. trade
sanctions.

The north gets disproportionate help from the U.N. program, because some money is taken
from the Iraqi government's share to cover war reparations and administrative costs. The
result is that the Kurds get about 50 percent more per person than the rest of Iraq.

Despite two years of drought in the north, there are few signs of hunger. Markets are filled
with refrigerators from Turkey, soaps from Syria, even potato chips from Europe. In Iraqi
government areas, hunger and want are widespread.

"It's black and white between the Kurdish areas and Iraq," says Alan Makovsky of the
Washington Institute for Near East policy.

The aid creates problems, however. So much free U.N. food is pouring into the Kurdish area
that many farmers no longer bother to plant wheat in the valleys that once formed part of the
breadbasket of Iraq.

The problem is becoming so serious that the local government is urging the United Nations
to start buying food locally. Currently, all the aid for the food program is imported so no
money benefits Saddam's government.

"They need to give farmers an incentive to grow," says Safiq Qazzaz, the Kurdish official in
charge of humanitarian aid.

Politically, the Kurds have also taken only small steps toward creating a viable state.

The region is partitioned between Massoud Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party and Jalal
Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which are antagonistic largely due to clan splits and
a personality clash between their leaders.

The two militias face off across a fortified line that splits the enclave, with slightly over half
of the enclave's 3.5 million people living in Barzani's area.

The two sides signed a cease-fire in Washington in 1998, but officials admit they have done
little since to unite the feuding fiefdoms.

Many Kurds are pinning their hopes for stability on Washington, especially now that the son
of the U.S. president who defeated Saddam in the Gulf War is headed for the White House.

But few have forgotten that George W. Bush's father did not intervene in the north until after
the Kurdish uprising was defeated. "Bush has the name, but it is not always complimentary,"
Qazzaz says.

Some people, like Ali el-Ekiabi, a political science professor at Irbil's university, keep ready
to flee on a moment's notice.

"I don't think Saddam Hussein will be back tomorrow morning," el-Ekiabi says -- but he
keeps his passport in his jacket pocket and his wife carries a small bag filled with dollars at
all times.

"In five minutes I can be ready to go anywhere," he says.
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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com