ARBIL, Iraq, Nov 20 (AFP)  Iraqi Kurdistan has enjoyed several months of relative calm
 due to a thaw in relations between the two feuding factions which control the region, a senior
 Kurdish official said.

 "There is a considerable improvement in our relations with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
 (PUK)," Sami Abdurahman of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) said in a weekend interview
 in the main Kurdish city of Arbil.

 Abdurahman, the strongman of Arbil who carries the title of KDP deputy prime minister, told
 AFP that "peace prevails" in northern Iraq, which has been in Kurdish hands since Iraq's defeat
 in the 1991 Gulf War over Kuwait.

 A 1998 US-brokered peace accord sealed in Washington to halt several years of conflict
 between the KDP and PUK that cost more than 3,000 lives is being respected by both sides, he
 said.

 But despite the thaw on the military front in divided Iraqi Kurdistan, a political settlement has
 proved elusive over the past two years.

 "Important problems remain," acknowledged Abdurahman, whose faction gained control of most
 of the region in the fighting. "There is still a long way to go to set up a joint administration."

 Unprecedented Kurdish elections were held in May 1992, resulting in a 50-50 split between the
 KDP of Massud Barzani and Jalal Talabani's PUK. But the Kurdish parliament has not been able
 to function because of the clashes.

 Backed by Iraqi troops, the KDP seized control of Arbil from the PUK in August 1996, while
 Talabani's faction has since been headquartered in Sulaymaniyeh near the Iranian border.

 New elections to set up a Kurdish regional administration could be held in six months,
 according to Abdurahman.

 A key factor in the dispute remains the tax revenues which the KDP monopolises through its
 control of the Habur post on the Turkish border, a major thoroughfare of trade.

 On the ground, the KDP official pointed out, residents of northern Iraq can cross the
 demarcation lines unhindered.

 He said the situation in Arbil, which has 900,000 inhabitants and served as a Kurdish capital
 during the short-lived parliament, was "stable" despite a November 14 explosion in a coffee shop
 that killed around 10 dead.

 A "thorough investigation" is being carried out, he said, without pointing a finger of blame.

 "We are in favour of an open society and we don't want to impose stringent security measures.
 But this also gives rise to terrorist infiltrations," the KDP official explained.

 Northern Iraq has also been used by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) as a springboard for
 attacks on Turkey that have prompted the Turkish army to launch frequent incursions into the
 area with the support of KDP fighters.

 The PUK, which had close ties with the PKK in the past, has also started to clamp down on the
 Turkish separatists, resulting in several deadly clashes between the Iraqi Kurds and the Turkish
 Kurds.

 Turkey's military says 5,000 PKK militants have crossed into northern Iraq since September
 1999 when the group announced it was laying down arms and withdrawing to seek a peaceful
 settlement, an offer dismissed as a ploy by Ankara.

 Abdurahman stressed the need to maintain the western security umbrella for the Kurds, referring
 to the exclusion zone over northern Iraq enforced by US and British planes from a base in
 Turkey to protect the Kurds from Iraqi forces.

 But he said the Kurds would one day have to reach a political settlement with Baghdad. The
 Kurds are already "in regular contact with the Baghdad administration on everday matters" but
 not on "political matters," he said.

 Kurdish dreams of independence from Baghdad have been dashed by a lack of international
 support amid opposition from Iraq's neighbours Turkey, Iran and Syria, which also have sizeable
 Kurdish communities of their own.
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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com

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