Top Kurdish leader assesses the costs of war

For the Kurds, this may be the first war to end without massive casualties and political defeat.

But to Massoud Barzani - leader of one of two main Kurdish parties in northern Iraq - the war is rife with disappointments and far from over.

Mr. Barzani, born on the same day in 1946 that the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) he now leads was founded, headed to a US-sponsored conference Tuesday in Nasiriyah as one of the key players set to determine Iraq's future.

But after a lifetime spearheading the Kurdish struggle, the present situation has him deeply troubled. One of the biggest Kurdish gains in a generation - the downfall of Saddam Hussein - has been marred by mayhem, looting, and violence. And the unfettered fall of Kirkuk late last week set in motion a chain of events that derailed a limited but well-controlled northern front, setting the stage for Kurdish infighting.

In an interview, Barzani lays blame for the chaotic turn of events in Kirkuk and Mosul - another northern city unchained by the disappearing Iraqi regime - on the doorstep of his rivals in the PUK (Patriotic Union of Kurdistan). The PUK is the other main party in the territory that has come to enjoy de facto self-rule since the 1991 Gulf War. Its pesh merga fighters rushed into Kirkuk on Thursday, Barzani charges, in violation of an agreement painstakingly hammered out with US officials - and tailored to keep a vigilant Turkey from marching into the fray.

"The PUK violated that agreement," says Barzani, who spoke to the Monitor and the Associated Press at his headquarters, ensconced in a mountain resort. "We made an agreement with the Americans that large [numbers of Kurdish] troops would not enter Kirkuk," he says. "We have lost the opportunity," to show the world the face of responsible behavior as Mr. Hussein's dictatorship disintegrated, "and we are very sorry for that."

While KDP forces stayed outside the city, Barzani charges, the PUK's poured in, raising the ire of Ankara. Turkey, vehemently opposed to the creation of any form of Kurdish state, worries that a Kurdish seizure of oil-rich Kirkuk could make an independent Kurdistan economically viable - and recharge its own sizable Kurdish minority.

As Kirkuk fell, Turkey threatened to send in troops. According to Barzani, that made the US skittish about allowing KDP forces to secure Mosul, which was sucked into a violent power vacuum the following day. The KDP's forces were delayed, waiting for an American go-ahead - giving looters and shooters a head start.

"If that delay had not taken place, we would have been able to stop the looting," he says. "If they had allowed us to go in within 12 hours we would have been able to stop this. When our troops went in, it was at the request of the people of Mosul themselves and the request of the Americans and with coordination with them."

All of this, he says, forced the Kurds to accept the presence of 20 Turkish military observers in Kirkuk.

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