Nation & world briefing
Kurds forcefully move
for control of Kirkuk
Mark McDonald
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
KIRKUK, Iraq—This oil-rich city in
northern Iraq always figured to be one
of the great prizes of the war, and Kur
dish political parties are aggressively
moving to take control of it — lock,
stock and oil barrel.
The Kurds, strongly opposed by ri
val groups of Arabs and Turkmen, have
taken the largest physical hold of
Kirkuk. Hundreds of Kurdish police of
ficers have been imported from the
neighboring ethnic enclave of Iraqi
Kurdistan, and squads of Kurdish sol
diers man the 24-hour checkpoints on
every road leading into the city.
Kurdish leaders also are using the
phrase “our Jerusalem” to refer to
Kirkuk, a budding boomtown of
600,000 that is poised to generate bil
lions of dollars in oil revenues.
Officials from the dominant and
well-armed Kurdish groups—the Kur
distan Democratic Party and the Patri
otic Union of Kurdistan — have oeeu
pied numerous government buildings
in Kirkuk, along with the telecom of
fices, the TV station, military and po
lice installations, and most of the for
mer Baath Party offices. At each bank
in town, two armed guards stand
watch: one from the KDP, the other
from the PUK.
Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen all claim
to be the majority population in
Kirkuk, although reliable population
statistics do not exist. The last census
here was done in 1957.
Ethnic and political violence con
tinues to flare, and although U.S. forces
here have been reinforced in recent
days, they remain outmanned and
overmatched. As a result, some of
Kirkuk’s most valuable oil installations
are being left unguarded.
“Nobody is watching the Zambur
(oil and gas) company,” said a Kurdish
police sergeant, Ibrahim Hamza Aziz,
“We saw some men looting it the other
day, but the Americans weren’t
around. And since the Americans
don’t allow us to carry guns, we could
n’t do anything. Zambur is a huge fa
cility, and you could blow up the whole
place with a single cigarette butt.”
Such is the cynicism about U.S. ef
forts here that Aziz and other Kurdish
policemen say they believe Kirkuk’s oil
facilities are unguarded on purpose.
“All the oil equipment and ma
chinery is Russian-made,” he said.
“Maybe the Americans want some
one to blow it all up so they can re
build it and replace everything with
American equipment.”
U.S. military officials in the city de
clined to be interviewed.
Kurds, meanwhile, also are moving
to influence the cultural and social life
of Kirkuk through a covert but aggres
sivecampaign of flooding the city with
Kurdish teachers, doctors, engineers
and lawyers.
© 2003, Knight Ridder/Tribune
information Services.
WHO criticizes China again
over withholding SARS data
Michael Dorgan
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
BEIJING—More than a week after
promising to end the SARS cover-up
in China’s capital, where the epidemic
is raging, government officials have
continued to withhold information
crucial to combating the spread of the
deadly virus, the World Health Orga
nization’s chief representative in Bei
jing charged Monday.
“It’s high time that information be
came available,” Dr. Henk Bekedam
said at a news conference.
Since April 20, when the city’s may
or and the nation’s health minister
were fired for mishandling the epi
demic, the number of reported cases
of severe acute respiratory syndrome
in Beijing has shot from 37 to 1,210.
That number, plus more than 1,300
suspected SARS cases, many of which
will become confirmed cases in com
ing days, puts Beijing on a trajectory
to quickly become the SARS capital of
the world. Already, 59 people in Bei
jing have died.
Over the past week, officials have
taken drastic steps to contain the
virus in the crowded capital of 13 mil
lion people. Nearly 8,000 people have
been quarantined. Schools, night
clubs, cinemas, museums, libraries
and many office buildings have been
closed. People entering or exiting the
city are checked for fever, a key symp
tom of SARS.
Yet nearly eight weeks after Bei
jing’s first official SARS case was diag
nosed, health officials have still not
provided the WHO or their own resi
dents with essential information
about the epidemic, Bekedam said.
Health authorities have reported
an average of nearly 150 new SARS
cases a day during the past week in
Beijing. But Bekedam complained
that they still have not disclosed how
many of the newly reported cases
are new cases and how many are old
cases tardily reported.
Without that information, it is im
possible to determine whether the in
fection rate is growing, declining or
leveling off.
Officials also have not provided key
information on the pattern of cases,
Bekedam said. That includes the cru
cial matter of whether a few laige clus
ters at hospitals or universities or else
where account for the bulk of the
cases, or whether they are scattered
widely across the city. Also, missing is
data needed to profile the victims of
SARS by age, sex, occupation or other
factors that could help identify the
groups most at risk.
Without such basic information,
Bekedam said, it is difficult for health
officials to design effective measures
to contain the epidemic, and difficult
for residents to know what precau
tions to take.
“You need to know more to be able
to protect yourself,” he said.
© 2003, Knight Ridder/Tribune
Information Services.
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