The Kurdistan regional administrators are facing mounting problems with a cholera epidemic topped by food and fuel shortages which are further complicating their existing political and financial problems.

The region was already suffering serious financial difficulties as it cannot get enough funds from Baghdad to pay salaries and keep the administration going on a daily basis.

Many construction projects have stopped because of lack of funds or bad bureaucracy while the government has failed to raise money for its reconstruction effort.

It seems the situation was further complicated when the Kurdish authorities legislated their own oil law and angered Baghdad which in turn has slowed down sending funds to the region… The situation worsened when the local government signed an oil contract for production sharing with Hunt Oil of
Texas…

But now new and more serious complications are threatening the Kurdish administration.

A cholera epidemic has started taking its toll in the region as well as in the rest of Iraq. An outbreak of cholera in northern Iraq that has killed nine people was caused by inadequate water infrastructure, a U.N. official in Amman has been quoted as saying recently. Local sources in Erbil told The New Anatolian the real toll is much higher.

"The root cause of the outbreak lies in the inadequacy of the water supply system and deteriorated infrastructure," said Paolo Lembo, the Iraq country director for the United Nations Development Program.

Lembo recently returned to Jordan from Iraq and warned of the spread of the gastrointestinal disease, which is typically linked to contaminated water and can cause severe diarrhea and lead to death.

"Apparently the epidemic is expanding beyond its origin and spreading to other cities within Sulaimaniyah province and exhibiting a wider geographical coverage," Lembo said in a written statement.

The UNDP and the World Health Organization are developing a strategy to address contaminated water in the area, the statement added.

The New Anatolian learnt that the epidemic has spread to Baghdad and Basra as well as Kirkuk and Erbil. Both cities seriously lack infrastructure.

Turkish authorities have been warned to take measures in the southeastern border province of Sirnak to prevent the speard of the disease into Turkey.

Jordanian health officials have also said that they would take appropriate measures to prevent the spread of the disease into the kingdom from neighboring Iraq.

Suspended flights


Both Austria and Sweden have suspended "indefinitely" air flights to the Suleimania and Erbil airports. A Swedish airliner claimed it came under fire as it flew out of Suleimania.

This has been a serious blow to the region where air transportation into northern Iraq has been one of the growing means of enteringa dn leaving the country. It has also tarnished the image of the region being "safe" while the rest of Iraq suffers from violence.

Another blow to the Kurds was the killing of Yezidi Kurds recently in the Sinjar when a blast claimed the lives of 250 of them.

The Iranian factor


However, the problems of the Kurdish administration have grown as it fell at odds with the Tehran regime.

Iran has been angered with the presence of PJAK militants in the northern Kurdish Kandil Mountains who slip into Iran and launch terrorist attacks. PJAK is affiliated to the PKK terrorists who are also holed up in the Kandil Mountains and who launch attacks against Turkey.

Iran has been shelling the Kandil Mountains and surrounding areas. There are claims that surrounding Kurdish villages have been affected by the Iranian shelling creating an exodus of villages to safer areas. This in turn has created a serious refugee problem, local Kurdish government officials have told The New Anatolian.

The Kurds have protested the shelling but Iran has turned a deaf ear.

But the relations worsened when a delegation of Iranians on a visit to Suleimania were hit by an American raid. The Americans raided the Suleimania Palace Hotel and took away three Iranians. Later they released two but held on to a third who they claimed was the commander of the elite Quds force of the Iranian National Guard. Iran and the Iraqi government demanded the immediate release of the Iranian but the Americans did nit budge. So Iran hit back by closing all the border crossings into the Kurdish region.

Trade with Turkey has already slowed down and the Kurds had started buying more foodstuffs and all their fuel needs from Iran. With the closure of the border he food and fuel flow stopped cutting off vital supplies in the midst of Ramadan.

This is creating a crisis situation in the region.

Now the Kurds grudgingly will have to turn back to Turkey for supplies. Locals say Turkish goods are much better in quality than the Iranian goods but they are more expensive. However, local traders argue Turkish goods are of high quality while Iranian food seems to be tainted and some even blame it for the cholera outbreak.

The regional Kurdish government is hard pressed these days to handle these issues. The political uncertainties in Baghdad, the sluggish Baghdad bureaucracy that has slowed down flow of funds to Erbil and a long list of administrative problems in the Kurdish areas is already pushing the local government to the corner.

Observers say the government which is comprised of 46 ministers cannot function properly. The government was formed from ministers from Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Massoud Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) as well as other smaller parties and representatives of major tribes. Observers say the government was formed
by anomalous tribal and feudal deeds and cannot form a civilized, effective and a democratic state apparatus.

They say for example, even after sixteen years of self-rule, Kurdistan lacks a postal service. The daily needs such as the clean water is not assured for the majority of the population. Electricity is unequal. The source of infection in Kurdistan appeared to polluted well-water on which residents were forced to rely due to the shortage of drinking water. In Kirkuk, cracked water pipes had allowed contamination by sewage. Also, "honour killing" is a dangerous phenomena spreading in Kurdistan.

Now added to all these are the prospects of more and complicated problems.