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The UK should invest in Iraqi Kurdistan Region
29.5.2009
By Gary Kent
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May
29, 2009
May I, as a friendly outsider, venture some views
after three week-long fact-finding visits to the
Region since 2006.
My last visit was in mid-April as part of a
fact-finding delegation of British parliamentarians
organised with the help of the Kurdistan Regional
Government (KRG) UK Representation.
The cross-party group visited the three main cities
and met senior political leaders including President
Massoud Barzani and the Deputy Prime Minister Imad
Ahmed, the Governors of Sulaimaniyah and Duhok, the
editor of an independent newspaper, trade union and
women’s rights activists, university and business
leaders and the Christian Bishop of Erbil as well as
taking in visits to two major religious minorities. |
Gary Kent |
We all agreed that your
beautiful, hospitable and resource-rich region has
achieved much since your uprising in 1991 and
especially since the shadow of Saddam Hussein was
lifted in 2003.
There is a clear determination to drive regeneration
by creating a vibrant market system with social
protections and by creating a transparent model of
governance.
We are encouraged by the willingness to bring in
outside groups to shine a light on and counter
incompetent and corrupt practices that deter
investment.
Of course, as Britons we were taken back by the high
respect for the UK in your Region, thanks to our
role in establishing the safe haven in 1991 and in
what is commonly referred to as ‘liberation’ in
2003. We also know that English is also the second
language.
But we fear that opportunities for trade, investment
and a host of political, cultural and educational
exchanges are not being pursued by Britain as
vigorously as they should for the mutual benefit of
the UK and the Kurdistan Region as part of a wider
Iraq.
We believe that UK businesses should capitalise on
the clear opportunities for trade and investment in
the safest part of Iraq whose stability has already
done much and could do much more to help create a
viable,www.ekurd.net
pluralist and federal
system in Iraq. We specifically urge the UK
Government to organise a trade mission to the region
in the future in a similar way to the one recently
organised to Baghdad and Basra.
There have been five British trade delegations to
Kurdistan since 2006 but these have been arranged by
the KRG UK Representation in conjunction with
British trade organisations. We now need the UK
Minister for Business to take the lead.
Pressure from the all-party group has already
brought the visa issuing regime by the British
Embassy Office in Erbil into line with the rest of
Iraq and there is a strong case for extending the
visa regime, particularly for students and business
visitors, to facilitate travel between the Region
and Britain without compromising UK border security.
Kurdish university and political leaders are also
keen that the British Council increases its profile
in the region and we will seek to discuss this with
the British Council. Longer term, there must be
direct flights between London and Erbil and this is
becoming more likely now that one British airline
has said that it will establish direct flights to
Baghdad after which a direct link between London and
Erbil becomes more feasible.
Overall, I would say that the Region is on a
rollercoaster ride with political highs of hope and
lows of political despondency with the sometimes
stalled progress, particularly in relations with the
central government in Baghdad.
As ever, the key issue is the challenges posed by
the neighbours of your land-locked Region. We
concluded that it has been two steps forward but one
step back for the Kurdistan Region in the last year.
By that I mean links with Turkey, especially in
trade and politically, have improved but relations
with Baghdad have declined.
We urge the UK to play a bigger role in helping ease
tensions between the Region and the federal
government in Baghdad over issues such as disputed
territories and the hydrocarbon law.
I know that there are fears in the Region that the
departure of US troops will leave the Iraqi Kurds
without a friendly and powerful supporter. I also
recognise that the failure to meet two deadlines
over Kirkuk and other disputed territories together
with fears that the government in Baghdad is
becoming more centralist deeply worry Kurds. The
ultimate solution to such problems lies in Iraq but
your friends hope to focus British and wider opinion
on these issues, which we will raise with British
ministers and others.
The all-party group provides a parliamentary bridge
of friendship between Britain and the Kurdistan
Region and celebrates its many achievements. But we
won’t ignore key problems such as corruption and
serious concerns over women’s rights and media
freedoms.
Whilst we were in the Region, Amnesty International
issued a report on illegal detentions and torture
which also acknowledged progress in tackling crimes
against women. We raised this report with the Deputy
Prime Minister and were impressed by his directness.
He told us that,www.ekurd.net
like many current
political leaders, he had himself been tortured and
that torture was intolerable. We will seek a meeting
with Amnesty International, visit one or more
prisons of our own choice on future visits and
monitor this issue. We also note that the leadership
of the Region is keen on judicial training and are
pleased that the UK is helping to create better
trained judges.
However, as everyone knows well, the past also casts
a long shadow with the continuing legacy of the
Baa’thist Anfal genocide which claimed 182,000
people’s lives, systematically destroyed thousands
of villages and agricultural assets and forced
people into the cities.
We met the minister responsible for dealing with the
Anfal genocide and agreed to redouble our efforts to
encourage the UK and the wider international
community to mark Anfal.
We aim to mobilise scientific help to exhume the
mass graves that are still being uncovered and
identify the victims. We know that you need to be
sure that the past remains in the past if you are to
pick up the pieces and build a new society.
The future is bright for the Kurdistan Region which
has considerable potential thanks to its oil and gas
reserves as well as possibly plentiful agricultural
resources and tourism in bustling cities with
increasingly better tourist facilities as well as
rugged mountains and verdant and unspoilt plains. We
felt completely safe in the Region. The UK should
play a bigger role in assisting the Region to tap
its potential in all these areas. The Kurdistan
Region is vital to the success of Iraq and to
British foreign policy objectives.
Gary Kent is Director of Labour Friends of Iraq and
the Administrator in the House of Commons in London
of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Iraqi
Kurdistan. He writes in a personal capacity.
* The Kurdish version of this article was published
in Jehan magazine.
Copyright, respective author or news agency, hrtribune
net
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