Corruption in Iraqi Kurdistan continues - Part VIII 5.3.2011

Corruption in Iraqi Kurdistan continues - Part VIII 5.3.2011
By Baqi Barzani - ekurd.net

Not much is tolerated to be known to the public in Kurdistan, but knowing what is already known to very one should suffice to establish the fact that what people state about our government and leadership hold nothing, but truth.

The number of fancy malls, gigantic shopping centers, and elevated skyscrapers are noticeably on the rise in Iraqi Kurdistan. Such evolutions bode well! Modernizing our infrastructure should constantly be hailed, but lets take an unfathomable and a closer glance and dig out who actually have possession of them and more significantly, having put them so superbly together, where all the essential finances emanate from? Plus can not these public funds be better capitalized on more vital priorities such as: delivery of more enhanced basic services for the destitute, a superior health care system for the daily succumbing sick, and a more highly developed education system for our youth?


Out of the hundred of underground and family-owned lucrative business projects, every one in Kurdistanand overseas must by now have got wind of some common names, being : Family Fun Mall situated on 100 meter in Hawler [Erbil], Korek Telecom based in Masif Salladin, Daringroup having branches all over, Nishtiman Mall being constructed in Erbil and said to be one of the largest shopping mall in the world with more than 8,000 shops, Mega Mall (modeled after the renowned Sharjah,www.ekurd.neta United Arab Emirates mall); Tablo Mall (near Erbil's Francois Hariri International Stadium); Sofya Mall on celebrated Gulan Road, Arina Shopping Mall, and tens of more. Each of these malls costs at least a minimum of 50 million US dollar to construct.

Situated on 100 meter in Hawler city, Kurdistan, attached to the celebrated Family Park, is a newly-built mall called “Family Fun Mall”. Prime Minister Bahram Salih was the special guest invited for the inauguration ceremony in Dec 15th 2010. This, one of the hundreds of projects run by KDP behind-the-scene, is estimated to have cost 75-80 million US dollar. The project was launched few years ago by a company named “Darin Company”.

Founded and financed by KDP in 1998, Darin Company specializes in three major fields: contracting, Construction & internal project management and General Trade and marketing. With over 200 KDP-appointed employees, Darin is a 500 million dollar worth of Assets Company. At the present time, Darin holds more than 10 construction projects in progress, building thousands of apartments and houses all over Kurdistan. Is this a privately owned company? Can an affluent Kurdish capitalist meet the expense of it and if so, who is he?

Established in the year 2000 under the No Fly zone, Korek Telcom, the largest telephone communication company in the KDP-administered region, stepped into Kurdistan free market. Korek Telcom assets exceeds a billion US dollar. Its annul net income was estimated at 100 million US dollar just in the year 2010. With trivial competition from Asia Cell, which is owned by PUK, it has occupied and monopolized the entire telephone communication market in Kurdistan for more than a decade.

New building complexes and villages analogous to Zakaria apartments, British, Italian and German villages are mutely under construction in assorted Kurdish cities such as: Hawler, Sulaimaniyah, Duhok, Shaqlawa and Zakho, as well, each being worth hundreds of million of US dollars.

Who is behind all the above-indicated business projects along with hundreds of more clouded ones, which sooner or later will come to light?

Shaikh Sirwan, Massoud Barzani's son-in-law, runs all these projects. Owned directly by MassoudBarzani KDP, he is commissioned with the responsibility of overseeing and multiplying the party financial assets. Albeit trying to refute it, if him and KDP does no bear possession of these billion dollar projects in reality, who else does and could? And if so, why not to conduct an investigation to let the public know how and by whom all these business projects are funded?

Reform is important, but so is accountability.

In stead of Masroor Barzani, chief of KDP intelligence, conveying me a message via Kak Sabah Mizouri blustering me to stop criticizing KDP or face the consequences, Nihad Barzani menacing me in a mourning of a next of kin , KDP offering me employment opportunity working for Khabat newspaper or KDP intelligence to spy on my own fellow-citizens , proposing me complimentary lodging in an apartment in Zakari complex , my conscious would me more at ease when a probing is launched into the belongings of all KRG ministers, members of parliament, senior government officials, finances of such colossal projects be accounted for, poverty, inflation and corruption is minimized, socio-economic injustice eradicated, the Peshmarga forces unified, role of law, transparency, good governance, true democracy, respect for freedom of speech, women rights are promoted, our obsolete education and health care system in Kurdistan is renovated, implementation of article 140 is expedited, the upshot of elapsed investigation into the murder of innocent Sardasht Osman and Soran Mama Hama be promulgated and those accessories stand for trial in the court of law, if any, a visit to be paid to the Maidany Azady to meet protesters demands, jobs opportunities be created for tens of thousand of unwaged youths, agonizing families of Anfal, Barzanis, victims of Halabja be subsidized, radical, swift reforms be implemented, otherwise, it is not far to foresee the second wave of uprisings to sweep across Kurdistan in any moment.

Baqi Barzani is a Kurdish citizen of Sought Kurdistan [Iraq]. He advocates the notion of " establishing an independent Kurdish state". He contributes to various Kurdish media outlets, especially ekurd.net. You may reach the author via email at: baqi.barzani@yahoo.com