by Teresa Thornhill
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After the month-long Gulf War of 1991, Iraq's Kurdish minority began to rise
against Saddam Hussein's regime, which had in previous years engaged in
genocidal campaigns, including assaults with chemical weapons, that killed as
many as 180,000 people. United Nations peacekeeping forces helped established a
"safe haven" in Iraqi Kurdistan (a section of northern Iraq that runs along the
borders of Turkey and Iran) and elections were soon held. Teresa Thornhill, an
English barrister who became concerned with the plight of the Kurds through an
ex-partner's personal connection to Iraq, took two trips to the region in 1993
to see for herself how the efforts at democracy were progressing. "The Iraqi
Kurds claimed that they did not wish to establish an independent state,"
Thornhill writes. "Rather they wished to be part of a post-Saddam Iraq under a
federal arrangement." But their efforts were hampered by the economic sanctions
of the UN against Iraq, which affected them as well as Saddam, and Iraqi troops
were poised at the edge of the border, ready to reclaim their land. In addition,
rival Kurdish groups began engaging in violent conflict. Thornhill particularly
concerns herself with the Kurdish women who survived Saddam's atrocities, but
she encounters people from every level of Kurdish society. Her fascination with
the region and its people is perceptible even in the restrained journalistic
tone with which she recounts her journey. Amazon.com
Paperback: 256 pages
Rivers Oram Pr; ISBN: 0044409842; (January 1999)