The 'Red House' in Sulymaniya is a sobering reminder of the immense suffering of the Iraqi Kurds. This secret Ba'ath party prison was one of a string of torture centres across Iraq and here thousands were executed, tortured and detained in cramped and damp cells. The building was taken by force in 1991 and is pocked by bullet holes, with rusting Soviet tanks and heavy machine guns in the courtyard by the former Rape Room. It is now a museum which symbolizes the scale of the physical and psychological violence inflicted on the Iraqi Kurds.
Lest we forget: in the late 1980s, nearly 200,000 men, women and children were slaughtered in Saddam's genocidal 'Anfal' campaign. Over 4,000 villages were razed and people herded into detention camps. However, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) leaders have opted for democracy in Iraq and autonomy for the Kurds - figuring the two go together. The Kurdistan Region is safer than the rest of Iraq, with far fewer terrorist outrages since 'liberation' in 2003.
It is impossible to miss the region's tremendous economic and social opportunities. I spent a week there in 2006 and counted many new housing, hotel and retail developments since then. The region is rich in natural resources. It has large reserves of oil, gas, minerals, and boasts fertile lowlands and stunning mountains, with powerful rivers and waterfalls. It could become self-sufficient in food and export its surpluses. Rural Kurdistan could attract tourists to the solitude of its unspoilt scenery as well as thousands of historic and archaeological sites.
However, the region is in both limbo and transition - a victim of its history and geography. The Iraqi Parliament has, for instance, yet to agree an oil law. Foreign investors are nervous Baghdad will punish them if they invest in the north. However, some small companies have agreed production-sharing with the KRG, which also recently concluded a multi-billion dollar deal with the South Koreans.
The major outstanding question is the status of historically Kurdish Kirkuk, which was forcibly settled by '10,000 Dinar Arabs' in the 1970s. The Iraqi constitution, agreed by 80 percent of the people, promised a referendum by the end of 2007 on whether the city should revert to the KRG. This may happen this year but no one is holding their breath. The UN is involved in seeking fair ways of establishing who should vote in this referendum.
Whether Kirkuk and its oil are formally part of the region or not, the Kurds will still only receive a per capita share of the revenues, albeit an increased one. But their neighbours fear that it could provide the material basis for an independent Kurdistan.
Most ethnic Kurds live in Turkey. Kurdish Ministers argue that Turkish incursions into Iraq in hot pursuit of the Turkish-Kurdish separatist terrorist group, the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) - which is mainly based within Turkey or the inaccessible Quandil mountains on the border - is a pretext to sap the strength of the Kurdish north. KRG President Barzani told us that the PKK, which his forces have fought, is the result of and not the reason for Turkish actions.
A more liberal regime for Turkish Kurds could undercut the PKK and bolster a political solution. The burgeoning trade between Turkey and the KRG could underpin better political relations. After all, these two secular and moderate Sunni countries have much in common, in principle.
This landlocked country, about the size of Scotland, is in a tough neighbourhood. It explains the Kurdish saying that they have 'no friends but the mountains', where they have often sought refuge from attack.
And one could add aircraft. It explains the strategic importance of the new multi-million dollar airport being built in Erbil. It will be the fifth largest runway in the world, allow the KRG a bridge to the world for freight and could rival Dubai as an east-west travel hub.
But the region, like the rest of Iraq, also faces a potentially painful transition from a war-ravaged, isolated and Soviet-style command economy to an open market economy with safeguards for working people.
The Kurdistan Region was cruelly disfigured by Saddam. Chemical weapons used in the Anfal cascade genetic deformities down the generations. The deliberate destruction of the rural economy continues to deprive the region of its own food, although production is increasing. After decades of totalitarianism, many students won't give their opinions, rather than what they think their teachers want to hear.
Women's rights are more advanced here than in the rest of the Middle East but so-called 'honour' killings - which were pardonable under Saddam - still persist, as does some female genital mutilation. There is a growing professional female workforce but most women don't work outside the home. But a prominent women's rights activist notes the changes since returning home after 14 years of teaching in London. Then, she said, women wearing trousers stood a good chance of having acid thrown over them. That is no longer the case. Women, she says, are 'almost equal'. There is also a 25 percent quota for female representation in the National Assembly and there are three very prominent women ministers.
Ministers have close relations with the trade unions which were forged by fighting together against Saddam. However, with nearly two-thirds of the state budget going on salaries as well as food rations, the dependency culture is a major drag on the economy. There will be tough decisions as they dynamize and diversify the economy and plan for a future without oil and gas.
It's perfectly feasible that the Kurdistan Region could become a moderate, liberal, secular, social-democratic entity - it deserves better friends. (Gary Kent)
[Gary Kent has twice visited Kurdistan Region in Iraq, this month as part of an All-Party Parliamentary Group fact-finding delegation. He is UK Parliamentary Adviser to the KRG.]
