"Saddam was the defining factor for all parties in Iraq, including for Kurds," one senior official said. "But the victim has acquired the characteristics of the tyrant."
Kurds who have come into conflict with one of the two governing parties describe often violent tactics.
In Erbil, the capital of the zone run by the Kurdistan Democratic Party, three journalists were arrested last August after writing articles that explored the lack of opportunities for local youth and raised questions about party finances. They were later released, but one, Nuradin Waisi, said he had received a death threat from a senior party official. He fled to Syria, where he remains.
Goran Salih, 31, another of the three, said party officials made their position clear. "They said I will see much trouble in my life if I keep writing in that direction," he said in an interview.
Fawsi Hariri, a party spokesman, said he had no information about the incident.
Both sides seized hundreds of prisoners during the civil war. People who were jailed described being tortured. One former prisoner of war who gave only his first name, Sabir, said he was tortured with electric shocks and beaten with a heavy wire in a Kurdistan Democratic Party jail in 1996.
Hariri, the party spokesman, said, "We do not condone violence or torture in any of our correction facilities as we have suffered from it ourselves over many years."
Things have changed since the US-led war here. Kurdistan's revenues collapsed after coalition forces banned the parties from levying their own duties. Facing an uncertain future, politicians in both parties have been trying to redefine their role. They have even made plans for a merger, which would have been unthinkable a year ago.
Ordinary Kurds, who still live in fear of offending the political parties, have gradually begun to talk about them.
"The parties had their historical role in preventing the destruction of the Kurdish people," said Faiq M. Golpy, a former member of parliament for the Patriotic Union. "But they did not make a democracy."
The real test, however, will be whether the parties are ready to concede defeat in a political race. McDowall, the author, contends that will not happen until Iraq has an independent middle class.
"Across Iraq, people who have bits of power are now working like crazy to create their own networks," he said. "It's happening invisibly. They will not surrender that power willingly. No one ever does."
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