TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/042991/0429002.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 7KB | 140 lines

                                                                                WORLD, Page 42

KUWAIT

Life Under a Cloud


The lights are on and the water is running, but the recovery has
been hampered by incompetence -- and a shortage of citizens

By WILLIAM DOWELL/KUWAIT CITY


    On a bad day, crossing the border into Kuwait is like
getting a preview of the apocalypse. In the distance greasy
smoke spurts from torched oil wells, sending up dozens of black
funnels that look like infernal tornadoes. Overhead the plumes
merge to form a charcoal cloud that blocks out the sun. Flakes
of white ash tumble from the sky like dry, malignant snow. "Some
days are so dark," says a photographer who is covering the
fires, "I have to use a flashlight at nine in the morning."

    But not all is gloom in Kuwait these days. Beneath the
funereal skies lies a country that is recovering its spirit.
Electricity and water plants are working again, and the phones
are beginning to function too. In the capital the giant
two-floor Sultana Supermarket is once more a cornucopia of fresh
vegetables and delicacies from around the world.

    At night scores of flashy cars and motorcycles cruise in
front of the local Har dee's in a scene that looks like the
gulf version of American Graffiti. A dozen teenagers
break-dance to booming rap music that pours out of the open
hatchback of a silver Renault 5 with a U.S. flag painted on its
rear window. Yet even this simple celebration brings a reminder
of the tension between tradition and change that is testing
Kuwait. Passing the scene, a fundamentalist youth mutters,
"Islam doesn't need discotheques."

    Americans advising the government groaned when they
learned that one of the first ships scheduled to arrive in
Kuwait's freshly de-mined harbor carried several hundred Buick
luxury sedans rather than badly needed construction equipment.
Still, progress has been made in meeting the country's most
basic requirements. Kuwait's desalination plants are now
producing about 71 million gal. of water daily. Consumption is
about 100 million gal. a day, but water brought in by ship makes
up the shortfall. Most residents now get their water from
rooftop storage tanks, but within a few months the city's
reservoirs should be full enough to generate water pressure in
taps.

    Repaired power plants are putting out 2,000 to 3,000
megawatts of electricity, far more than the current demand of
540 megawatts. Some areas of the country still have no
electricity, largely because of the Iraqis' destruction of power
lines and electric substations. But the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers, which is overseeing much of Kuwait's reconstruction,
says some substations can be rebuilt in as little as two weeks.

    Much of the wreckage caused by the Iraqis has turned out
to be superficial. "Kuwait was damaged, but it was not
destroyed in the way a city like Dresden was," says U.S. Major
General Patrick Kelly of the Corps of Engineers. "The Iraqis had
the intention of completely demolishing everything in the city,
but the land war hit so fast they didn't have time to do it."

    Nonetheless, Kuwait's recovery could go faster. Part of
the problem is that a mere 300,000 of 700,000 Kuwaiti citizens
are now living in the country. General Kelly estimates only a
third of all civil servants are at their posts. "You don't have
the middle management in the ministries," he says. Until
recently the government told Kuwaitis displaced by the war to
stay away until the country's infrastructure could support them.
Last week the policy changed, and Kuwaitis were authorized to
start coming home on May 4.

    In the past Kuwaitis simply hired foreigners to do most of
their work. Many of those expatriates may now hesitate to return
to the ravaged city, which will lack for some time the creature
comforts that once earned it a reputation as the jewel of the
gulf. For the Palestinian community, which is credited with
actually building much of Kuwait, there is an additional -- and
legitimate -- concern: further persecution by Kuwaitis enraged
by Palestinian support for Saddam Hussein. Of the 168,000
Palestinians left in Kuwait out of a prewar total of 400,000,
about half are expected to emigrate.

    Amnesty International reported last week that retribution
aimed mainly at Palestinians was continuing and that attacks
"appear to be largely unchecked." Since Kuwait's liberation,
says the human-rights group, hundreds of people have been
arbitrarily arrested, many of them tortured and scores killed.
Members of both the armed forces and the underground resistance
that flourished during the Iraqi occupation are said to be
responsible. Though Kuwaiti officials promised Amnesty
International investigators that "those responsible would be
brought to justice," the organization accuses the government of
according human rights "an extremely low priority."

    Government incompetence has also complicated Kuwait's
rebirth. U.S. firms involved in the reconstruction have
complained of long delays in clearing equipment through both
Kuwaiti and Saudi customs. The most alarming case of
sluggishness has been in extinguishing the more than 500 oil
fires set by the departing Iraqis. So far, only 12 have been put
out. And of the scores of sabotaged wells that were gushing oil
but not burning, only 44 have been capped. The government blames
the contractors -- three of them American and one Canadian --
for the slow progress. But the companies complain of cumbersome
red tape and say that because the government signed contracts
with them just last month, much of the equipment necessary for
the job is only now arriving.

    In an effort to quiet carping about its inadequacies, the
government resigned last month. A new Cabinet was announced last
weekend, keeping Crown Prince Sheik Saad al-Abdullah al-Sabah
as Prime Minister but changing many of the other positions. One
palace insider says the new lineup has "fewer weaknesses but
also fewer strong personalities."

    With a view toward running in the country's parliamentary
elections, some of Kuwait's key leaders, notably Sheik Saad's
closest aide, Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Abdul Rahman
al-Awadi, have chosen to stay out of the new Cabinet. They
prefer to agitate for democracy from the outside rather than be
perceived as defending the status quo. "Whoever accepted a post
in this government," says an ex-minister, "is going to have a
thankless task." One of the most thankless tasks will be to sell
the Kuwaitis on the timing of parliamentary elections. Many
hoped the balloting would take place this year, so there was
much grumbling when the Emir announced that it would be next
year, "God willing." Now it appears the elections will occur not
even in the spring of 1992 but in the fall, which surely will
further anger the voters.