IRAQI Kurds, buoyed by President Saddam Hussein's lifting of a five year travel embargo, are taking their first tentative steps towards reintegration with the Arab south, writes Kurt Schork from Kalak.
But they remain on guard for "fear the Iraqi president would reassert an iron grip on their rebel region. Even the Kurdish militia which Saddam helped to seize northern Iraq this week said yesterday it planned no further deals
Tens of thousands of Kurds fled rather than wait to see what lay in store for them. Many recalled Saddam's poison gas attack in 1988 and the loss of family and friends at his hands.
A divided four-lane bridge reopened on Wednesday in Kalak, linking the Kurdish north to the rest of Iraq. Over the course of the blockade, there was only a trickle of traffic.
"We are here to make sure that no Iraqi agents come across. We check every one," one of the peshmarga troops loyal to Mr Massoud Barzani's Kurdistan "Democratic Party (KDP) said. "We don't let anyone pass until we know for sure who they are."
On Tuesday, Saddam declared a general amnesty on Kurds and removed Baghdad's embargo on the region, allowing movement of people and trade to and from Kurdish areas. He imposed the embargo in 1991 after the West set up a safe haven in northern Iraq to protect Kurds from Baghdad following the Gulf War and Saddam's brutal crackdown on a Kurd rebellion.
He lifted the blockade just 10 days after helping Barzani's forces push rival Kurdish followers of Jalal Talabani from the city of Arbil on August 31st.
Mr Sami Abderrahman, the second in command of Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) which conquered the region this week, brushed aside expectations Saddam would extract a price.
"For him it was a great pleasure and honour to counter the Iranian incursion into Iraq."
Baghdad said its action against Arbil was aimed at Mr Barzani's rival backed by Iran. Tehran denies involvement.
"There are no negotiations with Baghdad now, nothing whatsoever," Mr Abderrahman said at KDP headquarters in Salahuddin. Neither was there any plan for Mr Barzani to meet Mr Saddaui.
At least one local admitted he feared Iraqi agents could infiltrate. When, Saddam gives, the gives with both hands," the man explained. When he takes, he takes everything.