Kuwait's Cleanup

By DEAN FISCHER KUWAIT CITY

Gleaming new Chryslers and Mitsubishis fill the remodeled showroom of Bader al-Mulla and Bros. But upstairs the executive offices are still a charred shambles, torched by fleeing Iraqi troops 11 months ago. Anwar al-Mulla, on holiday in Europe when Iraq invaded Kuwait, returned at war's end to join his brothers in the monumental rebuilding task. Iraqis had seized 3,500 al-Mulla automobiles; the company's losses from fire and theft totaled $230 million. Al-Mulla's house, which served as the headquarters of Saddam Hussein's occupation overseer, was also devastated. His sole consolation: "They left the silverware and took the stainless steel."

These days, the al-Mullas' future looks bright: the demand for new automobiles is outstripping the supply, and that is perhaps the most visible sign that the consumer society of the Persian Gulf city-state has been restored to prosperity. The pace of reconstruction has been stunningly rapid. Essential services have been resumed; most government buildings have been repaired; ports have reopened. The debris-and-body-choked "Highway of Death" leading north toward Iraq has been cleared and opened to civilian traffic. Supermarket shelves are restocked with imported gourmet delicacies, and shops sell the latest fashions.

Kuwait's five-star hotels were targeted for destruction by Iraq's defeated army; now most are back in business. The eighth floor of the 406-room International Hotel was set aflame, but employees prevented the fire from engulfing the building. Hermann Simon, the Austrian general manager of the International, hands out Iraqi cartridge shells as souvenirs. "Only an Iraqi burns a hotel from the top," he says. "That's why we are still in business."

Schools and hospitals are functioning, although teachers and nurses are in short supply. The Iraqis stripped hospitals of medical equipment, but most of it has been replaced. Kuwaiti allegations that Iraqi soldiers killed premature babies by throwing them out of incubators may have been exaggerated, but doctors insist that an incubator shortage did cause the death of some newborns.

The last of the 647 oil-well fires ignited by the Iraqis was extinguished in November, months ahead of schedule. Kuwait is producing 500,000 bbl. of oil a day, well on the way to matching its prewar quota of 1.5 million bbl. Vast lakes of spilled petroleum remain to be drained from the desert sands, but the Kuwait Oil Co. is already pumping 35,000 bbl. daily from those lakes. The blackened skies over the city have cleared, and the air is cleansed of acrid smoke.

Kuwait paid the final installment of its $16.5 billion Desert Storm debt to the U.S. in December, relying partly on the country's Fund for Future Generations. Nevertheless, the Emir Sheik Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah ordered the government to write off $5 billion in consumer debts and assume responsibility for an additional $25 billion owed by commercial banks. Despite these obligations, a $5 billion reconstruction loan sought last fall was oversubscribed by a consortium of international banks.

If rebuilding is well advanced, the country's psychic rehabilitation has barely begun. The seven-month occupation left deep scars that will take years to heal. Iraqi soldiers tortured or brutalized an estimated 15,000 Kuwaitis, including more than 1,000 female victims of rape, who are considered unmarriageable or pariahs by a conservative Islamic society. According to a government-authorized medical study, 350 Kuwaitis died during their imprisonment, usually after gruesome torture. Limbs were broken, eyes gouged out, ears and genitals cut off. In one case, a man was half immersed in a vat of acid. Men were killed by bullets, women by hanging, and victims of both sexes were executed by ax.

Thousands of Kuwaiti children suffered severe stress. A United Nations Children's Fund survey of those ages 5 to 13 in one neighborhood found that 62% showed signs of traumatic shock. Teenagers were disoriented by the violence. Since the war, knife fights have erupted in schools, drug use is mounting, burglaries and vandalism have increased. Near a fashionable seaside shopping mall, teenage boys on motorcycles harass girls, and others race in flashy sports cars. Some of these youths were among the 400,000 Kuwaitis who left the country during the occupation and lived a life of ease in European and Arab capitals. Their re-entry into a restrictive society has disrupted the social fabric.

Kuwaitis who stayed put developed a measure of self-reliance that enabled them to survive the ordeal of occupation. "We became inventive, we learned new skills, we took out garbage," says one woman. Not surprisingly, the stay- at-homes resent those who fled. "When we saw Kuwaitis coming back with their Cartier watches and their FREE KUWAIT T shirts," added the woman, "we got angry." The clash of cultures has gradually diminished, but ill feelings linger.

The vigilante justice meted out by Kuwaiti resistance fighters against Palestinians suspected of collaboration with the enemy ended after a few weeks, leaving an estimated 100 Palestinians dead. But of the 300,000 Palestinian workers in the country before the Iraqi invasion, only about 30,000 remain. Most fled the government-encourag ed atmosphere of fear and intimidation.

Sheik Jaber is not only determined to punish his enemies; he is also reluctant to trust his friends. Egypt and Syria offered to lend ground troops as a deterrent against the threat of future Iraqi aggression in exchange for billions of dollars in economic aid. But Kuwait wants no Arab soldiers stationed on its soil. Instead, the Kuwaitis are almost totally reliant on the ! U.S. for protection. They had hoped American troops would stay, but have contented themselves with a 10-year security agreement allowing the U.S. to maintain weapons and conduct military exercises in Kuwait.

This dependence on the U.S. has made Sheik Jaber more responsive to quiet American diplomacy pushing for democracy. Even opponents of the regime believe the Emir is sincere in proposing an election for a new parliament next October, though the most vocal advocates still cannot agree on whether to open the voting franchise, now limited to 65,000 Kuwaiti men, to women and others.

But few believe the Emir's cautious reforms are enough to ensure Kuwait's future stability. The country's leaders are listening to good advice, says former Planning Minister Sulaiman Mutawa, but it is imperative that they take the initiative in directing youthful energies into national development projects. The postwar period has given Kuwaitis an opportunity to be admired for political enlightenment as well as envied for their immense wealth. The country has done well at restoring its luxurious way of life, but internal tensions and external threats could yet impede full recovery.