* In a meeting with the Kurdish Health Minister, he told our delegation that the Kurdish Government were not able to buy medicines direct from the drugs companies. They had to be purchased via an Iraqi Government sponsored Agent - who was a former Baathist (Saddamite). As one member of the delegation said, it is like asking the Israelis to buy drugs from ex-Nazis;
* A visit to a prison in Erbil: The pressures facing the Penal system in Kurdistan are enormous. Whilst the Prison Governor was reform minded, he showed us a cell - a medium size room, sardine-packed with over 120 male prisoners. Despite this, the prison did have reasonable rehabilitation facilities, including a computer room and clothes room, in which inmates were taught clothes-making/tailoring skills. The prison building - as you can see from the photograph - was a former railway station built by Britain in the early 19th Century.
* A meeting with the Governor of Erbil: After a long discussion as to the challenges facing Kurdistan, there was a melancholic moment. As we were leaving the building, the Governor showed us a large picture, containing a memorial photograph of a number of senior Kurdish political members: He told the story of how all had been murdered by an Al Qaeda suicide bomb in 2004. It was another reminder of the suffering of the Kurdish people.
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