Kuwait's Cleanup

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.