Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

REVUE DE PRESSE-PRESS REVIEW-BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RIVISTA STAMPA-DENTRO DE LA PRENSA-BASIN ÖZETi
Internment is indeed the result of frustration when the
Armed Forces of a certain country reach the level of
awareness that their military campaign is reaching no
aim, It is the result of low morale and the imminent loss
of a battle.
Today, Brüain looks to the table to solve the Irish
problem. The French and the Americans are out of
Algeria and Vietnam, respectively. Perhaps the world
will never forget the Holocaust. And, despite what is
being said, many would still bet on Fujimoro surviving
the next elections.
Iraq, on the other hand, has lost on every scale and is a
very close case example for countries bordering it with
Kurdish populations. .
First there were the terrorists, supported from the outside
and fighting the regime. Then there was autonomy
and the terronsts were commonly referred to as
Peshmerges. But Baghdad. had no intention of equalling
rights and moved in.
Especially as of the end of the 1970s, crops were
burned down, hundreds of villages were evacuated and
torched. Local Kurds were either paid to join the paramilitary
village guards or forced to do so. Those who refused
were attacked en masse, exiled to special containment
settlements and/or forced to go up to the mountains.
But none of the'measures worked as Baghdad, perhaps
for reasons similar to London in the past two decades,
failed to see that it had opted only to solve a problem
political in origin with a nulitary solution.
Thus Baghdad turned to containment on the most massive
scale. Camps were set upand Kurds, eithersuspected
of dealing with the Peshmerges or directly assisting
them, were gathered up for arbitrary detention.
Even the Turkomans were forced into exile. But even
then, the repression did not work. As the mountains
smoked with burnt down crop and forests, planes and
land troops moved in and attacked a whole people for
each had relatives "on the mountains." Relatives who, to
be exact, were "terrorists" for the regime. Saddam
Hussein was, quite openly, a turning point in Iraq's treatment
of its Kurds and remains to be remembered with
fear and hatred, both which have thrust the Kurds into
unity with other oppressed Iraqis.
.In 1987, despite all the repressive measures introduced,
the situation had become SQ bad that in perhaps one of
the worst massacres of the past decade, Saddam finally
ordered the use of poison gas on a whole population.
'The results," says Barham Salih, an iraqi Kurdish representative
in Washington, ''were clear: Irilqi poison gas
attacks on Kurdish ~owns and villages in 1987 and 1988
are conservatively estimated to have taleen some 10,000
lives."
During this infamous campaign, still remembered as
the startmg point of the division of Iraq, troops set up
special camps and the army erased some 118,000 people
who wereeither killed or "disappeared." In'thesame
period, the army erased 4,000 KUrdish villages from the
map and over half a million Kurds were exl'tlled into the
so-called "new towns" which were, in reality, enabling
the regime to keep a close watch on the population.
In later years, some 300,000 Kurds. and Turkomans in
Kirkuk were expelled from their'homes and prevented
from returning and, finally in February 1991, some 2 million
Kurds fled in panic to the mountains of Turkey and
Iran when the Gulf-war defeated Saddam troops turned
completely against this population. Any substantial
resuft? Yes. Iraq is divided and despite all attempts to
maintain its
sovereignty, the division seems to'be for real. Britain
was taken before the European Court of Human Rights
for its internment policy. America lost in Vietnam.
France lost in Algena. Iraq has lost internationally for it
is agreed upon by a majority of states that it is the most.
ruthless dictatorship - also involved in terrorism - in
the world,
. Last week, putting his views to a crucial briefing orgaß1zed
by the U.S. Helsinki Commission, former
Democracy Party (DEP) deputy Remzi Kartal broke the
news - quoting a report in the TDN - that troops had
now started to set up internment camps in the Turkish
Southeast.
For 10 years now, with ananniversary to be marked on
Aug. IS, Turkey has been fighting its own Kurdish terronsts
and at least 1~,~ people from both sides, as well
as from among the clVlhans, have been killed.
Kartal' s statement and the statistics he gave were quite
exr.licit and could be summarized:
'Since 1991, more than 1,360 Kurdish villages (in
Turkey) have been destroyed." A figure also confirmed
by the Turkish Human Rights Association.
"A state of emergency exists in the region. Therefore
the Kurds are admimstered by the military."
'~Over 1,550 civilian Kurds have been murdered and
none of their assailants have been caught." . '
"More than 2 million Kurds have been rendered homeless."
"Villages, crops and forests are being destroyed ..."
These are allegations heard during most of Turkey's
campaign against the Kurdish separatists, but there are
others which Kartal made: .
"~ur,dish .villages are still being destroyed, Now,
Turkish soldiers have set up concentration camps for the
Kurds ... There are reports that even chemical weapons
have been used against the Kurds. In many other areasi
the a,mou.nt of food purchased by Kurds islimited,
KurdIsh VIllagers who want to go to the cities now have
to get a permit from the local military officers" and so
on...
Ac~ording to Amnesty International officials in
Washmgton and London, most of Kartal's claims can be
confirmed although there is no evidence that chemical
weapons have - yet - been used.
But Amnesty also has an addition to make to Kartal's
expla~ation, backed by Ali Yigit, a former deputy for
Mardm, who has also been "kicked out of his seat" as
well ~ut by Prime Minister Tansu Çiller. '
.ThIS is that as a change to the pattern of what has now
become a customary military campaign, Turkey has also
s~arted to set up special camps for the "internment" of
VIllagers.
And in.these camps, says the organization, there is tor-
!Ure a~d Ill-treatment. Cu.rrently, at least 1,500 villagers.
.mcluding women and children are held at one camp in
Hakkari, stripped of their essential ID cards and not
allowed to travel. Several hundred others were released
from a camp in DiyarbakIr the previous week but
although the "compound" is empty, it is still reportedly
there.
The obvious question is thus to ask what is happening
and how Turkey could have come to the point Of using
internment when, according to officials, It has already
"broken the backbone of the terrorists?"
A~cor~ing.to a JUlie ?2 re~rt by Amnesty on Turkey,
the situatIOn 10 Turkey IS gettmg graver by the hour with
more arrests, death-squad killings and an "alarming"
increase in, disap~arances. The Erisons. are filling up at
the s~e um~, while State Se~unty Courts, the heritage
of nuhtary tnbunals, are arrestmg lawyers, human rishts
~ctivists, workers, journalists, publishers and trade UD1on-
IStS,,Others, spared of legalor extrajudicial action, are
seeking safety abroad. Perhaps, Turkey has launched the
greatest campaign of its history and the internment "a la
Turca" is one part of this running parallel to the major
offensive launched on the PKK - as well as
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