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

REVUE DE PRESSE-PRESS REVIEW-BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RIVISTA STAMPA-DENTRO DE lA PRENSA-BASIN ÖZETÎ
turkish daily news Wednesday, June 15,1994
Northern Iraqi Kurds say 51 killed in attack
UN sources put the death toll atjust 14and say Suleimaniyah region quiet on Tuesday
By Alistair Lyon
Reuter
ANKARA- An Iraqi Kurdish faction
said on Tuesday that gunmen
from a rival group killed 51 people in
an attack on a funeral procession in
northern Iraq as leaders from the IWO
groups held peace lalks in Turkey.
But U.N. sources in Suleimamyah,
where lhe shooling look place on
Monday, pUl the death loll al jusl 14
and said lhe lown was quiel on
Tuesday.
A statement from the Kurdislan
Democratic Party (KDP) said fighlers
of the rival Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan (PUK) had fired from
rooftops at mourners in the centre of
Suleimaniyah. "As a result, 51 persons
were instantly killed and over
40 were injured," the statement,
issued in Washington, said. ''The victims
included many women and
youngsters."
A London-based representalive of
the PUK, Latif Rashid, described the
KDP account as a "complete fabricalion"
and accused KDP fighlers of
killing 12 people and wounding 46.
KDP fighters escorting the procession
had fired on PUK offices in
Suleimaniyah wilhout provocation,
causing the casualties, he said,
adding PUK guerrillas had not fired
back. "I hope this was an isolated
incident, not premeditaled. If it was
planned, the consequences would be
very bad," he added. A spokesman
for the U.N. guards' conlingenl, in
Suleimaniyah said: "Only 14 were
killed but around 42 were injured."
He had no clear delails on precisely'
what happened bul, speaking by telephone
from Suleimaniyah, he told
Reuters the lown was "back 10 normal"
on Tuesday.
The KDP statemenl said the attack
occurred during the funeral for a
KDP commander, Osman Kader
Munawwer, killed in clashes with the
PUK in lhe Penjwin area a few days
ago. "The KDP and all those who
have been trying 10 conclude a settlement
and reconcilialion are shocked
allhis appalling massacre of innocenl
civilian mourners by the PUK,"
it said. PUK leader lalal Talabani
and KDP leader Massoud Barzani
held peace lalks in the Turkish border
town of Silopi on Monday to try
to end a feud between their guerrilla
forces which has killed several hundred
people since it erupted on May
I. Rashid said that before the shooting
a joint operations team grouping
the PUK, KDP and lhe opposition
Iraqi National Council (INC) had
been trying 10 return Suleimaniyah to
normal. The KDP had been permitted to
hold the funeral as parI of agreements
which also called for the release of all KDP
prisoners and a halt 10 hostile media campaigns.
"Things had been going smoothly in
Suleimamyah," Rashid said. "Suleimamyah
is a PUK stronghold, so the last thing the
PUK wanted was disturbances in the cily."
.Staf!ord Clary, U.N. relief chief in Irbil,
slUd !Ud ~ork had n.ot been interrupted by
fightmg. 'The fightmg was localized," he
slUd.
The U.~. has 60 .guards in Suleimaniyah
to ~rotect ItSoperations and about 70 inlernatIOnalaid
workers there.
New developments in the ~erif Av~ar case
Turkish Dail}' News
ANKARA- Court cases have been filed
againsl the alleged kidnapper/murderers of Serif
Avsar who was abducted from his DiyarbakH
workplace on April 22 and found dead on May
7. The supposed kidnappers include five village
guards, one government informer and a seventh
person whose identity has been kept secret.
A lawsuit has been opened against the five
villageguards and the informer on charges of
kidnappmg and killing ~erif Av~ar.
The relatives of Avsar claim that seven people
were involved in the incident and the identity of
the seventh person -claimed to be a government
official- is known but is being kept secret.
Family members have demanded that the seventh
kidnapper should also be brought to trial.
Attorney General Mustafa Atagün has
requested that Diyarbakir Çriminal Court imposes
the death sentence on Ömer Güngör, one of
the five village guards, and twenly year jail sentences
for the other defendants. In his prosecutiôn
statemenl Attorney Atagun said ''The suspects
entered Mehmet ~erif Av~ar' s shop,
claimed they were government securily officials
and said that they had come to take ~erif Av~ar
to Gendarmerie headquarters." He continued
"Fevzi Gökçen went outside and told Mesut
Mahmetoglu that M.S, Av~ar had asked for official
identification.
AlthouO'h Av~ar resisted, after Mahmetoglu
went inside and presented himself as a government
officialthey took him at gunpoint...the suspects
stopped at a half demolished building close
to Lice.
There ~erif Av~ar was shot by Ömer Gungör
after an argument between them.....
Desfite the attorney general' s statement ~erif
Av~ar s family claim that they followed the kidnappers
and saw the two vehicles enter the
Gendarmerie headquarters.
They added that they had been denied
entrance and were advised to go to the attorney
general' s office.
Ali Av~ar, brother of the murdered man, said,
"In their first statements, the six accused said
that there had been a seventh man but later
denied this" ... and added "according to us the
seventh person is very important and we believe
that this person is a government officia!."
However, the existence of the seventh man in
this affair has not been admitted in the attorney
general' s allegations. It is reported that the trial
of the village guards will begin in the coming
days.
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