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

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Baszn Özeti
about the raid on HADEP and the arrest of party
administrators.
Karakas said the CHP wanted to find a democratic
and peaceful solution to the Kurdish problem. The
CHP accepts the Kurdish reality and wants the obstacles
preventing Kurds from expressing their identity
to be removed, he said. The raid on the party's
headquarters and the arrest its officials was undemocratic,
he stressed.
Kemal Bulbul, chairman of the Ankara provincial
branch of HADEP, thanked Karakas, and said that he
found the visit very meaningful. Bulbul stated that
HADEP expected everyone to stand up for democracy.
"The raid on HADEP had no legal basis," he said.
Bulbul repeated their wish to solve the problem peacefully
and democratically ..
Karakas, noting that nearly 50 parties have been closed
in the past 70 years, said that showed that the
Turkish people do not have the total right to organize
and enjoy freedom of expression. The Kurdish problem
derives from that lack as well, said Karakas.
Karakas and Bulbul also criticized the closure of the
Democracy Party (DEP). Karakas said that unless the
Kurdish problem was solved, it would be impossible
to provide peace, and political and economic stability
in Turkey.
Karakas said he would bring up the subject for debate
in Parliament.
12
A .Change of Fortunes for Iraqi
Opposition Leader
WASHINGTON - Six months By Jim Hoagland
ago Ahmed Chalabi, Saddam
Hussein' s most persistent and effective
Arab political opponent, was a pariah
in this town.
Desk officers in the U.S. government'
s Middle East bureaucracy would
not return Mr. Chalabi's calls when he
visited. The CIA was bad-mouthing
him to reporters.
Itwas a grim time for a man who has
been an honest, observant and reliable
interpreter of .Iraq since we met in
Beirut 26 years ago. Our friendship
survived my departure from the Middle
East a few years later, several wars in
the region and numerous betrayals of
Mr. Chalabi's cause by successive
American governments.
. Despite his own' unrelenting confidence
on recent visits here, I felt
growing. apprehension for this "Cultivated
Iraqi banker, mathematician
and revolutionary.
But tomorrow. is always another day
in the life of an eXile politician. On
Monday;Mr. Chalabi appeared before
the Senate subcommittee on the Middle
East and got a sympathetic hearing for
his new, detailed paramilitary plan for
. undermining Saddam's reign of terror.
Mr. Chalabi is suddenly sought after by
officials at the Pentagon and State to talk
about low":intensity conflict scenarios.
. Republican senators have taken up'
Mr. Chalabi's years-old campaign to
have Saddam declared a war criminal
and tried by an international tribunal.
Some of these lawmakers speak of guiding
tens of millions of doUars toward a
reactivated, united Iraqi opposition.
Mr. Chalabi has been delivered from
the hands of the spies, with whom he
worked for ~ few years, and the U.S.
government.'s Arabistideologues (who
disdain his willingness to work with
Iraq's Kurds and other minorities) jnto
the hands of American politicians. My
reaction wavers between "Hallelujah"
and "Oh no."
On balance the arrival of the politicians,
however late, is good for Mr.
Chalabi. They will open up a debate
about change in Iraq that Washington'
s area expert~, bureaucrats and military
commanders always struggle to
shut off. .
What changed Mr.Chalabi's fortunes?
Nothing new that he has done.
Instead, the Clinton administration
bungled into yet another confrontatipn.
with Saddam. It was forced to acknowI":
edge at the end of the day that it was
incapable of overthrowing the Iraqi
dictator with anything less than a replay
of Desert Storm, which this administration
is incapable of mounting. That
left a political vacuum into which Trent
Lott and others have rushed.
Koti Annan's stomach-tulning
praise of Saddam also energ~ Mr.'
Lon. Jesse Helms and others who detest
Saddam but who hate the United Nations.
The Iraqi opposition has suddenly
become a national issue in American
politics, with the Republicans eager to
showcase Bill Clinton's mistakes and
neglect oflraq - an all tooeasy task.
Long cowed into silence by memories
of the warm embrace that George
Busll ..and Bob Dole, among others,
fastened on Saddam before Kuwait:the
Republican Party now has standing to.
ask Who Lost Iraq (This Time) and to
credibly blame it on President Clinton
aild Viée President Al Gore. Time and
fresh incompetence may not heal all
wounqs in Washington, but they do
grant amnesia, and perhaps amnesty, to
all political parties. .
The Republicans will be tèmpted to
use Mr. Chalabi and his organization
the Iraqi National Congress, as a club t~
swirig at Mr. Clinton. The Democrats
will respond by protecting themselves
at Mr. Chalabi's expense, repeating
old, discreditedsmears about baßlctng
troubles in Jordan, as Charles Robb did
at Monday's Senate hearing.
Mr. Robb's question had the earmarks
of a plant from the White House
or the CIA. Mr. Chalabi'srecent troubles
in Washington stem from his decision
to go public in interviews with
The Washington Post and ABC Television
last summer revealing the
agency's bungling in Iraq in 1995
and 1996.
. The agency's director, George Tenet,
and his aides still resist serious internal
or outside inquiry into what went wrong
in Iraq. As long asthey do, take administration
claims that it will finally
get tough with Saddam as more selfserving
fluff from masters of the genre.
Working' to undermine Saddam's
rule is a long, difficult - and worthy
- enterprise. The spies. and government
experts of the Bush and Clinton
eras are busy telling you that since they
couldn't do it, it can't bß done; the
.opposition is too weak and divided; the
victim is to blame.
American politicians of both parties
should sign on to this task of opposing
Saddam with a determination to see it
through, and to show how wrong the
experts can.be.
The Washington Post.