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

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka
Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basm Özeti
Jeudi, la presse écrivait que l'aimée serait mécontente du manque d'efficacité de la lutte menée par
l'actuel gouvernement de coalition pro-laïc du Premier ministre Mesut Yilmaz contre l'intégrisme
musulman, et qu'elle s'apprêterait à présenter un rapport au gouvernement, le 27 mars, lors de la
réunion mensuelle du Conseil national de Sécurité, organe politico-militaire par lequel les
généraux exercent leur influence sur le gouvernement.
$248 Million Ruling Against Iran, hut
How to Collect?
"NEWS ANALYSIS
By Bill Miller and Barton Gellman
, "Washington Post Service
WASfiINOTON'~ When a federal
judgè ,oÏ4ered the government of Iran to
pay $2475' million in damages to the
Jamily of an American college student
whowas killed in a suicide bombing
, while' l'tudying in Israel, it was the
largest. judgment returned by a U.S.
court against a Qfttion deemed responsible
for a terrorist act.
,But it is far from clear whether it can
be enforced.
Further,the'ruling places the Clinton
administration: ;,iD:: a quandary. While
,consistent withgovernment assessments
of Iranian links to terrorism, foreign
policy officials said it risked stoking
unwelcome'.conflict at a moment when
the adminis~ation sees realistic prospects
of a change of course by Tehran.
. The suit was brc:mghtby the family of
Alisa Flatow, a 20-year-old from New
Jersey who died in. '
April 1995 after a sui- ,
èide bomber drove a '
v.anfilledwith explosives into the bJJSin
which she was riding. in the Gaza Strip.
Seven Israelis also died in the attack.,
The Palestinian group Islamic Jihad,
theri led by Fàthi Shiqaqi from Damascus,
tQokresponsibility for the attack.,
,U.S.and Israeli authorities, who later
authenticated the claim, have long asserted
t~a_the Shiqaqi faction ofIslamic
Jihad is funded primarily by TehralL ,
. .. ~, ÎI)~ocent g~rl.was ne~lessly
kille,d, the' U.S. DIStrIct Court Judge,
Royce Lamberth, said in announcing his
'60-page ,ruling. "The court cannot be
stronger in' condemning this action. It
has no place in a civilized
society.'" ,
, . '" Judge' Lamberth's
,ruling was based' on legislation passed by
~ongress two ye~.ago that permits cit-,
lZens who are VICttms of terrori.st actS
abroad to sue foreign countrieS' ID U.S.
courts if those countries, like kan, have
been classified by the State Department
,as sponsors of terrorism. '
The court h~d no evidence that Iran
,planned or carried out the attack that'
killed Ms. Flatow, but lawyers for her
family presented testimony last week
from former officials of the FBI and
Israel' s security service describing Iran' s
fundingand training for Islamic Jihad.
Judge Lamberth based his finding on
testimony that Iran has supplied virtually
all of the $2 million, annual budget of the
faction ofIslamic Jihad, a group believed
to have only about 100 members.
The vital question for the Clinton administration
is not' whether Iran has
sponsored terrorism in the past but
whether a series of public and private
overtures from its new president, Mohammed
Khatami, signal meaningful
changes ofpolicy on Iran's fmancial and
operational backing for political violence.
Senior administration officials
have expressed optilnism that impofta1:1t
movement could be under way.
Washington greeted as intriguing and
potentially promising Mr. Khatami's
election in May on a platform of domestic
reform. Ina January interview with CNN"
among several other public and private
communications, the new president ex-
, presSed regret for the 1979 seizure of
hostages at the U.S. Embassy and denounced
the killing of civilians in Israel.
In public, President Bill Clinton wel-
, corned the overture andresponded with a
parallel message to the Iranian people.
,"This case is not what we needed at
this iirrie, in terms of what we 're trying to
do," an administration official said. "At
a tinie when Khatami may be trying to
,move, a country in areas where our long-
,term strategic interests are involved, we
,don 't warit to smack him. "
"Judge Lamberth ordered Iran and its
leaders, to pay' $22.5 million in compensatory
damages to Ms. Flatow's parents
and four siblings, and another $225
million in punitive damages. He said he
wanted Iran to spend three times its "an-
, flUalexpenditure for terrorist activities"
ort punitive damages as a deterrent.
The family has little chance of collectmg
the' damages directly from Iran.
The defendants, wlto included the sen,ior '
religious leader, Ayatollah Sayed Ali
Hoseini Khamenei, and former President
Hashemi Rafsa.njani, did not respond to
the filing of the:1àwsuit last year and sent '
no attorneys to court. The defense table
was empty throughout ~o day~ of hearings
at the courthouse ln Washmgton.
Steven Perles, an attorney for the
Flatows said the family was considering
asking Mr. Clinton to turn over Iranian
assets under U.S. control. Washington
froze an estimated $12 billion in Iranian
assets in 1979, during the seizure of the
U.S. Embassy in Tehran, but most of that
sum has been adjudicated through a
claims panel. Iranian assets impound~
in the United States now total $20 mlllion,
a Treasury Department spokesnll}P
said. Mr. Perles said the family also
could attempt to persuade another naMn
to turn over Iranian assets in its contrQl.
"Iran by any standard is a wealthy
country,"
he said. "We antiCipatec