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

Revue de Presse-Press Revit;W-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro
de la Prensa-Baszn Ozeti
January 24, 2001
ByREUTERS
Iraq Dismisses
U.S. Neport Over Arms As Groundless
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq on Wednesday dismissed as groundless a New York Tunes report that it was still
capable of manufacturing weapons of mass destruction.
'.
"Iraq does not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have any capability to manufacture them," INA quoted
Husam Muhainmed Ameen, the Director-General of the National Monitoring Department, as saying.
"The defunct (UN) Special Commission knows this fact very well because it supervised the destruction of the
equipment and buildings which had escaped destruction during the 3O-state aggression," Ameen said, referring
to the 1991 U.s.-led Gulf War to oust Iraqi forces from Kuwait "The Commission also knows that Iraq has met all
the requirements of destruction including unjust ones and sacrificed many of the buildings and equipment for
which there was 'no scientific or technical justification for destroying them," he said.
Iraq was responding to a New York Tun.es report that Iraq had rebuilt three factories in an industrial complex west
of Baghdad which had been closely monitored by U.N. weapons inspectors on suspicion of producing chemical
and biological agents. The newspaper said the factories were so-called "dual use" plants manufacturing products
for civilian use but also capable of producing vital compounds and toxins for weapons.
The U.S. and British statements were written in the conditional tense, reflecting concern that since the U.N. inspectors
left Iraq in December 1998, the international community has no way of verifying such suspicions.
Ameen said the installations which the New York Tunes referred to were of civilian nature without the capacity
to carry out chemical and biological activities. "It has become clear that installations which they are trying to portray
as factories of weapons of mass destruction are in fact. civilian installations that produce clùoride for water
treatment and agricultural pesticides," he said.
Ameen added that the "allegations and claims they are trying to circulate lack hard evidence and are no more
than a fabricated suspicion based on flimsy probabilities." "The allegations ...refleet frustration and bankruptcy
suffered by some American departments," he said,
.. .. .. .. ..
Turkey launches huge security sweep
BBC -25 January, 2001, 01:53 GMT
Turkish Interior Minister Saadettin Tantan has flown to the south-eastem city of Diyarbakir to oversee the investigation
into an armed attack which killed the provincial police chief and five of his colleagues.
A massive security operation has been launched in the wake of the attack, in which grenades and automatic wea-
- pons were used against police chief Gaffar Okkan's convoy. No group has said it was responsible, but the BBC cor-
. respondent in Turkey says initial suspicion has fallen on a radical Islamic group known as Turkish Hizbollah.
Hundreds of alleged members of the organisation were arrested last year in nationwide operations, but there had
been reports that it was trying to regroup. Mr Okkan spearheaded a crackdown against the group last year, and is
said to have been on the group's death list.
TV footage of the incident showed the car's shattered windows and at least one body lying on the ground beside
it. One of the assailants was also reported injured in the attack.
Alleged links to state
If confirmed, this would be the first time that Hizbollah has killed a Turkish official. So far it has targeted opponents
like the Marxist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Hizbollah is held responsible for several hundred killings over the last decade. Its aim, the authorities say, is to establish
a strict Islamic state. But a major police operation against Hizbollah last year led to the arrest of hundreds of its
members.
Scores of bodies of presumed victims of the group were found in dungeons throughout the country.
There are also allegations that the group was originally linked to state security forces, who were fighting against
Kurdish rebels. Paradoxically, many of Hizbollah's victims were perceived as enemies of the state themselves.
Diyarbakir was previously at the centre of a conflict with Kurdish separatist rebels. But the rebels say they have abandoned
their armed struggle for self-rule and since 1999 fighting there has dwindled.
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