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

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Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basm Ozeti Turkeyarrests 29 children for pro-PKK demonstration AFP 12 Jan 2001 - -~-- DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Jan 12 (AFP) - 10h45 - Twenty nine children have been arrested by Turkish authorities for demonstrating in support of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a human rights group said Friday. The Human Rights Association (lliD) called for the children, aged between nine and 16, to be freed immediately. The youngsters were detained Tuesday in the town of Vrransehir, in the mainly Kurdish southeastern province of Sanliurfa, for shouting pro-PKK slogans and were formally arrested Thursday, the lliO's Diyarbakir branch said in a statement. Itsaid parents had complained that some children had been mistreated while in police custody and called for an immediate investigation. "The fact that the children were taken by police at midnight, handcuffed and interrogated is already inhumane treatment," the !HO said. "We call on the authorities to investigate the torture claims and immediately free the children," it added. The PKK has waged a IS-year armed struggle for Kurdish self-rule in Turkey's southeast. The conflict has claimed some 36,500 lives. In September 1999, the group said it was laying down its arms and withdrawing from Turkey to seek a peaceful resolution to the Kurdish question. But the Turkish army has played down the peace bid as a "ploy" and has vowed to hunt down the rebels. * * * * * .Kurdish rebelleader's 13/01/2001 brother (Osman Ocalan) injured in assassination attempt ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - The brother of Kurdish rebelleader Abdullah Ocalan was wounded when two of his fighters tried to assassinate him in northern Iraq, a Turkish newspaper said Saturday. The attackers and two guards were killed. The twO assailants, firing assault rifles and hurling hand grenades, slightly wounded guerrilla commander Osman Ocalan in the leg during the attack Tuesday, Hurriyet newspaper said. The attack occurred after the brother of one of the assailants was execùted for criticizing the imprisoned Abdullah Ocalan, Hurriyet said. It said the attack mayalso have been ordered by rivals of Osman Ocalan within the group. Osman Ocalan has taken a more vocal position within the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, guerrilla group since his brother Abdullah Ocalan was condemned to death in 1999 for leading the group in its battle for Kurdish autonomy in southeast Turkey. The group has since announced an end to its armed struggle and said it wants to gain Kurdish rights through political means. Turkey has ignored the PKK's cease-fire and has vowed to continue its fight until all rebels surrender or are killed. The military says 4,500 rebels retreated to Iran and northern Iraq last year when the PKK withdrew its fighters from Turkey. The assassination attempt, near the rebel camp of Hirbab in northern Iraq, coincided with unconfirmed reports of a Turkish military operation in northern Iraq to hunt down the rebelleadership. Turkey does not recognize the Kurds as a minority and bans teaching and broadcasts in the Kurdish language. Some 37,000 people, mostly Kurds, have been killed in clashes in the southeast since the rebels took up arms in 1984. * * * * * Human rights ys. guns in Turkey By Kevin McKiernan Boston Globe January 13, 2001 BELL TEXTRON, the Rhode Island-based company that makes helicopter gunships, got some good news a few months ago when Turkey awarded it a $4 billion contract for 146 attack helicopters, one of the largest single arms deals in history. International competition for the contract had been intense, with five companies, including Boeing Aircraft and Bell Textron, submitting bids. When Turkey eliminated Boeing's Apache helicopter from consideration last year, 44
Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basm Özeti Bell's King Cobra became the favorite to win the award. Soon after it convenes, the new Congress will have to decide whether to grant an export license for the weapons. About 80 percent of the Turkish arsenal is US-made, and the Turkish Army has relied on Sikorsky Blackhawks and Apache and Cobra helicopters to win the long (and underreported) war with Kurdish rebels in the southeast. In 1997, the Clinton administration granted Boeing and Bell market licenses to build the attack helicopters, brushing aside human rights objections from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch about Turkey's abuse of its ethnic population. Since President Clinton took office in 1992, more than $6 billion in US weaponry has been delivered to Turkey. Now that Bell has won the helicopter contract, the Bush administration may try to persuade Congress to override human rights concerns, thus brokering the sale. American-made helicopters are well known to the Kurds. I have often encountered refugees from destroyed villages in southeast Turkey whose only English were the words Sikorsky and Cobra. Villagers know that the soldiers who burn their houses arrive in Blackhawk helicopters, which are made by the Connecticut-based Sikorsky company. And they easily recognize the rocket-equipped Cobras, which are manufactured at a Bell Textron plant in Texas. Turkish Kurdistan is a rugged, mountainous region, and helicopters have proved essential in the army's scorched-earth campaign. So far, more than 3,000 Kurdish villages have been burned, depriving the guerrillas of logistical support. Estimates of civilian Kurds displaced by the war range from 500,000 to 2 million. It has been a dirty war, and both sides have been guilty of atrocities. The Kurds are a large, diverse group whose members spill across the borders of Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Syria, and parts of the former Soviet Union. With a population of 25 million to 30 million, they represent the largest ethnic minority in the world without their own state. The first Kurds I met were in Iraq, where I was shooting television news at the end of the Gulf War. At that time, the networks had an appetite for stories of Saddam Hussein's abuses (the Iraqi dictator had destroyed thousands of Kurdish villages), and I had lots of work. But when I started covering the Kurdish uprising in Turkey, I couldn't give the stories away. I was told that as far as the media were concerned, the Turkish-Kurdish war wasn't on the radar. Today, Ankara continues to dispatch US- made F-16s and Cobra attack helicopters to bomb Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, where most of rebelleader Abdullah Ocalan's fighters have withdrawn. Last weekend, according to Turkish newspapers, 10,000 Turkish troops crossed 100 miles into Iraq, the deepest cross-border penetration to date. At last report, the US-equipped troops were trying to encircle 2,500 Kurdish fighters dug in along the Iraq- Iran border. Twelve months ago, the European Union voted to consider Turkey for admission to the EU, but only on the condition that it clean up its human rights record. But the EU may be having second thoughts. Soon after the vote, Turkey blocked an EU delegation from visiting Leyla Zana, the imprisoned Kurdish member of the Turkish Parliament who has received the ED's peace prize. Then a Kurdish educational foundation was indicted on criminal charges of inciting separatist propaganda because it advertised a scholarship for students who could read and write in Kurdish. Last year the government ordered a CNN television affiliate off the air for 24 hours because a reporter asked a guest if history might one day regard Ocalan as a Turkish version of the South African revolutionary Nelson Mandela. A few days later, Turkey arrested the Kurdish mayors of three cities on vague charges of separatism. There are 37 elected Kurdish mayors, and many observers had hoped that their leadership would provide a nonviolent alternative to the civil war in Turkey that since 1984 has taken 40,000 lives, most of them Kurds. Turkey has hired a stable of former leading members of Congress to pave the way for licensing the King Cobras. The lobbyists include former House Rules Committee chairman Gerald Solomon of New York and former congressman Stephen Solarz, also of New York. Best known is former House speaker-designate Bob Livingston of Louisiana, who has received a $1.8 million contract to lobby for Turkey. While Turkey is a valuable ally, what US exports need is gun control, but that demands leadership from Washington. The sale of 146 attack helicopters may be good news to Bell Textron, but human rights are also in America's national interest. The new White House should use its influence to hold up the $4 billion in gunships until Ankara shows a willingness to deal democratically with its own citizens. Kevin McKiernan is a producer and director whose latest documentary is "Good Kurds, Bad Kurds." • • • • • 45
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