Information and liaison bulletin - Institut kurde de Paris

INFORMATION AND UAISON BULLEfIN 5
When we had the prlvlledge and the luck to meet some
men who fight for others and for their Ideas, we didn't
know they would end up as Chief of State or assassinated.
We know little about the results of the Inquest but we
have taken note of the roaring silences, the excuses
and the embarrassed denounclatlons.
For those who do not know the Kurds, It Is simply a
matter of an awful attack against two militants.
For those who do not know the Kurds, the loss Is even
more unbearable.
For all Kurds, each and everyone, the deaths of these
two men are an Immense loss, In the villages of houses
collapsed by bombs, In the cities and In the refugee
camps. And here, In front of me, I see French doctors,
these ..French Doctors» who can no longer give the
_, and take care of the hurt and who find that this
time the injustice is decidedly too great. And I see
representatives of hu manitarian organisatlons, associations
thatfight forthe rights of man; all have devoted
a part of their lives to the Kurdish population, that they
might excuse me for not naming them all here.
Those who just died were always the first to accept, to
demand humanitarian aide foreverbody and in the first
place for their own prisoners.
Here we are, once again plunged into barbarism, how
difficult it is to admit that there are political leaders who
exist for which the daily practice, the principal tool of
power, remains assassination.
To say the three words, ..Rights of Man», we forget too
often, we, in our rich and lucky countries, that nothing
is ever aquired, neither rights nor men. It is an eternal
battle that is In question. There are those battles that
are popular, are televised, battles that, forthe time are
in fashion. That of the Kurdish people has never been.
There is too much to take Into consideration, too much
sovereignty from too many states forthis people broken
up by five borders. Ideologists across the globe don't
recognise their disciples and those used to being
ventriloquists forthe people don't give forth any sound
at all. Thus, we can reduce them to silence so that they
won't speak their thousand year old language, we can
destroy their books, burn their villages, invade their
lands and towns; we can experiment on their families
with atrocious modern bombs, and chemical ones in
particular. Those responsible for good and bad, the
heros of indignation and the average politician, all lent
a deaf ear and turned their backs. "Sure, the Kurds are
dying. But none of it is very clear. Are they on the left or
the right, these Kurdish children that are being assassinated?»
Today, In the defense of the Kurdish children, the
language, Kurdish poems and village traditions are
there two fewer weapons. Three, fo r we must not forget
that the life of Professor RASSOUL was also destroyed
In Vienna. The French Government, which I represent,
bows to the three .upplch~8and offers Its condolences
and support to their families, to H6lene, his (Ghassemlou's)
wife, our friend and to their two daughters.
When I think about you, Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou,
I first of all think of your laugh. You were capable of
laughing at everthlng and everyone. Your Immense
cultural background, the eye of an historian and an
Intellectual on all things; you used to make fine analyses
which procured a distance which was enlarging to
our vision.
At the heart of tragedies and confrontations, even when
it is a question of fratricidal battles between Kurds, you
knew how to conserve a human approach when speaking
about the tragic destiny of your people placed in a
region of extreme political turbulance. "What geographical
misfortune,» you said. "The Kurds are nottalked
about enough because we have never taken anybody
hostage and we have never high-jacked an airplane,
but I'm proud of that,» you added. True, in this region
the chOice of alliances was not easy for those who
defend the Rights of Man. And you had enough indulgence,
Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou, to understand
how to stay near those people preoccupied by their
living conditions. And that is why you were among the
first to receive our French volunteer doctors who,once
more will go and take care of civil Kurdish families. We
have often worked at your side in the mountains, ofte
spoken, and discussed through many a long night; we
listened to you
You were the man of the Third World that I admired the
most. Both guerilla and liberal, faithful to a strategy,
holding onto a firm political line and proposing without
cease. I mean, you wanted to say: Democracy.
Ohllf only all the leaders of the Third World had been
as democratic as you, how many thousands of deaths
would have been avoided!
In your little house: three rooms, of which one is a
library, in the middle of the mountains, you told meyour
realistic dreams. They were not of a nature to frighten
the powerful ones of thiS world and this region. Ghassemlou
estimated that not any dream fro the independence
of Kurdistan was possible. With hiS friends, he
called for the autonomy of Kurdistan of Iran, and was
ready to fight for It.
He wanted to speak with Khomeiny's successors. That
IS why he went to Vienna, despite warnings, to make
peace In the name of the Kurds.