KURDISTAN: WHERE THE UNITED STATES

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Subject: KURDISTAN: WHERE THE UNITED STATES

/* Written  2:54 am  Apr 14, 1991 by newsdesk in cdp:ips.englibrary */
/* ---------- "KURDISTAN: WHERE THE UNITED STATES " ---------- */
Copyright Inter Press Service 1991, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Area: North America
Title: KURDISTAN: WHERE THE UNITED STATES FEARS TO TREAD


an inter press service feature

by frank a. campbell

new york apr 11 (ips) -- in the drama over the kurdish question
being played out at the united nations, the security council and
some of its member countries are going, if somewhat cautiously,
where the united states fears to tread.

u.s. president george bush, resisting growing pressure from the
media, the political opposition and the u.s. public, preferred
to go fishing in florida to getting pulled into the troubled waters
of kurdistan.

ignoring the taunts that he misled the kurds into believing he
would help them overthrow saddam hussein, bush followed the advice
of his closest advisers to get out of iraq while the u.s. military's
reputation was still ''spotless'' and avoid getting his country into
a ''vietnam-like folly''.

for a president who has declared victory in the second gulf war
as the final interment of the 'vietnam syndrome', this kind of
advice must be easy to take.

the idea of a u.n. resolution denouncing the iraqi government's
mistreatment of the kurds got a lukewarm response from the united
states leading some observers to agree with how some kurdish leaders
characterised their meeting with state department officials last
week -- a ''sop to cerberus''.

the united states has been even more cautious about the european
community (ec) idea to establish for the kurds in iraq what has been
variously called an ''enclave'', a ''safe haven'' and a ''zone of
tranquility''.

one state department official said the united states would hate
to see a ''u.n. protectorate'' in the gulf.

even britain, the sponsor of the safe haven idea, has shown
caution and inconsistency in promoting it. prime minister john major
had sold to his colleagues the idea of an enclave which might be
backed by force if iraq did not cooperate.

but major's normally hardline permanent representative david
hannay took pains to point out that ''this is not to be seen as a
political concept or a juridical concept, but as a humanitarian
concept''.

this caution should not come as a surprise. recalling the
lamentation of a british colonial official in iraq earlier this
century that iraq was ''a very hard country to govern'', an iraqi
journalist told ips: ''the u.s. authorities know that if they open
that pandora's box they could stay in there forever.'' (more/ips)



kurdistan: where (2)

he was referring to iraq's ethnic and religious complexity -- the
mixture of muslims and christians and turks, the distinction between
the majority shi'ite muslims and the minority but governing sunnis,
the fact that the kurds themselves are sunnis and the continued
intermarriages taking place among these groups.

kurdistan stretches over five countries -- iraq (with about four
million kurds), turkey (12 million), syria (one million), iran
(eight million) and the soviet union (600,000).

even when most of these other countries are in a state of
hostilities with iraq, they share an underlying apprehension that
the kurds' aspirations for autonomy could grow into agitation for a
separate and independent kurdistan.

from the point of the view of the kurds and of many scholars,
this fear accounts for the fact that iraq is not alone in trying to
keep the kurdish people in their place.

in a letter published recently in the 'new york times', lois
whitman, deputy director of the human rights organisation, 'helsinki
watch', related how lawyers and defendants were prosecuted for
speaking kurdish during court proceedings in turkey.

''kurds,'' added whitman, ''are not permitted to give their
children kurdish names. singers who sing kurdish songs are
prosecuted.''

depending on how far back one wishes to go, the the plight of the
kurds in iraq today could be traced to the early 1970's when saddam
hussein, then assistant general secretary of the ba'ath party of
iraq, reneged after signing an autonomy agreement with kurdish
freedom fighters.

or the 1920's when britain ruled the area and allied powers
reneged on a promise of a separate kurdish state. or to centuries
gone by when ottoman rulers granted the kurds a measure of autonomy
for help in defeating the shah of persia in 1514, then increasingly
circumscribed that autonomy.

one of the more memorable examples of the plight of the troubled
kurds in recent times took place in 1988 when saddam's government
was widely reported to have used chemical weapons against them and
up to 100,000 fled to turkey.

today, by some estimates, millions are fleeing. according to one
turkish national living in the united states, turkey once again is
left with the burden while countries like the united states, with
money, might and land, wash their hands of the problem.

why? ''because they are muslims,'' he says. ''and everybody
thinks muslims like to make rebellion, and because, unlike the
kuwaitis, they are poor.'' (end/ips/ip/fc/lm)