US responsible for Kurdish tragedy

[antennae at gn.apc.org]

The following topic was originally posted in the Mideast.Forum
conference by igc:csime at 10.07 April 27th.


National Coalition Against U.S. Intervention in the Middle East
36 W. 12 St., New York, NY, 10003
phone (212)777-1246  fax (212)979-1583

========FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, April 27, 1991=========

  NATIONAL COALITION AGAINST U.S. INTERVENTION IN THE GULF
  SAYS U.S. IS RESPONSIBLE FOR SUFFERING OF KURDISH PEOPLE
                              
What is happening to the Kurdish people in Iraq, and
unfolding on TV sets across the world, is a terrible tragedy.
Responsibility for the dislocation and suffering of the
Kurdish people lies firmly with the U.S. government and its
allies.

Unable to sustain a state of their own, the Kurdish nation
has lived under the domination of others for many centuries.
Their current plight, one of the most difficult in modern
times, is due mainly to the barbarous attacks by the
Pentagon against Iraq.  All of Iraq faces a critical health
emergency due to U.S. and allied bombings.

As part of its strategy to conquer Iraq and overthrow of the
Hussein government, the Bush administration utilized the
difficult situation of the Kurdish people for its own ends.
The CIA set up a radio station in Saudi Arabia urging their
leadership to join in the attack against the Baghdad
government. Then, as Washington has done with oppressed
peoples so many times before, it abandoned the Kurds. This
monstrous crime committed by the Pentagon against the
Kurdish people has led to their displacement.

Opposing even the UN, which says there is no precedent for
such an action, thousands of U.S. and allied troops,
including U.S. Special Forces, are carving out a military
enclave in northern Iraq.  Done under the name of helping
the Kurds, this will surely be used for further assaults
against Iraq. The Kurdish people are entitled to determine
their own fate, and not to be harassed or become a
dependency of the U.S. and its allies.

The hypocritical and opportunistic character of U.S.
"concern" for the Kurdish people is revealed by the Bush
administration's policies towards Kurds in other countries.
Washington supplies $800 million a year in military aid to
the Turkish government, whose policies towards the 12
million Kurds in Turkey are so repressive that it is illegal
for Kurds to write or speak their own language. And
Washington is ignoring the plight of the Iraqi Kurds who
fled to Iran. When Bush was asked why he isn't assisting
these Kurds he replied, "You've got to be a realist--I
mean, the Iranians have strained relations with the United
States of America." (Los Angeles Times, April 18).
HEALTH CATASTROPHE LOOMS IN ALL OF IRAQ

The Kurdish people are not the only ones devastated by the
U.S. assault. The destruction of the civilian infrastructure
of Iraq by U.S. and allied bombing raids has created an
emergency situation nationwide.

Dr. David Levinson from Physicians Against Nuclear War, who
just returned from Iraq, reports that "the entire health
care system has been severely crippled," and "a health
catastrophe of immense proportions" is threatened. Already
UNICEF has reported cases of cholera. Many thousands could
die.

Bush has not said a word about the suffering of people all
over Iraq.  In fact, the U.S. government opposes an Iraqi
request for the UN to lift sanctions so that Baghdad can
purchase emergency food and medicine.  Washington is
threatening to keep the sanctions against Iraq until Hussein
is overthrown, regardless of the many thousands who would
die from lack of food, sanitation and medicine. These
sanctions must be lifted immediately.

Washington's systematic and continued targeting of the Iraqi
civilian population of Iraq violates the Geneva and
Nuremburg accords and is an international  war crime. A
great deal of assistance must and should be given to all the
people of Iraq, including the Kurds, in order to alleviate
famine and epidemic. But the U.S. government owes this money
in the form of reparations for the crimes it has committed.