From MAILER-DAEMON at web.apc.org Tue Mar 10 06:50:29 1992 From: MAILER-DAEMON at web.apc.org (MAILER-DAEMON at web.apc.org) Date: 10 Mar 1992 01:50:29 -0500 (EST) Subject: The ACTivist Vol.8#3, March 1992 Message-ID: Subject: The ACTivist Vol.8#3, March 1992 /* Written 1:30 am Mar 10, 1992 by act in web:gen.newsletters */ /* ---------- "The ACTivist Vol.8#3, March 1992" ---------- */ KURDS STILL UNDER ATTACK By Maggie Helwig The ACTivist Last year, the Kurds were the focus of world attention as thousands of refugees streamed out of Iraq under heavy fire, only to starve in the frozen mountains. But now world attention has turned elsewhere, while the Kurds continue to struggle against all odds for a homeland of their own. Much of the enclave in northern Iraq that was placed under the protection of the United Nations and the U.S. -led coalition forces has become in effect a "Kurdish free zone," where the Kurds have been able to rebuild their homes and administer their own affairs on their traditional land. But they are attempting this under heavy pressure from both Iraq and Turkey, two governments which have been systematically attacking the Kurdish peoples in their countries for decades. Turkish military forces have made repeated incursions into the Kurdish zone since it was established last spring; earlier this winter, the Turkish attackers napalmed Kurdish villages, claiming that they were bases for the Kurdish Workers Party, a group outlawed in Turkey. Oddly, the Turkish government is making these attacks at the same time that it is declaring the "protection of the Kurds" to be a priority issue. Turkey is also reported to be periodically interfering with the delivery of relief supplies to the Kurdish areas. Iraq, meanwhile, is prevented by the presence of the coalition forces, and by the damage done to the country's infrastructure by the Gulf War, from making any serious military attacks on the Kurds in the north. Instead, they have imposed an embargo on food and fuel to the area. There are checkpoints at the borders of the "Kurdish free zone" at which all supplies are seized; wages and pensions in government-owned enterprises have been cut off; doctors, nurses, engineers, and all other civil servants are not being paid. Particularly given the destruction of the farmland by the war, the Kurds have been left almost entirely dependent on international aid agencies, and a severe winter has now slowed down even this relief. And any kind of farming, foraging for wood, or simply travelling from place to place, is a hazard, due to hundreds of thousands of Iraqi-laid mines throughout the Kurdish area. Despite all this, the Kurdish people in the U.N. established zone are closer than they have ever been to having their own territory, under their own control, and they are struggling to make it work, administering the area through a coalition government, rebuilding facilities with an all-volunteer engineer corps, and trying to move into re-planting orchards and farms. But there are also fears that the United Nations will soon pull out, and leave the Kurds once again at the mercy of Saddam Hussein, who has conducted campaigns of mass murder against them since he took power in Iraq. The United Nations High Commission on Refugees will be withdrawing from the Kurdish areas in the spring, and no other U.N. agency seems interested in taking over relief and reconstruction work. And the 500 U.N. guards are due to leave in the summer. The United States has not announced exactly what it plans to do with its troops in the area, but the Kurds know only too well that the U.S. is far from the most reliable of allies. And the lack of U.S. support for the Kurdish uprising last spring suggests that George Bush has placed the possibility of an independent Kurdistan firmly off his agenda. For the moment, the Kurds simply want international protection; they want the United Nations, the United States, and any other western governments, to continue to keep the Iraqi forces out of the Kurdish zone. In the long run, though, says Massoud Barzani, leader of the Kurdish Democratic Party, "[we want] the world to deal with us as a political cause, not only a humanitarian one." Now that they have some semblance of a homeland, the Kurds of northern Iraq will not relinquish it easily. But if the rest of the world loses interest in the Kurds once more, this half-independent nascent Kurdistan could easily be crushed, and one more blow levelled against self-determination for the Kurds and other indigenous peoples. From jsax at igc.apc.org Sat Mar 28 01:54:22 1992 From: jsax at igc.apc.org (Joel Sax) Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1992 17:54:22 -0800 (PST) Subject: TURKS BOMB KURDS Message-ID: From: Joel Sax >From hrcoord Fri Mar 27 07:19:50 1992 Received: by cdp.igc.org (4.1/Revision: 1.56 ) id AA06993; Fri, 27 Mar 92 07:19:49 PST Date: Fri, 27 Mar 92 07:19:49 PST From: Human Rights Coordinator Message-Id: <9203271519.AA06993 at cdp.igc.org> To: jsax Subject: Turkey Status: R /* Written 7:19 am Mar 27, 1992 by hrcoord in cdp:humanrights */ /* ---------- "Turkey" ---------- */ San Francisco Examiner March 26, 1992 TURKS SEND PLANES AGAINST KURD BASES Ankara, Turkey - Warplanes attacked two Kurdish guerrilla bases in northern Iraq Wednesday while ground reinformcements gathered along the border to block rebel strikes. The air raids - the fourth such attack this month - are part of the government retaliation agasinst a Kurdish offensive in southeastern Turkey. Recent fighting, the worst in the Kurds' 8-year-old insurgency, has claimed dozens of lives. A high-ranking military official confirmed the air strikes occurred, but gave no other details. From nyxfer at panix.com Mon Mar 30 21:12:44 1992 From: nyxfer at panix.com (nyxfer at panix.com) Date: 30 Mar 1992 21:12:44 Subject: ACTION:Protest Massacre of Kurds 4/ Message-ID: From: nyxfer at panix.com (N.Y. Transfer) Subject: ACTION:Protest Massacre of Kurds 4/2 NYC Via The NY Transfer News Service ~ All the News that Doesn't Fit COALITION TO STOP U.S. INTERVENTION IN THE MIDDLE EAST 36 East 12 Street NYC 10003 Tel: 212 254-5385 Fax: 212 979-1583 March 30, 1992 Contact: Bill Doares, (212) 254-5385 ANTIWAR COALITION CALLS DEMONSTRATIONS TO PROTEST MASSACRE OF KURDS IN TURKEY; CONDEMNS U.S. GOVERNMENT COMPLICITY The Coalition to Stop U.S. Intervention in the Middle East is calling demonstrations on Thursday, April 2, in New York City, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco to protest the the cold-blooded mass murder of Kurdish women, men and children by Turkish security forces on the weekend of March 21 and to support the oppressed Kurdish people in their heroic struggle for justice and freedom. The picketlines will also target the Bush administration and the Pentagon for their military collaboration with the Ankara regime in its genocidal war against the Kurdish people. In a March 25 statement, the Bush administration, in the person of Margaret Tutwiler, has proclaimed full support for the massacre. The New York City protest will take place from 4:30 to 6:30 PM at the Turkish Information Center at 46 Street and First Avenue, across the street from the United Nations, and will march to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, one block away. The Washington protest will take place at the same time outside the Turkish embassy at 1714 Massachussetts Avenue, NW, and the San Francisco picket will be held outside the Turkish consulate in downtown Oakland. On Saturday, March 21, in Cizre, Sirnak, Yusekova, Nusaybin, Van and other predominantly Kurdish towns and cities, Turkish army and police commandos opened fire on crowds of people who were trying to celebrate Newroz, the traditional Kurdish New Year. Police also viciously opened fire on Newroz celebrants in Istanbul and other cities in western Turkey. The Newroz celebrations, which were held in defiance of a fascist curfew, turned into huge demonstrations of popular support for the outlawed Workers Party of Kurdistan and the National Liberation Front of Kurdistan, who are waging a struggle for self-determination for Turkey's 15 million Kurds. As of March 23, nearly 100 people, including at least one journalist, were known to have been murdered and hundreds more wounded. This number has since risen as Kurdish people and their supporters have continued to take to the streets to demand freedom and self-determination. Tanks and artillery are reportedly being used to shell residential areas of Cizre and other towns. The Newroz massacre was preceded by a massive Turkish military build-up in northern Kurdistan, which indicates that the killing was planned in advance. Two journalists who reported on this build-up, Cengiz Altun of Yeni Ulke and Halit Gungen of Toward 2000, were murdered by death squads in late February. Over the past year the Bush administration has feigned concern for the rights of the Kurdish people in a cynical ploy to justify continuing sanctions and military threats against Iraq. But for over a decade the U.S. government has financed a bloody reign of terror against the vast majority of the Kurdish people, who live under the occupation of Turkey. This terror has included the aerial bombing of peaceful Kurdish villages in both Turkey and northern Iraq by Turkey's U.S.-trained and equipped air force and the murders of over 100 Kurdish activists by police death squads over the past year. Last July, only days after police commandos opened fire on a 100,000-strong funeral procession of Vedat Aydin, a Kurdish leader tortured to death by rightwing death squads, killing at least 14 people, President Bush visited Turkey with a large military aid package and a promise of 50 F-16 fighter-bombers. And Tur key's president, Suleyman Demirel, visited George Bush at the White House only weeks before the Newroz massacre. Turkey, a member of NATO, receives over $1 billion a year in direct United States military aid, more than any country besides Israel and Egypt. It is also the site of 15 U.S. military bases. Ever since the U.S. war against Iraq, Turkey's oppressed and impoverished Kurdish region has become the site of a huge U.S. mili tary and CIA presence, who are working closely with the Turkish military. Texaco and other U.S. corpora tions are exploring for oil in southeast Turkey. These facts make the U.S. government and the Pentagon equally responsible with the Turkish govern ment for the slaughter in Kurdistan. He who pays the piper cals the tune. Also not to be overlooked is the role of the U.S. news media, which continues to censor and distort the situation in Kurdistan to conform with U.S. foreign policy, even when Turkish and Kurdish journalists are being murdered by death squads. The Coalition to Stop U.S. Intervention in the Middle East urges justice-loving people in the United States and around the world to join us in demanding that the Turkish government withdraw its army and police occupation forces from Kurdish cities, towns and villages and allow the Kurdish people to determine their own future free from coercion and oppression. We call upon the Turkish government to immediately free all Kurdish political prisoners. We further demand the withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Turkey and Kurdistan and an end to U.S. financial support for the bloodstained Ankara regime. -30- ----- MIDDLE EAST Newsfeed - NY Transfer News Service Modem: 718-448-2358 nytransfer at igc.org nyxfer at panix.com From nyxfer at panix.com Mon Mar 30 21:12:46 1992 From: nyxfer at panix.com (nyxfer at panix.com) Date: 30 Mar 1992 21:12:46 Subject: URGENT DEMO/Kurds/NYC 4/2 (flyer) Message-ID: From: nyxfer at panix.com (N.Y. Transfer) Subject: URGENT DEMO/Kurds/NYC 4/2 (flyer) Via The NY Transfer News Service ~ All the News that Doesn't Fit Flyer for demonstration in Support of Kurds April 2, 1992 - New York City Support the Kurdish Freedom Struggle PROTEST MASSACRE OF KURDS IN TURKEY--MADE IN USA On Saturday, March 21, Turkish army and police commandos carried out a cold-blooded massacre of Kurdish women, men and children who were trying to cele brate Newroz, the traditional Kurdish New Year. This mass murder has provoked a widespread uprising by the Kurdish people against Turkish occupation. The Newroz massacre is part of a genocidal war against the Kurdish people that is fully supported by the Bush administration. NATO Turkey receives over $1 billion a year in U.S. military aid and is the site of 14 U.S. military bases. U.S. military and intelligence forces are directly aiding Turkey's military in its war against the Kurdish struggle for freedom and the State Department has openly proclaimed its support of the massacre Join us April 2 to support the Kurdish struggle for self-determination and to demand an end to U.S. financing of genocide against the Kurdish people. DEMONSTRATE Thursday, April 2, 4:30--6:30 PM Turkish Information Center 46th Street and First Avenue across from the United Nations NYC COALITION TO STOP U.S. INTERVENTION IN THE MIDDLE EAST 36 East 12 Street, New York City 10003 Tel: 212-254-5385 ------ MIDDLE EAST Newsfeed - NY Transfer News Service Modem: 718-448-2358 nytransfer at igc.org nyxfer at panix.com From iearn6 at igc.apc.org Tue Mar 31 18:22:45 1992 From: iearn6 at igc.apc.org (iearn6 at igc.apc.org) Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1992 09:22:45 -0800 (PST) Subject: U.S. Involvement or Noninvolvement Message-ID: To Whom it May Concer: I am visiting the mideast.kurds conference for the first time. I read that many people who wish to help the Kurds seek to end U.S. involvement in the mideast entirely. Today's N.Y. Times reports Iraqi attacks on Kurdish villages in northern Iraq. Could U.S. military action against Iraq (or at least the serious threat of such action) help to dissuade S. Hussein from engaging in such genocidal attacks? As far as Turkey goes, couldn't the U.S. use its military and economic influence to encourage the Turks to cease their attacks on innocent civilians? Please provided me with answers to these questions. Rick Casey