IPS/IRAQ/OCTOBER 1992

[PeaceNet Middle East Team]

From: <pnmideast>
Subject: IPS/IRAQ/OCTOBER 1992

/* Written 12:20 am  Oct 31, 1992 by newsdesk in cdp:ips.englibrary */
/* ---------- "IRAQ: Kurdish civil war reported to" ---------- */
Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: IRAQ: Kurdish civil war reported to be at an end


an inter press service feature

by john roberts

istanbul, oct 28 (ips) -- a bitter civil war between kurds from
iraq and kurds from turkey was wednesday reported to have come to
an end with an agreement by the guerrillas of the turkish pkk to
quit their bases in iraq.

according to radio reports from the area, after three weeks of
fighting, the northern iraq peshmergas in concert with turkish
army troops, has forced the pkk to agree to abandon control of a
swathe of villages along iraq's border with turkey.

the kurdistan workers party (pkk) has in recent times been
operating from bases in northern iraq to launch attacks inside
turkey in its long term aim for self-determination of turkey's
minority kurdish population.

according to kurdish sources, the peshmergas were pressured into
taking on the pkk.

during a visit to turkey at the start of october, sources say the
north atlantic treaty organisation (nato) supreme commander in
europe, general john shalikashvili, told the iraqi kurdish leaders
bluntly that they must show through deeds -- not words -- that
they were against the pkk.

the same message, the sources say, was also conveyed directly by
turkey to the kurdistan front, the umbrella grouping which
represents the main iraqi kurdish political groups and which
speaks, in effect, for the kurdish regional government.

''the decision was not our decision,'' one iraqi kurd said
angrily. yet within 48 hours of receiving these demands, the
peshmerga launched a string of attacks on pkk positions along
almost the entire length of the iraqi-turkish border.

at one end of the 300-km long border, peshmergas loyal to
political leader masoud barzani entered the shiranshir valley near
zakho to take out a cluster of pkk positions; at the other end,
near iran, peshmergas supporting the other main kurdish leader,
jalal talabani, took on the pkk in the remote kharkuk valley.

with their backs to the wall, the pkk were forced to retreat
further when one week later, the turkish army attacked them from
the north, moving 10 or 15 kms into iraq territory.

the war against the pkk has split the iraqi kurds. many
mistrusted turkey's intentions. some argued that barzani had been
too accommodating to turkey. yet the fighting looks likely to
produce some definitive political results -- though the military
conclusions will take longer to evaluate.(more/ips)

iraq: kurdish civil war reported to be at an end(2-e)

iraq: kurdish (2)

the pkk's reported agreement to quit northern iraq represents a
triumph for both ankara and the peshmergas. both sides wanted them
out, and the peshmerga leadership was particularly embittered
because in the weeks before the latest fighting began, it
repeatedly offered the pkk a peaceful way out.

''we wrote many letters to them asking them to leave our area, to
leave our villages and to allow our villagers to return to their
villages,'' said francois hariri, a senior kurdistan front
official. for up to four years, he said, the pkk had occupied more
than 300 villages inside iraq.

he added that both the kurdish government and the kurdish
parliament elected last may had many times conveyed the same
message to the pkk, that they were welcome to stay in iraq
provided they pursued their struggle by political, and not
military, means.

finally, hariri said, on oct 4, the kurdish parliament issued the
pkk with a 24 hour ultimatum to leave iraqi kurdistan. but, he
added, ''they said they didn't care about such decisions'' -- and
the fighting began.

over the next few days, the restoration of effective
turkish/peshmerga control either side of the border should result
in quick moves by turkey to re-open to full civilian traffic key
roads on the turkish side of the border.

since the border fighting started, the regular traffic which
takes civilian goods into northern iraq, and brings out contraband
iraqi diesel in return, has dried up in the face of pkk threats to
blow up trucks coming back from iraq.

but while the restoration of civilian traffic will boost civilian
morale in iraqi kurdistan, the long-term military prospects remain
clouded. according to western diplomats, the pkk's core strength
before the fighting was 10,000 fighters. worse case scenarios
would point to a casualty count of half that.

borders throughout the region are notoriously porous and the pkk
will no doubt continue to secure arms from one source or another.
it may have lost its bases in iraq, but this may simply mean the
pkk will now try to base itself solely in the rugged mountainous
regions of south-eastern turkey.

there is no reason to believe the turkish army will be able to
fully suppress the pkk revolt -- turkish prime minister suleyman
demirel told ips last week it would take ''a reasonable time''.

failure to defeat the pkk could lead the turks to break their
uneasy alliance with the iraqi kurds. for the moment, there will
be optimism in both ankara and irbil that having cooperated
successfully in the military field, iraq's kurds and turkey will
now be able to cooperate politically to help resolve the kurdish
problem in northern iraq.(end/ips/rp/jmr/cpg/92)