Kurds And U.S. Friends Fast Outside

[kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu]

From: Arm The Spirit <ats at locust.etext.org>
Subject: Kurds And U.S. Friends Fast Outside Congress

Kurds And U.S. Friends Fast Outside Congress 

Oct. 20, 1997

     WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Four Turkish Kurds and two Americans
began an open-ended fast outside Congress Monday to publicize the
plight of the Kurds and of imprisoned Turkish Kurd
parliamentarian Leyla Zana.
     The fasters said they would drink only electrolyte -- water
with minerals to maintain the balance in their bodies -- for as
long as they could keep going.
     Kani Xulam, director of the Washington-based American
Kurdish Information Network and one of the fasters, said they
were not making specific demands because they did not seek
confrontation with the Turkish government.
     But in the unlikely event that the Turks do agree to release
Zana, they will call the fast off, he added.
     The fast is timed to coincide with the sixth anniversary of
the day Zana was elected to parliament. Zana, 36, was jailed for
15 years for treason in 1994 partly because of testimony she gave
to the Helsinki Commission of Congress.
     The two fasting Americans are Kathryn Cameron Porter,
president of the Human Rights Alliance and wife of Rep. John
Porter, an Illinois Republican, and Linnaea Melcarek, 23, who
works with Xulam's group. The other Kurds were Ferda Beyrikan,
Dara Rizgari, and New York City grocer Amed Kozlu.
     More than 20 million Kurds live in a mountainous region
spread across Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria. In Turkey, about
27,000 people have been killed in a separatist campaign waged by
the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
     Supporters of the Kurds say they are the largest ethnic
group in the world without their own state.
     They have enjoyed widespread support in the United States,
especially since Iraqi President Saddam Hussein incurred the
wrath of Washington by invading Kuwait in 1990.
     In 1995, 144 members of the House wrote to President Clinton
asking him to raise the case of Zana with the Turkish
authorities.
     But Turkey is also a NATO ally of the United States, which
sees Ankara as a valuable counterweight to Iraq and Iran.
     In speeches launching the fast, activists including Bianca
Jagger and Rep. Bob Filner, a California Democrat, urged Clinton
to try again.
     "I am participating because of my frustration with my own
government. I have tried everything possible to turn our policy
around, to see that the United States stands for what it
supposedly stands for," said Kathryn Cameron Porter.
     "This country (has) put its trust in the generals of the
Turkish military rather than in Kurdish representatives who long
for democratic ideals," added Xulam.
     The fasters will spend about 10 hours a day outside Congress
and spend the nights at a downtown church. They will also march
to the White House and back once a day.