Repression Against German Internationalists

[ozgurluk at xs4all.nl]

"Increase International Solidarity!"

Paragraph 129a Investigations Against German Internationalists

     On February 5, 1998, police raided two homes in Hamburg, a
home in Cologne, and the offices of the legal aid association
AZADI and the Kurdistan Information Desk. The reason for the
raids is an investigation against two German internationalists
who are organized in the structures of the Kurdistan solidarity
movement. After a long stay in Kurdistan, the two returned to
Germany a few weeks ago. Federal police say they are
investigating a group "which is a successor organization to the
Red Army Fraction (RAF)". The "accused and other persons" were
"involved in a terrorist group modeled on and oriented towards
the strategy of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)". In the homes
of the persons being investigated, police confiscated personal
items, as well as computers, software, photo materials, and
drawings. The two internationalists were detained for a while in
Hamburg and Cologne as police took their photos, fingerprints,
etc.

The War In Kurdistan And The Significance Of The Kurdish
Liberation Struggle

     In Kurdistan, a special war against the population in waged
with the active support of NATO member countries. At the present
time, we can see how the U.S. war drums beating against Iraq have
been used by Turkey as an excuse to intervene more in South
Kurdistan. German Chancellor Kohl said that German bases would be
made available to U.S. forces to launch bombing raids on Iraq.
Police and intelligence cooperation between Germany and Turkey is
well documented. For example, refugees deported from Germany are
often arrested, tortured, and imprisoned in Turkey due to
information gained from German police sources. The German
government is suppressing the legitimate Kurdish resistance and
all those who sympathize with it in Germany. With the help of the
"PKK ban", the political work of the Kurdish liberation movement
in exile is being checked. The aim is to hamper the PKK and make
it lose its edge. A recent decision by Germany's Supreme Court
(November 19, 1997) criminalizing voluntary financial
contributions to the liberation struggle represents a further
dimension to this ban.
     Kurdistan lies in the crosshairs of international political,
military, and economic interests. The Turkish occupied regions in
particular are seen by the Western states as a "bridge" to the
Near and Middle East and the oil reserves and natural resources
of the former Soviet states. The Kurdish national liberation
movement represents a concrete, incalculable barrier to this. As
early as the 1930s, the British air force bombarded Kurdish
rebellions in South Kurdistan. The destruction of Kurdish lands,
culture, and society began with the Treaty of Lausanne (1923) and
have continued to this day. In 1997 alone, the Turkish army
carried out three major offensives in the "UN safe haven" in
South Kurdistan, in front of the eyes of the American and British
militaries (the MCC, Military Cooperation Center).
     The significance of the Kurdish liberation struggle today
goes well beyond the damage it causes to the economic and
military interests of the imperialists states. The success of
this struggle, and the political, social, and economic
perspectives which the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has fought
for since it began its struggle, would have a direct impact on
the situation in the entire Middle East, so therefore this
question has an international dimension. At a time when the
notion of waging a determined struggle for socialism had suffered
heavy blows, the PKK, with its living socialist perspective,
represents a danger for the imperialist camp. The breaking down
of feudal structures of domination, in particular the
emancipatory steps which have been taken against the oppression
of women - the most deeply rooted form of oppression in the
world - and respect for human beings and the environment
resonates not only in Europe but also all over the world. This
explains the hard line of the imperialist states, under U.S.
leadership, in their continuing political and military support
for the Turkish regime.

Increase International Solidarity!

     The repression against the two German internationalists is
further evidence of the German government's involvement in the
dirty war in Kurdistan. The state's criminal investigations under
Paragraph 129a of the Criminal Code (supporting a terrorist
organization) represent a concrete attack on active and practical
solidarity with the struggle of the Kurdish people for
independence and self-determination. The idea behind this is to
separate one segment of the German solidarity movement from the
liberation forces in Kurdistan, and to politically and socially
isolate them in Germany.
     This program of "divide and conquer" is an age old tactic of
the ruling powers, and it is a means for the German government to
make its support for the dirty war in Kurdistan that much easier.
This policy is directed against Kurdish forces in Germany, as
well as against those Germans who have decided to stand clearly
on the side of the Kurdish liberation forces. These two
internationalists expressed their international solidarity by
deciding to learn directly about and support the liberation
movement. They aided in the process of building a bridge of
solidarity and understanding to the Kurdish people and the
Kurdish liberation movement. In order to do this, they needed
photos to document life in the mountains and the guerrilla
training camps, as well as daily life in the villages and refugee
camps. The two made drawings of Kurdish life, interviews with
comrades and the general population, spoke with former political
prisoners, some of whom had spent as many as 18 years behind bars
in Turkey, others of whom were imprisoned in Germany. These
materials documented the life of people in flight, and in
struggle. They reported on the achievements of the liberation
struggle, as well as its many problems, and they showed how the
liberation movement is trying to solve the problems which the
people face due to the war. These materials, which were
confiscated by the police, were to be used in articles and public
events to show the reality of the Kurdish people who are fighting
for their freedom. This would serve as a balance to the often
false and misleading reports which appear in Turkish propaganda
and the German media.

Abolish Paragraph 129a! For A Strong Internationalist Movement!

     Because of the German state's Paragraph 129a investigations,
the lives of two internationalists are under total surveillance.
Their movements and contacts with other persons are controlled.
They are being pushed into the corner as "terrorists" and
isolated. The authorities are trying to push their own militarist
thoughts onto others, namely that accepting the struggle and the
goals of the PKK must mean "joining a PKK unit and completing
military training". According to the warrant for the raids in
February: "The group sought practical experience in the PKK camps
so that they could then employ violence to change the political
and social structures in Germany."
     Assata Shakur, a woman activist of the former Black Panther
Party, once said: "One of the hardest lessons we had to learn was
that the revolutionary struggle is more scientific than it is
emotional. We must learn to base our decisions on objective
conditions, and then aim ourselves towards what is rational and
necessary." The Kurdish liberation struggle represents an actual
dimension which goes well beyond that of any weapon.
     Federal authorities in Germany are also basing their
investigations on the alleged involvement of Andrea Wolf in the
RAF's bomb attack on Weiterstadt Prison in March 1993, who is now
said to have "formed a terrorist organization" which sees itself
as "the successor organization to the RAF". In a TV interview in
April 1997, broadcast by the Kurdish station MED-TV in the summer
of 1997, Andrea Wolf said she had joined the Kurdish guerrilla
movement. In the August 21, 1997 edition of the autonomist
publication 'Interim', Andrea wrote in a letter: "For me,
learning from the PKK means learning from people who have a
different cultural, historical, and economic background, and who
have made great progress in their struggle over the past ten
years...I see it as my responsibility to take what I have seen,
experienced, and learned in Kurdistan and to relate these things
to the people back home, so that these experiences might
influence our own struggle for a just and humane future."
     The criminalization of the two internationalists as "members
of a terrorist association" is an attack on the Kurdistan
solidarity movement in Germany, organized by the Kurdistan
Information Desk. This movement is in solidarity with the Kurdish
liberation movement being led by the Kurdistan Workers Party
(PKK). The Kurdistan solidarity movements consciously stands
beside the Kurdish people who are struggling for liberation and
self-determination. But this movement also sees itself as part of
the German left, and seeks to develop resistance to the German
government's involvement in the war in Kurdistan and against
repression without losing sight of the conditions which exist
here in Germany before our very eyes. That is the best form of
concrete solidarity which can be expressed here in Germany. In
the words of Amilar Cabral, who sent a letter to European
progressive forces in 1970s from Guinea Bissao: "The important
thing is to struggle. We in Guinea struggle with weapons in our
hands; you all too should struggle. I'm not saying you must
struggle with weapons, I am not saying with what means you should
struggle, because that is for you to decide. But the important
thing is to find a means and way to struggle. That would be the
best way for you all to show your solidarity."

- We demand that all Paragraph 129a investigations be dropped,
and that both internationalists have their confiscated materials
returned to them.

- We demand an end to the investigations against Andrea Wolf.

- We call on the German left to stand side by side with the
Kurdish liberation struggle.

Stop The Dirty War In Kurdistan!
Lift The Ban On The PKK And The ERNK In Germany!

Kurdistan Information Desk
Cologne, Germany

(Translated by Arm The Spirit from 'Kurdistan-Rundbrief', Nr. 5,
Vol. 11 - March 10, 1998)

Arm The Spirit
P.O. Box 6326, Stn. A
Toronto, Ontario
M5W 1P7 Canada

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