Two hundred public figures representing all Kurdish political and cultural trends and sensitivities in Turkey, have signed an appeal for an equitable settlement of the Kurdish question in the context of negotiations for Turkey’s membership of the European Union.
Such a settlement, according to this appeal, initiated by the Paris Kurdish Institute, essentially requires:
- a new and democratic Constitution that recognises the existence of the Kurdish people as a people that jointly founded the Republic, guaranteeing it the right of having a public education system in its own language as well as the right to found societies, institutions, and parties aiming at taking part in the free expression of its culture and political aspirations.
- a general amnesty in order to establish an atmosphere of confidence and reconciliation and, once and for all, to turn over a new leaf on past conflicts and armed violence;
- the implementation, with European support, of a vast programme for the economic development of the Kurdish region, to include, in particular, the rebuilding of the over 3,400 Kurdish villages destroyed in the 90s, and measures to encourage the three million displaced Kurds to return to their homes.
The signatories ask the Turkish authorities and the European leaders to give justice to the Kurds of Turkey by recognising their legitimate demands as legal rights, to ensure peace and stability in the region, and that this should be amongst the criteria for measuring Turkey’s progress on the road to joining the European Union.
Amongst the signatories are Mrs. Leyla Zana, winner of the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize, former Ministers Adnan Ekmen and Serefettin Elçi, the Mayors of about thirty Kurdish towns, including that of Diyarbekir, a number of former Members of Parliament and mayors, representatives of civil society, the Bar, the Trade Unions as well as academics, writers and artists.
In addition to those signatories, who live in Turkey, Kurdish public figures of Turkish origin living in the European Union, also joined in this Appeal. Amongst these are Mrs. Nalin Pekgul, President of the National Federation of Social-Democratic Women of Sweden and former Member of the Swedish Parliament; Feleknas Uca, Member of the European Parliament; representatives of the principal Kurdish social and cultural organisations in Europe, academics, writers and artists.
This ism without doubt the first time such a wide and representative range of all Kurdish political sensitivities has been associated round a document, concisely formulating the claims of the 15 to 20 million Kurds in Turkey.
The co-ordination of this civic campaign was effected by the Kurdish Institute of Paris. The Appeal was first published, in English, on 8 December as an advertisement in the daily International Herald Tribune under the heading “What do the Kurds Want in Turkey?”, then, on 10 December in the French daily Le Monde under the heading “Que veulent les Kurdes en Turkie?” and finally, in German in the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on 15 December under the Heading “Was fordern die Kurden in der Turkei?”.
The Turkish authorities and press reacted sharply to the publication of this appeal, particularly attacking Leyla Zana and her colleagues, the former Kurdish Members of Parliament, but also the president of the Paris Kurdish Institute, Kendal Nezan. However the attacks, essentially personal attacks against the initiators and signatories, deliberately avoided any discussion of the basis of the appeal. The editor in chief of the Turkish daily Hurriyet who, a few weeks earlier had refused to publish an advertisement for a cultural event (a retrospective of films by Yilmaz Güney in Paris) by the Kurdish Institute on the grounds that the word “Kurdish” was offensive, even in an advertisement, distinguished himself by only discussing the cost of the advertisement.
On 11 December, returning from an official visit to Brussels, the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, declared: “It is hard to understand by what historic, political or sociological criteria one can try to separate this valorous nation, united like the nail to the flesh, making a unity in its destiny in its sorrow and in its glory” “I would like virulently to criticise, with all my heart, the comparison made between our brave nation and examples a thousand leagues foreign to the soul of this geography and its temperament. We cannot swallow this … We will not fall for their game, into their trap. Turkey and this nation will not fall for this game. They must understand this”.
Cemel Ciçek, Turkish Minister of Justice and government spokesman, sneered at the appeal saying that the signatories had been used, The Deputy Prime Minister, Mehmet Ali Çahin simply retorted that the contents of this manifesto was unconstitutional. Others, as usual, made threats, like the former Minister of the Interior, Mehmet Agar, notirious for his links with the Turkish mafia (the Susurluk scandal) : “Those who want to test Turkey’s determination will suffer damage as in the 20s”. For Taha Akyol, former extreme Right Turkish activist and columnist on the daily Milliyet saw just a provocation organised by the Kurdish “fanatical diaspora” since, for him, the Kurdish question is just a “question of democracy” and of “social integration”. Long associated with Turkish ultra-nationalist groupings, this journalist had no hesitation, in his column of 11 December, about criticising the Appeal for “fanatical ethnic nationalism”. Other journalists limited themselves to insults, like Sakir Suter, of the daily Aksam, who on 11 December cried treason and described the signatories, including Leyla Zana, as “crude people” and “insolent”. In the same paper, Yalçin Peksen, under the headline “What do the Turks want?” called for more resources for teaching Turkish instead of educating “uncultured English-speakers” for economic development of regions inhabited by Turks, the sending bakc home of the millions of Kurds (and also Turks, for good measure!) who flood the metropolitan cities, “if possible part of the opposition”, “dustbin collectors” etc … In the daily Vatan, Gungor Mengi asked God to come to save Leyla Zana.
This outrageous and orchestrated media campaign shows that, despite the legal reforms announced with great publicity, the attitudes of the politico-media caste, remain very chauvinist and intolerant. The fact that a peaceful appeal of citizens, using their fundamental right to petition, without in any way implying any change in the country’s present borders and, moreover, in favour of the opening of negotiations for Turkey’s membership of the European Union, could be greeted with such a flood of intolerance clearly shows that the Turkish regime has still a long way to go to acquire European values.
The former German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, recalled, in the columns of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, that in 1997 he had told the Turkish Prime Minister of the time, Mesut Yilmaz, that Turkey’s entry into the European Union seemed very difficult, not because of its religion, but because of its political culture. Turkish reaction to the appeal by Kurdish public figures shows how far this culture remains chauvinist and intolerant. To dare to demand that Ankara acknowledge, for the 15 to 20 million Kurds of Turkey, similar rights to those that it demands for the 150,000 Cypriot Turks is, in the eyes of the Turkish leaders, virtually equivalent to high treason. We already knew that, according to Ataturk’s maxim (still taught today in Turkish schools and army barracks) “one Turk is worth all the universe” — we now know that one Cypriot Turk is worth 100 Kurds of Turkey in terms of rights. …
The media campaign round the Appeal has had the merit of recalling that the Kurdish question is still not settled in Turkey and to arouse a lively debate amongst Kurds, Turks and Europeans on means of settling it.
The fact that the Kurds, of all political trends, declare themselves in favour of a peaceful settlement, within existing State borders, and that they quote the examples of democratic countries like Spain, the United Kingdom or Belgium in the search for a solution has aroused favourable echoes in European public opinion, particularly in the European Parliament and within the Commission.
The process initiated by this appeal could create a new dynamic amongst the Kurds of Turkey and favour the evolution of minds and attitudes towards adequate methods of peaceful and civic struggle.
The full text of the Appeal and the list of signatories is available on p 55 of the Press Review.
On the evening of 16 December, the European Council authorised the opening of negotiations for membership with Ankara, that has been knocking on the door of the European Union for the last 40 years. Turkey, a member of NATO since the 50s, reached an agreement with the European Union (at that time merely the EEC) as far back as 1963. Its application for membership was rejected at the end of the 80s and it was not included on the list of candidates in 1997. Finally, in 1999, the European summit at Helsinki accepted to include it on the official list of candidates for membership.
The Heads of State and Governments “agreed to consider that Turkey had clearly shown its capacity to engage in the reforms necessary and invited it to continue along this road. On the strength of this observation and on the basis of the Commission’s conclusions, negotiations for membership will this be able to begin on 3 October 2005”.
This European “Yes” remains subject to certain conditions. Turkey must extend its customs union to Cyprus, which amounts to implicitly recognising Cyprus, which entered the E.U. on 1 May 2004. Turkey has agreed to make a declaration of intent on this issue before 3 October 2005. The opening of negotiations should be able to begin on 3 October 2005, without any guarantee regarding the outcome, and should last at least 10 years. The Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, wanted an earlier date, but the European, in particular the French, preferred to postpone the beginning of discussions until after the referenda on the Constitutional Treaty. In the event of failure of the negotiations, the European leaders argued in favour of a “firm anchoring” of Turkey to the E.U. “with links as strong as possible”.
The Turkish delegation declared it was disappointed by the summit’s proposals. The principal Turkish opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP) pressed the Turkish Prime Minister to suspend negotiations with the E.U. asserting that the E.U. was not ready to admit the country as a full member. Recep Tayyip Erdogan had already stated that the idea of a “privileged partnership” proposed by certain countries would not be accepted.
For its part the European Parliament passed a resolution (which is not binding on the Commission) in 15 December with a massive “Yes” of 407 votes to 262 in favour of the opening of negotiations.
The Kurds in Turkey, considering that the rapprochement of Turkey with the E.U. would enable them to secure more rights, are resolutely pro-European. Thus about 50,000 Kurds met in Diyarbekir on 12 December to demonstrate their support for Turkey’s membership of the European Union and to demand more rights. At the call of the People’s Democratic Party (DEHAP) and with the slogan of “Yes to diversity, no to separatism” the demonstrators marched through the city, waving Kurdish flags of yellow, red and green and behind banners saying “We want to be part of Turkey with our own Kurdish identity — we want to join the European Union”. “The Kurds should be recognised as a founding element (of the Republic) and their identity guaranteed by the Constitution” shouted Hatip Dicle (former Member of Parliament, imprisoned for ten years with Leyla Zana) to the crowd.
Furthermore, about 7,000 Kurds, according to the police, demonstrated in Brussels on 11 December to demand “recognition of their rights” in the context of the future negotiations between Turkey and the E.U. The demonstrators, answering a call from the Confederation of Kurdish Associations in Europe (Kon-Kurd), marched past the E.U. offices in Brussels. In favour of Turkey’s membership, Kon-Kurd demands that the E.U. be “an impartial referee of the resolution of the Kurdish question by supporting a bilateral ceasefire”.
However, in several European countries public opinion is, if not hostile, at least reserved about the eventuality of Turkish membership. This hostility is very much the majority opinion in France, where, four days after the decision of the European Council, the Members of both houses of parliament expressed their reservations during a special session of questions to the government on 21 December. This session gave rise to an open clash between François Bayrou and Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin. As the first speaker, the President of the UDF (a conservative party, officially part of the government majority), a fierce opponent of Turkey’s membership of the Union, denounced “a steamroller debate, without any vote” which, he considered, revealed “the padlocking of French institutions”. “If it were not for party discipline, there would be a majority in this assembly who would say “no" he predicted.
Defending President Jacques Chirac’s “yes, If… ” to Turkey’s joining, the French Prime Minister recalled that “negotiation is not membership” and that “the possibility of stopping negotiations remains”. Mr. Raffarin did not exclude the possibility of a “partnership link” between the European Union and Turkey if Ankara failed to fulfil all the conditions required for membership. He made the points that Turkey, before joining, would have to “consolidate its democracy”, “progress in its respect for human and minority rights”, “confirm the process of regional reconciliation that has been started with Greece” and “settle the Cyprus question”. The Prime Minister, furthermore, hoped that Turkey would carry out its “duty of memory” by recognising the 1915 Armenian genocide. Pointing out that the process would last “ten years, fifteen years perhaps” Mr. Raffarin assured his listeners that “the sovereign people” would have “the last word” in membership. Jacques Chirac has undertaken to revise the Constitution to make a referendum obligatory for this enlargement.
Some months after her release from the Turkish jails, where she had padded 10 years for “crimes of opinion”, Mrs. Leyla Zana arrived in France on 13 December. She was greeted by Mr. Bertrand Delanoë, Mayor of Paris, who honoured her with the award of the City of Paris’s Vermillion Medal in a special ceremony on 15 December. Also present at the ceremony were Mrs. Khédidja Bourcart, Deputy Mayor responsible for Integration and for Non-E.U. foreign residents and Mrs. Anne Hidalgo, First Deputy Mayor of Paris.
In the course of her brief stay, which lasted until 17 December, Mrs. Zana, accompanied by one of her co-detainees, the ex-member of parliament Orhan Dogan, visited all the public figures and human rights defence organisations which had shown their support during her ten years detention, to thank them. In particular, she met Mrs. Danielle Mitterrand, President of the Fondation France-Libertés, who was her greatest supporter during her years of imprisonment.
Mrs. Ségolène Royal, who was one of her lawyers during her trial in Ankara in 1994, met her for breakfast at the National Assembly. Messrs. Charrière-Bournazel, Roland Dumas and Daniel Jacoby, who were also her lawyers, were able to meet her during a dinner organised by the Paris Kurdish Institute and the International Committee for the Liberation of the Kurdish Members of Parliament in Turkey (CILDEKT). The organisation Femmes Solidaires, which had defended her and her imprisoned ex-M.P. colleagues welcomed her and expressed its pleasure at seeing her there with them. Mrs Zana also met representatives of the Women’s Alliance for Democracy to thank them for their solidarity.
For its part, the Borough of Bobigny, which had welcomed her two children during her years of imprisonment, give tribute to her by giving her name to a street in Bobigny during a ceremony organised by the Mayor on 17 December, attended by a large crowd. She met the leaders of the principal French political parties, including François Hollande, First Secretary of the Socialist Party, François Bayrou, President of the UDF, Mrs Marie-Georges Buffet, National Secretary of the French Communist Party, and Sergio Coronado and Gilles Lemaire of the Green party, to explain her analyses to them. On 16 December she met, in the course of a lunch in Strasbourg, representatives of the principal Groups of the European Parliament, after visiting the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
Mrs. Zana, who is well known to public opinion as an emblematic figure of the peaceful struggle of the Kurds for their identity and their cultural rights and who, because of this has received several international awards, including the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize, campaigns in favour of the opening of negotiations for Turkey’s membership of the E.U.
During her stay in France, her trial in Turkey continued, but the 17 December session was postponed to 25 February.
On 20 December, a draw was held to determine the numbers to be given to the 256 competing lists for the Iraqi General elections. These elections, due on 30 January, will be for the Iraqi National Assembly, the Parliament of the Autonomous region of Kurdistan, and the 18 provincial councils. One hundred and nine lists covering some 7,200 candidates, are competing for the 275 seats of the transitional National Assembly, according to the final figures issued by the Electoral Commission. There are 73 political parties competing, 27 public figures standing as independents, and nine coalition lists. To these 109 lists must be added the 16 lists for the Kurdistan Parliament and the rest are for the provincial councils.
The draw took place using a huge sphere containing balls each bearing a number that would be allocated to a list. In a two-hour ceremony, the Special UN Envoy, Ashraf Qadhi, drew three first balls, watched by representatives of the participants and the press. The numbers allocated to participants run from 101 to 366, totalling 256 numbers in all, as ten lists have been withdrawn.
This 3-figure numbering was chosen to avoid any confusion amongst the electors, who might have thought that, for example N°1 was more important than N°134. “We have chosen this system or numbering to avoid misleading the electors” declared Abdel Hussein Hindawi, head of the Electoral Commission.
The ballot papers will show the number of each list, its name and its logo. The elector will have to mark only one of them for each poll, which will be elect members of a strictly proportional basis. On Election Day, every Iraqi will have two ballot papers, one for the National Assembly and one for their Provincial Council. In the case of the Iraqi Kurds, they will also have to vote for their Autonomous Parliament.
The principal Kurdish organisations, including the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) decided, on 1 December, to present a joint list for the General Elections. The creation of this joint list testifies to the determination of the Kurds to guarantee their right to autonomy when it comes to drafting the final and permanent Constitution. “The Kurdish political forces have agreed to a common list in the General Elections and in the poll for the (autonomous) Kurdish Parliament” announced Massud Barzani, head of the KDP, on 1 December, after a meeting with the head of the PUK, Jalal Talabani. He described the agreement as “historic” and saw it as a political act that was “in the interest of the Kurds and of all Iraqis”. Mr. Talabani called on “the people of Kurdistan fully to participate in the elections because” he stressed, “we need every vote to win the greatest possible number of seats in the Iraqi National Assembly”. Questioned about the reasons why the two Kurdish parties had not joined up with an Iraqi Arab list, Mr. Talabani replied “We were not able to agree on the place of the Kurds. There are Assyrians (Christians) and Turkomen (on our list) but not the Turkoman Front”.
On 30 January, the Kurds will also have to elect 111 members of their autonomous Parliament covering the provinces of Suleimaniyah, Irbil and Dohuk. “The present situation forces us to put the future of Kurdistan before our particular interests and to present a common list what would guarantee the rights of the Iraqi Kurdish people” stressed Mr. Barzani, for his part.
“This means that the Kurds have sunk their differences to defend their common interests” declared Salaheddin Bahaeddin, head of one of the 17 organisations that signed the agreement. “In the past all the Kurdish organisations had a hard time from the predominance of the KDP and the PUK. The situation has changed now that these two parties have decided to include these organisations on the list” he declared. “The creation of this list was dictated by necessity, after our Shiite brothers had formed theirs” added Mr. Bahaeddin.
Mohammed Haj Mahmud, head of the Democratic Socialist Party of Kurdistan, stressed the impact of Kurdish unity on the proper conduct of the poll throughout Iraq. “The elections are a means of enabling democracy to take root, favouring the stability of Iraq and of getting rid of the anarchy, terrorism and insecurity that affect several regions” he considered.
The Kurds, who represent about 25% of the total population, intend putting all their weight behind the drafting of a final Constitution by Parliament so as to preserve their autonomy within a federal Iraq. Eighteen Kurdish lists have been validated by the electoral Commission.
For his part, the Iraqi President, Ghazi al Yawar announced, on 8 December, that he would be a candidate on a list called “Iraqiyoon” (Iraqis). The strongest list, the “Unified Iraqi Alliance” is led by Abdul Aziz al Hakim, head of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), who has passed decades in exile in Iran. The “Unified Iraqi Alliance” has 228 candidates, representing the different Shiite trends, except for that of the radical young chief, Moqtada al Sadr.
The coalition also includes the Islamic Dawa party as well as Ahmad Shalabi’s Iraqi National Congress. The interim Prime Minister also unveiled his own candidacy on 15 December, the last day for filing candidacies — he heads an alliance of 240 candidates called the “Iraq List”, which includes several Ministers. “What we offer is a promise to the Iraqi people and we will do our best to keep it and guarantee the future and prosperity of Iraq by consolidating national unity, ensuring security, protecting its borders and remaining firm in the face of foreign intervention in its affairs” he declared. The Iraqi Communist Party, which presented its “List of People’s Unity” on 11 December, organised the first big meeting of the election campaign in Baghdad on 17 December, bringing together some 2,000 enthusiastic activists. They called for a Democratic Iraq that would observe Human Rights. The People’s Unity list that they are sponsoring has adopted the Sun as its emblem and is presenting as many candidates as there will be seats in the future Assembly, namely 275, including 91 women.
Other lists representing Turkoman or Christian organisations have also been registered with the Electoral Commission.
The election law provides that at least a third of the candidates on each list must be women. The country has not been divided into constituencies, so every party or alliance will receive a number of seats in strict proportion to the number of votes won at national level.
The 275-seat provisional National Assembly thus elected on 30 January will appoint a transition government and draw up a Constitution. If this is adopted by referendum next October, it will provide the legal basis for the holding of fresh elections before 15 December 2005.
On 26 December, the Damascus State Security Court has sentenced a Syrian Kurd, suspected of being a member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) to four years imprisonment for, in particular “attempting to attack a friendly country”, Turkey, according to the lawyer Anouar Bounni. Kawa Mohammad Hanan, who has been in jail now for a year, was also found guilty of “membership of a secret organisation”.
Five other Syrian Kurds, suspected of being members of the PKK, are on trial before this Emergency Law court, according to Mr. Bounni, a Human Rights activist.
Until 1998, Syria had supported the PKK (since renamed Kongra-Gel) but when Syria and Turkey nearly came to the point of armed conflict because of this support, the Syrian leaders decided to expel Abdullah Ocalan, now imprisoned in Turkey.
Furthermore Syria has postponed the trial of the Damascus correspondent of the Arabic language daily Al-Hayat, Ibrahim Hmaidi, till 27 March, according to Mr. Bounni. Mr. Hmaidi, Al-Hayat’s office chief in Damascus had been arrested in December 202 for “spreading false information”, before being released on bail in May 2003. Mr. Bounni attacked the fact that “the Syrian authorities resort to the State Security Court to repress and terrorise the supporters of Human Rights”.
Moreover, Mr. Bounni attacked the arrest of a Syrian Kurdish writer, Taha Hamed, arrested by the Syrian authorities on 2 December on his return from Turkey. He denounced this arrest “after the attacks on writers and intellectuals, including Nabil Fayad and Jihad Nasra”. “We call for the release of Hamed and of all political prisoners and for an end to the terrorising of intellectuals and writers and of the politically motivated arrests” declared Mr. Bounni.
The journalist Nabil Fayad had been released in November after over a month in detention for having denounced “the corruption” of the authorities in articles. In September, he had formed the Syrian Liberal Rally, a political discussion forum. The writer and journalist Jihad Nasra, a co-founder of the Syrian Liberal Forum, was arrested on 30 September and then released on 5 October.
Furthermore, on 8 December, a Kurdish party had appealed to Syrian President Bachar al-Assad to decree an amnesty in favour of the 200 Kurds who had been arrested during the bloody clashes that had taken place in Northern Syria in March. “We exhort President Assad to amnesty these Kurdish prisoners, compensate those who had suffered damages through these events and authorise all the students who had been expelled to return to their universities” went the communiqué, signed by Aziz Daoud, General Secretary of the Kurdish Progressive Democratic Party (a banned but tolerated party). “Keeping these citizens in prison, trying them by Emergency tribunals, charging them with completely unfounded accusations, stirs up discontent amongst the Kurdish population” the appeal stressed.
The communiqué estimated the number of Kurds detained during these events in March at the Adra prison near Damascus at “over 200” “in addition to those in the hands of the security services”. According to Mr. Daoud, “the release of all these prisoners of opinion is Syria would consolidate national unity and enable our country better to face the challenges facing it”.
Fifteen of the 200 Kurds arrested are at the moment before the State Security Court, against whose verdict there is no appeal. They are accused of “acts of sabotage” and of “inciting sedition, religious dissention and civil war”. “These fifteen have been on hunger strike since the beginning of December to protest against the inhuman treatment inflicted on them and the appalling conditions of their detention”, the communiqué indicates.
Between 12 and 17 March 2004, clashes occurred between Kurds and Arab tribesmen backed by police in the Kurdish regions of Syria, resulting in some 40 killed according to Kurdish sources (25 deaths according to the Syrian authorities). The Kurdish population of Syria, estimated at 1.5 million, represents about 9? Of the total population and is mainly settled in the North. Apart from the recognition of their language and culture, they demand political and administrative rights,
On 7 December, the Syrian authorities released 112 political detainees under an Presidential amnesty “in the context of a policy of openness and tolerance” according to the news put out by the official News Agency Sana.
The official assessment of American soldiers killed in battle in Iraq now exceeds the 1,000 mark. On 10 December the Pentagon announced the loss of 1,003 members of the US armed forces Killed in combat in Iraq, In addition to this, 275 soldiers were killed in “non-hostile actions” (that is to say accidentally) since the beginning of their intervention in Iraq.
The Iraqi capital was relatively spared from violence since the Marines and Iraqi forces launched a major operation against Fallujah on 8 November. The serious last attack in Baghdad goes back to 30 September, when 40 people, mostly children were killed by simultaneous suicide attacks in the Al-Amel quarter. However, on 4 December, for the second time in two days, the Iraqi police were targeted by a murderous suicide attack that cost the lives of four police and caused 49 injured, 42 of whom were police, according to the capital’s hospitals. The explosion took place near the “Green Zone” where the Iraqi Government offices are located as well as the US and British Embassies. The day before, two attacks, one of which was against a police station in the Al-Amel quarter (West of Baghdad) had caused 26 deaths, 12 of which were police.
On the other hand, the two French journalists, Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, freed on 21 December after 124 days detention in Iraq, left Baghdad for Paris. Mr. François Hollande, First Secretary of the Socialist Party, expressed the hope that the government would inform Parliament of the conditions under which the two journalists were released.
At Mossul, a rocket attack against an US base on 21 December caused 22 deaths — 15 US soldiers, 5 US civilians under contract to the US Army, and two Iraqi soldiers. A total of 66 people were injured, including 42 Americans. The attack was claimed by the radical Islamist group Ansar al-Sunna.
On 17 December, eight Turkish police travelling in four cars from Turkey to the Turkish Embassy in Baghdad to relieve police on duty there, were attacked near Mossul. Five of them, as well as two of the chauffeurs, died in the attack. “Terrorists have neither religion, nor race nor country”, declared the Turkish Prime Minister during a ceremony that took place on the fore-court of the Ministry of the Interior on 20 December. This was attended by all the Turkish civilian and military dignitaries, including President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and the Armed Forces Chief of Staff, General Hilmi Ozkok.
In addition, one of the bloodiest attacks on Kurds in Mossul occurred on 4 December, in which 17 Kurdish fighters were killed in a suicide attack. The day was also marked by the death of two US soldiers and a number of Iraqis, less than two months before the General Elections. “Seventeen Peshmergas found heir deaths and 40 others were wounded when their convoy was attacked by a car bomb driven by a kamikazi at about 4.30 pm in the Karama quarter” declared Saad Pira, Mossul head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). According to him, the convoy consisted of eight minibuses coming from the Kurdish city of Irbil with about 80 pashmergas aboard, to relieve some of the Kurdish fighters deployed at Mossul. An Islamist internet site displayed a communiqué attributed to the Al-Qaida Organisation of the Rafidain Country (Mesopotamia) claiming credit for the attack.
Elsewhere, two people were wounded on 12 December by the explosion of a car bomb in Irbil as a convoy was passing carrying Amin Najjar, local representative of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). The explosion took place in the main road of the Mualemin quarter. According to the police, there were four anti-tank rockets in the car, but only one exploded — by remote control. This is the first attack in Irbil since the two suicide attacks of 1 February, which had caused 105 deaths.
Furthermore, the Governor of the Kurdish province of Dohuk, Neshirvan Ahmad, was once more targeted by a bomb attack on 4 December as he was going to his office. The Islamist armed group, Ansar Al-Sunnah, claimed the operation. Kurdish Television indicated that some homemade bombs had exploded in the city of Dohuk, as the convoy was passing at 8.10 am local time. No one was injured. On 14 September the same group had clamed an earlier attempt to assassinate this governor.
The Christians in Kurdistan have, for the most part, celebrated Christmas despite the fears of bomb attacks, from which they have, however, been relatively spared so far, unlike other of their co-religionists in other parts of Iraq. At the entrance to the Enkawa housing estate, near the city of Irbil, the local council workers hung up Christmas Tree lights and decorations, on trees and electric pylons while others cleaned up the streets in preparation for the festivities.
This township, about four kilometres West of Irbil, is one of a number of localities in Iraqi Kurdistan the majority of whose inhabitants are Christian, many of whom also live in the major towns of Iraqi Kurdistan. The Iraqi Christians make up about 3% of the total population, that is about 700,000 people, out of a total of 24 million, overwhelmingly Moslem.
Since the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime in April 2003, the Christians have been targeted by many attacks, of which four in Baghdad and Mossul caused at least 12 deaths in August. In mid-October, homemade bombs exploded near five churches in Baghdad, without causing any casualties. According to the Iraqi authorities at least 15,000 Iraqi Christians have left the country since August.
On 4 December, Yonadem Kana, head of the Assyrian Democratic Movement in Iraq and member of the Iraqi National Council indicated that over 1.500 members of a group of Iraqi Christians had been sent to the North of Iraq to protesct the Christians of the region after the series of attacks aimed at Churches in Baghdad and Mossul. These fighters are deployed at Bagdida, near the city of Mossul, he explained. “We do not want to transform our movement into a militia” he insisted, “but, if need be, we can arm over 10,000 men”. On a visit to Syria, Yonadem Kana explained that his movement had no intention of deploying fighters in other Iraqi towns and that he did not need the protection of coalition forces. “We will not accept that our ethnic and religious past be used as a cart in the hands of foreign forces to act in Iraq and prolong the occupation” he declared.
On 19 December, the holy cities of Najaf and Kerbala, in the centre of Iraq, were shaken by two attacks causing at least 66 deaths and nearly 180 injured, six weeks before the General Elections. These attacks, the bloodiest ones against the Shiites since those of, March 2004 which caused 170 deaths in Kerbala and Baghdad. Were perpetrated near the mausoleums of Imam Ali and Imam Hussein, two of the most venerated sites of the Shiite community of Iraq and of the world. Fifty-two people were killed and 140 others injured at Najaf. Ths suicide car bomb attack at Kerbala caused 14 deaths and about forty injured at a bus station. On 15 December, ten people were killed and 40 others injured, including the representative of Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Sheikh Abdel Mehdi Kerbalai, in a bomb attack aimed at the Western gate to the mausoleum there.
On 1 December, the Ministers of the Interior of Iraqi and its neighbours had pleaded for more and greater regional cooperation against the Iraqi guerrilla, which is continuing to spread insecurity. At the end of a two-day Conference in Teheran, the Ministers of eight countries (Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Syria, Turkey, Jordan and Egypt) “insisted on the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Iraq” and stressed, in a communiqué “the need for increased cooperation” on border controls. But this final communiqué, adopted with difficulty according to sources close to these discussions, does not erase the pinpricks exchanged between Baghdad and Teheran, which reproached one another with not fighting enough against terrorism.
For his part, on 15 December the Iraqi Minister of Defence, Hazem Sha’alan, accused Iran and Syria of being responsible for the violence in the country. Mr. Sha’alan did not mince his words about Teheran and Damascus, seeing Teheran, in particular, as the “most dangerous enemy of Iraq and all the Arabs” in front of senior Iraqi and American officers. “Terrorism in Iraq is backed by Iranian Intelligence, Syrian Intelligence, the accomplices of Saddam Hussein in collaboration with the Zarqawi group (that led by the Jordanian islamist Abu Mussab Zarqawi)” he added. On 15 December the United States had warned Iran and Syria against any interference in Iraq’s internal affairs, even though the US Army admits having difficulty in evaluating the extent of their influence. “We will continue clearly to make known, both to Syria and to Iran (…) that interference in Iraq’s internal affairs is not in their interest” declared US President G.W. Bush when he welcomed the head of the Italian government, Silvio Berlusconi, to the White House.
On 20 December, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution, backed by the United States, condemning the violations of Human Rights in Iran, particularly citing new attacks on freedom of expression, the execution of children and persecution of political opponents and religious dissidents. The resolution, which has no legal or enforceable status but merely reflects the opinion of the international community, was passed by 71 for, 54 against and 55 abstentions. The UN has a total of 191 member countries.
In this resolution, the General Assembly considered that “the situation was worsening” in Iran with regard to freedom of expression and the media, and stressed “especially the new persecutions of the peaceful expression of political ideas, such as arbitrary arrests and detentions without any charge or trial”.
It condemned the execution of children under the age of 18, in violation of international laws and deplores “the attacks by the judiciary and police on journalists, members of parliament, students, religious chiefs and academics” as well as “the unjustified closure of papers and Internet sites”.
UNO urges Teheran to conform to its obligations with respect to Human Rights by observing the interdiction of the use of torture, by reforming the legal system and judiciary, by suppressing all religious discrimination and banning corporal punishment.
Furthermore, on 22 December, the Iranian Minister for the Intelligence Services, Ali Yunessi stated that a dozen people had been arrested in the course of the last few months for having spied on Iranian nuclear activities on behalf of American or Israeli Intelligence — but also for having offered to sell an atom bomb to Iran. “They have been handed over to the revolutionary courts and their identities will not be revealed before the beginning of their trial”, he added. Mr. Yunessi announced that his services had arrested “spies sent by the Americans and Israelis to offer to sell Iran an atom bomb or uranium” so as to trap Iran.
He also added “certain spies had received orders to contaminate nuclear sites. All that is needed is to touch a component of a nuclear site with a contaminated handkerchief to then claim that (uranium) enrichment has taken place” at that place. The inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have, indeed, found a high decree of contamination at certain nuclear sites. The Iranians have always stated that this contamination came from second-hand material imported from abroad.
On the other hand, on 4 December, the Iranian press reported that three recently released reformist journalists had written to the ultra-conservative courts letters of repentance, in which they said that “counter-revolutionaries” and foreigners had “brainwashed them”. “I was brainwashed by radical elements, my relations with counter-revolutionaries and my contacts with foreign radios”, wrote Omid Memarian in his letter, quoted by many newspapers. “I was trapped, as well as others like me, by those who were only concerned with their personal political interests and who used us as puppets” confessed, for his part, Roozbeh Mir-Ebrahimi, according to the press. “I propagated lies and I was encouraged to do so by those who had been attacking the Islamic regime for years” admitted Shahram Rafizadeh, according to the papers.
Messrs. Memarian and Rafizadeh regained their freedom in the evening of 1 December against a bail of 500 million rials ($ 56.800) indicated the student news agency ISNA. Roozbeh Mir-Ebrahim had been released the week before in exchange of 300 million rials ($34,000). All three had been arrested in the course of a campaign by the courts against journalists accused of propaganda against the regime, attacks on national security, disturbing public order or of insulting sacred religious values. The courts’ offensive, coinciding with the repossession of control by the conservatives after winning the February elections, was mainly directed against Internet, one of news media favoured by Iranians. Thus Mr. Memarian managed a site before his arrest on 10 October. Mr. Mir-Ebrahimi, formerly in charge of the international pages of a reformist daily, Etemad (Confidence), also wrote on the Web before his arrest on 27 September. Mr. Rafizadeh, responsible for the cultural section of Etemad was arrested on 7 September.
Public confession of this sort, which had immediately followed the Revolution or the student demonstrations of 1999, had become rare over the last few years, when the reformers had dominated Parliament.
On 29 December. The Turkish courts charged four policemen in the context of an enquiry into the assassination of a Kurd, Ahmet Kaymaz, and his son Ugur, shot down outside their house in the town of Kiziltepe. According to the charge sheet, the four police risk sentences of between two and six years jail. This charge calls for the imprisonment of the police implicated in this killing for having exceeded the limits of self-defence.
The local authorities had simply explained that it was an “operation against armed terrorists of a Kurdish rebel group”. But Human Right Defence groups and members of parliament considered that the father and his son were unarmed civilians killed in an act of summary execution.
On 22 December, a Turkish Parliamentary Commission clearly implicated the police forces in these murders — but also in the disappearance of 11 villagers in 1993. The Chairman of the Commission, Mehmet Elkatmis, accused the Kiziltepe police of “serious neglect” in the firing that killed Ahmet Kaymaz and his son. “The people killed and those against whom the operation was being conducted were not the same” the commission noted. It recommended that the local police be suspended to enable the enquiries to take place under dispassionate conditions. According to the Commission, Ahmet and Ugur Kaymaz “should have been taken prisoner without being injured if the police had taken the trouble”.
In the case of the disappearance of 11 inhabitants of the village of Alaca, in Diyarbekir Province, the Parliamentary Commission insists on the need to conduct a full investigation into the remains found by other villagers in a “mass grave”. The eleven men had disappeared after being detained by the security forces during an operation.
These two cases have provoked a wave of anger in Turkey and are considered a test of Turkey’s will to observe human rights in the perspective of its joining the European Union. On 11 December, about 2,000 people demonstrated in the centre of Istanbul to protest against this execution. To the sound of drums and percussion instruments, the demonstrators marched behind banners, one of which read, “At the age of 12, one has a right to live”.
On 29 December, another mass grave containing nearly 60 bodies was brought to light near the city of Suleimaniah, by workers digging foundations for building a hospital. “The grave was found by workers at Dabashan” to the North of the city, declared to the press Salah Rashid, Minister of Human Rights in the PUK government that controls the city. “They came across six bodies and we believe that the grave contains about sixty”, he added. He also remarked that even before the work had begun, some local inhabitants had indicated that the site might contain the bodies of Kurds killed by Saddam Hussein’s forces during the 1991 uprising.
Mr. Rashid asked for help from the US-led multinational force to extract and identify the bodoes as his government did not have the means of doing so.
On 14 December a mass grave containing about 500 bodies, including women and children, had already been found nearby. “My workers were digging the land to build a housing estate when they found skulls, bones and scraps of clothing. We informed the local authorities” the building contractor, Ahmad Majid had reported at the time. This man, who was building a housing estate at Dabashan, 4 Km North of the city, pointed out that the authorities had indicated, after examining the site, that the grave dated back to 1990 and contained about 500 bodies., including women and children. Inhabitants from many localities in Kurdistan rushed to the site to search for missing relatives. “In 1990, before the Kurds took control of the region, my husband and other men were arrested by Saddam henchmen and accused of collaborating with the peshmergas” stated Fatima Ali, 36 years of age. “Till now I didn’t know where he had disappeared to. Every time I learn, from television, that a mass grave has been found I rush to the scene and, today, I found his clothes and his identity card in one of the pockets” she added. Another person also found the body of his son. “He was arrested in our house, because he had deserted early in 1990. I found him amongst the dead” declared mullah Mohammad Salay.
Up to March, the US-led coalition had logged 259 mass graves containing 300,000 bodies of people executed by the Baath regime or killed in the wars launched by Iraq after Saddam Hussein came to power in 1979. But the full extent of the old regime’s brutality is still unknown and some estimates go as far as one million people killed.
Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Ankara on 5 December for a historic visit to Turkey — the first by any Russian head of state for thirty-two years. This three-day visit sets the seal on the thawing of the, often tense, relations between the two countries, whose bi-lateral trade has greatly increased since the end of the cold War. Mr. Putin, who had just completed an official visit to India, was the guest, that same evening, of a diner in his honour given by the Turkish President, Ahmet Necdet Sezer. “We are determined to strengthen our relations (…) we are convinced we can reach courageous decisions” in order to develop bi-lateral Turco-Russian relations, the Russian president declared during the banquet. He also hoped that his visit to Ankara might open up “new horizons” in particular in the areas of economic and trade relations between the two countries.
Mr. Sezer, for his part, stressed the necessity for cooperation, on the international level, against terrorism which constitutes “a threat to Humanity” and, to this end, the setting up of effective, signed, agreements, between Moscow and Ankara, in the area of anti-terrorist struggle. The Turkish Head of State that it was in the interest and the responsibility of both countries to ensure the peace, stability and economic development of Eurasia.
Important security measures were enforced for the Russian President’s visit. Over 3,000 police were mobilised for this and several roads, leading from the airport to the Presidential complex where Mr. Putin and his delegation were housed were housed, were temporarily closed. The Russian Foreign Minister, Serguei Lavrov, who was in the delegation, declared Moscow’s determination to strengthen her cooperation with Ankara in an opinion page published in the daily paper Milliyet on 5 December. On the economic level, this is excellent — bi-lateral exchanges, which reached $6.8 billion in 2003, should be $10 billion for 2004.
Turkish investments in Russia exceed $22 million and Turkish firms have been allocated projects to an overall value od $10 billion while Turkey is the preferred destination for Russian holiday-makers.
On the other hand, their political relations have sometimes been disturbed by mutual accusations of support of terrorism, Moscow stating that Turkey closed its eyes on the activity of Chechen activists on its territory, Ankara accusing Russia of welcoming members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PLL). “We hope further to strengthen our cooperation with Turkey on the question of terrorism, of separatism, of discrimination on ethnic bases, of religious fundamentalism, and organised crime” wrote Mr. Lavrov in Milliyet. Despite the official policy of non-intervention put forward by Ankara, the Chechen cause enjoys general sympathy in Turkey (in which live communities of Caucasian origin) and especially in Islamist circles as a result of the activity of Chechen associations.
Russia and Turkey have thus signed several cooperation agreements sealing the thawing of their bi-lateral relations. Mr. Putin let it be understood that the divergent views that had poisoned relations between the two countries for so many years had been overcome. “We are grateful to the Turkish nation and leaders for their moral and political support for Russia’s struggle against international terrorism” rejoiced Mr. Putin.
In all, six agreements have been signed, and Mr. Putin and his Turkish opposite number, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, have formulated a declaration on the deepening of multilateral cooperation. The Russo-Turkish declaration “not only seals the improved quality of cooperation between Russia and Turkey, but also defines the future orientations of our cooperation”, the Russian President considered.
The question of the overcrowding of the Bosphorus was also on the agenda. This waterway is Vital for the transport of Russia crude to world markets. The Russians have been complaining of the restrictions on maritime traffic at a time when the Americans are busy completing the construction of a pipeline to carry Azerbaijani crude via Turkey to the Mediterranean.
Iraqi oil and its long train of irregularities continue to cause a lot of ink to flow. On 13 December, it was the turn of the International Supervisory Council to report on the American management of the money from Iraqi oil and the funds of the “oil for food” programme.
The UN Security Council had set up an Iraqi Development Fund to help the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), led by Paul Bremer, to administer Iraq. This Fund included sums coming from the sale of Iraqi oil by the CPA, as well as millions of dollars left over from the “Oil for Food” programme, wound up in November. According to the International Supervisory Council, the CPA mismanaged the Iraqi funds and was unable to fight against corruption.
At a time when the United States is pointing the finger of shame at UNO because of its management of the “Oil for Food” programme, at the heart of a corruption scandal implicating the son of Kofi Annan, the issue of frauds involving Iraqi oil are diversifying. According to Charles Duefler, the CIA reporter who had concluded that there were no weapons of mass destruction, but who had also investigated Saddam Hussein’s finances, his “loot” came from illicit sales of oil to Jordan, Syria and Turkey, which brought him in much more than what he embezzled from the “Oil for Food” programme. Between the two Gulf Wars, Iraq was under an embargo. From 1996 to 2003, the UN humanitarian programme of enabled Iraq to sell its oil to finance the purchase of food or medicines to ease the sufferings of the Iraqi people. A programme that was perverted, Baghdad having paid hush-money out right and left and embezzled vast sums. With the spotlight on him, Kofi Annan appointed the former Head of the US Federal Reserve Bank to conduct his own investigation.
The report of disarmament inspector Charles Duefler establishes that the embezzlement of the “Oil for Food” programme brought Saddam Hussein 1.7 billion dollars — much less than the illicit oil sales of 8 billion dollar, of which 4 billion were to Jordan, 2.8 billion to Syria and 710 million to Turkey.
The members of the US Senate Commission, adding all these sums up (a total of 21.3 dollars) hold the UN responsible for the lot. However, the Democrat Congressmen consider that it is not possible to hold the UN responsible for a contraband trade of which Washington was fully aware: “Three quarters of these sums (…) being something to which we acquiesced, shows how mistaken it is to accuse Kofi Annan of them” stresses Carl Levin, Democratic Senator for Michigan.
According to former senior State Department officials, Washington had no other choice but to look the other way: in 1991, Jordan was on the point of collapse, deprived of any trade partner by the sanctions against Iraq. And, being unable to buy oil from anywhere else, boycotted by those who reproached it of having supported Baghdad …“We realised that Jordan would collapse” if it could not buy Iraqi oil, explained David Mack, Assistant Secretary of State at the time.
As for the deals with Syria, Washington is said to have objected several time, but “there did not seem any way of stopping it short of military action” notes Allen Keiswetter, who held Mack’s post in 2000 to 2001.
The revenue from oil sales to Syria, deposited in Damascus bank accounts, have enabled Saddam to buy conventional weapons. Specifies Duelfer’s report: from 2000 to 2003, Syria was the principal source of illegal exports to Iraq. The contracts with Belarus, the principle supplier of high tech weapons, with North Korea and with Bulgaria all passed through this route.
On 20 December, a draw was held to determine the numbers to be given to the 256 competing lists for the Iraqi General elections. These elections, due on 30 January, will be for the Iraqi National Assembly, the Parliament of the Autonomous region of Kurdistan, and the 18 provincial councils. One hundred and nine lists covering some 7,200 candidates, are competing for the 275 seats of the transitional National Assembly, according to the final figures issued by the Electoral Commission. There are 73 political parties competing, 27 public figures standing as independents, and nine coalition lists. To these 109 lists must be added the 16 lists for the Kurdistan Parliament and the rest are for the provincial councils.
The draw took place using a huge sphere containing balls each bearing a number that would be allocated to a list. In a two-hour ceremony, the Special UN Envoy, Ashraf Qadhi, drew three first balls, watched by representatives of the participants and the press. The numbers allocated to participants run from 101 to 366, totalling 256 numbers in all, as ten lists have been withdrawn.
This 3-figure numbering was chosen to avoid any confusion amongst the electors, who might have thought that, for example N°1 was more important than N°134. “We have chosen this system or numbering to avoid misleading the electors” declared Abdel Hussein Hindawi, head of the Electoral Commission.
The ballot papers will show the number of each list, its name and its logo. The elector will have to mark only one of them for each poll, which will be elect members of a strictly proportional basis. On Election Day, every Iraqi will have two ballot papers, one for the National Assembly and one for their Provincial Council. In the case of the Iraqi Kurds, they will also have to vote for their Autonomous Parliament.
The principal Kurdish organisations, including the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) decided, on 1 December, to present a joint list for the General Elections. The creation of this joint list testifies to the determination of the Kurds to guarantee their right to autonomy when it comes to drafting the final and permanent Constitution. “The Kurdish political forces have agreed to a common list in the General Elections and in the poll for the (autonomous) Kurdish Parliament” announced Massud Barzani, head of the KDP, on 1 December, after a meeting with the head of the PUK, Jalal Talabani. He described the agreement as “historic” and saw it as a political act that was “in the interest of the Kurds and of all Iraqis”. Mr. Talabani called on “the people of Kurdistan fully to participate in the elections because” he stressed, “we need every vote to win the greatest possible number of seats in the Iraqi National Assembly”. Questioned about the reasons why the two Kurdish parties had not joined up with an Iraqi Arab list, Mr. Talabani replied “We were not able to agree on the place of the Kurds. There are Assyrians (Christians) and Turkomen (on our list) but not the Turkoman Front”.
On 30 January, the Kurds will also have to elect 111 members of their autonomous Parliament covering the provinces of Suleimaniyah, Irbil and Dohuk. “The present situation forces us to put the future of Kurdistan before our particular interests and to present a common list what would guarantee the rights of the Iraqi Kurdish people” stressed Mr. Barzani, for his part.
“This means that the Kurds have sunk their differences to defend their common interests” declared Salaheddin Bahaeddin, head of one of the 17 organisations that signed the agreement. “In the past all the Kurdish organisations had a hard time from the predominance of the KDP and the PUK. The situation has changed now that these two parties have decided to include these organisations on the list” he declared. “The creation of this list was dictated by necessity, after our Shiite brothers had formed theirs” added Mr. Bahaeddin.
Mohammed Haj Mahmud, head of the Democratic Socialist Party of Kurdistan, stressed the impact of Kurdish unity on the proper conduct of the poll throughout Iraq. “The elections are a means of enabling democracy to take root, favouring the stability of Iraq and of getting rid of the anarchy, terrorism and insecurity that affect several regions” he considered.
The Kurds, who represent about 25% of the total population, intend putting all their weight behind the drafting of a final Constitution by Parliament so as to preserve their autonomy within a federal Iraq. Eighteen Kurdish lists have been validated by the electoral Commission.
For his part, the Iraqi President, Ghazi al Yawar announced, on 8 December, that he would be a candidate on a list called “Iraqiyoon” (Iraqis). The strongest list, the “Unified Iraqi Alliance” is led by Abdul Aziz al Hakim, head of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), who has passed decades in exile in Iran. The “Unified Iraqi Alliance” has 228 candidates, representing the different Shiite trends, except for that of the radical young chief, Moqtada al Sadr.
The coalition also includes the Islamic Dawa party as well as Ahmad Shalabi’s Iraqi National Congress. The interim Prime Minister also unveiled his own candidacy on 15 December, the last day for filing candidacies — he heads an alliance of 240 candidates called the “Iraq List”, which includes several Ministers. “What we offer is a promise to the Iraqi people and we will do our best to keep it and guarantee the future and prosperity of Iraq by consolidating national unity, ensuring security, protecting its borders and remaining firm in the face of foreign intervention in its affairs” he declared. The Iraqi Communist Party, which presented its “List of People’s Unity” on 11 December, organised the first big meeting of the election campaign in Baghdad on 17 December, bringing together some 2,000 enthusiastic activists. They called for a Democratic Iraq that would observe Human Rights. The People’s Unity list that they are sponsoring has adopted the Sun as its emblem and is presenting as many candidates as there will be seats in the future Assembly, namely 275, including 91 women.
Other lists representing Turkoman or Christian organisations have also been registered with the Electoral Commission.
The election law provides that at least a third of the candidates on each list must be women. The country has not been divided into constituencies, so every party or alliance will receive a number of seats in strict proportion to the number of votes won at national level.
The 275-seat provisional National Assembly thus elected on 30 January will appoint a transition government and draw up a Constitution. If this is adopted by referendum next October, it will provide the legal basis for the holding of fresh elections before 15 December 2005.
• A PETITION SIGNED BY 1.7 MILLION PEOPLE CALLING FOR A REFERENDUM ON INDEPENDENCE FOR IRAQI KURDISTAN, HAS BEEN SENT TO KOFI ANNAN. On 26 December, a Kurdish association announced it had collected 1.7 million signatures to a petition calling for a referendum on the independence of Iraqi Kurdistan and had sent it to the UN General Secretary. “A delegation of our association visited UNO’s headquarters in New York on 22 December, where it handed the petition, signed by 1,7 million Kurds calling for a referendum on independence” declared Karwan Abdallah, a member of the Movement for a Referendum in Kurdistan. “The signatures were collected in towns throughout Iraqi Kurdistan”, he added, indicating that a copy of the petition is also due to be handed in to the UN offices in Geneva on 5 January.
Mr. Abdallah indicated that his movement intended to sound the Kurds on the issue of independence during the elections on 30 January 2005, by asking them to reply, in writing, to the question “Do you want independence for Kurdistan or not?”
The Movement was founded by intellectuals and independent people, after the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime in April 2003.
The principal Kurdish parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan are not calling for independence but have advanced, and obtained, a federal status for Iraq, which has been recognised in the provisional Constitution adopted in March 2004.
• KIRKUK: THE KURDS DEMAND THE POSTPONEMENT OF LOCAL ELECTIONS TILL A SOLUTION HAS BEEN FOUND FOR THE SITUATION OF THE KURDISH VICTIMS OF THE FORCED ARABISATION OF THE CITY. On 30 December, dozens of people demonstrated to condemn the violence against Kurds and to demand the postponement of local elections in the city. The Kurdish demonstrators demanded that the police forces put a spotlight on the assassination of several Kurds of Hawija, about 50 Km West of Kirkuk on 19 December. “We demand that the authors of these assassinations be punished and that the 541 families who have left Hawija for Kirkuk be protected” declared one of the demonstration’s organisers, Abdallah Hassan. Some 1.500 Kurds had previously demonstrated on 22 December to demand that the Iraqi security forces and the multinational forces act against the authors of these assassinations. Since then, unknown persons disguised as members of the National Guard have kidnapped three Kurdish civil servants and wounded a fourth on 24 December near Kirkuk.
The demonstrators, some dozen students and teachers, also demanded the postponement of provincial elections until Article 58 of the Provisional Constitution has been applied. This article envisages ending the situation created in Kirkuk by the regime of fallen dictator, Saddam Hussein, which had driven out Kurds and encouraged the establishment of Arabs in the city.
Elections for the 18 Councils, including that of Taamin, of which Kirkuk is the capital, are due to take place at the same time as those for the 274-seat National Assembly of the 111-seatparliament of the Kurdish autonomous region.
On 15 December, nearly 300 Kurdish public figures, belonging to the KDP and the PUK threatened to boycott the General Elections, unless Article 58, on the law on State Administration of the provisional Constitution was not applied. The Kurdish parties and organisations have launched a campaign to postpone the elections to the Council of the Iraqi Province of Taamin until a solution is found to the complex question of the ethnic composition of its capital, the oil producing city of Kirkuk. Some 1,500 people, including Arabs, demonstrated on 16 December to support this appeal.
The Kurdish parties claim the inclusion of Kirkuk in their autonomous region, but the interim authorities in Baghdad have, up to now, argued for a solution through Commissions charged with verifying the complaints of expropriation of Kirkuk Kurds by the old regime.
• NAJAF: 600 LEADERS OF FIVE SHIITE PROVINCES LAY THE BASIS FOR AN AUTONOMOUS REGION COMPARABLE TO THAT OF IRAQI KURDISTAN. On 6 December, some 600 leaders and public figures from five provinces of central Iraq, announced their intention of forming common institutions, laying the basis for an autonomous region, comparable to that of Iraqi Kurdistan. At the end of a Congress lasting several hours, in the city of Najaf, the participants announced that they wanted to set up a security commission for the five provinces. They also decided to create a regional Council whose task would be to renew economic activity in this relatively depressed region, which forms the heart of Shiite Iraq. The participants stressed “the importance of holding the general elections on the due date” of 30 January, and welcomed the position of the Shiite religious leaders opposing the postponement of the elections as the Sunni Arabs organisations and public figures are demanding.
The Congress hoped to have relations of cooperation with neighbouring foreign countries and called for the exclusion of former cadres of Saddam Hussein’s Baath party from their administration. “The Solidarity Congress of the provinces of Middle Euphrates” was opened by an appeal from the governor of the province of Najaf, Adnan al-Zorfi, for the birth of a regional assembly. The Deputy Governor of Kerbala, the other Shiite holy city, Wakil al-Kozai, supported these ideas. “We must form ourselves into a regional unit in the framework of a federal Iraq” he declared before the assembly.
In addition to the provinces of Najaf and Kerbala, those of Babel, Qadissiyah, and Muthanna were represented at the Congress. The Shiite provinces of Basrah, Wasset and Zi Qar, to the South and South-East were not represented. The idea of an autonomous Shiite region has been in the air for some months, but this is the first time that so many leaders of the Shiites areas have held a congress to give concrete effect to the idea. The Provisional Constitution recognises the federal character of Iraq.
• STRASBOURG: THE EUROPEAN COURT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS FINDS TURKEY GUILTY OF VIOLATING THE RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION. On 9 December, the European Court for Human Rights found Turkey guilty of violating the right to freedom of expression to an activist of the pro-Kurdish HADEP Party (the Party for People’s Democracy).
Cemil Elden was sentenced to a years imprisonment in October 1997 and fined by the State Security Court for having made a speech, a year earlier, virulently criticising the government’s policy towards the Kurdish population.
“The person concerned was expressing his views as a politician, in his role as an actor in Turkish political life, neither inciting hatred, nor the use of violence, nor armed resistance, nor an uprising, and it was not a speech of hatred” the Council of Europe’s Court ruled in its verdict.
In accordance with its own jurisprudence, it considered that the State Security Court, now abolished, is not an impartial court, because it contains an Army judge. Ankara must pay 7,200 euros damages to Cemil Elden.
• ROTTERDAM: A DUTCH BUSINESSMAN ARRESTED FOR HAVING SUPPLIED THE SADDAM HUSSEIN REGIME WITH INGREDIENTS ENABLING THE MAKING OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS. On 7 December, the Netherlands authorities arrested a Dutch businessman, suspected of having supplied the Saddam Hussein regime with the means of making chemical weapons which were used, in particular against he Iraqi Kurds in 1988. “The suspect, a trader in chemical products, is suspected of having supplied the Saddam Hussein regime with the ingredients needed to make chemical weapons”, declared the spokesman of the Rotterdam Public Prosecutor’s office, Wim de Bruin.
The man, identified by the Dutch media as Frans van Anraat, 62 years of age, is the first Dutch citizen suspected of complicity in the genocide, Mr. de Bruin pointed out. He will probably also be charged with war crimes. He was apparently preparing to flee the country, as his luggage was all packed when he was arrested, according to the same source.
This chemical products trader is particularly suspected of having supplied the ingredients for mustard gas, used in the attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988. Mr. van Anraat supplied “thousands of tons of base products for making chemical weapons between 1984 and 1988”. These raw materials came from the United States and Japan. “Many clues allow us to deduce that the suspect was aware of the destination and final use of these base products that he was supplying” the Public Prosecutor’s office indicated. “One of the most atrocious attacks with chemical weapons was the destruction of the town of Halabja on 16 March 1988, It is estimated that 5,000 people died” the same source indicated.
The Netherlands authorities investigations show that this businessman dealt directly with the Iraqi authorities, but used a Panamanian screen company to hide his relations with Baghdad.
Several years ago the US customs opened an enquiry into Mr. van Anraat, according to the Prosecutor’s office. The United States concluded that he was involved in the supply of four consignments of thiodiglycol, a basic substance for the production of mustard gas. He had been arrested in Italy in 1989, at the request of the United States, but had fled to Iraq, where he remained until the United States-led coalition attacked in 2003, when he sought refuge in the Netherlands. For unexplained reasons, the United States withdrew their demand for the trader’s extradition in the year 2000. For this reason the Netherlands’ authorities, who had been aware of his presence in the kingdom since 2003, did not have a legal basis for arresting him. The accusations of genocide and war crimes provided them. The suspect has been placed in provisional detention until his first court hearing, where the eventuality of his imprisonment will be decided. His arrest was the result of an enquiry jointly carried out in cooperation with the United States, Switzerland, Belgium and Jordan.
In July, the leading officials of the Iraqi special court charged with tying Saddam Hussein had indicated that the former Head of State would have to answer to seven charges of crimes against humanity, in particular for the gas attack on the town of Halabja during the Iraq-Iran war.
• IYAD ALLAWI VISITS MOSCOW. On 8 December, the Iraqi Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, declared in Moscow that Iraq would have to be governed by a federal system, stressing the “constructive” cooperation of the Kurdish representatives with the government. “We declare ourselves in favour of a federal system, in the context of a united country” declared Mr. Allawi. The Kurdish representatives “participate in a productive manner in the government’s work” he added.
He recalled that the elections on 30 January were only “the first stage, after which the Iraqi Constitution will have to be adopted, after being put to a referendum, before regional elections may be held”.
After his stay in Germany, where he arrived on 2 December, Mr. Allawi arrived in Russia on 6 December, for his first visit and his first encounter with President Vladimir Putin. The Iraqi Prime Minister promised that Russia would “have a leading role” in the country’s reconstruction in return for the quasi-total cancellation of the Iraqi debt of $8 billion granted by Moscow.
• SWEDEN RECEIVES 185 KURDS BLOCKED AT THE JORDANO-IRAQI BORDER. A group of 185 Kurds, blocked for over 18 months in “no man’s land” near the Jordano-Iraqi border, left Amman on 8 December for Sweden, where they have secured political asylum. The Jordan head of the International Organisation for Migrations (IOM), Fernando Arocena, indicted that his organisation had taken charge of the refugees transportation from their camp in the East of Jordan to Amman Airport. The group consisted of 131 adults and 54 children, five of whom were babies, Mr. Arocena added.
At the end of November, 202 other Iranian Kurds had also gone to Sweden, on the initiative of the High Commission for Refugees. These refugees had fled Iraq towards the Jordan border during the US-led military offensive in March 2003. They were part of a group of 1,048 Iranian Kurds blocked in “no man’s land” after Jordan had refused them entry to its territory. But in October, these refugees were transferred to a camp at Rueished, within Jordan territory near the border, in preparation for their departure to Sweden. “They were accepted in the context of our programme for refugees and we have given them residential permits” stated, for her part, a diplomat of the Swedish Embassy in Jordan, Ann Sofie Nilsson. “They will be welcomed at Stockholm and then be transferred to different areas in the country, where their housing, schools and Swedish lessons will be provided” she added.
