6 July 2001

1. "Iraq: Kurdish Parties Move To Normalize Relations", in recent months, the region's two rival Iraqi-Kurd factions have taken new steps to improve cooperation.

2. "Kurds' desperate return home", villagers use whatever they can to rebuild their houses.

3. "UK report says 60,000 affected by Turkish dam plan", nearly 60,000 people would have their homes or land flooded by the proposed Ilisu dam project in southeast Turkey, a British report said recently.

4. "The solution is with multi-culturalism", the ECRI devoted much space to Turkey and Kurdistan in its report on racism and intolerance. The report also noted that the decreased tension in Kurdistan had created great opportunities for a solution to the Kurdish problem.

5. "Turkish Army used Gas against prosoners, paper says", report investigates reasons behind December deaths of leftist inmates

6. "More talks needed for Turkey, IMF, World Bank: minister", Turkish Economic Affairs Minister Kemal Dervis acknowledged Thursday that key issues still need to be resolved with the IMF and World Bank relating to major loans to the crisis-stricken nation.


1. - Radio Free Europe - "Iraq: Kurdish Parties Move To Normalize Relations":

By Charles Recknagel

Kurdish northern Iraq, separated from Baghdad by a U.S.- and British-patrolled no-fly zone, is showing signs of an ever-healthier economy, with new schools opening and some shopping centers larger than those in the capital. In recent months, the region's two rival Iraqi-Kurd factions have taken new steps to improve cooperation. But RFE/RL correspondent Charles Recknagel reports the two sides remain far apart on the biggest issues, including how eventually to reunite Iraqi Kurdistan under a single administration.

PRAGUE

Over the past year, northern Iraq's two rival factions -- the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) -- have taken several new steps to ease tensions between them.

Last month, the two sides agreed to start a first repatriation of 40 families from KDP-controlled Arbil to PUK-controlled Sulaymaniyah. Another 32 families are to be repatriated in the opposite direction. At the same time, both parties have agreed to return property to the displaced persons whom they had previously accused of sympathizing with the other side.

The repatriation addresses what has long been one of the sorest points between northern Iraq's two ruling forces. That is: what to do about the 3,000 families -- a total of some 15,000 people -- who were turned into refugees by the fighting between the two factions.

That fighting came as the PUK, which has long controlled the eastern areas of northern Iraq along the Iranian border, and the KDP, which controls the western part along the Turkish border, waged a war for territory throughout much of the 1990s. The two sides reached an early power-sharing agreement when northern Iraq fell out of Baghdad's control in the wake of the 1991 Gulf War. But the agreement soon fell apart and the two groups battled intermittently prior to signing a U.S.-brokered accord in September 1998.

Both sides now say they hope that by accepting the return of a handful of displaced families, they can build confidence for the full return of all refugees in the coming months. In some cases, the refugees have been homeless for nearly a decade, living in garages, unfinished houses, and schools, surviving on aid handouts and by doing odd jobs.

Over the past three months, the PUK and KDP have also lifted many checkpoints guarding the frontier between them and ended requirements that businessmen and other travelers obtain permission to cross. They have also agreed to make it easier to exchange professors and members of Kurdish non-governmental organizations.

Fouad Hussein, an Iraqi Kurd academic who visits the region frequently, says all this is a sign of increasingly open dialogue between the two rival parties.

"The most important change is that there is an open dialogue between both parties and especially between both leaders of the KDP and PUK. And of course people can watch that and hear about that and see that. Both sides are emphasizing peace and emphasizing continuing talking to each other, while in the past sometimes they had negotiations but at the same time [the negotiation] was [only] for a short time and then they were attacking each other. [Now] both sides are saying we don't have any alternative except the peace process and reaching a peace agreement."

Both KDP leader Massoud Barzani and PUK leader Jalal Talibani agreed in 1998 to work toward reuniting their administrations. They also agreed to reconstitute an autonomous regional parliament, while remaining committed to Iraq's territorial integrity.

But progress toward a single administration and legislature has been slow. The two sides remain at odds over how to fully share their revenues and how to have full political representation on each other's territory. They also have been unable to agree on preparing for general elections to replace the former regional parliament, which disbanded in 1992 amid fears of renewed factional fighting.

For the moment, no elections have yet been scheduled. Both sides appear to have decided they first must reach a comprehensive peace agreement settling the outstanding disputes between them. Hussein says:

"The election is a point which must come after they reach a peace agreement and they sign that. Two high-level groups are now working on the general lines of a peace agreement, but they have got also sub-groups dealing with aspects of security, refugees, aspects of the economic situation. So, in many fields they have reached an agreement. But on how to deal with the parliament, they still are talking about that."

The general easing of tensions between the KDP and PUK comes as northern Iraq in recent years has experienced a mini-economic boom that has made it easier for both groups to live with their still-unresolved political differences.

Standards of living have improved as northern Iraq -- for decades an economic backwater -- has become a crossroads for fuel trading between Baghdad and Turkey. The trading has grown into a multimillion-dollar business, with the Iraqi oil going directly into Turkey's state-supervised fuel-distribution system in violation of UN sanctions. Oil-industry analysts estimate that Turkish trucks each day bring some 100,000 barrels of petroleum products and crude oil from Iraq.

The smuggled oil, upon which the KDP levies transit taxes through its territory, has long been tolerated by the West as a price for Turkish cooperation in other areas, including hosting U.S. and British planes that patrol the no-fly zone. But in recent months, the trading has become a focus of U.S. and British proposals to levy "smarter" sanctions on Iraq, aimed at tightening border controls against smuggling.

While the KDP has profited from the fuel trading, the PUK has levied taxes on trade between Iraq and Iran and between Turkey and Iran. Much of this commerce is in smuggled consumer goods and alcoholic beverages, which are prohibited in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

In addition, both the KDP and PUK administrations have benefited from the UN awarding northern Iraq 13 percent of the revenue Baghdad earns through legal oil sales under the oil-for-food program. That 13 percent is distributed outside of Baghdad's control both as humanitarian aid and in contracts to improve the area's infrastructure. The money involved has grown proportionally as Baghdad's oil revenues under the oil-for-food program have surged from $4 billion in 1997 to $18 billion last year.

The improved economic situation has enabled both the KDP and PUK administrations to build scores of new schools and institute compulsory education at the primary-school level. Over the past three years, many villages have acquired schoolhouses and the practice of double-shifting students -- operating morning and evening schools in the same building to accommodate an excess of students -- has ended. The region's three universities have acquired computers and there are plans to introduce computer instruction at the secondary-school level.

At the same time, the improving economy has brought growing Turkish business interest in the region. Turkish companies have invested in shops and hotels and are participating in rebuilding bridges and highways both in the KDP and PUK areas under the oil-for-food program's infrastructure contracts.

The KDP had for many years been allied with Turkey against the PUK, which in turn was allied with the rebel Turkish-Kurd PKK, or Kurdistan Workers' Party. But since Ankara's capture of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan two and a half years ago, the PUK has also moved closer to Turkey and joined in fighting the PKK, some 2,500 of whom are in strongholds along the mountainous Iran-Iraq border.

Iran, too, has sought in recent months to expand ties with northern Iraq. While lacking Turkey's commercial appeal, it has sought to build links to both factions' areas through cultural exchanges and activities.

In one other sign that northern Iraq is increasingly becoming a more stable region, some expatriate Iraqi Kurd businessmen have also begun returning to the region from Europe. Fouad Hussein says: "I have seen some Kurdish businessmen who are living in Europe and they have been back to invest some money there in Iraqi Kurdistan. So, that is new, actually. Because usually the Kurdish businessmen, Iraqi Kurds, were not satisfied with the political situation there and so [did not feel] encouraged to invest their money there."

Hussein says some university teachers have also returned from Europe, in another vote of confidence in the peace process.

That suggests that northern Iraq already has come a long way in overcoming its factional differences -- at least in the minds of its own people -- even as a formal peace agreement still remains well over the horizon.


2. - BBC - "Kurds' desperate return home":

Villagers use whatever they can to rebuild their houses

By Chris Morris in south-eastern Turkey

In the village of Saklat, they are rebuilding their houses, stone by stone.

This village was evacuated and burnt by the army in the early 1990s - a pattern repeated across the region as the authorities tried to cut supply lines to the Kurdish rebel movement, the PKK.

The strategy was brutal but effective, and the villagers paid the price.
The PKK has now withdrawn, and the war is all but over.

A few people were given state aid to help them come back to Saklat - an example, officials said, of things returning to normal.

Piles of stones

But many people say they have had no assistance at all. "We need food, and materials for building houses like cement and iron," says Recep, a villager rebuilding his home. "We also need electricity and water."

"If they help us get started we can solve our problems. It's not impossible, but we are expecting the state to help. If the state isn't willing to give us a hand, even help sent from abroad won't reach us," he says.

Up in the mountains, the situation is even more desperate.

Haci and his family look after their small flock of sheep and goats - they are the only family which has come back to the village of Merani.

Many people have been refused permission to return to villages where a state of emergency is in force.

Others simply can't afford it.

"These houses used to be full of people, about 150 or 200 families," Haci says. "But they all left when the village was set on fire. They've all applied to come back, but they've got no money to rebuild their houses.

"I haven't got any money either but for now I'm living in the remains of the village school."

City life

Most refugees remain trapped in the big cities, living in basic conditions in shanty towns and tower blocks.

Life in these cramped communities is hard, but some Kurds hope big compensation claims at the European Court of Human Rights could eventually give them the economic power they need to make a fresh start.

A government form sent out to people who want to go back to their homes asks why they left their village in the first place and suggests a series of options, such as terrorism, health or family feuds.

Being forced out by the army does not get a mention. And signing a form like this could prejudice any future legal action against the state.

"If they try to make us to fill in this form, to say we left our villages for reasons other than the facts - that would be an insult," says Kutbettin Polatwe who received the form.

"Because we suffered huge problems for 15 years during the war, we were psychologically affected. The village in which I was born and raised has been wiped off the map.

"Turkey should be ashamed. I know there was a war but even war should have some rules."
It is clear that the demand among the displaced to return and rebuild is as strong as ever.

Most people in the south-east are not revolutionaries - but they say the state destroyed their houses, and they want the state to help rebuild them.

In the current conditions of national economic crisis, they may have a long wait.


3. -Reuters - "UK report says 60,000 affected by Turkish dam plan":

LONDON

Nearly 60,000 people would have their homes or land flooded by the proposed Ilisu dam project in southeast Turkey, a British report said recently.

Britain's government commissioned the environmental impact report to help decide whether to underwrite participation in the project by British builders Balfour Beatty Plc, part of a consortium negotiating to build the dam across the Tigris river.

Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt will make a decision after Sept. 7 on whether to grant the export credit guarantees, officials said. Until then, the government is studying the report and inviting public comment on the project.

"We've always said that we would want to look at the environmental and social impact of the dam before any decision," said a spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Opponents of the project say it will displace tens of thousands of Kurds, harm the environment, and stoke tensions with downstream neighbors Syria and Iraq over water supplies.

Former Trade and Industry Secretary Stephen Byers said in 1999 that he was inclined to approve export credits for the project if Turkey met conditions on environmental issues and resettlement of the mainly Kurdish population.

The report Byers commissioned, which his successor Hewitt is now studying, said some 59,314 people would be affected by the flooding caused by the proposed dam - meaning they would lose all or part of their land to the resulting reservoir.

It said 43,733 of these people actually live in the areas to be affected. The others do not live there, but their property would suffer and they could still claim expropriation or resettlement rights.

"The area to be impacted comprises hundreds of archeological sites documenting more than 100,000 years of human occupancy," the report added.

The remains of Hasankeyf, a large historic site dating back 2,000 years that has "great religious importance" for local people, would be flooded, it said.

Hewitt declined comment on the report but invited public comment on the matter by Sept. 7.

Balfour Beatty said it had received a copy of the report and was studying it.

"Whilst Balfour Beatty is neither the promoter nor the proposer of the project, it is taking an active and responsible role in evaluating, with other parties, the environmental and social impacts of he project in order that appropriate decisions can be taken," the company said in a statement.


4. - Kurdish Observer - "The solution is with multi-culturalism":

The ECRI devoted much space to Turkey and Kurdistan in its report on racism and intolerance. The report also noted that the decreased tension in Kurdistan had created great opportunities for a solution to the Kurdish problem.

CEMAL UCAR

The European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), which is active within the body of the 43-member Council of Europe, of which Turkey is a founding member, called on Turkey to take multi-lingualism and multi-culturalism as a basis. The ECRI devoted 24 pages to Turkey and the Kurdish problem in its 2001 report on racism and intolerance in Europe that was released the other day. The report noted that now that the tension had subsided in Kurdistan, the time had come to make new openings in the fields of culture and language.

The report reminded Turkey of its international obligations and criticized a number of articles of the Turkish constitution for creating the opportunity for pressure and repression. Reaction was particularly shown to articles which restrict human rights, the right of expression, religious freedom, and multi-culturalism.

For example, the report stressed that article 14 of the constitution restricts basic rights and freedoms by attempting to obstruct differences of religion and ethnic roots. It pointed out that those who wished to express their ethnic-cultural identity were particularly subjected to pressures.

The report noted that those who do not know Turkish suffered great difficulties because of the prohibitions against Kurdish, such as difficulty in communication in public offices in Kurdistan and the inability of Kurdish women to explain their problems to physicians because they were not allowed to use their native tongue. The ECRI report called on Turkey to "investigate the situation and take the necessary measures" on this subject.

Languages must not be forbidden

The report likewise recalled that the Armenians have 19 schools in Turkey, and that there are two Jewish and 26 Greek Orthodox schools. while noting that the language and cultural rights of all other minority peoples - who are not specifically mentioned in the Lausanne Treaty - were banned by the 42nd article of the constitution. The section of the report appraising this situation put its finger on the realities in Kurdistan and continued to say, "The ECRI strongly stresses that these languages must not be prohibited. Of course, this does not mean that the official language in schools should not be Turkish."

The ECRI called on Turkey to assure the development of multi-culturalism by allowing education in schools in mother tongues other than Turkish, to create opportunities for publication in languages other than Turkish, and to guarantee the freedom to assemble and freedom in religious education.

Great destruction caused by war

The report also indicated the great destruction caused by the war in its section on the general situation in Kurdistan and noted that the conflict had left the people of the region in a very unprotected state. It noted that this had in turn "had a negative impact on the social and economic development of the Southeast, and that gap between the regions in Turkey grew in a noticeable fashion." The report noted that another of the results of the conflict was migration and creation of insecurity for the Kurdish people, also opening the path to discriminatory approaches by the state.

Tension has decreased

The report noted that tension in the conflict had decreased since the first report was prepared, stating, "The ECRI believes that the new situation leading to a reduction in tension has granted more opportunities for cultural and linguistic pluralism in Turkey," and calling on Turkey to grant greater breadth to the expression of societal and individual cultural and ethnic identity to the benefit of all members of Turkish society. The report noted that the ECRI considered it necessary to give priority to the aforementioned activities to guarantee the development of pluralism.

The report noted that the decrease in tension in Kurdistan had created an opportunity for social and economic reconstruction and said that it supported an increase of efforts by Turkish authorities to allow the people of the Southeast to return to their villages in this framework. The report said that it found the continued pressure especially against Kurdish broadcasting to be particularly worrisome and called for obstacles to be lifted.


5. - Frankfurter Rundschau - "Turkish Army used Gas against prosoners, paper says":

Report investigates reasons behind December deaths of leftist inmates

ATHENS / by Gerd Hoehler

A forensic medical report published in Turkey has shed new light on the events which took place when authorities stormed 20 prison facilities on December 19, 2000.

The government intended its "Operation Back To Life" to put an end to the hunger strikes being waged by a number of left-wing prisoners.

When police and military units finally moved in and stormed the prisons, 26 inmates were killed and a further 103 injured. According to the account provided by Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk, the majority of the deaths resulted from self-immolation.

However, a forensic report published in the centre-left Istanbul newspaper Radikal concluded that at least six inmates at Istanbul's Bayrampasa prison died from the effects of inhaling gas the army used in storming the prison. The report said that too much gas was used and that the gas cartridges used were generally not appropriate for use in enclosed spaces.

Former Interior Minister Sadettin Tantan justified the use of gas by saying that live ammunition had not been used in order to prevent inmates from injury.

Doubts have been raised regarding the official version of events not only by the report in Radikal but also by the paper's publication of an interview with a former inmate, Elif Dincer. She was present when authorities stormed the C-1 sleeping quarters in Bayrampasa, and was seriously injured by some kind of chemical substance used in the attack. The units were said to have made between 30 and 35 holes in the roof, dropped gas bombs and then sprayed some form of liquid chemical substance.

"When I put my hand on my head, I noticed my skin began to dissolve," said Dincer - the former inmate still has scarring to her face and body caused by burns. In storming the prisons, the government failed to succeed in its goal of ending the hunger strikes.

There are still around 200 prisoners involved in so-called death fasts. So far, 26 inmates and sympathisers not in prison have starved to death.


6. - AFP - "More talks needed for Turkey, IMF, World Bank: minister":

WASHINGTON

Turkish Economic Affairs Minister Kemal Dervis acknowledged Thursday that key issues still need to be resolved with the IMF and World Bank relating to major loans to the crisis-stricken nation. Dervis, who met Thursday in Washington with US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, IMF managing director Horst Koehler and World Bank acting president Sven Sandstrom, said further discussions would take place later this month.

Earlier this week both the IMF and the World Bank canceled important meetings geared to conceding loans to Turkey worth some 3.2 billion dollars. "There are a few issues that remained to discuss and we of course are working with the IMF and the World Bank so that the important board meetings that were to take place some time in July take place," Dervis told a news conference. While Dervis said that conversations had "focused on the specifics to help that process along," he declined to give details, other than to state that they related to banking, monetary policy, and market confidence. The Turkish minister said that both the IMF and World Bank appeared to view Turkey's implementation of key economic reforms since April -- with 17 laws passed in all -- as "very positive."

A banking reform bill signed into law Monday by Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer had failed to prevent the IMF postponing a board meeting slated for Thursday that was geared to approving the release of 1.5 billion dollars (1.8 billion euros) in IMF aid to Turkey. The IMF's total aid package for Turkey is worth eight billion dollars. And on Tuesday, the World Bank also postponed two upcoming meetings to discuss proposed loans to Turkey worth 1.7 billion dollars until it fulfills remaining reform pledges.