9
June 2004
2. "Extradition of PKK suspect blocked by UN", Turkish authorities have yet to respond to Dutch requests for assurances that Kesbir will not be ill treated and will be given a fair trial.
3. "Kurds Threaten to Walk Away From Iraqi State", A crisis for the new Iraqi government loomed Tuesday as Kurdish leaders threatened to withdraw from the Iraqi state unless they received guarantees against Shiite plans to limit Kurdish self-rule.
4. "Kurds, Shiites at Odds Over Constitution", The passage of a U.N. resolution on Iraq has drawn attention to hints made by Iraq's two main Kurdish parties that they might not participate in the new government if the U.N. measure didn't endorse the interim constitution.
5. "Turkish state TV launches broadcasts in Kurdish", Turkey's public television TRT began broadcasting in Kurdish on Wednesday in a taboo-breaking move aimed at boosting the country's bid to join the European Union.
6. "Turkey holds 25 reporters from pro-Kurdish media", Turkish police detained 25 journalists from pro-Kurdish media on Tuesday, as the country stepped up security for a NATO summit this month.
1. - AFP - "Europe's top rights court hears Ocalan appeal":
STRASBOURG / June 9, 2004
Europe's top human rights court on Wednesday began examining an appeal
by Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, currently serving a life
term in isolation in a remote island jail in Turkey.
About 200 demonstrators from Kurdish groups in France gathered at
the court calling for the release of Ocalan, who was Turkey's most
wanted man for almost two decades.
The European Court of Human Rights already partially found in favour
of Ocalan in March last year when it condemned Turkey for failing
to give him a fair trial.
It said in its non-binding ruling that not only were his rights violated
by the lack of an "independent and impartial tribunal" but
again when he was given the death penalty.
Ocalan, 55, was sentenced to death in 199 for "treason and separatism"
over his role in the war for independence waged by his Kurdistan Workers'
Party (PKK), which left more than 30,000 people dead.
His death sentence was commuted in 2002 to life imprisonment after
Turkey abolished capital punishment.
For five years, Ocalan has been detained as the sole inmate in a jail
on the Marmara Sea island, south of Istanbul.
"Ocalan is bearing up with difficulty to the conditions in which
he is living," one of his lawyers Aysel Tugluk told reporters
here on Tuesday.
Last year's Strasbourg court ruling was seen as a blow to Turkey's
efforts to improve its human rights record, regarded as a prerequisite
for joining the European Union.
"To impose a death sentence on a person after an unfair trial
was to subject that person wrongfully to the fear that he would be
executed," the court said, describing the sentence as a "form
of inhuman treatment".
The court also said that Turkey had violated the European Convention
on Human Rights on other counts, notably by limiting his access to
his attorneys and case files, and having a military judge seated on
the state security court that tried him.
The court ordered Turkey to pay Ocalan's lawyers 100,000 euros (123,000
dollars) for costs and expenses. Both sides appealed.
The Turkish parliament adopted a series of amendments to the constitution
in early May including abolishing state security courts to bring it
into line with EU norms.
Turkey has been trying to join the 25-member European Union, which
will assess Turkey's democratization process in December and decide
whether to start accession talks with the predominantly Muslim nation.
The outlawed separatist PKK was disbanded in April 2002 and, in its
latest reincarnation is known as the Kurdistan People's Congress (KONGRA-GEL).
2. - MSNBC - "Extradition of PKK suspect blocked by UN":
Turkish authorities have yet to respond to Dutch requests for assurances that Kesbir will not be ill treated and will be given a fair trial.
June 9, 2004
The United Nations has blocked the extradition of a member of the
PKK from the Netherlands to Turkey.
Nuriye Kesbir can not be extradited until Turkey gives full assurances
that she will not be tortured and will receive a fair trial, according
to Theo van Boven, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Torture.
Kesbir, a senior member of the PKK who is currently being held in
a Dutch gaol while a decision is made on Turkey’s request for
her extradition, has begun a hunger strike in protest at her detention
and to highlight her fears of abuse should she be sent to Turkey.
The Dutch Justice Minister Piet-Hein Donner has already asked for
guarantees from Turkey ensuring Kesbir’s treatment should she
be extradited.
3. - The New York Times - "Kurds Threaten to Walk Away From Iraqi State":
BAGHDAD / June 9, 2004 / By Dexter Filkins
A crisis for the new Iraqi government loomed Tuesday as Kurdish leaders threatened to withdraw from the Iraqi state unless they received guarantees against Shiite plans to limit Kurdish self-rule.
In a letter to President Bush this week, the two main Kurdish leaders, Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani, wrote that the Kurds would "refrain from participating in the central government" in Baghdad if any attempt was made by the new government to nullify the interim Iraqi constitution adopted in March.
Shiite leaders have said repeatedly in recent weeks that they intend to remove parts of the interim constitution that essentially grant the Kurds veto power over the permanent constitution, which is scheduled to be drafted and ratified next year.
The Shiite leaders consider the provisions undemocratic, while the Kurds contend they are their only guarantee of retaining the rights to self-rule they gained in the past 13 years, protected from Saddam Hussein by United States warplanes.
In their letter, Mr. Talabani and Mr. Barzani wrote that the Kurdish leadership would refuse to take part in national elections, expected to be held in January, and bar representatives from going to "Kurdistan."
That would amount to something like secession, which Kurdish officials have been hinting at privately for months but now appear to be actively considering. "The Kurdish people will no longer accept second-class citizenship in Iraq," the letter said.
The two leaders also asked President Bush for a commitment to protect "Kurdistan" should an insurgency compel the United States to pull its forces out of the rest of Iraq.
To assure that Kurdish rights are retained, Mr. Talabani and Mr. Barzani, whose parties together deploy about75 , 000fighters, asked President Bush to include the interim Iraqi constitution in the United Nations security resolution that governs the restoration of Iraqi sovereignty.
But American officials rejected the Kurdish request after appeals from Shiite leaders, including Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the nation’s most powerful Shiite, who threatened "serious consequences" if any such move was undertaken. That seemed to set the stage for a showdown between Kurdish and Shiite leaders over the future of the Iraqi state.
A senior American official in Washington cautioned against reading the letter as a firm threat to abandon the central government, saying he expected the Kurds and Shiites to reach an agreement ultimately.
But in Baghdad, a rupture seemed quite possible. The Shiite leaders, whose people make up a majority in Iraq but who have been historically shut out of power, say the provisions that would allow the Kurdish minority to nullify the constitution would diminish the Shiites’ historic opportunity to claim political power.
Adil Abdul Mahdi, Iraq’s finance minister and a leader of one of the country’s largest Shiite parties, said Tuesday that the country’s Shiite leadership was determined to remove the provisions that could allow the Kurds to veto the permanent constitution, even at the risk of driving them away. "It’s not against the Kurds, it’s against the procedure," Mr. Mahdi said.
Adam Ereli, deputy State Department spokesman, did not offer details on the American decision to refuse the Kurdish request regarding the United Nations resolution. But he offered general assurances that Kurdish rights would be protected. "We in the international community will work with you to make this democracy a success, to ensure that the rights of all Iraqis are honored and respected," he said.
But a senior United Nations official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said American officials rejected the Kurdish request because of concerns over offending the country’s Shiite leaders.
In a letter released Tuesday by his office, Ayatollah Sistani warned the Security Council against incorporating the interim constitution into the United Nations resolution.
"This law, which was written by a nonelected council under occupation, and under the direct influence of the occupation, would constrain the national assembly," Ayatollah Sistani wrote. "It is rejected by the majority of the Iraqi people."
The signing of the interim constitution, shepherded by American officials here, was regarded as a historic achievement that tried to reassure the country’s long-suppressed Shiite majority without alienating the Kurds.
The crucial compromise was contained in the provision that the permanent constitution would pass with a majority vote of the Iraqi people unless voters in three of the country’s 18 provinces opposed the constitution by a two-thirds vote. Ethnic Kurds, who make up a fifth of the Iraqi population, are a majority in three provinces.
Kurdish leaders say they are concerned that the new Iraqi government will not honor the interim constitution unless it is forced to.
Iraqi leaders and United Nations officials say that under generally accepted principles of international law, the new Iraqi government will not be bound by any of the laws passed during the American occupation.
A source close to the Kurdish leadership, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Kurdish leaders concluded that the interim constitution needed some sort of reaffirmation to compel the new government to adhere to it. The Kurds say they do not expect the Shiite-dominated interim government to provide such reaffirmation, so they asked the Bush administration to make sure it was included in the United Nations resolution.
Bush administration officials have maintained publicly that the interim constitution, as well as all the laws approved during the occupation, will continue to have legal force in Iraq after June30 . But privately, a senior official acknowledged that the interim constitution would need to be reaffirmed to have legal force.
The turning point for the Kurds, the source close to the leadership said, came last month when Robert Blackwill, President Bush’s special envoy to Iraq, told the two Kurdish leaders that no ethnic Kurd would be considered for the post of either president or prime minister.
After that, Kurdish leaders began preparing to cut their ties to Baghdad. In an ominous sign, most of the senior leadership of both Mr. Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and Mr. Barzani’s Kurdish Democratic Party had left Baghdad Tuesday and gone to the Kurdish areas.
Steven R. Weisman contributed reporting from Washington for this
article.
4. - Associated Press - "Kurds, Shiites at Odds Over Constitution":
BAGHDAD, Iraq / June 8, 2004
The passage of a U.N. resolution on Iraq has drawn attention to hints made by Iraq's two main Kurdish parties that they might not participate in the new government if the U.N. measure didn't endorse the interim constitution.
The resolution adopted unanimously late Tuesday by the U.N. Security Council makes no mention of the Transitional Administration Law, which will serve as Iraq's temporary constitution after the new interim government takes power on June 30 and until a new constitution is written and approved in a referendum late next year.
The country's leading Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, had warned of trouble if the Security Council gave any legitimacy to the interim charter, adopted in March.
The Kurdish demands were contained in a letter Sunday from Jalal Talabani of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and Massoud Barzani of the Kurdistan Democratic Party to the United Nations.
A PUK official, Araz Talabany, said Tuesday that the letter asked that reference to the interim constitution be made in the Security Council resolution providing international legitimacy to U.S. plans for transferring power to the Iraqis.
"They said that in the future they might not participate in the government or in the coming elections" planned by Jan. 31 if the new resolution failed to mention the interim resolution, the aide said before the U.N. vote.
Talabany, the aide, said the interim constitution stipulates from some Kurdish rights, such as federalism. "What they are asking for is the least of the rights of the Kurdish people," he said.
In his own letter to the United Nations, al-Sistani said that any effort to give legitimacy to the interim charter, known as the Transitional Administrative Law, by mentioning it in the Iraq resolution "runs counter to the will of the Iraqi people."
"This law, which has been written by an unelected council under the occupation and its direct influence, restricts the national (body) due to be elected at the beginning of the new year to draft Iraq's permanent constitution," al-Sistani said. "This runs against law and is rejected by the majority of the Iraqi people."
Al-Sistani objected to the interim constitution because it was not drafted by an elected body but was instead approved by the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council. He has insisted that the interim charter should not tie the hands of a future elected body that will draft a permanent constitution next year.
The Kurds won a major concession in the interim constitution which states that if a majority of voters in three of Iraq's 18 provinces reject the permanent charter, it will not be approved. Kurds control three provinces.
Shiites complain that gives a veto to an ethnic community which forms
about 15 percent of the population. Shiites are believed to comprise
about 60 percent.
5.
- AFP - "Turkish state TV launches broadcasts in Kurdish":
ANKARA / 9 June 2004
Turkey's public television TRT began broadcasting in Kurdish on Wednesday
in a taboo-breaking move aimed at boosting the country's bid to join
the European Union.
Turkey had long resisted calls to grant cultural freedoms to its sizeable
Kurdish minority on the grounds that this could play into the hands
of Kurdish rebels fighting for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast
of the country.
The half-an-hour program, called "Our cultural riches,"
started with news and continued with a bizarre mix of Kurdish music
and brief documentaries on nature, the development of civilization
and technology.
It was preceded by a similar radio broadcast early in the morning.
But in a sign of the haste with which the program was prepared and
the technical difficulties the TRT seemed to have faced, the "news"
was taped
earlier in the week and did not match normal television bulletins.
The language used in the program was the most widespread dialect spoken
among the Kurdish community in Turkey -- Kurmanci. It came complete
with sub-titles in Turkish.
TRT was also to broadcast in another Kurdish dialect, Zazaki, on Friday.
Expanding the cultural rights of the Kurdish minority is a key demand
made by the EU, which will assess Turkey's democratization progress
in December and decide whether to open membership talks with the Muslim
nation.
TRT's broadcasts in non-Turkish languages started on Monday with a
program in Bosniac and continued on Tuesday in Arabic. It will also
broadcast in a Circassian dialect once a week.
TRT, which had long dragged its feet on allowing non-Turkish broadcasts,
launched the programs in haste, under pressure from the government
of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan which is seeking to impress
the EU in the run-up to the December decision.
Parliament had authorized state radio and television to air in Kurdish
back in August 2002 as part of EU-sought political reforms.
But TRT initially resisted the reform, citing its own governing regulation
which provides only for broadcasts in "clear and fluent Turkish."
6. - Reuters - "Turkey holds 25 reporters from pro-Kurdish media":
ISTANBUL / 8 June 2004 / By Ayla Jean Yackley
Turkish police detained 25 journalists from pro-Kurdish media on Tuesday, as the country stepped up security for a NATO summit this month to be attended by U.S. President George W. Bush and other world leaders.
"We don't see how our agency is a security concern for the NATO meeting," said a journalist with the small Dicle News Agency, declining to be identified.
The journalist said anti-terrorism police raided the Istanbul offices of Dicle and Ozgur Halk magazine, seizing computers and other records.
"The charges are that (the media groups) belong to an illegal organisation. The second charge stems from publishing in the Kurdish language," he said.
The Anatolian state news agency and sources said that as well as the 25 journalists, three youth activists were detained.
Anatolian said a state security court had ordered the arrest of members of the Progressive Youth Association.
Police also raided an undisclosed number of other media organisations, associations and homes, said Anatolian, adding the number of detainees could rise.
Turkey, NATO's only Muslim member, has increased security in the run-up to the alliance's summit in Istanbul later this month that more than 40 world leaders are due to attend.
A Turkish cell linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network has claimed responsibility for suicide bombings in Istanbul in November that killed more than 60 people.
Several left-wing and Kurdish factions are also active.
Turkey's state broadcaster began airing short programmes in minority languages for the first time this week after a ban on non-Turkish education and broadcasting was lifted two years ago.
The changes are aimed mainly at an estimated 12 million ethnic Kurds, part of a reform drive to expand minority rights and boost a troubled bid for European Union membership.
But the conservative establishment still fears easing such restrictions could rekindle separatism among Kurds.
The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) waged a decades-long campaign for an ethnic homeland in the mainly Kurdish southeast, and more than 30,000 people, mostly Kurds, died in the violence.
Fighting between the PKK and Turkish security forces has largely subsided since the 1999 capture of the rebels' leader. But the guerrillas, based mainly in northern Iraq, said late last month they were abandoning a five-year ceasefire.
Turkey has been singled out in the past by the EU and international
rights groups for its treatment of journalists.