16
March 2004
2. "Assad loyalists said to have killed Kurds in Qahtaniya", As clashes continued Monday between pro-regime forces in Syria and the nation's Kurdish minority, loyalists of President Bashar Assad were reported to have committed acts of violence against Kurds in the Syrian city of Qahtaniya, killing a number of them.
3. "Exiled Kurds occupy Syria embassy", About 20 exiled Syrian Kurds took over the Syrian consulate in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, as the United Nations began its human rights meeting.
4. "UN plan for Cyprus reveals concerns for economy", If anyone needs proof that economics is not an exact science, Cyprus is the perfect case study.
5. "Hundreds of Syrian Kurds arrested during unrest: rights groups", Hundreds of Kurdish Syrians have been arrested since rioting broke out Friday in the northeast of Syria, human rights lawyer Anwar Bunni told AFP Tuesday.
6. "Turkish Cypriot leader threatens to quit to lead opposition to Annan plan", Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash is threatening to quit as president of his self-declared republic to lead the opposition to a UN plan on reunifying the island if his side's interests are ignored.
1. - The Washington Times - "Rights for the Kurds":
By Hiwa Osman / March 16, 2004
A perfect opportunity has arisen for President Bush to prove to the
people of the Middle East that his policy in their region is about
democratization and reform and not about pure economic or political
interest.
Over the past week, a wave of rallies swept the Kurdish areas of Syria
and Iran in support of their fellow Kurds in Iraq, who have finally
received the recognition for which they have been fighting for almost
80 years with the signing of Iraq's interim constitution.
Typicalofautocratic regimes, the authorities in bothcountriesviolently
quelled the expression of support for the democratic rights earned
next door in Iraq. As a result, dozens were killed, and many more
injured at the hands of Iranian and Syrian security forces.
The Kurds in Syria, Iran and in Turkey are perhaps the most repressed
and discriminated-against populations in the Middle East. In Turkey,
even their identity as Kurds is still denied; they are called Mountain
Turks. In Syria, they are denied all civil and political rights. Almost
200,000 are denied citizenship outright. They cannot vote, own property,
go to state schools or get government jobs. Kurds in Iran live in
similar repressive situations.
In all three countries, public services, education and health care
in Kurdish areas are purposefully underdeveloped. Even the most casual
traveler in the Kurdish regions of these countries cannot help but
notice that the difference between these areas and the non-Kurdish
ones is like the difference between the white and black areas of old
South Africa.
To the Syrian and Iranian regimes, recognition of minority rights
and individual freedoms is a threatening and alien concept. The Syrian
state broadcasting said that the demonstrations damaged "the
stability and security of the homeland and the citizen" and that
they were the fault of "some intriguers," who had adopted
"exported ideas."
But to the people who live under these regimes, these demonstrations
are not about destabilization or even separation. They are about asserting
the right to live in dignity and as equal citizens in their country.
Following the demonstrations, I received a desperate e-mail from the
Kurdish city of Qamishly, Syria, where one of the major demonstrations
took place and Syrian police had killed 19. Written in coded language,
the e-mail starts: "I can't tell you much; I will be imprisoned
or killed." The message then begged me to tell the world what
happened in his city.
Back in November, the same person sent an almost euphoric e-mail describing
his feeling when he heard Mr. Bush in London saying, "We must
shake off decades of failed policy in the Middle East ? [We] have
been willing to make a bargain, to tolerate oppression for the sake
of stability."
The writer considered this statement a major shift in U.S. policy
in the Middle East and an open commitment to stop tolerating oppression
like that in his country and start supporting democratic change.
A Kurd from Turkey picked up on and praised another point in the same
speech: "We cannot turn a blind eye to oppression just because
the oppression is not in our own backyard. No longer should we think
tyranny is benign because it is temporarily convenient ? our great
democracies should oppose tyranny wherever it is found."
With these words, Mr. Bush gave great hope to the Kurds of the Middle
East, and they are waiting for him to oppose the tyranny just displayed
this past week.
In fact, in one of the demonstrations in Syria this past week, a banner
carried by the demonstrators read: "With our lives, with our
souls, we sacrifice for you O Bush" -- the slogan that people
in Syria normally chant for President(s) Asad.
Many Kurds today consider these demonstrations as the real test for
the words of Mr. Bush. They are waiting for the United States to condemn
the Syrian and Iranian response and to voice support for the right
of the Kurdish people to express their opinion in peaceable demonstrations.
When the war last spring geared, and an alliance was struck between
the coalition and the Kurdish peshmerga forces, skeptics said that
the United States is not after the interest of the Iraqi people, but
only serving its own interests. "Since when was the U.S. supportive
of democracy in the Middle East?" said an Arab intellectual on
one of the Arab Satellite television channels just before the war.
Apart from recent history, when the safe haven was established in
Iraqi Kurdistan in 1991 and Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Kurds have
had a bitter experience with the United States. Thousands have died
over several previous decades when the United States failed to deliver
on promised support.
These recent demonstrations should be neither feared nor dismissed.
The people of the Middle East both want and are willing to fight for
democracy in their countries. The U.S. government must express their
support for Kurdish rights in the autocratic countries in which they
live to prove to all that there is a sincere change of policy.
As Mr. Bush said in November, "Our part, as free nations, is
to ally ourselves with reform, wherever it occurs."
Hiwa Osman is a Baghdad-based journalist. 
2. - Haaretz (Israel) - "Assad loyalists said to have killed Kurds in Qahtaniya":
By Yossi Melman / 16 March 2004
As clashes continued Monday between pro-regime forces in Syria and the nation's Kurdish minority, loyalists of President Bashar Assad were reported to have committed acts of violence against Kurds in the Syrian city of Qahtaniya, killing a number of them.
Most of the Kurds in the city, where the some 2,000 Kurds comprise 10 percent of the population, were said to have fled Qahtaniya for a Kurdish town close to the Iraqi border.
Syria Monday sealed off its borders with Iraq after Iraqi Kurd fighters threatened to enter the country if violent clashes between security forces and their Syrian brethren were not brought to an end.
Other reports, from hospitals in the city of Qamishli on the Turkish border, where the riots began last Friday, indicated that some 400 Kurds who had been hospitalized for injuries sustained in the unrest, were expelled from the hospital in order to make room for Syrian soldiers to be housed there.
The internet site of the Kurdish party in Syria published video footage in which Syrian soldiers were seen going house to house in the course of the rioting.
Disturbances continued throughout the Kurdish regions in the north of the country, as an American delegation was sent in to try to stabilize the situation.
The American team travelled in secret from Iraq to the Kurd region in northern Syria following the several days of riots which came on the heels of a violent soccer game between a Kurdish-backed and a mostly Arab-backed team, Kurdish sources and Syrian exiles in Europe told Haaretz on Monday.
The information was also published on Kurdish websites in Europe.
The U.S. team, which includes intelligence officers, contacted senior officers in a Syrian delegation sent to the region by President Bashar Assad to negotiate with local leaders.
According to the sources, two U.S. helicopters arrived Sunday from Iraq to the city of Qamishli on the Turkish border, where the riots began.
The sources believe that the American delegation has warned the Syrian government that if the riots continue, the situation could get out of control and the Syrians will find it difficult to restrain the Kurdish militias in northern Iraq, who want to come to the aid of the Kurds in Syria.
According to Kurdish sources, isolated exchanges of gunfire continued overnight Sunday in several towns, but in general, the violence was diminishing. The sources claim that demonstrations continued in the city of Haleb and that 19 Kurds were killed during the exchanges of fire in the northern town of Hassake.
The sources said that Syrian security services were conducting mass arrests, claiming that some 2000 people have been detained in Damascus and Aleppo.
Kurdish sources said that in Damascus, almost every male Kurd over the age of 16 has been detained.
The legal advisor of the Paris-based National Council for Truth, Justice and Reconciliation in Syria, George Sara, Sara claimed he could not determine the exact number of people killed during the riots, but that his organization estimated the number to be between 60 and 100. He expressed disappointment with the lack of coverage of the riots in the western media, but asserted that Kurdish media in Turkey began showing interest on Sunday.
Kurdish sources in Europe claim that in the city of Qamishli on the Turkish border, where the riots began, authorities are stipulating the release of 25 bodies from a hospital with the families conducting quiet funerals that will not again turn into political rallies.
Kurdish activists take over Syrian consulate
Some 60 Kurdish activists took over the Syrian consulate in Geneva
on Monday, in what they said was an attempt to raise public awareness
in the world to "the massacre of Kurdish civilians being carried
out by Syrian army and police forces."
The Kurds agreed to leave the consulate after a few hours, with the
intervention of Swiss police and a promise that a letter concerning
their matter would be sent to the United Nations.
3. - UPI - "Exiled Kurds occupy Syria embassy":
GENEVA (Switzerland) / March 15, 2004
About 20 exiled Syrian Kurds took over the Syrian consulate in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, as the United Nations began its human rights meeting.
The exiles said they are protesting peacefully over what they describe as a violent crackdown against minority Kurds in Northeastern Syria over the weekend, the BBC reported Monday.
Swiss police have taken no action so far, and employees at the Geneva consulate are believed to still be in the building.
About 80 people were killed in clashes between Syrian security forces -- some with tanks -- and Kurdish protesters after violence was triggered during a weekend soccer game in Qamishli, Middle East Newsline reported. The violence spread to neighboring towns and villages.
Nine Syrian officers were killed in the gun battles. Kurdish protesters
were reported to have set fire to the Syrian security services in
Qamishli.
4.
- Reuters - "UN plan for Cyprus reveals concerns for economy":
NICOSIA / 16 March 2004 / by Michele Kambas
If anyone needs proof that economics is not an exact science, Cyprus is the perfect case study.
Key reunification talks on the ethnically-divided island have exposed deep concerns by both sides about the cost and means of stitching back together the diverse economies of the Greek south and Turkish north for European Union entry on May 1.
Estimates of reunion costs range from 3.5 billion Cyprus pounds to 16.5 billion, more than double the gross domestic product of both sides combined.
At the heart of the debate is a plan to compensate landowners who will give up their property as part of the peace deal, that calls for handovers of territory and shifts in population.
The United Nations blueprint for the island proposes that a self-governing property board administer claims and compensate owners with 10- and 15-year bonds, offering a coupon similar or higher than that of comparable government paper.
The plan assumes that the scheme will be self-financing, with revenues from property sales used to finance and redeem the bonds, estimated to be worth 10 billion pounds.
Zenon Pofaides, a Greek Cypriot economist, says the reunification bill could be capped at between 3.5 billion and 4.5 billion pounds to be spent on reconstruction and rehousing.
Other economists worry that the board will end up saddled with a big deficit that it will pass on to the central government, if valuations -- and compensation -- for properties in the poorer north are increased to match those in the south.
The bulk of real estate affected by the scheme is in the north and concerns are that the north-south wealth gap means few Turkish Cypriots will be able to afford it.
NO EARLY EURO
No matter how big the bill will be, economists agree on one thing; should reunification take place, Cyprus can forget its hope of adopting the euro by 2007.
"The targets which need to be met for joining the euro zone have to be postponed, for two to three years perhaps," Pofaides said.
Last year Cyprus, without the northern Turkish Cypriot part, had a budget deficit estimated at six percent of GDP, double the rate allowed for eurozone entrants.
Alexis Galanos, head of a panel of economic advisers to Greek Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos, says just the servicing costs of property bonds will swell the shortfall further.
"The cost of servicing the debt will exceed 400 million pounds annually. That is an additional three percentage points on the fiscal deficit," he said.
"How can we get into the euro zone in the next two years?"
Greek Cypriots also worry that the bond issue could add to inflationary pressures and possibly hurt the pound after years of stability.
WEALTH LINE
Euro zone ambitions aside, it is also uncertain how the merging of two so different economies will play out.
In the three decades since Turkey invaded the north after a Greek Cypriot coup backed by a military junta then ruling Greece, the south has developed into a thriving tourist destination that has booked its place in the enlarged EU.
The north, hobbled by an international embargo, has not progressed much from the agricultural backwater Cyprus was before it was torn up in 1974.
Incomes there are about the third of those in the south and a lack of jobs has forced young professionals to leave.
Economists say Turkish Cypriots stand to gain from a boost in tourism-directed investment if there is a settlement, coaxing growth by up to 15 percent per year.
Greek Cypriots expect less of a push in the key tourism sector but say both sides stand to save by slashing a hefty defence bill and rationalising telecoms, water management and power networks.
In the north concerns centre on how a monetary policy will cope with a two-speed economy and whether the planned adoption of the Cyprus pound as the legal tender for the united island will not make Turkish Cypriots even poorer.
"If we transfer our assets to Cyprus pounds it diminishes their value," said Fatma Guven-Lisaniler, Assistant Professor of Economics at the Turkish Cypriot East Mediterranean University.
"For transfer purposes maybe the value of the Cyprus pound against the lira should be depreciated," she told Reuters.
With a donor's conference for Cyprus set for April 15, and both the EU and the United States promising to be "generous" the key challenge is to have a clear message on what the economy needs and win firm commitments, she said.
"Instead of saying "we are paying more, or they are paying
more" we need to work together and produce a common report to
get the foreigners to show us the money," Guven-Lisaniler said.
5.
- AFP - "Hundreds of Syrian Kurds arrested during unrest:
rights groups":
DAMASCUS / March 16, 2004
Eleven political movements and other groups meanwhile called for
a peaceful resolution of the unrest in Syria's Kurdish regions, where
at least 19 people were killed and 150 wounded in clashes with the
security forces.
"We have a list of 300 people arrested around Dummar, in the
western suburbs of Damascus, and reports of an unspecified number
of arrests in the
northeastern regions," Bunni said.
Bunni, a member of the Association for the Defence of Human Rights
in Syria, added, "It is true that our Syrian brothers of Kurdish
origin committed
exactions, which we deplore, but unfortunately the authorities have
not heeded our advice and instead of favouring dialogue they have
had recourse to
repression."
He warned, "The policy of the stick will only assist the plots
of foreign forces which want to destabilise Syria and impose conditions
on it," in a
reference to the threat of US sanctions.
Bunni said he had gone on Sunday to Dummar, where Kurds in the capital
are concentrated, in an effort to calm local anger at the weekend
events in the
cities of Qameshli and Hassake, near the Turkish and Iraqi borders.
He said that residents of Dummar had taken to the streets, destroying
a police car and electricity poles, and police anti-riot squads had
been sent to
the scene.
"I took it upon myself to negotiate between the two sides and
I persuaded the demonstrators to get off the streets, but after I
left the troubles
resumed and the authorities opted to crack down."
Mass arrests took place in the district overnight, Bunni said. Other
arrests had also been made in the trouble spots of the northeast,
he added,
but he was unable to give a figure.
Menwhile a statement signed by Bunni's association, the National Democratic
Rally of five banned parties, the communist Labour Party, a number
of Kurdish parties and Syrian cultural groups, said a political solution
was required.
The unrest was the result of "the absence of democracy and public
freedoms, the spread of corruption, and a policy of discrimination
towards Kurdish
citizens."
The signatories condemned "the violence and the security policy
of the authorities which will have harmful effects on society and
the country."
Security forces had "opened fire on defenceless citizens and
carried out hundreds of arrests," it charged, while also condemning
the violent acts
perpetrated by the Kurds, including "attacks on public and private
property and and profaning the Syrian flag, symbol of national unity."
The United States on Monday called on Damascus "to exercise tolerance
for all ethnic minorities in Syria."
State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli urged Damascus "to
refrain from using increasingly repressive measures to ostracise a
minority that has asked for a greater acceptance and integration into
Syrian life."
Relations between Damascus and Washington are tense as the United
States moves to impose new sanctions against Syria, accusing it of
keeping up its
support for pro-Palestinian radical groups, operating to destabilize
Iraq and developing weapons of mass destruction.
The rioting broke out on Friday during a football match at Qameshli,
when local Arab tribesmen shouted slogans against Iraqi Kurdish leaders
and
brandished pictures of ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
Rioting Kurds set fire to public buildings, which were empty on Friday,
the normal day off in Syria. The three-storey customs headquarters
in Qameshli was burnt out, along with warehouses and other public
buildings.
Witnesses said the Syrian flag was pulled down from some buildings
and Kurdish colours hoisted.
Fighting spread to Hassake and the mainly-Kurdish frontier villages.
6. - AFP - "Turkish Cypriot leader threatens to quit to lead opposition to Annan plan":
NICOSIA, March 16, 2004
Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash is threatening to quit as president
of his self-declared republic to lead the opposition to a UN plan
on reunifying the island if his side's interests are ignored.
Addressing a delegation of hardline nationalists who called on him
to resign his official duties to lead opposition to the plan put forward
by UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan, Denktash said late Monday such a move
could be on the cards.
"You know I will do that if necessary," he told the delegation.
"We will all see whether this becomes necessary or not,"
he added.
Denktash is currently engaged in negotiating the plan with Greek Cypriot
President Tassos Papadopoulos, but talks appear to be deadlocked despite
UN mediation efforts.
Denktash is due to fly to Ankara on Sunday to take part on Monday
in a summit meeting with Turkish leaders on Cyprus.
UN envoy Alvaro de Soto has been shuttling between the two Cypriot
leaders in a bid to resolve differences. But he has acknowledged there
is no chance of a deal being concluded before Greece and Turkey step
in and add their weight
to the process on March 22.
Turkey and Greece, as the "mother countries" of the two
communities, will then have until March 29 to try to push the process
forward.
The four-way negotiation process is scheduled to take place in Lucerne,
Switzerland.
If the Swiss talks fail, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan will "fill
in the blanks" on his plan to produce a draft accord that will
be voted on in
separate referendums on the island on April 20.
The Annan plan calls for a Swiss-style confederation of two autonomous
regions and a weak central government, with the aim of a united Cyprus
entering the European Union on May 1.
Cyprus has been divided for 30 years following an invasion of the
north by Turkish soldiers in response to an Athens-engineered Greek
Cypriot coup aimed at uniting the island with Greece.
Denktash declared the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in 1983.
It is recognised only by Ankara.