Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

REVUE DE PRESSE-PRESS REVIEW-BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RwISTA STAMPA-DENTRO DE LA PRENSA-BASIN ÖZETi
Iraqi power cuton puts Kurdish lives at risk
By Aliza Marcus
Reuters
DAHUK, Northern Iraq- Health conditions in
this northern Iraqi province have worsened rapidly
since Baghdad cut off power two months aoo to punish
rebel Kurds, aid workers say. Clean drinking water
is in short supply. Hospitals perfonn only emer~ency
operations and can no longer properly store olood
supplies and medicines requiring constant refrigeration.
As winter approaches, relief workers and doctors
are worried about a possible increase in deaths from
pneumonia and other respiratory ailments among the
600,000 Kurds in Dahuk province. "All basic services
here are electrically driven and people have never had
to consider how to provide things hke water and heating
without electricity," said Don McLean. head of
the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) sub-office in
Dahukcity.
Angry Kurds protesting the ,Power cuts have
blocked the Iraq-Turkey highway since September 28,
strandin$ dozens of Turkish trllck drivers untilthey
ended tne action on Thursday. A senior United
Nations official announced thnnd of the blockade,
which choked fuel sUfPlies. forcing up prices and
affecting the ability 0 International aid agencies to
move materials to other parts of northern Iraq via
Mosul. Iraq blames the lack of power in the Mosul
area, linked to Dahuk on the national grid, on an allied
raid on anti-aircraft positions in August which it said
destroyed several pylons. The blackout affecting
Dahuk, one of three Kurdish-held provinces protected
by U.S.~led coalition forces, has aggravated an
already precarious situation since it began on August
5. Aidworkers say many essential medical supplies
are lacking due to restrictions associated with the
thre~-year-ol.d U.~. trade sanctions imposed ~n Iraq
for ils 1990 InvaSion of Kuwait. "We just don t have
the medicines to treat many of the diseases which will
appear when it gets cold if people have no way to heat
their homes," said McLean. '
Ghazi Abdullah ~andi, director of the city's main
A~adi Hospit~l, said hospitals were sh~rt of ev.erythInç
from synnges ~o solutions to treat kidney failure
in cnildren - an Increasing problem because of
impure \\:ater. "Since 199\, we have 'been living off
o!d SlIppIles and the matenals we get from aid agencies.
Now ollr stores are depleted and we don 't 0et
eno.ugh from aid agencies." ~aid Fandi. "It's very f~stratlng
~o work here, knowIn~ you can treat people,
y.et haVing t? :-vatch them. die Decause you are lacking
Simple mediCines, s~pplles and now electricity," he
add~d. Generators cannot meelthe shortfall in power,
forcl~g some p~ople to rely .o~ murky streams for
dnnklng water. We know thIS IS dangerous, but we
get :vater only every four or. five days so we have no
cholce"exc~pt to rely on thiS dirty water for all our
needs, . saId an old "oman standing barefoot in a
stre~m.1n the border tO\\n,of Zakho, washing dishes.
Statistics from the Azadl Hospital show what aid
work.er~ and doctors c~lled an alarmino increase in
certa~n Illnesses. TY2 hOld cas~s in Dahuk city rose to
188 In September, fr?m 41 In the same month last
year: Diarrhoea cases Just about doubled to more than
900 In.September.
In Augllst there w~reA26 cases of hepatitis more
than twice the number In ugust 1992. '
FRA0569 4 I 0228 USA IAFP-LX61
USA-Turquie
Bill CI inton conf irme qu' lm Amé. ica it1a été pr is en otage par les hw'des
WASHINGTON, 15 oct (AFP) - Le président Bill Clinton a confirmé vendredi
qu'un ressortissant américain était retenu en otage par les rebelles kurdes de
Turquie, à l'issue d'un entretien à la Maison Blanche avec le Premier ministre
turc, Mme Tansu Ciller.
Interrogé au cours d'une conférence de presse commune sur la coopération
entre Washington et Ankara en matière de lutte anti-terroriste, M. Clinton a
répondu que cette question "était devenue p:lus importante et plus immédiate 3lJ
cours des dernières vingt quatre heures lorsqu'un citoyen américain a été pris
en otage par le P~