Exode (des Kurdes d'Irak) - Institut kurde de Paris

REVUE DE PRESSE ..PRESS REVIEW ..BERHEVOKA ÇAP~ ..RlVIsrA STAMPA ..DENTRO DE lA PRENSA ..BASIN ÖzETi
- Si l'on se réfère aux simples
données économiques -
chômage, emploi, RMI - il
existe sans aucun doute un
quart-monde en France.
Mais, si l'on prend en compte
la capacité d'initiative des
jeunes; ce qu'on appelle le
quart-monde pourrait être
demain la chanc~ historique
du pays. Devant leur difficulté
à se faire entendre, certains,
comme à la Réunion
ou dans les banlieues, se laissent
aller parfois à des réactions
violentes. Mais il ne
faut pas se tromper de dia ..
gnostic: au fond d'euxmêmes,
je le sais, ils ont envie
de construire. Pas de
détruire. Ils aspirent à tout
autre chose qu'au statut
d' « assistés».
- La société française de
1991 ressemble-t-elle à une
société à deux vitesses?
- Nous avons vécu depuis
la guerre sur deux modèles:
d'un côté le communisme,
de l'autre le capitalisme et
la toute-pùissance de l'argent.
Le communisme s'effondre.
Mais la nouvelle
génération répugne au capitalisme
à l'américaine,' qui
conduit effectivement à une
société à deux vitesses. La.
question se pose donc de
savoir si le modèle auquel
nous avons jusqu'ici adhéré
convient aux jeunes de
l'an 2000. Ma réponse est
pl~tôt « non ».
.-=- Qu'est-ce qui vous a le plus
surprise dans vos derniers
. déplacements?
- C'est de mesurer combien
nous sommes souvent en
contradiction avec ceux qui
désespèrent, avec les générations
qui montent.
~ L'époùse du président de la
République a-t-elle pour vocation
de jouer les témoins, les
éClaireurs ou les relais?
- Je détermine ce que je
veux et peux faire selon mes
convictions et mes engagements.
Lorsque je me déplace
dans le monde entier, je ri'ai
pas l'impression d'être seulement
une représentante de la
France: chaque fois, je suis
accueillie comme quelqu'un
qui arrive du pays des droits
de l'homme et des libertés. Et
je suis immensément fière
d'être française. •
Propos recueillis
par Domiqique de Montvalon.
International Herald Tribune April 5, 1991
As Kurds Die, a Sense of Revulsion Spreads
'WASHINGTON - The enormity of the dishonor
brought on the United States by
President George Bush's decision to betray
: the Kurdish people is beginning' to sink in
at the White House.
. A few day's ago, ar. anonymous Bush aide
. (read: Sununu) smugly told Time magazine that
, "the only pressure for the U.S. to intervene
is coming from columnists."
Today, thenews of death and starvation being
inflicted on the countless innocents doublecrossed
by George Bush is spreading a sense of
revulsion through America's body politic.
The American president repeatedly urged the
Kurds to rise up against Saddam Hussein; he
telecast his promise to keep the tyrant's gunships
grounded. Mr. Bush then broke his word, which
. enabled Iraqi killers to break the back of the
rebellion from the air.
. Not since Jimmy Carter's Desert One has a
. failure of nerve resulted in such ignominious
. American defeat. Not since John Kennedy failed
to provide air cover at the Bay of Pigs has a
president made such acostly military blunder.
Air supremacy wins wars. When the United
States gave the.Afghan guerrillas Stinger missiles
to shoot down gunships, it denied the Red
Army air supremacy and enabled Afghans to
defeat a superpower.
Masoud Barzani of the Kurds knew he could
, defeat Saddam Hussein's war-weakened forces
in the rugged hills if the United States denied
the dictator use of the skies. The Kurds would
then control the oil fields of Iraq, and could
negotiate autonomy.
But that was when George Bush got cold feet,
or was reminded by Moscow or Riyadh of secret
prewar understandings not to overturn Saddam
Hussein. It turns out he did not want the Iraqi .
By William Safire
people to rebel; he merely wanted the military
to change dictators.
Puffed up with the popularity that came
to him for having done right in Kuwait, Mr.
Bush was certain that he could get away with
doing wrong in Iraq.
"We are not there to intervene," he tells reporters
on a gaU course.
But by changing his mind about protecting
Kurdish skies, the president effectively inter-
Not since Kennedy faüed to
provide air cover at the Bay of
Pigs has a president made such
a costly müitary blunder .
vened on the side of Saddam Hussein. Once he
gave the weapon of gunship terror from the air to
Baghdad's merciless butcher, Mr.Bush abandoned
tens of thousands of Kurdish fighters to
death and their families to starvation.
Prepare now for the' Washington ritual of
blaming the victims: The Kurds brought Saddam's
vengeance on themselves; they might have
wanted independence someday; backward people
cannot be taught democracy.
Demonstrating its contempt for Kurdish aspirations,
the Bush administration finally decided to
allow a few Kurds into the State Department. And .
what official is assigned to cluck sympathetically?
Assistant Secretary John Kelly - the architect of
the discredit~ p()licy to appease Saddam...
Ordinarily, when a political leader makes
Americans feel sick at heart, the opposition
speaks up for decency and traditional values.
Excepting Senator Al Gore of Tennessee, Democrats
are still traumatized.
Thatleaves the Kurds' sense of betrayalto be
reported by on-the-scene correspondents like
Jonathan Randal of The Washington Post and,
Geraldine Brooks of The Wall Street Journal. .
and American's own sense of loss to be expressed .
by despised columnists and insomniacs who call .
in to radio talk shows.
What did Mr. Bush lose when he ordered his .;
field commander to let two full divisions of Iraqi!
rebel-killers escape, and when he allowed those
routed savages the necessary air cover to crush .
the uprising he called for?
First, he lost the credibility so recently earned
by American arms. In the future, when the U,S. '
president wams of consequences if his guarantees
are scorned, an aggressor will say "teU it '
to the Kurds."
He threw away America's newfound pride, .
too, as a superpower that stands for the right and "
will not let defenseless allies be pushed around.
It would seem that we Americans defend the rich
and sell out the poor. "
And he stopped the momentum toward democracy
and peace in the Middle East. If a whole
people can be decimated while the president of ,
the United States goes fishing, no nation will put I
faith in U.S. security guarantees. ,
When American troops come home to a ticker- :
tape parade, perhaps room can be found for a
small float carrying maimed Kurdish refugees. It
will remind Americans that the great victory won
by the bravery and skill of the armed forces was
sullied by therr politicalleaders' moral failure.
The New York Times.
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