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

REVUE DE PRESSE.PRESSREVIEW.BERHEVOKA .Ç~Ê~RIVISTA STAMPA'I>ENTRO DE LA PRENSA.BASIN ÖZET;
. .'.
Eeleaders unite ~nrespons~to Kurdish crisis
By David Buchan and David Gardner,ln. an,lsSels .
"THE Kurds saved thesummit, so we'
had to try to save the KUrds," said a ,
, senior Commission official only half'
! in jest after European Community
. leaders ended their Monday night
summit in Luxembourg.
The belated realisation that the
plight of the Kurdish refugees Pfvided
a unifying focal point to a summit
whose broader' original agenda,'
dealing with the external and internal
implications of the Gulf war, was
laden with potential discord.
As it was, the Community showed
itself "swift, generous and deter-:
mined" in its response to the Kurdish'"
crisis, said Britain's prime minister,
Mr John Major. His call for substari-.
tial aid and a haven inside Iraq for
the Kurds were seized upon and
endorsed by other EC leaders. . .
Doubts that they might in effect:;be
calling for the dismemberment of Iraq
sanctions'oniiaq?;!Some 'EC'offiCiaiS' '.nërs 'back home that theÊC 'wasnot.
saw the mood of the summitas contemplating military action to cre-
.fàvouring keeping sanctions until ate the enclave. Only Mr Mlijor hinted
President Saddam Hussein is that the UN might endorse military
removed, because only this would pro- action and that the enclave might
vide a credible guarantee thatan encompass cities in northern Iraq.
amnesty would last. Straying brieflyon to wider Middle
However, a certain backpedalling East issues, EC leaders decided that
:'could be detected on the question of a Mr Jacques Santer, the Luxembourg
,Kurdish enclave inside Iraq. By the prime minister, and Mr Jacques
itime the summit ended, Mr Jacques Delors, president of the Commission,
:Poos, foreign minister of Luxembourg should take a two-pronged message to
:which holds the EC presidency, was President Bush in Washington this
;explaining that it. was not necessary' week. First, the EC applauds the
:to envisage a single zone, but "several renewed US effort to broker peace
;areas in which it was temporarily pos- betwt!en Israelis and Arabs. Second,
:sible for humanitarian aid workers to .when a wider peace conference
enter, without dismantling Iraq". And becomes necessary, the Community
.thê . foreign minister of Belgium, wants to be fully involved, as much as
~which holds the UN Security Council the US or the Soviet Union; otherwise,
i'presidency this. month, was reassur- Europe will not play its part in pro-
'ingaIlJÇious s.oçWM!L.&2.ali~iorl.Part~.',[idj.ng aid or security guarantees ...
.~~~~s~~~1~~;~~~::~;~~~~~
:U~N'SecurityCouncil discusses
'theSecurity Council in New York, not
'thel2 meeting in Luxembourg. t t t' fl' • K' d
. EC officials started immediately .ways 0 ..pr. 0 ec e.elng Uf. S
yesterday to plan how to raise and
.spend the Ecu150~ (£104m) of aid
pledged to the Kurds. Two-thirds of .By Michael LlttleJohns ili New York, John Murray Brown in Hakkari, eastern Turkey
this is to come from the EC budget, ,and Kamran Fazel in Tehran .
and the Commission, Parliament and
the Council of Ministers are to try to 'BRITAIN'S two-stage plan to
'rush through an emergency Ecul00m create a safe haven for Kurds
appropriation in the unheard of speed in a northern Iraq, backed if.
,of two weeks. The remaining Ecu50m necessary by force, was at the
should come even more quickly o~t of .centre of urgent consultations
national exchequers. .... yesterday at the United
Demonstrating new-found institu~ 'rlations Security Council.
tional flexibility, thenine EC coun-' Although some. diploma~s
tries that belong to the Western Euro- teported a momentum m
pean Union (WEU) defence favour of the plan, which was
.organisation convened a brief - ail oi" p.ndorsed. by the European
15 minutes - meeting of the' WEU {)o~mumty. and yester~ay
and promised to co-ordinate rrillitary ~ecelved cautious US backmg,
transport for the aid. A long-planned ~he.rewas no British draft resomeeting
of the chiefs of staff of WEU \'.1tion on the table for discusmember
countries in Paris today may .~l~~~ David Hannay the Britcarry
this co-ordination furtner. The ,. . '
EC believes. its aid, to. be channelled iSh d~legate, srod he was ~ot
through the UN Hign Comrriissioner p'ressl~g for ~ny UN deciSion
for Refugees, should go to Kurdish at this stage '.
refugees in Iran. The US is expected .Mr Do~glas ~ogg, UK F~rto
focus on refugees in Turkey. . .~lgn OffIce mmister, saId:
Although an informiù Et summit What we want to do is to get
h th L b l' the Kurds off the mountains,
suc as e uxem ourg cone ave, preferably into the villages and
has no formal conCluding communi.
,qué, Mr Major got nods of agreement towns ... monitored by the
iwhen. he asked his EC colleagues: United Nations. That does
."Should we say here IÙld now that imply the prospect of some
:.unless theamnesty [offered by Presi- .force or threat of force if the
---dent-Saddam-Hussein]-is màdeperma. __-.l!raq!Lattac.!ts colltinue.
t ill i i .i' hid "It would require UN observnen
, .we w ns st n t e Un te ers in quite substantial num-
Nations on tne ma.iJltenane~ of aU. .hp.rRAnrt ..their nresence would
172
"THE Kurds saved the
summit, so we had to try to
. save the' Kurds," said a
senior EC official only half
in jest after European Community
leaders ended their
..summit in Luxembourg. As
it was; the Community
showed itself "swift, gener.
. ous and determined" in its
response to the Kurdish crisis,
said Britain's prime min-
. ister, Mr John Major. His
.call for substantial aid and a
haven inside Iraq for the
Kurds were seized upon and
endorsed by other EC leaders.
Page 6
have to be underpinned either
. by actual physical force or the
prospect of it," he' said in a
BBC interview.
Mr John Major, the UK
prime minister, said on Monday
that the second stage of
the plan would be to get the
Kurds back to their homes,
which could include the large
towns -of-northern-Iraq;-
Diplomats in Ankara said it
was unclear how big any safety.
zone might be. "A narrow'
buffer zone along the border.
itself already seems to exist de
facto," said a western diplo.:
mat. "There have been no
reported attacks on refugees i~
the immediate border area."
He said a much more ambitious
scheme to secure a bi~
area of Iraq under UN auspices
to allow. refugees to retur~
home "opens horrendous prob;
lems in terms of sovereignty".;
Iraq responded bitterly tQ
the enclave idea and vowed to
oppose it with all its remaining
power. Mr Saddoun Hammadi;
the newly-appointed prime
minister, accused Britain and
.security council members of
mounting a conspiracy against
Iraq's sovereignty. :
He claimed that the refugee
problem had been greatly
inflated and other officials said
Central Intelligence Agency
Continued on Page 14
Bush cautious on Kurd
enclave plan, Page 6i UN wresi
ties with-human-rights-issuej----
~S!l~e haven' is not enough;