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

REvuE DE PRESSE-PRESS REVIEW-BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RIVISTA STAMPA-DENTRO DE LA PRENSA-BASIN ÖZETi
Lossesforce
,Kurd rebels
to consider
makingdeal
Kirkuk loss and rising refugee tide
put guerrillas on defensivein north
:Martln Woollacott in Irbil "
'province of Iraq, Alex Efty o(
:APIn Dohuk, an!, Foreign Sta'!f;
~:;
T ' "HE
in norU1'\)rn
,K,URD,ISH
Iraq
stru
is gg o~
l,6i"
, ,the, defens.jve after!
: Baghdad 's - troops!
;flooded back into the oil city on
:Kirk4k,and, the,governplent;
•claiiried td hiWerecaptured twO;
provincial capitals, , i
, Western journalists, taken byl
:the Iraqi authorities, to Kirkuk, i
reported signs of heavy fighting'
,with' corpses strewn on the;
'streets. Iraqi officials were ini
:confident control and main-'
tained that the Kurdish guerriI-
.las had fled after resisting for',
,only tivo hours. ,
The overall Kurdish militarv
:collllllander, Massoud ßarzanl.'
claimed that some of his forces'
;were still in the Kirkuk area,:
'but he pointedly \\'ould not l'uiei
fout negotiations with Baghdad. '
On Saturday Iraqi govern-:
:ment forces,using helicopter"
gunships aild long-range artil-,:
Iery, had driven lightly armed:
:K~lrdish guerrillas northward
from Kirkuk to within four,
'miles of Irbil 01\ the road to,
;Iran, according to eyewitinesses.
Yesterday, Baghdad
:said it had retaken bOUl kbi!
'and Dohuk near the Turkish
border - claims which were,
Immediately denied by the'
Kurdish rebels. i
: Tens of thousands of civilians'
'fled Dohuk on foot or In cars
crammed with belongings.:
Baghdad radio ~nnounced the
,"glad tidings" that the whole
,province of Irbil had been,:
"purg~d nftraitors".
, In Washlngto'n, the Senate:
majot-i1y leader, George Mitch-)
,ell; urged the US to shoot down'
Iraqi warplanes and helicopters:
attackl'ngrebels, but otherwise!
to stay out of Iraq's' internal:
f.ighling,
, .'
Earlier, MI' ßarzanLacknoWI.:
edged that his forces had failed:'
to ,ccllslodçe &ll.Vern.t!1~!lt. !r2.~.pJ,
rÎ'ôÏ1Ï'AHûrlKopt{â" tO\,;it-lïälf..
way between Irbil and Kirkuk,
75 miles to the south. :
Two failed guerrilla counter-,
attacks, aimed at breaking gov-'
ernment control of the town'
'and Kirkuk itself. underlined
.the Kurds' military weakness
when faced with the heavy
weaponry of President Saddalll,
Hussein's army .
'Causing particular concern
was the rebels' lack of anti-tank
weapons for use against Iraqi.
armour, guerrillas said.
Mr Barzani also' conceded
that Iraqi armoured units,'
working with "treasonous'"
Kurdish auxiliaries from tile
Iraqi army, had seized cOlitrol.
,of Sheikhan, deep inside rebelheld
territory.
Confronted with, the apparent ..
:retreat of his own forces and
with a growing Kurdish refugee'
problE'm.l\lr Barzani was carE'-
fui not to rule out a negotiated
settlement with thegovern-.
ment - despitePresident Saddam's
record of broken promises
on Kurdish
the north,
autonomy
'
in,
Mr BarzatiÏ declined comment
on the state of negotia,'
tions with Baghdad, but it ap.,
peared that some kind of
:negotiatlng process was in mo-'
tion. "We want to achieve our
aims peacefully. We do not like
bloodshed," 1\-11' Barzani said.
"We arc prepared to deal with
.whoever gives us our rights.
We are not the central
ment."
govern-
, Another Kurdish leader,
Jalal Talabani, urged a crowd
:of several hundred Kurds in,
'Dohuk to stay' and fight. But
2,000 refugees were reported to
have crossed the Turkish bor.
,der yesterday Into south-eastern
Hakkarl province, :, ,
, Mi' Barzani dismissed Bagh.'
idad's claims of total control of
iKirkuk, saying KurdIsh rebels'
ihad rçcaptured some neigh.
:bourhoods, But other senior'
iKurdish military SOUl;ces ado'
:lD!t~ed,.Klrk~k_~a~ I~g~yern ..
,ment luùïds, with güCl'i-illéiactivity
inside the city limited to,
hit-and-run attacks.
, In Washington, a spokesman:
'for the People's Mojahedin _,
:opponents of the Tehran gov-
(ernment - denied allegations'
by MI' Barzani that they had
:helped the Iraqi army retake
!Kirkuk, The spokesman said
,his group had had "no presence
,in Kirkuk whatsoever" for at
;least the past month.
Afterattending an 'Arab
;League meeting at the weekend
~in Cairo, the Iraqi delegate,
ISaad Qassem Hammoudi,
accused Iran and Israel of fo-
,'menllng the uprisings in Iraq:
"There is no revolution in
'Iraq," Mr Hanl/noudi said, "But
{there is) a rebellion from
groups supported by a neigh~
,boring country. ,. Israel al~o
fought covertly."
Speaking in Dohuk, Mr Tala.
bani repeated an appeal to PresidentBush
and the United
Nations to "stop this annihilation
of the Kurdish people". He'
'said he and MI" Barzani had'
asked Mr Bush and éoalltion
Torces to block Iraqi use of air-'
craft, artillery, rockets and
otllerheavy weapons in the'
dvil war. ,
Some refugees fleeing Dohuk.
"'ere on foot carrying their possessions,
while others were
packed into heavy trucks, private
cars, taxis, tractors and
bulldozers. "Where are Bush's
jets now to bomb Saddam and
:stop him killing us?" one was
quoted as saying.
Kurdish rebels accused Presi.
dent Saddam's army of killing,
many clvilial.s during battles,
-for Kirkuk and other areas of
northern Iraq. "The casualty'
toll is imbellevable, enormous,"
:sald a spokesman for Mr Barzanl's
Kurdish Democratic
!Party. When Kurdish fighters
.recaptured Kara-Banjlr village,
,five miles east of Kirkuk, on,
Friday, rebel reports snld they
:Couridtlîe bodicsofiletwecn40tV
'and 1,500civilians.
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