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

REVUE DE PRESSE-PRESS REVlEW-BE~HEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RIVlSTA
STAMPA-DENTRO DE LA PRENSA-BASlN ÖZETi
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Howmany
martyrs have
we made today?
AN OLDwoman, her face
ravage~ by age and
poverty, shouted at us:
"How many martyrs
have we made?" as we
ran out of the way of a tear gas
canister, fired from a tank to
disperse th(' crowd.
By the end of the day we
could have told her at least 50,
more than ten in her home town
of Cizre - a Kurdish nationalist
stronghold near Turkey's border
with Iraq.
It was 21 March - Nevros Day.
the Kurdish new year.
Traditionally a time for celebrating
new life after the long
. hard winter in this austere
mountainous region, latel)' it
has become, in many areas, .a
focus for the expre~sion of
Kurdish nationalism. Or, more
precisely, an opportunity for a
clash between the PKK, an
acknowledged Kurdish guerrilla
organisation which wants a free
Kurdistan, and the security
forces, which have often been
accused of human rights abuses.
in this re~ion.
Tension was already at an alltime
high in the weeks beforè
Nevros. Some newspapers predicted
a massacre, a spring
uprising, and some even suggested
that Turkey could return
to military rule.
Troops were moved in, and by
Wednesday tanks were in place
in Cizre and the surrounding
hills. Many believed that confrontation
was inevitable.
Earlier the PKK had kidnapped
ten village guards (a
civilian force issued with
Kalashnikovs and paid a salary).
In the early hours of
Thursday, two had been
returned. The faithful
ort their way to prayer
in this month of
Ramadan found them
hanging by the neck
opposite the mosque.
They had been shot
first, money said to be
the equivalent of a
month's salary stuffed
into their mouths, and
a note saying that the
P.KKwas responsible.
Another was found
'Shooting.
began again,
the bullets
ricocheting
off the
hospital'
Roisin Duffy reports
from Cizre on the recent
unrest in Turkey during
the Kurdish New Year
in a similar condition
in a back street the
following day.
On Friday, at nightfall, the
tanks pulled.back to their base
across the Tigris river. It was as
if this was the signal the PKK
had been waiting for. At 6am
the air rang with the sound of
single repeated shots and
machine gun Irre.
By morning tanks were
already in position on the hills
overlooking Cizre. Another four
were on the main street.
All was silent and all shops
were closed by order of the
PKK. The scene, like the buildup
before a wild-west gunfight.
Suddenly dancing and sin~inj{
started, and people moved in a
circle, a small, white-haired
man conducting the event.
On seeing a camera, people
showed the two-finger victory
sign. The banned Kurdish flag
appeared, furtively at first au.d
then paraded around as people
chanted political slogans.
About 1,000 men, woman and
children movedtowards the
cemetery. More were to come
from other districts, but we
heard that they were not getting
through from the main road,
where some 200 people were
crouching on the ground, sur-
.rounded by the military. A milit~XYspokesma~
expl~~ned that
it was not a celebrahon, but a
demonstration.
Suddenly shots rang out.
People moved in all directions.
Some 2,000 people came from
nowhere up the street towards
.-. - -'. "',. - .
the military. There was tear gas,
and we heard shooting from the
direction of the cemetery.
Àt noon a curfew was imposed
and alm!Jst immediately a gun
hattle started.
From the hotel roof I counted
four ambulances driving to and
from the hospital. Just before
5pm the tanks moved away and
the shooting stopped.
Assuming the battle was over;
we went en masse to the hospital,
brandishing a white flag just
in case. Fifteen to 20 wounded,
the administrator said, six dead
between Cizre and Sirnak.
But there were no wounded in
the hospital, because there were
no facilities to treat them. A
trainee doctor said the wounded
had been given serum and taken
to.the nearest large town ..
Conflict: Kurdish people avoid the military in Sirnak
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