Bulletin de liaison etd'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Baszn Ozeti
Both Mr Barzani's party and Mr Hakim's Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution
but that does not mean that they take Mr Chalabi's orders.
in Iraq are formally !NC affiliates,
Mr Chalabi lost credibility after orchestrating an uprising in northern Iraq in 1995, only to be abandoned by the CIA,
acting on government orders. The insurgency, and the INC's presence in the country, was swept aside by Iraq in 1996.
Six years on, Mr Chalabi must perform a double act: convince Washington that he has support in Iraq while persuading
sceptical resistance leaders that Washington is serious this time.
It is an impresario's
job, and for that at least, he has the perfect background.
*****
Dethrone Saddam: Allow Independent Kurdish State
February 22, 2002 Washington Trmes Jeffrey T. Kuhner
The Bush administration's campaign against global terrorism has the potential to transform the Middle East and
usher in a new era of democracy and peace. Nowhere is this more evident than in Iraq, which continues to menace
its neighbors and is governed by one of the world's most brutal dictatorships.
Yet as the White House considers targeting Saddam Hussein in the next phase of the war on terrorism, it must deal
with an issue that successive administrations since the end of the 1991 Gulf War have been reluctant to confront:
granting independence to the Kurds in northern Iraq. 'IWo prominent human rights organizations have recently
released a report that documents Saddam's genocidal campaign of mass murder and ethnic cleansing against Iraq's
Kurds.
Ever since coming to power in 1979, Saddam has established a totalitarian police state aimed at eradicating the
Kurdish people. During the late 19805, in a campaign known as "Operation Anfal" Saddam's security forces unleashed
a wave of terror that led to the deaths of more than 180,000 people, the deportation of 2 million Kurds and the
destruction of 4,500 villages and towns. The report goes on to state that Saddam's genocidal campaign against the
Kurds continues to this day. Those Kurds not living in the autonomous enclave in northern Iraq established by the
United States and Britain following the Gulf War continue to suffer human rights abuses by Saddam's death squads
such as mass murder, forced expulsions, arbitrary arrests and confiscation of homes and property.
The latest tactic in the terror campaign has been to order the beheading of women deemed to be "prostitutes." As the
report notes, fabricated charges are often used as a weapon by Saddam's regime to silence political opponents. Prademocracy
activists live under the constant fear that their wives or daughters may be hauled in front of a kangaroo
court and convicted of having participated in prostitution. Nearly 2,000 women have been beheaded since 2000.
Despite the long record of crimes committed by Saddam's sadistic regime, the plight of the Kurds has received little
attention in the West. They have become the modem-day equivalent of the Jews prior to the creation of Israel in 1948
a persecuted, stateless people who desperately seek a homeland as a strategic buffer against foreign occupying
powers.
Yet administration officials fear that the creation of an independent Kurdistan would lead to turmoil in Iraq and destabilize
neighboring Turkey. The State Department is under the illusion that the prospect of a "Greater Kurdistan"
threatens regional peace and stability. Hence, it has turned a blind eye to Ankara's bruta115-year military campaign
to subjugate Kurdish rebels in sOutheastern Turkey.
The result is that many of the opposition groups in Iraq including the Kurds do not believe that Washington is
serious about toppling Saddam from power. They are convinced that the United States is more interested in preserving
Iraq's territorial integrity than in providing assistance to the country's disenchanted nationalities, who despise
not only Saddam's iron-fisted rule but centralized control from Baghdad.
Thus, by backing the right to self-determination for the 3.6 million residents in Iraqi Kurdistan, the administration
would be sending a powerful signal that it is determined to promote democracy and human rights in the region. Iraq
is a synthetic state, created during the era of European imperialism. Rather than insisting that Baghdad's current borders
are sacrosanct and not subject to change, the Bush foreign policy team should focus on supporting the breakup
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