TRKNWS-L News

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From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl)
Subject: TRKNWS-L  News


     WASHINGTON (Reuter) - The United States Tuesday said it is
up to Turkey to put forward an international plan to deal with
Kurdish extremists on the border with Iraq.
     ``I think Turkey is the country that has indicated its
interest to possibly look at some kind of international approach
to the problem along the border,'' State Department spokeswoman
Christine Shelly told reporters.
     ``It's up to Turkey to now come forward with something more
concrete in terms of how that might be done,'' she said.
     ``I don't know how long it's going to take Turkey to develop
its own thinking on that, but I'm not expecting some kind of
answer to that question within the next day or so.''
     Turkey more than one week ago sent 35,000 troops into
northern Iraq to try and crush Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
guerrillas who have been launching attacks against Turkey in
their push to create a separate Kurdish homeland.
     Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller, who is due to visit
Washington next month, has called for an international solution
to the Kurdish guerrilla problem.
     Many countries have criticized the incursion. The U.S.
response initially was sympathetic, but recent statements have
indicated increasing unease in Washington because of the
prolonged nature of the campaign and attacks on civilians.
     On Monday Shelly acknowledged that because Washington and
its allies established a ``no fly zone'' in northern Iraq after
the Gulf War to keep Bagdhad from harassing Iraqi Kurds, there
is a resulting ``administrative vacuum'' in the region that
allows the PKK to operate there.
     But on Tuesday she attempted to lay some blame for PKK
activities on Iraq.
     She noted that a U.N. Security Council resolution imposed on
Iraq after the Gulf War required Iraq not to allow terrorist
groups to operate within its territory.
     Although a good portion of northern Iraq is effectively
controlled by the United States and its allies, ``the fact of
the matter is that the PKK is there and the operations of a
terrorist nature do take place from Iraqi territory going into
Turkey,'' she said.