mainstream news on the war in Kurdi

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From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam)
Subject: mainstream news on the war in Kurdistan
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(1) 35,000 Turk Troops Hit Kurds

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (AP) -- Turkish jets and troops struck hard at Kurdish rebel
camps in northern Iraq on Tuesday, the second day of an offensive aimed at
wiping out the Kurds' 11-year-old insurrection.

At least 200 guerrillas and eight soldiers died, the government said. The
offensive, modern Turkey's largest military action ever, came after rebels
killed 15 Turkish soldiers Saturday in an ambush near the Iraqi border.

Troops penetrated at least 25 miles into northern Iraq and wiped out a major
rebel base in the area where Turkey, Iran and Iraq converge, state television
said.

Despite their overwhelming numbers, Turkish troops still met fierce resistance
at three of the 20 bases targeted, Gen. Hasan Kundakci told reporters.

The government says some 2,800 Kurdish guerrillas operate out of the bases,
staging hit-and-run attacks into Turkey. Some 35,000 Turkish troops were sent
in after them, out of the 200,000 troops Turkey has stationed in the region.

News footage showed soldiers in white camouflage manning emplacements on snowy
mountains. Large amounts of ammunition, automatic guns and rocket launchers
were seized, reports said. Turkey has carried out large operations before, but
each time the guerrillas regrouped and continued their attacks.

"The Turkish state is determined to eradicate this evil," said President
Suleyman Demirel in Ankara. Prime Minister Tansu Ciller said the operation
would continue until all the Kurdish rebel bases were wiped out.

The guerrillas belong to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, PKK, which
has been fighting since 1984 for autonomy in Turkey's poor, rugged southeast.
More than 15,000 people have been killed.

Kurds make up one-fifth of Turkey's 60 million people. A suppression of their
cultural rights and the harsh military crackdown has won the PKK hundreds of
thousands of sympathizers over the past decade. The government allowed Kurdish
to be spoken in public five years ago but prohibits its use in schools or
broadcasting.

Ciller, the prime minister, told the Cabinet the operation would be followed
by a democratization process to increase freedom for Kurds, the daily Milliyet
reported. "Then, the PKK will lose all its ground," she was quoted as saying.

Hundreds of Kurds demonstrated in downtown Istanbul on Tuesday, the Kurdish
new year, carrying banners in support of the PKK and burning tires.

There was no immediate reaction from the Iraqi government, which has problems
with its own Kurdish minority.

The United States generally supported Tuesday's military offensive, but France
sharply condemned it and the United Nations expressed concern about civilians
caught in the fighting.

Turkey has been criticized for alleged human rights violations in its war on
the Kurdish guerrillas. "(Turkey must) respect the fundamental principles of
human rights, democracy (and) sovereignty," French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe
said Tuesday. "These principles were not respected today."

Turkey said it was trying to avoid harming civilians and denied U.N. reports
that Kurdish refugees who fled previous fighting were forced back across the
border into Turkey. Iraq's Kurds set up an autonomous zone under Western
military protection after the 1991 Gulf War. The U.S.-led allied air force set
up to protect them canceled routine flights Tuesday for a second day.

(2) Turkish attack on Kurds goes as planned - Ciller

By Suna Erdem

ANKARA, March 21 (Reuter) - Turkey is pressing on with a huge cross-border
attack against separatist Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, Prime Minister Tansu
Ciller says.

Ciller told the nation on Monday the incursion was going as planned in what her
government called the biggest military operation in Turkish history.

Turkish President Suleyman Demirel said the troops would leave Iraq when they
had "neutralised" Kurdish rebel forces, Iranian television reported.

Turkey, claiming a right of hot pursuit, sent up to 35,000 troops backed by
tanks and jets on a three-pronged attack across the undefended border aimed at
suspected bases of the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

"We want to clear out this area and rip out the roots of the (PKK) terror
operations aimed at our innocent people," Ciller told reporters, adding that
she had briefed Western leaders, including U.S. President Bill Clinton, by
telephone.

"The operation is continuing exactly as planned," the prime minister said on
television.

Demirel has told Iran that Turkey was strongly committed to Iraq's territorial
integrity, according to Iranian Television monitored by the BBC. He told
Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in a telephone call that the
incursion sought to combat terrorism and establish stability in the border
areas.

"Mr Demirel underlined Turkey's strong commitment to the maintenance of
Iraq's territorial integrity and assured our country's president that Turkish
forces would leave Iraqi territory as soon as they have neutralized the
disturbances caused by rebel forces...," the television said.

Rafsanjani said he hoped "no harm would be inflicted on the innocent people of
Iraq" in the course of the operation.

The attack came two days after the PKK ambushed a 40-vehicle convoy carrying
800 troops in eastern Turkey, killing 18 soldiers and challenging government
claims the rebels were all but finished.

"This is the biggest military operation ever (in the history of the Turkish
republic)," government spokesman Yildirim Aktuna told reporters. The assault
follows weeks of a gradual build-up in the region and came on the eve of the
Kurdish festival of Nowrouz -- a traditional time of separatist protest.

Some military officials in eastern Turkey suggested it was timed to prevent
the entry of rebels to stir unrest during the festival. "The PKK would be
wanting to send over men for Nowrouz," said an army official. "The army would
be wanting to stop them." In 1992, 45 people were killed in Nowrouz clashes.

The operation takes advantage of what Turkish officials call an "authority
vacuum" in northern Iraq, as fighting between rival Kurdish factions undermines
de facto Kurdish rule there.

(3) Turkish troops occupy 40-km zone in north Iraq

By Jonathan Lyons

ANKARA, March 21 (Reuter) - Turkish forces secured positions about 40 km inside
north Iraq on Tuesday, the second day of a cross-border assault aimed at wiping
out suspected Kurdish separatist strongholds.

Up to 35,000 soldiers, backed by air power and tanks, spent the traditional
Kurdish new year holiday of Nowrouz -- a traditional time of separatist unrest
-- inside the Western-protected "safe haven" for Iraqi Kurds.

Witnesses said F-16 jets from the 2nd Tactical Wing, based in Diyarbakir, flew
early morning sorties into Iraqi territory.

TRT state radio said troops, largely commandos, were already occupying the
40-km wide zone Ankara had previously set as the limit of the action -- dubbed
by officials as Turkey's biggest military operation ever.

Large weapon caches belonging to Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas,
fighting for a Kurdish homeland inside Turkey, were now in the hands of the
army, TRT said.

Iraqi Kurdish groups, protected by Western air cover and in nominal control of
northern Iraq, protested at the incursion and charged innocent civilians were
being targeted.

No deadline has been set for withdrawal of Turkish forces, but President
Suleyman Demirel told Iranian leaders the troops would leave as soon as they
had "neutralised" Kurdish rebels, Iranian television reported.

In 1992, 10,000 Turkish troops spread across the border for four weeks and in
partial collaboration with Iraqi Kurdish forces cleared the area of PKK rebels.

In 1993, Turkey launched a major air strike against the Zeli camp, which had
been revived by the PKK in the aftermath of the 1992 attacks.

(4) Turkey planes destroy rebel Kurd camp -- radio

ANKARA, March 21 (Reuter) - Turkish jets raiding targets inside northern Iraq
have destroyed a Kurdish rebel camp at Bote, near the Iranian border, TRT state
radio said on Tuesday.

It said the cross-border operation by 35,000 Turkish troops, backed by tanks
and artillery, had spread out east along the border from the Iraqi border city
of Zakho toward Bote.

TRT said the Bote camp was built by separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)
rebels, after a 1993 Turkish air raid struck the nearby base at Zeli. Ankara
says bases in north Iraq are used in support of the PKK's 10-year insurgency
inside Turkey.

"The aim is to cause as much destruction as possible," a military official in
Diyarbakir, nerve centre of Turkey's struggle against the PKK, told Reuters.
TRT quoted military spokesmen as saying bombing raids were accompanied by
artillery and mortar fire. "The initial targets have been reached," it said.

Turkish troops entered north Iraq before dawn on Monday to root out PKK
guerrilla bases from a zone 40 km wide.

(5) Turkey says it kills 200 PKK rebels in north Iraq

ANKARA, March 21 (Reuter) - Turkish troops have killed as many as 200
guerrillas from the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), during their
two-day push into northern Iraq, Turkey's defence minister said on Tuesday.
"According to the information we have received, about 200 PKK members
have been killed so far. There are no casualties on the Turkish military
side," Defence Minister Mehmet Golhan told Reuters.

About 35,000 soldiers, backed by tanks and artillery, poured into Iraq before
dawn on Monday in an operation aimed at rooting out PKK guerrillas bases used
to attack Turkish targets. Turkish jets have also bombed targets identified
as PKK bases.

Iraqi Kurds, in nominal control of the border region, have protested against
the incursion, saying innocent civilians are being targeted.

(6) Russia says Turkish raid in Iraq one-off, limited

MOSCOW, March 21 (Reuter) - Russia on Tuesday backed Turkey's military
incursion into Iraq to hunt for Kurdish separatists, describing it as an
internal affair for the countries concerned.

"We are talking about a one-off action, limited in time and space, which
has as its goal the destruction of bases and strongholds of Kurdish
extremists carrying out an armed struggle against Turkey," Russian Foreign
Ministry spokesman Grigory Karasin told a news briefing. "We consider it to be
an internal affair of the states concerned."

Turkish jets pounded Kurdish rebel camps and ground forces secured a zone
40-km deep inside north Iraq on Tuesday in the second day of a huge military
operation.

Turkish Defence Minister Mehmet Golhan said about 200 rebels from the
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) had been killed but Turkish forces had suffered
no losses.

Karasin said Russia was counting on Turkey to comply with a statement issued
on Monday pledging that Turkish units would be pulled back after completing
their task without harming civilians or the territorial intergrity of Iraq.

Russia's position on the incursion echoed that of the United States, which on
Monday said it had received assurances from Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller
that the operation would be limited and civilians safeguarded.

White House spokesman Mike McCurry said President Bill Clinton expressed
"understanding for Turkey's need to deal decisively" with the rebels. But the
European Union has criticised Turkey's actions. French Foreign Minister Alain
Juppe, who heads the EU Council of Ministers, said the raids violated Iraq's
sovereignty.

(7) EU criticises Turkish raids against Kurds in Iraq

PARIS, March 21 (Reuter) - The European Union on Tuesday criticised a massive
Turkish military incursion into Iraq to hunt for Kurdish guerrillas as breaking
basic principles of international law.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, speaking for the presidency, said the air
and ground raids violated Iraq's sovereignty. "We support, in Turkey as
elsewhere, the principle of territorial integrity and sovereignty...This
applies to all, including the current incursion of Turkish troops into Iraq,"
he told journalists after a two-day European stability conference.

In contrast to the European reaction, The United States tacitly endorsed the
incursion on Monday after receiving assurances from Turkish Prime Minister
Tansu Ciller that the operation would be limited and civilians safeguarded.

Turkish troops used the Kurdish new year holiday of Nowrouz -- a traditional
time of separatist unrest -- to hunt Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) separatist
guerrillas inside the Western-protected "safe haven" for Iraqi Kurds.

Juppe said that while the EU regarded the PKK as a terrorist organisation,
Ankara had a duty, whatever its difficulties, to abide by the basic principles
of legality and human rights as an associate member of the EU and a member of
NATO and the Council of Europe.

"We have drawn (Turkey's) attention to the fact that these principles are not
currently being respected," he said. He pointed to the recent jailing of
Kurdish parliamentarians tried for treason for allegedly sympathising with the
PKK.

Juppe is to head the EU troika of foreign ministers on a one-day trip to Ankara
on Thursday to discuss human rights, Turkish occupation of the northern part of
Cyprus, and the implementation of a customs union accord signed this month with
the EU.

(8) Turkey to leave Iraq after disturbances end- IRNA

NICOSIA, March 21 (Reuter) - Turkish President Suleyman Demirel said his
country would withdraw its forces from northern Iraq after they put an end to
separatist guerrilla disturbances in the region, the Iranian news agency IRNA
said on Tuesday.

IRNA said Demirel made the comments in a telephone conversation late on Monday
with Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. "Turkish forces will withdraw
from the Iraqi territory immediately after putting an end to the disturbances
caused by the rebel forces in border areas," it quoted Demirel as saying.

IRNA said Demirel told Rafsanjani the objective behind the incursion of Turkish
forces into northern Iraq was "to fight terrorism, chase border rebels and
establish stability in those areas."

IRNA said Rafsanjani hoped innocent Iraqis would not be hurt and he "reiterated
the need to preserve territorial integrity of Iraq and expressed hope that
Turkish forces would withdraw from the Iraqi territory after the danger was
repelled."

(9) UN warns Turkey against abducting Kurdish civilians

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA, March 21 (Reuter) - The United Nations refugee agency warned Ankara on
Tuesday against seizing unarmed Turkish Kurd civilians in northern Iraq and
taking them back across the border, saying it would be a "very serious matter."

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it was investigating
reports from local authorities near the Iraqi town of Zakho that Turkish
forces had rounded up Kurds and abducted them to Turkey. It is not not known
how many people are involved.

Some 35,000 Turkish troops poured across the Iraq border on Monday in a
drive to rout the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and suspected separatist
strongholds. The PKK is fighting for an independent state in southeast
Turkey.

On Monday the UNHCR representative in Baghdad, Abdallah Saied, reached Dohuk,
80 kms south of Zakho, to try to check on 4,500 Turkish Kurd refugees in
villages close to the border. UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told a news briefing
on Tuesday: "Late yesterday, the UNHCR representative in Iraq...received
information that Turkish Kurds were being seized in the Zakho area and taken
across the border into Turkey. "If these are armed PKK fighters, that is one
thing. If they are unarmed civilian refugees, it is a very serious matter
indeed," he added. "So once again we ask the Turkish military to take great
care that they clearly distinguish between civilian refugees and armed
activists," the UNHCR spokesman told reporters.

But the UNHCR stopped short of accusing Turkey of violating a 1951 convention
under which refugees with a "well-founded fear of persecution" if returned to
their homeland are entitled to international protection. Turkey has signed
the 123-nation pact, as well as the 1967 protocol which extended the
convention's coverage beyond Europe. The UNHCR oversees compliance with the
two instruments.

The agency assists a total of 13,000 Turkish Kurds in northern Iraq. It also
cares for 4,800 Iranian refugees in the north and 22,500 Iranian Kurd refugees
west of Baghdad.

Saied was heading on Tuesday for Zakho, 12 km from the border and was expected
to try to confirm the reports with U.N. guards who have patrolled the zone
since the end of the 1991 Gulf War, aid agencies and Iraqi opposition groups.
"We have no reason to doubt the reports (from local authorities). But we want
to see for ourselves," a UNHCR source told Reuters. "It is adding up to the
same picture," he said.

On Monday, the UNHCR issued a statement expressing concern for the safety of
the Turkish Kurds, calling on Ankara to "show restraint in its military
activities" in northern Iraq.

It cited unconfirmed reports of two villages, Hizawa and Darkar, having been
surrounded and subjected to house-to-house searches by Turkish forces, while
hundreds were arrested.

"While UNHCR does not consider all Turkish Kurds in northern Iraq to be
refugees -- people involved in violent activities are not eligible for
refugee status -- it is satisfied that the people in the five villages are
civilians and in need of international protection," it said. The great
majority were women and children.

UNHCR said it was not the first time that genuine refugees had been caught
up in Turkish military activity. In the final few months of last year the
UNHCR relocated some 8,600 Turkish Kurd refugees to Atroush village,
southeast of Dohuk and 160 kilometres from the Turkish border.

This was to ensure that refugee settlements were not seen as "launch pads" for
armed PKK operations inside Turkey, according to the agency statement.

(10) Clinton endorses the move

WASHINGTON (Reuter) - Allied flights designed to protect the Kurds of northern
Iraq, suspended after Turkish forces invaded the area Monday, could resume
Wednesday, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

State Department spokesman David Johnson said the flights, which operate out of
Incirlik air base in southern Turkey, had been canceled for a second day but
"could resume as early as tomorrow". "We believe the Turks will do everything
they can to accelerate the resumption of these flights, as they have during and
after previous incursions into northern Iraq," Johnson told reporters.

The flights, known as Operation Provide Comfort, are staged by the United
States and its allies to enforce a no-fly zone over northern Iraq to protect
Kurds there against Iraqi air attack. They date from an Iraqi onslaught
against Kurds who rebelled after Iraq's defeat in the Gulf War in 1991.

Turkey, a NATO ally of the United States, Monday deployed some 35,000 troops in
a land and air operation against separatist Turkish Kurds based in the area.

President Clinton tacitly endorsed the Turkish move Monday, telling Turkish
Prime Minister Tansu Ciller of Washington's "understanding for Turkey's need to
deal decisively" with the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

But an influential senator introduced a bill linking U.S. aid to Turkey to
Ankara's human rights performance, including actions against Kurdish citizens.
"The simple truth is that Turkey is run by a group of thugs who systematically
abuse the human rights of its own citizens, and those of neighboring nations,
as cruelly and viciously as the world's most tyrannical regimes," Sen. Alfonse
D'Amato, chairman of the Banking Committee, said in introducing the bill.
His legislation states that before Turkey can receive any U.S. aid in the
fiscal year starting Oct. 1, it would have to take action in several areas of
human rights.

Turkey would have to allow international human rights monitors on Turkish soil,
cease any military action toward its 15 million Kurdish citizens and recognize
their rights and take steps toward withdrawing troops from Cyprus. D'Amato said
that under the bill, for every day Turkey failed to comply with these
conditions $500,000 would be held from any U.S. grant or loan. The president
could waive the restrictions by citing U.S. national security interests.

The current-year U.S. budget authorized $365 million in loans for Turkey. At
least one refugee, a young woman, was killed during a Turkish bombing raid in
Baheri, near Zakho, last July, it added.

(11) Amnesty urges Turkey to protect Kurdish prisoners

LONDON March 21 (Reuter) - Human rights pressure group Amnesty International
urged Turkey on Tuesday to safeguard any prisoners taken during its attacks on
Kurdish guerrillas in northern Iraq.

The London-based group said it was concerned about the wellbeing of prisoners
taken in Iraqi Kurdistan as it feared they would be tortured and killed in the
same way as the Turkish army treated Kurdish rebels on their own soil in the
past.

"The organisation is concerned about the safety of any prisoners taken in
Iraqi Kurdistan, given the Turkish government's disregard for human rights in
its own territory," Amnesty said in a statement. "Amnesty International is
appealing to the Turkish government to ensure the physical safety of all
detainees and to clarify their legal status," it added.

(12) Kurds Target Turkish Interests

BONN, Germany (AP) -- Suspected Kurdish extremists and leftists firebombed
banks and other Turkish targets in several German cities early Tuesday,
starting the Kurdish new year with violence. It was the eighth straight night
of attacks on Turkish interests in Germany.

About 130 banner-waving Kurds demonstrated across from Chancellor Helmut Kohl's
office Tuesday to protest Turkey's military offensive against Kurds in northern
Iraq. Similar protests were held in several German cities Monday evening.

Targets of the firebombs included a Turkish bank in Cologne, another in
Gelsenkirchen, a Turkish travel agency in Berlin, and a Turkish cultural center
in the Bavarian town of Erlenbach. At least two people were arrested.

The German government has blamed most of the anti-Turkish attacks on the
Kurdistan Workers Party, which has been fighting for a separate homeland in
southeastern Turkey since 1984. But police said bombers at two of Tuesday's
targets left behind a flag bearing the letters DHKC, the initials of a splinte
group of the far-left Turkish organization Dev Sol, which was banned in Germany
in 1983.

(13) Anti-Turkish violence continues in Germany

BONN, March 21 (Reuter) - Arsonists attacked a Turkish newspaper office, a
prayer room and two banks in German cities in the eighth day of violence blamed
by Bonn officials on Kurdish militants, police said on Tuesday. Nobody was
injured but the buildings were slightly damaged.

The overnight incidents took place against a background of increasing alarm in
Germany over violence among Germany's 1.8 million Turks, the country's biggest
foreign community.

Interior Minister Mafred Kanther said the attacks bore the hallmark of the
banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and called for more protection for
Turks and the speedy deportation of Kurds suspected of involvement in the
violence.

Tuesday was the Kurdish New Year or Nowrouz festival, a traditional focus for
guerrilla activity by the PKK, which has been fighting Ankara since 1984 for an
independent homeland in southeastern Turkey.

In the latest incidents, petrol bombs were thrown at two Turkish banks in
Cologne and the industrial city of Gelsenkirchen but the fires were quickly
extinguished and little damage was caused. Police detained two people in
Gelsenkirchen.

Arsonists also set fire to the offices of the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet in
Berlin and hurled two petrol bombs at a prayer room in the Bavarian town of
Erlenbach which failed to explode and caused little damage.

Turkish ambassador Onur Oeymen said Turks living in Germany had the right to
more protection by security forces and told the Berlin newspaper B.Z. armed
guerrillas were responsible for the attacks.

(14) Turkey asks Germany to protect its interests

ANKARA, March 21 (Reuter) - Turkey's Foreign Minister Murat Karayalcin said on
Tuesday his country expected Bonn to protect its interests in German cities
against increasingly frequent attacks largely blamed on Kurdish separatists.

"It is regrettable that the attacks against our citizens have increased
recently. There have been 80 such attacks this year alone," he said in a
statement. Most of the attacks were aimed at Turkish tourism offices at the
start of the travel season, he added.

Turkish officials say the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) hopes to ruin Turkey's
tourism revenues by attacking establishements in Turkey and abroad.

Arsonists attacked a Turkish newspaper office, a prayer room and two banks in
German cities in the eighth day of violence blamed by Bonn officials on
Kurdish separatist militants, German police said on Tuesday.

German Interior Minister Manfred Kanther said the attacks bore the hallmark of
the banned PKK and called for more protection for Turks and the speedy
deportation of Kurds suspected of involvement in the violence.

Some German state governments have objected to the move saying Kurds with
Turkish nationalities were liable to be prosecuted in Turkey.

Conceding that Germany's federal government had limited powers over the
states, Karayalcin said responsibility of international obligations against
what he called "terrorism" lay with Bonn.

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