STRONG REACTION OF HRW AGAINST PUK: "TALABANI VIOLATING HUMAN RIGHTS"

While discussions on the restructuring of Iraq are continuing, international public opinion is showing its reaction against the "inhuman" applications of the Kurdish groups in Northern Iraq against the Arabs, Turcomans and Syriacs.

The KDP and PUK powers are forcing the people living in Kirkuk and Mosul to leave the city. The Arabian, Turcoman and Syriac people who cannot stand the pressure of these Kurdish groups migrate to Baghdad and Tikriti located in the south of Iraq. Kurdish families settle themselves in the emptied houses. Those who do not leave their houses are subject to the violence of the Kurds.

Sedat Ergin, in his editorial published in the daily Hürriyet Gazetesi issued on April 18, 2003, broadly dwells on the inhuman applications of the Kurdish groups in the north of Iraq as well as on the report published by the Human Rights Watch concerning the tragedy going on in Northern Iraq;

"Human Rights Watch (HRW), centered in New York, is one of the world's most respected organizations on human rights.

HRW, is an organization that in the past released reports in which it criticized some states because of human rights violations and especially applications against Kurds. Upon the possibility that the Turkish Army would enter Northern Iraq, this organization made an announcement on March 26, 2003 expressing its concerns.

When the powers of the PUK led by Celal Talabani and the KDP led by Mesut Barzani entered Kirkuk, the Human Right Watch sent a delegation of 4 people to this city so as to investigate the incidents that had happened and their findings were published in a report on April 15, 2003.

Without doubt, it seems paradoxical that this organization, which in the past had strongly criticized the applications targeting the Kurds, is now targeting the KDP and the PUK in its report on Kirkuk.

Criticizing the USA for not being successful enough in establishing the order in Kirkuk and in providing the safety of the civilians, HWR also states that the USA is not conforming to the Geneva Convention.

The report prepared by HRW puts forth that incidents such as widespread looting and destruction of property has negatively affected all the ethnic groups living in the city and that the incidents that have occurred outside of Kirkuk are even "more dangerous".

HRW dwells upon the fact that the Arabs are forcefully displaced by the Kurdish groups of Talabani and Barzani. For example, it has been brought to attention that four villages where the Al-Shummar Clan is living have been emptied in this way. According to the HRW Report, in some occasions the Kurdish groups in Northern Iraq used written instructions to move the Arabs from their homes. Cars, tractors and household goods belonging to the Arabs are being usurped and their houses occupied.

Another important fact is that in some villages, where the houses have been emptied, the names of the Kurds who are going to move in these houses are written with spray paint. HRW also conveys that a PUK official, with whom an interview has been made, has told that this application "is based on a decision taken by the PUK political bureau".

In fact, in a report released (3 March 2003) prior to the breakout of the war, HRW had drawn attention in advance to the applications experienced today in Kirkuk. This report explained in detail the Arabization policy of the Saddam Hussein regime in the past targeting the Kurds, Turcomans and Syriacs in and around Kirkuk. The HRW report noted that a serious crisis would happen in Kirkuk. Taking into consideration this likelihood, HRW proposed the USA Administration to prepare in advance a mechanism that would provide displaced people to return to their homes in an organized and legal way.

It is very interesting to learn that an arrangement similar to this proposal of HRW takes place in the political document signed in Ankara by Turkey, the USA and Iraqi oppositionists including Talabani, Barzani and the Turcomans. According to this document, Safety of the civilians and their property shall be provided and uncontrolled movements of refugees and displaced persons shall strongly be deterred. Iraqis trying to obtain rights by means of illegal methods or trying to incite civilians not to obey to rules shall be deterred strongly as well. A commission shall be set up as soon as possible in order to give property, confiscated by the Iraqi regime, back to their legal owners within a legal and organized framework. It will be possible to solve by means of this commission the rightful demands of all the Iraqis in a peaceful and organized way."

In spite of the fact that the Kurdish groups signed this document they got into Mosul and Kirkuk and initiated inhuman applications that became an issue for reporting of the HRW. This can only be defined as "opportunism".

It seems that adopting the policies that were once applied by the Saddam regime does not bother Talabani and Barzani. This situation raises the question to what extent Talabani and Barzani can be accepted as a reliable and serious addressee in the coming period when Iraq shall be restructured."

In an article published in the daily Le Figaro of April 18, 2003, attention is drawn again to the pressure applied to the Arabs and Turcomans by the Kurdish groups denoting the following: "Following the overthrow of Saddam, the Kurds are seizing the houses of the Arabs and the Turcomans. Most recently, 27 km south to Kirkuk in the Daguk town and around, 2000 Arab families have been forced to leave the area after being thrown out of their houses by PUK forces led by Talabani. The Arabs whose houses have been seized are in huge anger. The enmity and conflict between the Arabs and the Kurds is escalating. The Turcomans being another important ethnic group living in Kirkuk are also bothered by the invasion and looting of the Kurds. Upon these acts of violence of the Kurdish groups, the Arabs and the Turcomans expect that the US-British ally bring security to the region."

Another similar news article published in the daily Washington Post of April 21, 2003, emphasized that the Kurds have initiated ethnic cleansing in Mosul and Kirkuk by forcing the Arabs to move away and settling in the houses they have emptied.