The Kurdish paper, Hawlati, reported that deep divisions have surfaced
among the leadership of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) that
could lead to serious consequences for the party and its leader Mr.
Talabani.
More
A bomb hidden
near the Baghdad home of Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari was discovered and
defused Sunday, police said. In July, gunmen had opened fire on a car
belonging to Zebari killing one official and wounding two others. He was not
in the
vehicle at the time, reported AP
An Arab
Islamic group said it had assassinated the chief of police in Arbil and
warned to kill Kurdish leader Barzani. "This is a clear message to the ally
of the Jews, the agent Massoud Barzani, head of the Kurdistan Democratic
Party, to tell the scoundrel that we are coming and the hands of the
mujahideen will soon reach you, God willing, and America cannot help you,"
said the statement which was dated Sunday, reported Reuters
Two Turkish soldiers were killed when their vehicle hit a land mine in
Northern Kurdistan, reported the state owned news agency Anatolia. Also,
Anatolia said four soldiers were injured in a land mine explosion near the
city of Amed.
In an
official visit to Washington, the Kurdish PM Nechirvan Barzani arrived
in Washington late last week to explain his administration's stance on
several important issues regarding Southern Kurdistan and Iraq, a KDP
official told the Kurdistan Observer today.
More
A member of the
Turkoman Front political group was assassinated today in Southern Kurdistan
while driving his children to school, police said. Col. Burhan Taha said
politician Ghafour Abu Bakr was killed at 8.30am (local time) in Kirkuk when
unknown attackers opened fire, killing him and slighting injuring his two
children, reported Reuters yesterday.
----------------
Iraq's Christians who are
increasingly targeted by insurgents, are fleeing Baghdad for the safety of
the Southern Kurdistan, reported AP.
----------------
The US military said three soldiers, a marine
and a civilian translator were killed and one soldier wounded in two car
bombings on Friday, one in the northern city of Mosul and another near the
city of Qaim on Iraq's border with Syria. Also on
Saturday, a Kurd working
for the education ministry was shot dead in Mosul, reported AFP.
----------------
Kurdistan
Democratic Party is planning to launch a new satellite TV channel in
Southern Kurdistan. The new station, which will be called Zagros TV, will
start its broadcasting programs on November 1 of this year.
The KDP
leader Massoud Barzani began a three-day visit to Syria on Friday. Barzani,
who arrived form Jordan, said he would discuss a number of subjects with
Syrian leaders. They included federalism in Iraq, relations between the two
countries and the question of Kirkuk, reported AFP
Oct
15, 2004
•
News Snapshot
Syrian regime have arrested
three Kurds, human rights lawyer Anwar Bunni said on Thursday. "Military
security arrested three Kurds in the town of Amuda as part of the clampdown
linked to the fatal riots that took place last March in the northeast, he
said, repeating his call for political prisoners to be freed, reported AFP
----------------
A
representative of the PUK says that his party is prepared for an armed
struggle to ensure Kirrkuk’s Kurdistani identity. “We and the KDP share the
same view regarding this issue,” Sadon Faili, the PUK spokesperson in
Baghdad told daily Al-Hayat, referring to the culturally-stirred conflict of
Kirkuk, reported Peyamner
"I've been
doing grave sites for a long time, but I've never seen anything like this:
women and children executed for no apparent reason," said Mr Kehoe, who
spent five years investigating mass graves in Bosnia for the International
Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia.
More
Leyla Zana finally received
the European Parliament's Sakharov prize for human rights Wednesday after
being released in June from a decade in Turkish detention
----------------
According
to the Turkish daily paper Aksham, the Turkish president warned Barzani not
to follow the Isreali path, adding that Israel is the source of conflict
since it was established. Aksham also reports that Mr Barzani was told that
neither Turkey nor the neighboring countries will accept federalism that
would lead to an independent Kurdistan, and if Kurds go this way, they will
likely lose what they have achieved so far.
Massoud Barzani said that the oil-rich city of Kirkuk in Southern Kurdistan
had a Kurdish "identity" and vowed to fight any force attempting to oppress
its people, whether Kurds or other ethnic groups.
More
Turkey will face a
very stringent inspection mechanism on human rights and cultural freedoms
(read that as "Kurdish rights)." Additionally, if there are any unfortunate
developments concerning the military's influence in politics and foreign
relations -- like military intervention in a neighboring country -- the
negotiations will be suspended immediately, said
TDN columnist Gunduz Aktan
----------------
A German
delegation from the Baviera State visited Amed, Northern Kurdistan. The
delegation's Chairman Gabriel Goltz said they came to Amed to observe the
services given by the local authorities and the developments in the
villages, directly.
In a joint press
conference in Irbil with the British Foreign Minister Jack straw who arrived
in Irbil on Tuesday, the Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said "Our
policy and stance is clear, we refuse to compromise on any grounds regarding
Kirkuk," refuting the speculations that UK puts pressure on the Kurdish
leaders to make concessions on Kirkuk.
In a second day of
demonstrations in the Kurdish city of Kirkuk, protestors brandished banners
calling for the departure of the Arabs and the return of Kurds chased from
their homes as part of Saddam's efforts to change its population makeup.
Demonstrators also called for the departure of loyalists of the old regime
they accused of blocking the return of displaced Kurds.
----------------
A Turkish
soldier and a Kurdish rebel were killed in Northern Kurdistan, Turkish
state news agency Anatolia reported Sunday.
In several Kurdish cities
across Southern Kurdistan, tens of thousands of Kurds demonstrated,
demanding an independent Kurdistan with Kirkuk as its capital.
----------------
A Turkish soldier was killed
and three others were wounded Saturday in fighting with Kurdish fighters in
Northern Kurdistan, the Anatolia news agency reported.
----------------
The newly appointed Secretary General of KDP
in Eastern (Iranian) Kurdistan, Mustafa Hijiri, says that his party has
detailed information about Al Qaida training camps in Iran. "We have
detailed intelligence reports on the training locations of members belonging
to Al Qaida and Ansar al Islam organizations," Hijiri said in an interview
published by Kurdish daily Medya.
BY CAROL MARIN
SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
The
great news this week is that Attorney General John Ashcroft is leaving the
Justice Department.
His contempt for those concerned about civil liberties, his confrontational
approach to critics from both parties, and his readiness to distort
constitutional protections in the name of national security are just a few of
the reasons to be glad he's gone.
And while his successor, White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales, raises his own
set of red flags by calling the Geneva Conventions "quaint" and by helping to
establish the scandalous detention center at Guantanamo Bay, it's far too early
to predict what he will do in this role.
I for one am hopeful.
He appears to possess a reasonableness and an openness that Ashcroft never
had.
What I hope most is that Gonzales will immediately re-examine all of the
people who have been detained by the United States government in the name of
terrorism since 9-11 and ask far better questions than Ashcroft ever did about
why they are still being held.
He should start with Ibrahim Parlak.
Ibrahim Parlak is a 42-year-old Kurd born in Turkey who came to the United
States in 1991 in search of political asylum. He was tortured and imprisoned at
home for fighting against the oppression of the Kurds by the Turks. When he
arrived here, U.S. officials knew of his conviction, his imprisonment and his
torture. That's why the United States granted him asylum.
He settled in Harbert, Mich., opened a modest Middle Eastern restaurant
called Cafe Gulistan and became an active and honorable member of the community.
That's where his 7-year old daughter, Livia, was born. That's where he built a
new life.
But after 9-11 and with the Patriot Act in hand, the Justice Department took
an entirely different view of what had happened to Ibrahim Parlak back in the
1980s. In 2002 the government began proceedings to deport him.
Parlak did not run nor did he hide. He did what every one of us would do. He
scraped together some money, hired a lawyer and faithfully attended at least
three hearings in order to argue his case.
Meanwhile, the government of Turkey told our own government it neither wanted
Parlak to serve more jail time nor did it want him back. None of that seemed to
matter.
On July 29 federal agents took Ibrahim Parlak away. He has been held without
bond in Battle Creek, Mich., ever since. His next day in court is not until Dec.
7.
Parlak is not a rich man, but he is rich in friends. His case has attracted a
team of lawyers who are now working full time -- and many of them for free -- to
right what is so terribly wrong about this case. One of them is Jay Marhoefer of
Latham & Watkins in Chicago, who believes the case of Ibrahim Parlak could
become a national test case for the incoming attorney general and the Justice
Department.
"There are significant ramifications in the Parlak case, if adopted, that
could affect in major ways the Patriot Act and immigration law," says Marhoefer,
who argues the government has gone too far. "No one wants to see national
security weakened. We don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water.
There are bad people out there but Ibrahim Parlak is not one of them."
All the government will say to any of this, when I called, was that it has a
strong case.
Maybe they have to say that, given that the Justice Department's current
track record against suspected terrorists has been pitiful, even embarrassing.
As the New York Times put it Thursday, it's a litany of "dismissed charges,
misidentified suspects and minor convictions of minor figures."
Today, if you drive the Red Arrow Highway into Michigan and through the small
vacation communities on either side of Harbert, you'll see the signs.
"Free Ibrahim" is painted on storefronts, garages, and cardboard signs placed
in people's windows or planted in their yards.
