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.
Assassins tried to kill Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi Foreign Minister, yesterday
morning by leaving a car packed with explosives on a road where he was about to
travel. His guards discovered the bomb shortly before his convoy went past.
The repeated attempts to murder Mr Zebari since he took over as Foreign
Minister last year are a back-handed tribute by the insurgents to his
effectiveness as the interim Iraqi government's international spokesman.
"They don't dare ambush us because they know they will be killed," he told
The Independent defiantly in an interview just after the latest attack was
foiled. He expected the assassination campaign against government ministers to
escalate.
The bomb yesterday was the second attempt on his life in recent months. He
shows, with a certain pride, two photographs of another car bomb containing
800kg of explosives that had been intercepted near his house.
The elaborate bomb included white blocks of TNT, a dozen or more 130mm shells
and even a torpedo all connected with red electrical wire. "It's frightening,"
he said. "The whole neighbourhood would have been wiped out, not one or two or
three houses."
Mr Zebari, a veteran leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party who fought as a
guerrilla for many years against Saddam Hussein in the mountains of Kurdistan,
expects the insurgents to try again. He said the number of their operations had
dropped from 106 a day to between 60 and 80 since the capture of Fallujah. But,
overall, he did not sound optimistic that the level of violence would be much
reduced.
He confirmed Dr Iyad Allawi will go to Jordan on Wednesday or close to that
date to talk to opponents of the government. But he was quick to add that it was
not a conference. The meetings would be with "religious leaders, tribal chiefs
and Baathists, though not those on the wanted list". Most come from the western
Iraqi city of Ramadi which after Fallujah is one of the main centres of
resistance.
Mr Zebari left no doubt that the Iraqi election would go ahead on 30 January.
He said the Iraqi National Security Council, of which he is a member, had met at
the weekend and decided the poll must go ahead. "Any postponement, any weakness
will benefit our enemies, our opponents.
"There are no guarantees that the security would be better if there was a
postponement." He added with a laugh that there were also no assurances that
security would be any better after the election.
The reason why the Sunni party leaders wanted a delay was obvious enough,
said the Foreign Minister. They feared a boycott of the poll in Sunni districts
which would wipe them out politically. "They are afraid there will be a Shia
majority and they are not organised enough," Mr Zebari said. "They need
consensual arrangements with other communities."
Mr Zebari thought the uprising in Sunni parts of Iraq would fail because it
was an attempt by a minority to impose its will. He said "definitely the great
majority of the Iraqi people will not tolerate a minority hijacking the country
at gunpoint for its own selfish power interests."
The US is strongly committed to a poll on 30 January. The election was
mentioned repeatedly by George Bush as a symbol of the success of his policy of
bringing democracy to Iraq. And Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the influential
Shia religious leader, has long demanded an election. The US and the interim
government do not want to alienate him.
