*  IMPRISONED KURDISH M.P.s' LAWYER APPEALS TO SEZER
 In a letter addressed to the Turkish President, Ahmet
Nejdet Sezer, the lawyer of the imprisoned Kurdish M.P.s, Yusuf Alatas,
officially called for the liberation of his clients. "In conformity with
the decision of the European Court, application of the original sentence
should end. However, action on this case is reserved to the government.
Thus please allow we to ask you to consider this case in a legal rather
than a political light" stressed Mr. Alatas. The application, sent by the
presidency to the Turkish Ministry of Justice is said to have been passed
on, without any examination, to the Public Prosecutor's office of the
Ankara State Security Court. The Ankara State Security Court, advised in
its turn, rejected the Defence's plea on the grounds that verdicts of the
European Court were not directly binding on Turkish Courts. The lawyer
points out that the appeal has now been formally made to the Turkish State
and Government and that the N° 2 State Security Court has accepted the
validity of this plea. Mr. Alatas stresses that if his request is not has a
favourable outcome, he will, as a last resort, apply to the Council of
Europe's Committee of Minister, but that, unfortunately, this would take time.
 

· ARBITRARY BEHAVIOUR OF POLICE AND JUDICIARY CONTINUE.
Despite recent constitutional reforms undertaken in Turkey, the behaviour
of the police and courts in Kurdistan remain alarming. Thus preliminary
detention, officially limited to four days pending enquiries in the country
as a whole, too often lasts forty days in Kurdistan, placed under a State
of Emergency regime (OHAL). According to the Turkish daily Radikal of 10
December, on the grounds of decree 432 clause 3/c, which is still in force,
two alleged members of the Kurdistan Sworkers' Party (PKK) have been kept
in detention for forty days while four others, after being kept in
detention in Diyarbekir for 24 days, have now been jailed.

Worse still, this decree, originally only applied to those who confessed
and known as the "exile and censorship law" has been increasing used in the
OHAL region since the passing of the constitutional amendments last
September. As an example the paper quotes the cases of Emrullah Karagöz and
Mustafa Yasar, accused of "propaganda on behalf of the PKK", placed in
detention on 29 October 2001 and brought before the State Security Court's
Public Prosecutor on 1 November. Here they denounced the tortures to which
they had been subjected. Although their imprisonment was decided, the
accused were handed over to the gendarmerie for 10 days further
interrogation in the basis of Decree 432. When, at the end of these 10
days, the defence lawyer protested at a further extension of their
detention, the State Security Court's assessor ruled against the Public
Prosecutor's decision but was over-ruled by N  3 Court on the basis of this
decree. All in all, Messrs. Karagöz and Yasar have been kept in detention
without any contact with their lawyer of visit from their families for 41
days after four consecutive 10-day extensions. This use of this decree goes
far beyond the OHAL region and is applied in all the Kurdish provinces.
 

· TURKEY ATTRACTED BY IRAQI KURDISTAN'S OIL FIELDS.
Kenan Veziroglu, head of the State Oil Company TPAO, indicated on 11 December
that Turkey was considering prospecting for oil in Iraqi Kurdistan, which is outside
Baghdad's control and run by two Kurdish parties. According to the Turkish
daily Milliyet, Mr. Veziroglu stated, in the Kurdish town of Batman, that
his company was planning, as a first step, drilling six wells. According to
the daily Cumhuriyet, the prospecting should begin next January in an area
controlled by Massoud Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).

A spokesman of the Foreign Ministry said he preferred not to comment on
this news. Ankara maintains close relati0ns with the KDP, that controls the
area bordering on Turkey, while its rival, Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union
of Kurdistan (PUK) controls the Iranian border.

Turkey, faced with a very acute economic and financial crisis and which
claims to have lost $35 billion through the UNO embargo against Baghdad,
recently held a series of discussions with Iraq to put fresh life into
trade relations between the two countries. Moreover, an American team led
by Ryan Crocker, Under Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, visited
Iraqi Kurdistan on a mediation mission, to meet members of the KDP and PUK.
Philip Reeker, assistant spokesman for the State Department, declared, in
this connection that "this delegation is the first stage in the mediation
process" and that Mr. Crocker's mission must serve to show "the United
States' continuing commitment to the Iraqi opposition". It also will allow
an assessment to be made of the way the "Oil for Food" programme is carried
out in Kurdistan, Mr. Reeker added.
 

·  FIFTY KURD REFUGEES SECURE POLITICAL ASYLUM IN FRANCE.
On 12 December, the Forum Réfugiés voluntary association announced
that about fifty Syrian Kurds, taken to the reception Centre in the suburbs
of Lyons after the "East Sea" ran aground on a beach in South-East France in
February 2001, had secured refugee status. The association estimates that
145 to 150 of the 910 refugees (men, women and children) from the East Sea
are still in reception centres at Villeurbanne (Lyons) but also at Istres,
Manosque, Migennes and Lagrasse. "In the other centres (run by Forum
Réfugiés) some have already secured refugee status and, if the applications
have been well prepared, they should all eventually be granted this" judged
Mourad Talbi, in charge of Forum Réfugiés' emergency reception
organisation. Forum Réfugiés now runs classes in French and the procedures
for integration into French society by work and finding independent housing
for the 50 people (27 adults and 23 children) at Villeurbanne. Nine hundred
and ten people in all were rescued from the ship-wreck, including380
children and 430 adults. Over a hundred have filed applications for
permanent residence in France as political refugees.