· NEWROZ CELEBRATIONS: SOME PEACEFUL, SOME BLOODY.
The demonstrations to celebrate Newroz, the Kurdish New Year, degenerate into a
riot in Mersin, a Turkish city with a very strong Kurdish community,
causing two deaths and 61 injured. One demonstrator was crushed against a
wall by a police armoured car in the course of violent clashes which
resulted in 61 people being injured ­ 41 police and 20 demonstrators ­ and
81 being taken in for questioning. The man killed was 34 years of age and,
according to the Turkish authorities, in the middle of a crowd shouting
slogans in support of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). According to the
Antalya Press Agency, another man, 39 years of age, was also crushed to
death at Mersin ­ though without giving any details

The demonstrators refused to disperse and the police, after firing in the
air, went into action with water canons and tear gas bombs.

Newroz demonstrations have been authorised for third years running in the
Kurdish provinces, except for Bitlis, but banned in Istanbul and Mersin.
There no deaths had occurred in these last years. In Istanbul, 354 people
were taken in for questioning by the police, mostly during a demonstration
in the Topkapi quarter, the European part of the city, organised by the
Human Rights Association (IHD) and the People's Democratic Party (HADEP).

In Diyarbekir, some 5,000 police were mobilised for this celebration,
authorised from 10.00 am to 15.00 (3.00 pm) in the local fairground about a
dozen miles outside the city. Several hundreds of thousands (a million
according to the organisers) faced the rain, the police road blocks and the
warnings of the police top brass, firmly to celebrate, with plenty of music
and peaceful speeches, this festival that has become the symbol of Kurdish
nationalism. The forbidden Kurdish colours of red, yellow and green were
everywhere to be seen in the crowd. "Be certain that our demands will be
achieved in days to come" declared the Mayor of Diyarbekir. After having
lit the symbolic Newroz bonfire, the HADEP President, Murat Bozlak, for his
part, expressed the hope of living "in brotherhood" with the Turkish
population. He called on the authorities to include the PKK activists in an
amnesty to put an end to any vague tendencies to secessionism. "There are
still young men in the mountains, act so that they may lay them down
permanently" he declared.

The famous Turkish singer, Sezen Aksu, ended the celebrations with a series
of Kurdish songs before the crowd dispersed.
 

·  US VICE-PRESIDENT VISITS TURKEY. On 19 March Dick Cheney, the US
Vice-President, arrived in Turkey at the end of his tour of 11 Near Eastern
countries to sound the US's regional allies on the subject of Iraq. On 12
March, Baghdad had launched a bitter attack on him, describing him as a
"criminal" and calling on the Arab countries to prevent the attack on Iraq
that his regional tour was trying to prepare.

The American Vice met the Turkish Premier, Bulent Ecevit, the President,
Ahmet Necdet Sezer, and the Armed Forces Chief of Staff, General Huseyin
Kivrikoglu. Although a close ally within NATO, Turkey expressed its
opposition to any US attack on Iraq, essentially for fear of the conflict
spreading over the Northern borders, which straddle the "Kurdish countryside".

The US Armed Forces already uses a Turkish base for its air surveillance of
Iraqi Kurdistan. But it would need Ankara's agreement to launch attacks
against that country from Turkish territory, strategically placed for such operations.

The Kurdish region, drain and exhausted, invited the American
Vice-President, Dick Cheney, to take into account their serious economic
problems, due to repeated regional crises. "This uncertainty over an
intervention in Iraq is, in itself, very damaging for us" explained the
President of the Diyarbekir Chamber of Trade and Industry, Kudbettin Arzu.
"We do not want an attack on Iraq, but it is being said that war would be
no worse than the danger of war ­ the investors avoid us, unemployment is
increasing, our industrial equipment is only working at 40% of its
capacity, the region is on its knees" Mr. Arzu observed. After reflection,
those involved in the region's economic life finish by agreeing that their
problems come from the Saddam Hussein's misdeeds and that his replacement
could do less harm than his maintenance in power. "Of course we do not want
instability of our neighbours, but it would be better if certain
dictatorial and totalitarian regimes disappeared" admitted Kudbettin Arzu.
Bedrettin Karaboga, whose firm is on the edge of bankruptcy, was even more
direct when he addressed the American leader: "If you're going to strike,
then strike. Otherwise let us trade in peace. This situation must come to an end".

Mr. Cheney said that he had had "frank discussion" about Iraq but that "the
United States would not forecast its decisions on the matter". Al-Iraq
considered that the co-incidence between his visit and that of the US
mediator in the Near East, Anthony Zinni, was "a new manoeuvre" by
Washington designer to "calm the situation in Palestine" and concert "its
aggressive project" against Iraq with the Arab capitals.
 
 

·  TALABANI: SECOND VISIT TO TURKEY IN TWO WEEKS.
On 19 March, Jalal Talabani, leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, arrived
from Damascus for a second visit in less than two weeks, to raise with the
Turkish authorities perspectives of change in the Iraqi regime. In Ankara,
Mr. Talabani met the Turkish under-secretary of State for Foreign Affairs,
Mr. Ugur Ziyal. His visit also coincided with that of US Vice-President Dick Cheney.

Mr.Talabani had already visited Ankara at the beginning of March and had
expressed himself in favour of a democratic change in the Iraqi regime,
stating that he was "concerned" about the unity of the country in the event
of an extension of the American anti-terrorist struggle. He then went to
Syria. In an interview published on 17 March by the London-based Arab
language daily Al Hayat, the leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
(PUK) did not exclude a change of regime in Iraq before 11 September next.
"The US Administration is determined to change the regime in Iraq, we were
told by senior officials we met in Washington. I think that a change will
take place before the first anniversary of the tragic event" stated Mr.
Talabani, referring to the 11 September terrorist attacks in the United
States. "I also think that the conflict between Washington and Baghdad is
deeper than just the return of the (disarmament) inspectors to Iraq" stated
Mr. Talabani.

According to him, an "acceptance of the inspectors by Baghdad could delay
(the military operation) or diminish the extent of hostility to the Iraqi
regime but a change of regime is (provided for) by an American law that any
US administration is obliged to execute" declared Mr. Talabani. "There is
an American law, called the "law for the liberation of Iraq", adopted by
former President Bill Clinton which the new administration is determined" to apply.
 
Mr. Talabani furthermore outlined three "scenarii" for a change of the
Iraqi regime: a possible military coup d'état, an intensive bombardment of
Iraq in the course of which some officers might seize power, or an outside
invasion in collaboration with the Iraqi opposition. In his view, "the
Americans are in favour of a democratic regime in Iraq in which all the
religious and ethnic communities would be represented".

On 15 March Jalal Talabani had affirmed, in Damascus, that Washington had
not solicited Kurdish participation in any eventual military operations
against Iraq. "The United States have not discussed any strikes with us nor
asked us to take part in any" he declared in the course of a Press
Conference. "We are in the dark, we do not know the American's plans" he
added. "There are no clear indications of a strike. What we hear (from the
Americans) are proposals aimed at forcing Iraq to authorise the return of
the (the UN disarmament) inspectors" he continued. These inspectors had
left Baghdad in 1998 on the eve of an Americano-British campaign of air
raids, and Iraq categorically refuses to let them return. "I think Iraq
will change its mind at the last moment" and authorise their return Mr.
Talabani considered. According to the PUK boss, this assurance comes from a
letter he and Mr. Barzani received from Secretary of State Colin Powell
after the inauguration of President Bush in 2001.  The PUK leader arrived
on Tuesday and, on Thursday discussed the American threats against Iraq
with Syrian President al-Assad.
 

· 1000+ KURDISH REFUGEES LAND IN SICILY.  On 18th March, the
Monica, an old tramp cargo boat carrying over a thousand Kurdish passengers
arrived at Catania (Sicily), unleashing a controversy over the
effectiveness of the new Italian legislation against illegal immigration.
The boat, flying the San Tomé flag, is said to have left Lebanon about a
week earlier and been intercepted during the night following a tip off from
the French Navy. On board were about 500 men, 300 women and 200 children.
The passengers claim to be Syrian and Iraqi Kurds, according to information
from the Italian authorities.

When it was boarded by the Italian Navy during the night, some passengers
and members of the Monica's crew threatened to "throw children into the
sea" out of fear of being sent back. After being assured that they were in
Italian territorial waters, the illegal immigrants let the Customs Officers
climb aboard. But the crew, who had wrecked the engines, tried to hide
amongst the passengers, forcing the Italian authorities to tow it in. Five
people, one of whom was a woman, suspected of being part of the crew, were
arrested on arrival in port at Catania, and the boat was confiscated by the Italian courts.

One woman passenger went into labour during the night, helped by a naval
doctor and shortly after was transported by helicopter to Catania hospital
with her baby. Two other pregnant women were also taken to hospital. The
other Monica passengers were temporarily housed in the town's sports
gymnasium then directed to reception centres on the mainland.

According to their evidence, they had paid between $ 2,000 and 4,000 per
head for the journey. This fresh landing of refugees has pushed the
government to consider decreeing a State of Emergency on the island to as
better to tackle this phenomenon. Last week experienced a tragic case of
illegal immigration when some people died in a shipwreck off the coast of Lampedusa.

Lebanon appears to be on of the main take-off points for "boat people"
aiming at going to Germany. The Monica is the second boat in a bit more
than a year to carry hundreds of Syrian Kurds who boarded in Lebanon to be
boarded of the coast of a country of the European Union. On 17 February
2001, the East Sea, a tramp cargo boat flying a Cambodian flag ran aground
with some 920 illegal immigrants aboard, off, on Boulouris Beach, St.
Raphael (Var) coming from the Lebanon, probably from a point close to the
Syrian-Lebanese border. According to the French investigators, the East Sea
passengers, in a pitiful state of health, had been grouped together in the
Lebanon. In both cases, hundreds of children had been taken aboard. This
makes Lebanon a major route for the traffic of Kurdish "boat people",
including whole families. But it is not the only one. Turkey and Syria are
equally implicated. "Even when they don't originate from Syria itself,
Kurds coming from Turkey and Iraq have to cross Syrian territory" observe3d
a European diplomatic source.

The reinforcing of Italian legislation in the direction of greater
repressiveness does not seem to have dissuaded the candidates, still more
numerous in braving extreme conditions, often at the risk of their lives.
The Italian authorities have secured a meeting of the Interior Ministries
of the European Union in Rome for 30 May specially devoted to this problem,
in the course of which the creation of a European border force will be discussed.

"The journeys of illegal immigrants to Italy are organised by Turkish and
Albanian criminal organisations" the Italian Intelligence services accuse
in their latest six-monthly report, made public last week. Their rings take
charge of the candidates who have come from Asia and the Near East, but
also from Albania and other Balkan countries, stresses the report.

Over 20,000 illegal immigrants landed in Italy last year, according to
figures provided by one of the under-secretaries of the Interior, Alfredo
Mantovano. Between September and October 2001, four boats with between 250
and 400 Kurds on board, arrived in the Southern part of the peninsula. In
April of that year, another boat with 600 passengers from Turkey docked in
the port of Gallipoli, in Apulia.
 

· 49TH VICTIM OF PRISON HUNGER STRIKE. On 15 March,
a Turkish prisoner died after having kept a 290-day hunger strike against the
"reform" of prison conditions.

Dogan Tokmak, 30 years of age, is the sixth hunger striker to die so far
this year, and the 49th since the beginning of the protest movement last
year. All died of starvation ­ except for one whom burnt him to death.

Hundreds of detainees of the extreme left, and a good number of their
supporters have been fasting for over a year in protest against the
transfer of prisoners into more modern establishments provided with
individual cells. The protesters point out that these cells isolate the
prisoners and expose them to ill treatment ­ always endemic in Turkish prisons
 

· FREE PRESS STIFFLED IN KURDISH PROVINCES. Only a last
minute respite saved the GUN-TV chain, sentenced to a year's blank screens
for having broadcast two Kurdish language love songs, from being closed
down by the police as from 22 March ­ a proof of the stifling of the media
in the Kurdish regions. The penalty striking GUN-TV, subject to
confirmation on appeal within a fortnight, is the heaviest ever yet decreed
by the High Council for Radio and Television (RTUK).

Preparing his daily press revue, the owner, Nevzat Bingol, discovered that
his little local channel was subjected to a month's suspension in addition
to the one-year penalty. At least a dozen radio and TV stations in the
region suffer the same penalty. "After closing down my radio because, they
alleged, it "jammed the police talkie-walkies" I was not surprised at this
nth sentence as there are already 17 writs out against me" smiled Mr.
Bingol, whose previous network, Metro, had suffered the same fate. "The
excuse is pathetic" he explained: "I am being accused of mentioning the
fact that some Kurds inhabit this region, as if it was a lie" he exclaimed angrily.

"Even under the Ottoman administration, there were never Kurdish language
papers here ­ and I fear that there won't be any in the near future"
acknowledged Naci Sapan, President of the Association of Journalists of the
southeast.

Thus 29 dailies, weeklies and monthlies in Kurdish or favourable to the
Kurdish cause are purely and simply banned from the circulation in the
State of Emergency region, even though they sell freely in the rest of
Turkey notes the Human Rights Association (IHD). There are two independent
papers in Diyarbekir province, who, to survive, take care not to cross the
red line and two other local TV channels ­ also extra careful. Since a
veritable censorship has already banned over 400 cassettes, these networks
don't have much room for freedom and show essentially cultural programmes
without the right to speak in Kurdish. "We are living behind a real Iron
Curtain where psychological torture is a daily experience" said Mr. Bingol bitterly.

The government is nevertheless at the moment studying the possibility of
letting the national channel, TRT, broadcast for between 20 minutes and one
hour, the news in Kurdish to conform with the recommendations of the
European Union, which Turkey wants to join.

However, the pressure on journalist, Turkish and foreign, who must furnish
themselves with a special press card for this region is being reduced ­ in
parallel with the fact the armed clashes have virtually disappeared since
the withdrawal of PKK forces from Turkey in September 1990.