Iraqi Kurds vow to end PKK activity

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

Subject: Iraqi Kurds vow to end PKK activity in north Iraq

97; Wed, 06 Sep 1995 16:51:23 -0800


     ANKARA, Turkey (Reuter) - An Iraqi Kurdish leader said in an
interview published Monday that his forces had quelled a spate
of attacks by Turkey-based Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, and
vowed to end their activities in his territory.
     ``We have completely stopped the attacks in the area,''
Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani told Milliyet daily.
     ``We will continue our fight until we completely finish the
(Kurdistan Workers Party) PKK's activities in our region. The
PKK is not a northern Iraqi party,'' he said. ``Let them go and
fight in their own country.''
     The PKK, fighting for autonomy or independence in southeast
Turkey, emerged from its mountain camps in northern Iraq 10 days
ago to attack targets in KDP-held territory in an apparent
warning that a planned peace deal between rival Iraqi Kurdish
groups should include it too.
     ``We will not allow them to obstruct the peace process which
we initiated in Dublin, and to use our territory for their own
business,'' Barzani told Milliyet.
     His Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union
of Kurdistan (PUK), a rival Iraqi Kurdish group, agreed in
mid-August to a tentative cease-fire during U.S.-sponsored talks
in Dublin. More than a year of intermittent fighting had
paralyzed the region and killed about 3,000 people.
     Barzani said the KDP's efforts in northern Iraq had always
been within the framework of Iraq's territorial integrity.
     ``To establish a federal state (in northern Iraq) is our
biggest wish at the moment. We consider this federal state
within the Iraqi borders and with the Iraqi government,'' he
said.
     Barzani said he could not think of any federal settlement
without PUK leader Jalal Talabani because of the latter's
political weight in the region.
     KDP officials told Reuters the PKK had fled the Mergasor
area of northern Iraq over the weekend, leaving 33 of their
fighters dead and abandoning 15 bases full of weapons and food.

 * Origin: APS Amsterdam (aps.nl), bbs +31-20-6842147 (16:31/2.0)