IRAQI KURDISTAN

Human Rights Developments

Human rights conditions in the rebel-controlled region of Iraqi Kurdistan were relatively good during 1993. The two major political parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), moved ahead with the integration of their rival peshmergha forces. Internal security was in the hands of a newly established body known as the asaysh, senior positions in which were also shared between the PUK and KDP. The PUK and KDP also control the Kurdish regional parliament, elected by popular vote in May 1992, and the regional government. But minority Turkomans and Chaldean and Assyrian Christians were also allocated places in the legislature and executive.

This domination of the security forces by the big parties led to complaints from smaller parties and factions, particularly those on the far left and those associated with the mainly Turkish Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), of the harassment and arbitrary detention of their members. In Erbil, a pro-PKK newspaper was closed down on the orders of the local authorities. In Dohuk, seven suspected extrajudicial executions were reported between August 1992 and August 1993. And in Koysinjaq one person, identified as Mohsen Mujammad Khan, died in detention under unexplained circumstances on September 5, 1993.

Scores of Iraqi Kurds disaffected with the regional leadership in their homeland took refuge in Turkey in 1992 and 1993; but their rights to refugee status were not recognized by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees or the Turkish authorities.

U.S. Policy

When Secretary Christopher and Vice President Gore met the top Kurdish leaders, Masoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani, in Washington in May, they were careful to do so only in the context of a broader meeting with officeholders of the Iraqi National Congress. In 1993, the U.S. government remained adamantly opposed to any hint of recognition of the Western-protected northern Iraqi enclave as a jurisdictionally separate entity. Consonant with this policy, Washington declined to support appeals from the Kurds and from nongovernmental organizations for a selective lifting of U.N. trade sanctions to ease the worsening economic plight of the 3.5 million inhabitants of the self-governing enclave.

The maintenance in place of the Combined Task Force/Operation Provide Comfort, the two and a half-year-old military shield over regions of Iraq north of the 36th parallel, remained central to U.S. policy toward Iraqi Kurdistan. Aircraft patrolling northern Iraq and a small allied liaison force, at Zakho in the "security zone" region of Dohuk governorate, depend entirely on Turkey for base support and logistics.

In June, the Turkish parliament renewed its approval for the continuation of the allied operation for a further six months, to December 31. But U.S. officials told Middle East Watch that further renewalswere looking increasingly difficult. Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller has taken a less accommodating line than her predecessor, Suleiman Demirel, over U.S. policy toward Iraq, pushing hard for a lifting of U.N. sanctions. Turkish worries over the de facto establishment of an independent Kurdish state on Turkey's troubled southeast border were expressed in high-level meetings with Iran and Syria, to coordinate policies toward the northern Iraq enclave. As with the United States, U.N. room for maneuver over Iraq relief operations remained limited by Turkish considerations.

As the stalemate between the Western-backed Kurds and the central government in Baghdad persisted into a third year, the Clinton administration appeared to keep on a secondary plane its central dilemma of how to assure the continued protection of the Iraqi Kurds without promoting Kurdish self-determination. Privately, the administration made clear to Saddam Hussein that no major military assault on the Kurds would be tolerated. Public statements also condemned the continued Iraqi military siege of the region. However, the administration remained silent over Iranian shelling of Iraqi Kurdish border villages.

In the 1993 fiscal year, commencing October 1, 1992, Congress appropriated a total of $69 million for Kurdish relief aid, to be distributed through the Department of Defense; in addition, $15 million was carried over from fiscal year 1992. Of this total, about $40 million was disbursed during the year, and expenditure of a further $20 million was committed. In addition, the U.S. contributed $100 million to a U.N.-established escrow fund from Iraqi assets in the U.S. frozen under a U.N. Security Council resolution. The latter funds were used for relief programs and payment for U.N. operations in all parts of Iraq, including Kurdistan. In November, Congress approved a further $30 million in assistance to the Kurds during the 1993-94 winter, mostly for the purchase of fuel.

The Right to Monitor

The Kurdish regional authorities put few obstacles in the way of human rights monitoring by foreign organizations. During 1993, among others Middle East Watch, Amnesty International, the Federation International des Droits de l'Homme, and France Libertés (Danielle Mitterand Foundation) conducted missions to Iraqi Kurdistan. France Libertés and Medico International, a German relief organization with a rights monitoring mandate, maintained field offices in the enclave.

However, local Kurdish organizations at times encountered difficulties in gaining access to prisons run by the Asaysh, the Kurdish security service. Partly as a consequence of the politicization of all Kurdish life, with loyalties split between the two major parties, investigation of abuses for which one party was held responsible, in a region where it was dominant, was not easy.

The Work of Middle East Watch

During 1993, Middle East Watch met with the principal Kurdish leaders, Jalal Talabani and Masoud Barzani, on several occasions. It also met frequently with lower-level Kurdish officials. A large part of the discussions concerned the documents captured by the Kurds. But current human rights concerns about developments in the self-governing region were also raised. On October 4, Middle East Watch wrote to the Kurdish authorities about alleged abuses, including arbitrary detention, torture and the closure of a newspaper that had occurred in the region under their control over the previous year. As of November 22, no reply had been received.