COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS

Fifty-fifth session

Provisional agenda item 14

SPECIFIC GROUPS AND INDIVIDUALS

Written statement submitted by Transnational Radical Party, a non-governmental organisation in general consultative status

1. The outbreak of yet another increasingly brutal and costly war in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in Rwanda have again transformed the Great Lakes Region into the area of terror and human suffering. It resulted in the killings of tens of thousands unarmed civilians and grave violations of human rights, including extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detentions and torture, committed by all the sides of these conflicts. It reversed the trend of returning of refugees and internally displaced persons from the first genocide in 1994-1996 to their homes and dramatically increased their numbers.

2. Although the on-going fighting and resulting continuous flight and influx of people between the States of the region makes it difficult to estimate the exact figures, the reports of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees suggest that there are not less than 500.000 refugees and at least as much displaced persons in the Great Lakes Region and neighbouring countries (Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Congo-Brazzaville, United Republic of Tanzania, Burundi, Uganda, Zambia, Sudan, Kenya).

3. For nearly four decades, the Great Lakes Region has been plagued with violence and political upheaval between the ethnic Tutsis and Hutus, characterised by bloodshed and massacres committed by both sides and resulting in massive exoduses and displacement of persons (Rwanda in 1959 and 1994, Burundi in 1972 and 1993, Zaire/Congo in 1993 and 1996-97). Again during the last year, civilians bore the brunt of the conflict between the Government of Laurent Kabila and the rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy composed by the diverse coalition of Anti-Kabila groups, national opposition, the Banyamulenge (Tutsis) and former dignitaries of the Mobutu era (Hutus), as well as of the conflict between the Rwandan government and insurgents backed by Hutus and composed by many senior officers who led the 1994 genocide.

4. The economic, social and political climate in the region continues to be tense and unstable. Although the protocol signed by the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the UNHCR on 28 July 1998 was supposed to improve the UNHCR access to refugees and improve its activities in the country, the resumption of hostilities made it even more difficult to reach the refugees and in the middle of August the UNHCR was obliged to evacuate all its staff from the country. The authorities of Rwanda, on the other hand, have requested the UNHCR for logistical help in returning internally displaced people to their areas of origin.

5. The Transnational Radical Party (TRP) is convinced that it is essential to focus on measures to prevent violations and denials of human rights that lead to and take place during mass exoduses and displacements, and requests the Commission to pay particular attention to the preparation and follow-up of the report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on such measures, whose preparation and submission was requested by the last year's session of the Commission (CHR resolution 1998/49).

6. The TRP also invites relevant UN bodies, particularly Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to assume a common approach to re-establishing as soon as possible an effective UN presence in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Great Lakes Region.

7. Furthermore, the TRP urges this Commission and its Member States to put political and diplomatic pressure on all the sides of the conflicts in Congo and Rwanda in order that they fully respect their obligations to the international humanitarian law, and particularly the standards stipulated in Geneva Conventions of 1949.

8. Another issue we would like to draw on the attention of the Commission is a long-lasting problem of 30 million Kurds living in Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey, where they constitute a minority, but considerable part of the population (approximately 20 % in Iraq, 15% in Iran, 10% in Syria and 20% in Turkey), and where their rights and freedoms continue to be violated.

9. The situation of Kurds in Iraq, where the Iraqi government is engaged in a broad array of human rights violations against its population in general, including mass arrests, torture, summary executions and "disappearances", is undoubtedly deteriorating also due to the intra-Kurdish rivalry and conflict between the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) of Mr. Talabani and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of Mr. Barzani in Iraqi Kurdistan. This region is further wracked by the operations of Turkish Kurdish guerrilla movement of Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), by significant military confrontations between KDP and PKK and by frequent Turkish military incursions targeting the bases of PKK in northern Iraq.

10. While the meeting and agreement between Mr. Barzani and Mr. Tallabani on September 18, 1999, in Washington has given a concrete hope to put an end to factional fighting in the Iraqi Kurdistan, the attack on the region targeting the PKK launched in November 1999 by 2.000 Turkish troops (undeterred by the U.S. policed no-fly zone) has resulted in killing of over 1.200 people and displacing of thousands of civilians from their homes.

11. The Iraqi government's ethnic cleansing and Arabization policy in the Kurdish areas controlled by Saddam Hussein's forces continued to be very dire especially in Kirkuk, Khanaqin, Jalawla, Mandali, Tuz and Makhmour. The triple pillar of this policy has been Arabization, deportation and Ba'athification. The massive settlement program launched by the government in 1970, when Kurdish workers from the region were deported to south Iraq and replaced by Arabs, who have been economically and socially privileged of detriment of the non-Arab population, whose land and properties were confiscated and was denied employment and commercial activities, has today reached the figure of 300.000 settlers.

12. According to the report of the UN Secretary-General (S/1997/685), there are already more than 500.000 internally displaced persons in the three northern Kurdish provinces of Iraq (Sulaimaniya, Arbil and Duhok), the large majority of them come from the above mentioned areas. The forced eviction and confiscation of the properties continues on day to day basis. During April and June 1998 alone, 1.468 Kurdish families were expelled from the Kirkuk province to Iraqi Kurdistan. A number of relatives of the targeted families were reportedly detained and the food rationing tickets as well as their properties were confiscated. Tens of thousands of these internally displaced are living in the tents and other miserable conditions.

13. The ruling Ba'ath Party Ba'athified school materials, the media, daily life, and prohibited teaching in Kurdish and other minority languages in this province. The recruitment to the party, militia and other organisations also became obligatory with privileges in all areas of life to its members and punishment, discrimination and exclusion for those who refused to join or obey them. Moreover, the survivors of the Anfal Campaign of the 80's (182.000 Kurdish victims, 4,500 Kurdish villages and towns destroyed) suffer from multiple diseases without any outside specialised health care. Over 10 million land mines planted in Iraqi Kurdistan have caused so far 15,000 civilian deaths since the Gulf War. Scores of others were injured or maimed for life.

14. The Turkey's centrality to Kurdish conflict has to be acknowledged, since the relatively advanced level of civil society in Turkey opens the possibility of improvement. However, the political violence and certain legal restriction from the side of Turkey as well as grave violence on civilian population committed by both government forces and PKK contributed to a climate not conductive to dialogue and other conflict resolution strategies and efforts.

15. In 1998, several offices of the pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party (HADEP) were raided and party administrators and members were detained and tortured and four party officials were charged for "separatism through publication" and "acting as the political branch of PKK". Four parliamentarians from Democratic Party (DEP) banned by the 1995 decision of the Supreme Constitutional Court remained in prison. Three other former DEP parliamentarians were sentenced in 1998 on charges related to peaceful expression.

16. The provinces in south-east Turkey, where an armed conflict between security forces and PKK since 1984 resulted in deaths of about 35.000 civilians and forced depopulation of thousands of villages and hamlets, remained under a state of emergency, and the six neighbouring provinces have been ruled by state-appointed governors with extraordinary measures and extended restrictive powers. Little effort has been made to facilitate the return of displaced persons to their homes or to compensate them for the destruction and loss of property.

17. Although the armed conflict in the south-east lessened in intensity, both government forces and PKK continued to commit serious human rights violations. Village guards - ethnic Kurds appointed by the government in remote areas and "convincing" villagers not to assist the PKK - continued to be implicated in many abuses, such as rape, executions of civilians, forcing the villagers to walk on mine fields or torturing family members and neighbours. PKK members continued to execute civilians they suspected of co-operating with the security forces. In July, PKK members reportedly killed two girls, aged 4 and 14, after they failed to find their father who was the brother of the village headman. Three mayors in the south-east, who were said not to support the PKK, were kidnapped, and one of them was later murdered. In August, a bomb reportedly planted by the PKK killed seven people and injured more than one hundred in one of Istanbul's most crowded historical marketplaces.

18. A newspaper advocating the recognition of Kurdish identity was fined approximately 12.000 US$ during the 1998 and closed by court order for 312 days. Issues of a weekly in Kurdish, Hevi, known for its non-violent stance was repeatedly confiscated dozens of times during the year. Sefik Beyaz, former head of the Kurdish Institute, was sentenced in March by the State Security Court to one year imprisonment and a fine of US$ 100 for "making separatist propaganda by playing Kurdish music" during his election campaign in 1995. The Criminal Court of Istanbul ruled in May that the officials of the Kurdish Culture and Research foundation cannot conduct Kurdish language courses (prohibited by law).

19. Repression of Kurds and other minorities in Syria is pervasive. Kurdish political organisations are outlawed and the gradual Arabization of fertile Kurdish lands continues, a process by which Kurds have been deported and their lands turned over to Arab settlers. Another major concern has been the denial of citizenship to approximately 200.000 Kurds, thus denying them of their rights and freedoms. While the Syrian government actively recruits young Kurds to the ranks of the PKK, encouraging them to do so as an alternative to mandatory service in the Syrian armed forces, and to become involved in the struggle for Kurdish cultural and political rights in Turkey, it vigorously denies similar activities within Syria.

20. The accession of President Khatami in Iran and the will to reforms declared by him represent an opportunity for improvement and gives the hope for opening a political dialogue between the government and its peoples, who have been so far denied fundamental rights and freedoms.

21. The TRP urges the Commission and its Member States to undertake all possible means to make Iraq respect its obligations under UN Security Council resolutions, including the resolution No. 688, which demands an end to repression of Iraqi citizens.

22. The TRP furthermore calls on the Commission to charge the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare a special report on the human rights conditions of the Kurds to be presented to the fifty-sixth session of the Commission and to undertake all necessary steps to enhance effective presence of the United Nations in Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey and expand monitoring and humanitarian assistance in these countries.

23. Finally, the TRP requests the Commission and all the relevant UN bodies to start a speedy process for convening an international conference on the Kurdish question with the participation of all parties involved and under the auspices of the UN.