Crackdown AT THE SAME time as the protests in Halabja, Kurdish journalist Dr Qadir was senprison. His alleged "crime" was writing two articles apparently defaming Masoud Barzani, leader of the KDP, the PUK's opposite number in the west of the region.
This sentence, reduced from 30 years after a strong international campaign, is being spun as a sign of clemency by the authorities.
Another journalist, Hawez Hawezi, was arrested on March 18 in Koysanjaq and then bailed the following day after publishing an article that displeased the PUK.
And on March 29 a wellknown writer, Mariwan Halabjaee, was reported to have fled to Sweden to seek political asylum after a fatwa had been issued against him for having written a book critical of the treatment of women under Islam, and after the authorities in Sulaimaniyah in South Kurdistan refused to give him protection.
All of this casts a glaring light on the lack of freedom of expression and association in Socialists and activists in the antiwar movement should follow these developments: international publicity and solidarity may be able to help those facing repression in.
These developments give the lie to the British Home Office's contention that South Kurdistan is "safe" for asylum seekers to be sent back to.
It is important that the Sarah Parker THE LONG-simmering
Not the people of Halabja in South Kurdistan (Northern finally boiled over on March 16. This is the anniversary of the day in 1988 on which at least 5000 people were killed in the town as a result of chemical attack.
Two thousand local people marched to the memorial to protest against the complete failure of the authorities to provide proper health care or other basic services for those still suffering from cancer and respiratory disease as a result of the attack.
They were also angry about the way the leadership of the ruling Kurdish parties, the PUK and KDP, exploit the death and suffering.
Protesters set up roadblocks, set fire to old tyres (a traditional activity these days during the Newroz spring fire festival) and lay down in the road to stop officials from starting the
anniversary ceremonies.
Fighting ensued and the museum and memorial were destroyed. PUK security forces, who control Halabja, responded in their usual way and shot at protesters injuring several and killing a 17-year-old youth.
This has given 1 a huge shock to the PUK and created a dangerous political
- and for their people felt had come to symbolise what was wrong with how South Kurdistan is run. Comments quoted in an article by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) were typical: "That monument over there has become the main problem for Halabja," said one onlooker, nodding at the museum, with its distinctive yellow crown-shaped roof. "All the foreign guests are taken there, not to the city." Nearby, a quiet 19-year-old dressed in a neat black cloak and head scarf, said she had come both to honour her sister, killed in the 1988 attack, and to stop the PUK from taking advantage of ine anniversary "Kurdish officials used Halabja to gather money," she said, standing with a group of eight other identically dressed young women. Jalal Talabani - president of Iraq and leader of the PUK "Millions of dollars has been spent, but nothing has reached us." This anger has been shown across the world, on the Internet and to a limited extent in the mainstream media. The PUK's damage limitation exercise began promptly. Not only did they shoot at the demonstrators, but they started unsubstantiated allegations that, guess what, Islamists (who not long before were said to have been completely cleared out of Kurdistan!) had been involved. They have threatened involvement with hanging These threats, first made by a judge, were reiterated Talabani who is also leader of the PUK Readers may recently said that he would not be able to sign an execuThe protesters were local, and largely young people, the generation that is supposed to have a bright future, but in fact understands that it taces unemployment if it will not support the ruling parties, and that it has very little freedom of speech. For HOTe details www.iwpr.net and www.kurdmedia.com