29
th March 2001
2. "Turkey's Cem gives guarded welcome to US proposals for revised Iraqi sanctions", Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem said Wednesday his country was not opposed to the proposals drafted by the United States for a revision to sanctions against Iraq.
3. "Turkey considers dropping copter production", Turkey's military is considering dropping plans to produce an attack helicopter.
4. "Bush Administration will not hesitate to extend support to Turkey for a prosperous future", Andrew Card, the assistant to U.S. President George Bush, said on Wednesday that there were deep strategic, cultural and commercial ties between Turkey and the U.S. and added that the Bush administration wouldn't hesitate to extend support to Turkey to enable it reach to a prosperous future.
5. "Saddam pressures UN Agencies in North", Saddam Hussein is pressuring United Nations humanitarian operations to do his bidding in Northern Iraq. Kurds in the region complain that he is being helped in this by other Arab U.N. personnel working there.
6. "House of Lords approves anti-terrorism law", The British House of Lords debates and approves a law labeling the PKK and DHKP/C as terrorist groups.
1. - AFP - "Turkey-Islamist-clash":
Police kill Islamic militant suspected in police chief murder
DIYARBAKIR
An Islamic militant was killed Thursday in clashes with security
forces in this southeastern Turkish city, officials said.
Hasan Sariagac, a suspected member of the extremist Turkish Hizbullah, was killed when police, hunting the murderers of Diyarbakir police chief Gaffar Okkan and five officers slain in a January ambush, raided his home after a tip off.
Sariagac, suspected of involvement in the slayings, opened fire on police and was killed in the ensuing clash, Diyarbakir governor Cemil Sehatli told Anatolia news agency.
Security forces found a Kalashnikov rifle, a gun and a hand grenade when they searched the house after the shootout, the governor said.
Sariagac was on a list of suspected Hizbullah militants disclosed by Okkan shortly before his death.
The militant's family was detained and being interrogated. The Turkish Hizbullah, which is not believed to have links with its Lebanese namesake, is accused of plotting to overthrow Turkey's secular order and replace it with a hardline Islamic state.
The group hit headlines last year when police launched a massive operation against the group and dug up the bodies of 68 suspected Hizbullah victims from mass graves across the country.
The murder of Okkan, a much-admired officer, triggered
public outrage in mainly Kurdish Diyarbakir at a time when the city
was enjoying a relative calm with a scaling down of the long-standing
conflict between Turkish troops and separatist Kurdish rebels in the
region. 
2. - AFP -"Turkey's Cem gives guarded welcome to US proposals for revised Iraqi sanctions":
WASHINGTON
Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem said Wednesday his country was
not opposed to the proposals drafted by the United States for a revision
to sanctions against Iraq.
"We have always thought that there should be strict compliance
with UN resolutions, and that in the meantime there should be an easing
of economic sanctions," Cem told reporters after addressing the
Washington Institute for Near East Studies.
He said that sanctions were currently having a harsh impact on the Iraqi
civilian population, to the detriment of regional stability in the long
term.
"So I am quite happy that the new (US) administration will look
into those sanctions, and I hope that they will come up with some measures,
some understanding which will be an assistance, a contribution, to those
Iraqi children, and to the people of this region."
Cem said a revision to existing sanctions had been discussed when he
met with US Secretary of State Colin Powell in Brussels last month,
but the US proposals had yet to be defined in detail.
As the proposals currently stood, "There isn't much which would
make things more difficult for Turkey," he said.
Cem was in Washington with a delegation of officials from his ministry,
who discussed the US proposals in meetings Wednesday with their counterparts
in the State Department.
Cem is due to meet Friday with US Secretary of State Colin Powell.The
US proposals include the placing of UN monitors to supervise trade at
the borders with Iraq, in Turkey and other countries.
A list of oil companies officially allowed by the United Nations to
buy Iraqi crude would be drawn up, in order to prevent the Iraqi regime
from obtaining financial kickbacks. With tightened controls over Baghdad's
trade and oil revenues, the plan would allow Iraq's neighbors to buy
Iraqi oil at discounted prices.
3. - Middle East Newsline - "Turkey considers dropping copter production":
ANKARA
Turkey's military is considering dropping plans to produce an attack
helicopter.
Instead, military and defense officials are examining the prospect that
Turkey will purchase helicopters from a Western contractor amid the
nation's fiscal crisis.
The review by the military of major defense procurement has been launched
in response to the sharp drop in the Turkish lira and the need to obtain
new Western loans. Defense sources said the military has agreed in principle
to delay or cut major programs.
One option being explored, the sources said, is to abandon Turkey's
plans to produce an attack helicopter. A tender for the coproduction
of 145 helicopters has come down to two competitors, with the frontrunner
being the U.S. Bell Textron.
A contract for the production of 145 AH-1Z King Cobra attack helicopter
was to have been completed this month. Instead, the fiscal crisis has
thrown the estimated $4.5 billion program into disarray.
4. - Anadolu Agency - "Bush Administration will not hesitate to extend support to Turkey for a prosperous future":
WASHINGTON D.C. 
Andrew Card, the assistant to U.S. President George Bush, said on
Wednesday that there were deep strategic, cultural and commercial ties
between Turkey and the U.S. and added that the Bush administration wouldn't
hesitate to extend support to Turkey to enable it reach to a prosperous
future.
Noting that he was speaking on behalf of the Bush administration, Card
said Turkey was a close friend and ally of the U.S. at a dinner given
in honor of Foreign Minister Ismail Cem, who is currently in Washington
D.C.
The U.S. is loyal to its strategic partnership with Turkey, said Card
and added that the U.S. believed that Turkey would continue to be a
part of Europe and would become a member of the European Union (EU)
and other western institutions.
We have common interests especially in Caucasus, Balkans, and the Middle
East, added Card.
Recalling that Turkey was trying to recover from the recent economic
crisis with a new economic reform program, Card said they would do their
best in every field including trade and investments.
Card stressed his country attributed importance to the realization of
political reforms in Turkey and added that the Turkish nation wanted
these reforms for itself not for the EU or the U.S.
5. - UPI - "Saddam pressures UN Agencies in North":
WASHINGTON
Saddam Hussein is pressuring United Nations humanitarian operations
to do his bidding in Northern Iraq. Kurds in the region complain that
he is being helped in this by other Arab U.N. personnel working there.
The aim of the Iraqi dictator, according to analysts Tuesday , is to
restore his control over what for the past decade has been a self-governing
Iraqi Kurdistan.
In his campaign to make officials of the world body bend to his will,
he has launched a vitriolic attack on Benon Sevan, the well-regarded
chief of the U.N.'s oil for food program.
On March 18, the Baghdad newspaper, Babel, run by Saddam's son, Uday,
accused Sevan of wishing to employ expatriate staff in Iraqi Kurdistan
who would be spies for the United States, Britain and Israel.
"Sevan asked the (U.N.) Security Council during a debate on the
difficulties in the northern provinces (of Iraq) to recruit foreigners,"
Babel said. "But what Sevan omitted to say is that the foreigners
that he wants to recruit for his program are spies paid by the United
States, Britain and the Zionist entity and have nothing to do with implementing
his humanitarian program."
In fact, non-Iraqis are needed because Kurdish authorities in the north
will not accept candidates selected from elsewhere in Iraq by Saddam's
regime, as Sevan noted in a report to the Security Council on March
8. The Kurds tell visitors to the region that Iraqi intelligence would
control choice of staff to ensure a readiness to do what they are told
to do.
The Babel attack came after Sevan's report in which he spoke of increasingly
critical statements and allegations by Iraq against the U.N.
Office of the Iraq Program of which Sevan is executive director. OIP
supervises the U.N. oil for food program under which U.N. controlled
sale of Iraqi oil is used to pay for humanitarian goods.
Sevan's report followed complaints by Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammad
Said al-Sahaf to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan on Feb. 26 about
the U.N. agencies in northern Iraq working with local Kurdish officials.
Al-Sahaf claimed this violated Iraqi sovereignty. Baghdad lost control
over much of Iraqi Kurdistan in the wake of the 1991 Persian Gulf War
when the United States set up a safe haven, then a no-fly zone over
the Kurdish north. This protection, maintained by U.S. and British air
patrols, has enabled the Kurds to set up two self-governing areas run
by rival Kurdish parties. The Bush administration last week reassured
a visiting Kurdish mission that the air protection is to be maintained.
The mission was made up of senior representatives of the Patriotic Union
of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party. Bitter rivals that
have waged war on each other, the two parties are currently in a process
of reconciliation. The PUK, headed by Jalal Talabani, governs the eastern
part of Iraqi Kurdistan that has a frontier with Iran. The KDP, lead
by Mas'ud Barzani, controls the northern part with a border on Turkey.
Baghdad is also stalling on issuing visas to U.N. personnel assigned
to the Kurdish provinces of Dahuk, Irbil and Sulaimaniya in the northeast
of Iraq. The result has, among other things, prevented experts from
removing land mines and maintaining plants supplying electricity in
the area, local Kurds report.
Staff working in the field for the U.N. educational agency, UNESCO,
are predominantly Arab, according to Kurds there. "When UNESCO
offers expertise," a local official complained, "it often
brings it in from regional countries -- and the Arab countries' educational
system is no better than ours." When Japanese, German, or American
experts are proposed, Baghdad refuses them visas, he said.
In New York, U.N. officials told United Press International that Arabs
have the advantage of speaking Arabic, a language widely understood
in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Saddam also has sought to get the United Nations to cut off relations
with non-governmental organizations in the Kurdish region that have
not been authorized by Baghdad. A Westerner working in the area reports
that among NGOs affected have been British Save the Children, Help Age
International, the Swedish Qandil and Diakonia, Peace Winds of Japan
and Handicapped International of Belgium.
The demand prompted the U.S. mission to the United Nations to tell the
Security Council on March 2 that it hoped the United Nations would continue
to work with the NGOs. The prime minister of the PUK area, Barham Salih,
told UPI, "The NGOs have a vital role to play in meeting the humanitarian
needs of Kurds. To do so requires the NGOs involvement."
OIP says it is continuing to work with NGOs with which it is jointly
implementing projects in the region.
Saddam's try at determining what NGOs are to be allowed into the north
has been aided by some of the numerous Arabs employed in U.N. agencies
in Iraq.
Thus, Rima al-Azar, an Arab woman in charge of the child protection
program of UNICEF, the U.N. children's agency, in Irbil, informed NGOs
by e-mail on Feb 17 that there would be no more money for their activities.
A request for written confirmation went unanswered, NGO workers said.
At UNICEF headquarters in New York, a spokesman said a decision to cut
off relations with NGOs would have to be made at the country level of
administration. In Iraq, that authority lies with the office of the
U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Baghdad. The UNICEF official rejected
any suggestion that UNICEF staff were acting contrary to the principles
of the organization. In Baghdad, a U.N. official said he was unaware
of funds to NGOs being cut off. But, he added, funding had been suspended
for some NGOs while certain issues were sorted out. Asked what the issues
were, he said he was not free to say what they were, but that they might
include financial accountability and organizational structure.
Another Arab, a Dr. Anwar who runs the UNICEF education program based
in Irbil, the seat of the Kurdistan Regional Government, is considered
by Kurds to be deferential to Saddam. So, local Kurds say, are a number
of other Arabs from Sudan, Egypt Morocco and elsewhere
Kurdish officials saw the attack on UNICEF in part as retaliation for
the agency's reports showing that child and maternal health in Northern
Iraq, even under U.N. sanctions, was significantly better than in the
rest of Iraq. The finding contradicts Saddam's claims that it is the
sanctions, and not his government, that is harming children in the area
under his domination.
Arabs in the employ of the World Health Organization are reported by
Kurdish medical workers in the region to have denied Kurdish hospitals
essential medical supplies. Hospitals have been able to carry out only
the most urgent surgery. The individuals who took these decisions acted
on their own and beyond their proper authority, Kurds say.
An Arab WHO official told Kurds the cut off of medical supplies might
be due to the United States or Great Britain holding them up. A check
with U.N. headquarters in New York, Kurds say, determined this was not
so.
According to NGO staff, local offices of U.N. agencies have broken off
with bodies doing such work as educating local physicians and social
workers in how to deal with children traumatized by war, other violence
and abuse.
Kurdish officials have complained that U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization
staff has undermined projects to improve water resources and irrigation.
Kurdish intelligence services believe many drivers hired by the U.N.
come to their jobs from Iraqi intelligence agencies or the ruling Baath
party.
U.N. jobs pay well, and Baghdad can cancel the visas of individuals
in U.N. employ. So employees from poor countries, such as Egypt, Sudan,
or Pakistan, fear losing their jobs unless they please Baghdad.
U.N. employees who are Arab nationalists also sabotage projects they
think could lead to greater autonomy for the Kurds from Arab-dominated
Baghdad, Kurds have told Western visitors. An OIP spokeswoman dismissed
the accusations as merely opinions.
There has been no change in working with NGOs engaged in implementing
projects in which the U.N. is participating under the food for oil program,
she said.
Saddam's attacks on the U.N., its agencies and NGOs comes as he is completing
his escape from the isolation imposed on him by the Untied States and
the U.N. for invading and occupying Kuwait. The U.N. system of economic
sanctions has been increasingly circumvented by Baghdad, and Secretary
of State Colin Powell has made adoption of modified sanctions one basket
in the Bush administration's emerging policy on Iraq.
Meanwhile, with the exception of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, the Arab governments
and others have been busy restoring diplomatic and commercial ties with
his regime while his demand for an end to the no-fly zone is echoed
by Russia.
6. - Turkish Daily News - "House of Lords approves
anti-terrorism law":
The British House of Lords debates and approves a law labeling the
PKK and DHKP/C as terrorist groups
ANKARA
The British House of Lords completed debate and approved a bill labeling
the PKK and DHKP/C as terrorist groups on Tuesday night.
According to this new anti-terrorism law, Great Britain plans to ban
21 radical groups, including the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and
the Revolutionary Peoples' Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C).
The debate at the House of Lords, took five hour and 20 lords expressed
their views on the law on Tuesday. Some lords including Lord Avebury,
Lord Rea and Baroness Williams, who are known close to the PKK, objected
to the law.
The deputy interior minister, Lord Bassam, defended the law and drew
attention to the fact that terrorism has been constituting a great threat
both in the world and Britain.
Asking the Lords to approve the law, Bassam indicated that the law was
prepared carefully according to intelligence reports.
The bill has been prepared by Britain's Home Office and previously approved
by the British Parliament and the House of Commons and the House of
Lords.
The new anti-terrorist legislation empowers the government to ban groups
that commit violence abroad, to crack down on supporters who channel
funds and recruit for terrorist organizations while also granting authority
to security officials to deport members of those terrorist organizations.
It also forbids fund-raising for a banned group, possessing information
considered useful to terrorists, posting weapons-making instructions
on the Internet, speaking at meetings of a banned group, or even wearing
a T-shirt promoting one of them. Critics say some of those provisions
unfairly restrict freedom of speech.