By Sean Roberts
Iraqi Kurdistan has been plunged into an atmosphere of lawlessness and terrorism after the 1991 US-sponsored Operation Desert Storm invasion of Iraq. Following the Gulf War, Iraqi Kurdistan was separated from Iraq under the United Nations "safe haven" plan drawn up by the United States.
Tens of thousands have been killed in Kurdistan during military incursions by the armed forces of neighbouring Turkey, Iran and Iraq under the pretext of "liquidation" of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the Iranian opposition. Hundreds of political opposition members have been killed by terrorists and the secret services of Iran and Turkey.
Kurdistan is now ruled by the armed militias of the pro-imperialist bourgeois-nationalist Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). Prior to an uneasy peace stitched together by Washington, thousands had been killed in battles between the KDP and the PUK.
More than 5000 women have been killed by their family members due to the increase in Islamic, reactionary and tribal attitudes. Terrorist explosions have led to the deaths of civilians. The Islamic reactionaries aim to bring to an end the secular and progressive nature of Kurdistan through imposing an atmosphere of terrorism.
Over the past two months, Shawbo Salih, Imaad Tawfik, Cameran Muhammad, Khawla and Canaan Abdulkhlik have been assassinated in KDP-controlled Arbil city. In PUK-controlled Sulaymania, casinos, cinemas and beauty salons have been blown up. Bakhtiyar Zangana, secretary of the National Kurdish Movement, was kidnapped and Kurdish Democratic Party member Habbeb Fatih was assassinated.
The radio station of the Worker Communist Party of Iraq (WCPI) was firebombed and WCPI member Ardalan Muhammed was killed. On October 17, Communist League of Revolutionaries member Farhad Faraj was murdered in front of his house.
This atmosphere of lawlessness, terror and intimidation by the Islamic forces aims to turn Kurdistan into another Afghanistan.
The WCPI, along with a number of unions and women's and youth groups, has called on all labour, left and progressive parties and human rights organisations to send protest letters to ruling authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan. The WCPI is also urging people to support their call for a UN-sponsored independence referendum for Iraqi Kurdistan.
Send protest letters to Jalal Al-Talbani, secretary of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, fax (44) 181 9932 147, and Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, fax (44) 171 9317 765. Please fax copies to (02) 9890 8362.