By Moayad Ahmed
Serious events are taking place in the areas of southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq) where the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), led by Jalal Talabani, is imposing its rule. The PUK has violated the political freedoms and human rights of communists, labour movement activists, campaigners for Arabs displaced by the Iraqi regime, children's rights advocates, and youth and student activists.
On February 16, the PUK's security forces in Sulaymaniyah arrested Ammar Sharif, Fahid Nasser and Yousif Mohammed, three leading cadres of the Worker Communist Party of Iraq (WCPI) and also leaders of the General Union of the Displaced (which campaigns on behalf of Arab political refugees from the Iraqi south). The three remain in detention.
Prior to that, on January 21, armed PUK men in Qala'a Deza town arrested 11 activists of the Free Youth and Students Union. Hussein Alik Ahmed and Khalid Khidr Babekir are still in detention, while the other nine were released only after being forced to sign a statement which said they were abandoning their activities.
On February 17, Jaza Mohammed Rahim was arrested while distributing WCPI publications and is still being held. On the same day, the Elderly Construction Workers Care Centre was targeted and Mahdi Rasul, chairperson of the Construction Worker's Union and the head of the centre, was arrested for several hours. The centre was forcibly closed. The Children's Rights Protection Centre is also being constantly harassed.
On March 5, the regional government's deputy minister of interior affairs began court proceedings in Sulaymaniyah. Various allegations were raised, all related to the WCPI's legitimate political activity. The charges against the WCPI include: the publication of a booklet that advocates the replacement of the present civil code with one that guarantees women's equality; calling for the separation of Kurdistan from Iraq; organising demonstrations; exposing corruption in the regional government of Kurdistan; collecting donations for the party; and of being "internationalists" because three "Iranians" from the Worker Communist Party of Iran are members of the WCPI leadership.
On the basis of these charges, the deputy minister has asked for WCPI activities and publications to be banned, and its offices and radio station to be closed.
The aim of this brutal campaign is to restrict and ban the activities of the WCPI and the non-government organisations it influences in the areas of Kurdistan where the PUK rules. This campaign escalated following municipal elections held in southern Kurdistan on February 3. The WCPI, which participated in the election, exposed massive vote-rigging by the PUK.
The PUK is also responding to orders from the collapsing regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran with which it has strong ties, as well as the concern of Saddam Hussein's Baath party regime in Baghdad over the WCPI's intensified anti-regime activities in the central and southern Iraq.
The WCPI, over the past seven years, has been engaged in an adamant struggle for justice, freedom, equality and for the welfare of the people in the area of Iraq controlled by the forces of the PUK and the Kurdish Democratic Party. These parties control the region with the approval of the United States. Terrorist Islamic forces funded by Iran and Saudi Arabia also operate without any restrictions in the area. Many WCPI comrades have been murdered by these forces.
Since the end of the US Gulf War in 1991, there has been no legal system, no state, no defined individual and civil rights, no institutionalised provision of medical care or social services. The area has become a huge camp guarded by the militia of the PUK and KDP, which each controls a part of it.
The WCPI led and organised the workers' and popular council movement during the March 1991 uprising in Iraqi Kurdistan. Its aim was the establishment of workers' and popular power and a free Kurdistan.
The WCPI has fought for workers' rights and for equality and freedom for women. The WCPI has resisted the Islamists' attempts to impose fundamentalist Islamic laws akin to those of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
The WCPI has called for the independence of Kurdistan from Iraq as the only way out of the stalemate.
On March 7, Amnesty International (AI) issued a statement expressing its concern that Ammar Sharif, Fahid Nasser and Yousif Mohammed may suffer ill treatment in detention or may be forcibly returned to areas controlled by the Iraq government where they could face arrest and serious human rights violations. AI stated that the three WCPI leaders were prisoners of conscience.
All supporters of workers' rights and political freedom are urged to write to the PUK demanding that the three leading members of the WCPI, and others still in detention, be immediately released and that the freedom of political activity in southern Kurdistan be respected. Protest faxes can be sent to the PUK's London office at +44 171 840 0630, or in writing to 5 Glass House Walk, London SE11 5ES, Britain. Protests can also be sent to the PUK's Washington office, fax +1 202 637 2723, or write to PUK USA, 444N. Capitol Street, NW, suite 837, Washington DC, USA.
[Moayad Ahmed is a politburo member of the WCPI.]