[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 48 (Thursday, March 25, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H1792-H1793]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    NEEDED: JUSTICE AND A POLITICAL SOLUTION FOR THE KURDISH PEOPLE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, before we adjourn for our spring district 
work period, I wanted to draw attention to the plight of the Kurdish 
people.
  There was a lot of attention to this otherwise usually ignored issue 
last month with the apprehension of Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the 
Kurdistan Workers Party, the PKK.
  Mr. Ocalan has been fighting for autonomy for the Kurdish people who 
are the victims of oppression by Turkey, as well as Iraq, Iran and 
Syria. The Turkish regime refuses to even acknowledge the Kurds' 
existence, referring to them as Mountain Turks, prohibiting all 
expression of Kurdish culture and language in an effort to forcibly 
assimilate them, and jailing, torturing or killing Kurdish leaders.
  The Iraqi regime has used poison gas on its Kurds and has destroyed 
4,000 Kurdish villages. The Iranian regime has lined them up against 
firing squads, while the Syrian regime barely tolerates them with no 
rights.
  Madam Speaker, while the treatment of the Kurds in Iraq, Iran and 
Syria is deplorable, the Turkish mistreatment of the Kurdish people is 
particularly shocking for a very basic reason. Turkey is considered an 
ally of the United States, a member of NATO, and the recipient over 
many years of millions in economic and especially military assistance 
courtesy of the American taxpayer. This embarrassing record of American 
support for the Turkish regime reached a new low last month when our 
intelligence and diplomatic services actually helped a Turkish commando 
team to capture Mr. Ocalan in Kenya. This action violates the spirit of 
the torture convention to which the United States is a signatory.
  Mr. Ocalan, had he been here in the United States I cannot imagine 
that he would have been turned over to Turkey, just as Italy refused to 
do so when he was in Italy. This shameful collaboration with Turkey has 
resulted in Mr. Ocalan being held in solitary confinement on an island 
prison in Turkey with no access to his international team of lawyers.
  Plans call for him to be tried in a secret military-type court with 
no jury and no foreign observers.
  Given the unlawfulness of this abduction and the illegitimacy of the 
state security court's tribunal, there is ample reason to assume that 
Mr. Ocalan will not receive a fair trial.
  Madam Speaker, I want to note that the injustice of the Ocalan 
abduction and trial and the much larger issue of the oppression of the 
Kurdish people has not gone unnoticed around the world. Here in 
Washington over the past weekend, a rally was held across the street 
from the Turkish Embassy. The Congressional Human Rights Caucus and the 
Human Rights Alliance recently commemorated the 11th anniversary of 
Saddam Hussein's massacre of over 5,000 Kurds in the village of 
Halabja.
  The suffering of the Kurdish people has not gone completely unnoticed 
but we need to do more for the Kurdish people. The government of 
Turkey's undeclared war on the Kurds has claimed close to 40,000 lives 
and caused more than 3 million people to become refugees.
  Mr. Ocalan's appearance in Rome with a pledge that he was ready to 
renounce violence presented an opportunity for peace but neither Turkey 
nor the United States took him up on his offer.
  Madam Speaker, let me say it is not too late. We should use our 
leverage

[[Page H1793]]

over Turkey to demand that an international tribunal prosecute Mr. 
Ocalan since Turkey is at war with the Kurds and cannot be expected to 
conduct a fair trial. I hope that the European Union to which Turkey is 
seeking admission will also put pressure on Turkey. We must demand a 
fair trial for Mr. Ocalan but this should only be a first step in our 
efforts to press Turkey to enter into negotiations to achieve a 
political solution to this ongoing struggle. This is fundamentally in 
Turkey's interest, too, in the long run, since they cannot continue to 
keep down 35 million people living in their midst.

  On January 21, we celebrated, or the Kurds celebrated their new year, 
which is called Newroz, symbolizing a day of resistance and deliverance 
from tyranny for the Kurds. In that spirit, I hope that we will soon 
witness a turning point from the terrible tragedies that the Kurdish 
people have experienced and instead see the rebirth of a strong and 
free Kurdistan.
  Madam Speaker, this week U.S. forces have gone into the battle in the 
former Yugoslavia in an effort to prevent the genocide of the Kosovar 
people. I strongly support that effort which shows America at its best 
and I hope that the same resolve and sense of outrage that caused us to 
act to protect the Kosovars will finally motivate America and the free 
world to put an end to the genocide of the Kurdish people.
  Let me point out that the Kurdish new year, Madam Speaker, was 
actually last Sunday, March 21, Newroz, and that was the day when the 
Kurds celebrate their new year.

                          ____________________