DEMOCRATIC EXPRESSION IN SOUTH KURDISTAN

"Our tradition is one of protest and revolt, and it is stultifying to celebrate the rebels of the past while we silence the rebels of the present."
~ Henry Steel Commager.

More on protests against Öcalan's capture, from Özgür Gündem:

"Peşmerge raided us for several minutes"

Selahattin University students said peşmerge raided them for several minutes and beat them to death when the students wanted to protest the tenth anniversary of the capture of the Kurdish people's leader, Abdullah Öcalan, by Turkey in the KRG's capital city Hewlêr on 13 February.

Among the Selahattin University students, Esmer Ahmet said they wanted to conduct a democratic protest for the condemnation of the tenth anniversary of the Kurdish people's leader, Abdullah Öcalan, by Turkey. However, peşmerge forces tried to stop them. During their intervention, Ahmet said peşmerge cursed the students horribly, "They hit us with the butt of their weapons. Then the sound of gun shots came from all around. They raided us for ten minutes. Because of blows by weapon butts, several of our friends were wounded on various parts of their bodies and I was wounded on my hand" said Ahmet.

A student named Nalin Tunç also said, "February is a black month for any honorable Kurd" and that is why they came together to protest the tenth anniversary of Öcalan's capture and were stopped by the peşmerge. She said "We told them that our protest was not against them but it was to condemn the international conspiracy forces by a democratic protest". But then peşmerge intervened and Tunç was wounded on her head by a blow from a weapon butt. "During the intervention, we were exposed to horrible cursing. They started beating us as if they were beating their enemies, with weapon butts, kicking, stoning, whatever they could find. They told us 'What are you guys doing here? Go to the mountains!" said Tunç.

Refused treatment by hospital for having attended the protest

Xezal İke also mentioned that they were attacked by the security forces, by whom they were hoping to be protected. "Almost fifteen women were wounded from blows by weapon butts to their waists, heads, and chests. They didn't stop at this point but also they raided us for more than ten minutes. All of us went on the floor," said İke. Pointing out the refusal of five hospitals [to treat] the student named Hüsne, who was wounded during the peşmerge intervention, because she attended the protest, İke said, "The hospitals said "We are not going to start treatment unless you get a permission paper from peşmerge forces.' The doctor, rather than treating her, started questioning her like a police."

Mesut Ali said that the peşmerge wanted to take the flyers and Öcalan posters that the students had in their hands and the attack was due to that. "The thing I hated most was that they were hitting women and they wanted to take away Öcalan's posters from us."

"They beat to death"

Mentioning that the peşmerge attacked them as if they were the enemies of the peşmerge, Bedretin Ok said, "However, they are also Kurds. I think this is a game of the enemy and a continuation of the conspiracy. They were particularly going after the person who was carrying the leadership's poster in the march. They were shooting, not hitting us with nightsticks. There is a remarkable thing as well here, [that] they especially attacked the women and hit them more." Because of the blows he received on his body, Ok passed out and he said, "They beat me to death."

So much for democratic expression. But at least we can say that security forces in South Kurdistan are becoming more and more like security forces in North Kurdistan.

A LESSON IN DEMOCRACY

"If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost."
~ Aristotle.

Something historic took place in the US yesterday. Democracy happened--real democracy and not the phony shit that's usually passed off as democracy. From Counterpunch:

Incredible! This time, when the People spoke, Congress listened.

At least 228 members of the House listened. They voted early this afternoon to reject the Bush Administration's scaremongering, and the cowardly Democratic Congressional leadership's attempt at ducking and covering by attaching some meaningless verbiage to what remains a case of legalized highway robbery. At least for the moment, the bailout scam is killed.

Earlier in the day, the Congressional switchboard was jammed. You could get through, but it took a dedicated finger on the redial button of your phone. Operators at the Capitol say it's been that way for a week now, as Americans across the country have been flooding their Congressional delegations with phone calls (and emails) urging them to vote "No" on the Bush/Paulson Wall Street bailout.

[ . . . ]

The tsunami of calls and emails to Congress, and last week's nationwide demonstrations against the bailout suggest that the public is waking up to this looming disaster and to the fact that they are being sold a bill of goods.

The thing is that it wasn't just on Monday that the Congressional switchboard was jammed, and it wasn't just the Congressional switchboard that was jammed. Servers for Congressional websites were overwhelmed, too, and this logjam started last week at least by Thursday. I know. It took me quite a while to get into the Congressional sites to get fax numbers for my senators and congressman.

For the record, both candidates of the oligarch party, Obama and McCain, urged a "Yes" vote to save the Wall Street vermin. My suggestion for the November elections? Forget the oligarch party (Republicans + Democrats) and vote Green if that party will be listed on your state's ballots.

For more on the lesson of democracy that the last week has taught, check what Glenn Greenwald has to say at Salon:

For better or worse, yesterday's vote was the rarest event in our political culture: ordinary Americans from all across the political spectrum actually exerting influence over how our Government functions, and trumping the concerted, unified efforts of the entire ruling class to ensure that their desires, as usual, would be ignored.

[ . . . ]

Can anyone even remember the last time this happened, where the nation's corporate interests and their establishment spokespeople were insistently demanding government action but were impeded -- defeated -- by nothing more than popular opinion? Perhaps the failure of George Bush's Social Security schemes in 2005 would be an example, but one is hard-pressed to think of any other meaningful ones. We're a "democracy" in which nothing is less important in how our government functions than public opinion. Yesterday was an exceedingly rare though intense departure from that framework -- the kind of citizen defiance of, an "uprising" against, a rotted ruling elite described by David Sirota in his book, "Uprising." On the citizenry level, the backlash was defined not by "Republican v. Democrat" or "Left v. Right," but by "people v. ruling class." As Johnston argues, yesterday's events should be celebrated for that reason alone.

It's true that we don't live in a direct democracy where every last decision by elected officials must conform to majoritarian desire, nor should we want that. In general, elected officials should exercise judgment independent of -- in ways that deviate from -- majority views. But the opposite extreme is what we have and it is just as bad -- a system where the actions of elected officials are dictated by a tiny cabal of self-interested oligarchs which fund, control and own the branches of government and willfully ignore majority opinion in all cases (except to manipulate it).

This is something that Kurds can learn from, especially when we read some of the recent criticisms of the ruling elites of South Kurdistan:

Kurdish writer Mahmoud 'Othman likewise criticized the corruption in the Kurdish leadership. In a September 23, 2008 interview for the independent Kurdish paper Hawlati, he predicted that "many Kurds will refrain from voting [in the upcoming elections for the parliament] because they think it is useless. People would have preferred a parliament with an opposition to a parliament that is [jointly] controlled by [the two Kurdish parties, namely] the Kurdistan Democratic Party [headed by Mas'oud Barzani] and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan [headed by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani]... There are more freedoms in Baghdad than in the Kurdish region, and much greater freedom of the press..." [1]

Nusherwan Mustafa wrote in a similar vein in the Kurdish paper Roznama: "[The two Kurdish parties] are striving for greater and greater control over all aspects of government and [all aspects of] the people's daily lives... We want justice and [a fair] distribution of the national wealth... [while] they want to use this wealth, and [to exploit] their positions, in order to promote their private affairs and control people... We want transparency and openness in the financial, economic, business and political spheres... while they want to handle everything in [complete] darkness..." [2]

[Dr. Hussein] Sinjari too devoted a large portion of his article to this topic, saying: "[Our leaders] claim that they are sacrificing themselves and giving their very lives for the people - yet [in actuality] they are deceiving the people, usurping their rights, and [violating] their honor."

The problem with democracy is that its success lies with the people and not with the ruling class. Everything else is commentary. Go, and instill fear in the ruling class.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL AND TURKEY'S CULTURE OF IMPUNITY

"This so-called ill treatment and torture in detention centers, stories of which were spread everywhere among the people, and later by the prisoners who were freed . were not, as some assumed, inflicted methodically, but were excesses committed by individual prison guards, their deputies, and men who laid violent hands on the detainees."
~ Rudolf Hess, commandant of Auschwitz.

In the same week that saw HRW's release of a report on human rights abuses in South Kurdistan, Amnesty International released its report on the culture of torture and impunity in the TC.

It's ironic that AI dates the culture of impunity in Turkey from the September 12, 1980 coup but, while mentioning the failure of "harmonization" packages meant to redesign Turkish law so that it's compatible with the Copenhagen Criteria, fails to make the connection between the consitution and the culture of impunity. The Turkish constitution is a document drafted under the watchful eyes of the Paşas and written specifically to protect the state from the citizens. A document which places the state above the individual will ipso facto endorse violations of the human rights of individuals. Hence, an entrenched culture of impunity. "Harmonization" packages or other legal "reforms" can therefore be likened to applying lipstick to a pig.

The AI report contrasts AKP's alleged "zero tolerance for torture" policy with the continued state-sponsored toleration of impunity by Turkish law enforcement and security forces. One of the more outstanding examples of this contrast is the passage and application of the June 2006 new anti-terror law. Another is the "lack of progress in investigating fatal shootings by members of the security forces in circumstances which do not involve an armed clash, or where the evidence of an armed clash having taken place is in doubt."

In order to illustrate the "lack of progress" in such cases of extrajudicial murder, AI includes a detailed recap of the case of the state's murder of Ahmet and Uğur Kaymaz. For that case alone, the AI report is worth reading as it focuses on problems with the indictment of the murderers, the discrepancies in the evidence collected, the intimidation by the state of human rights defenders and journalists involved with the case, the conduct of the trial and the undue hardships a change of venue inflicted on the family of the victims, counter-charges and counter-investigations that were instigated by the state merely to smear the reputations of family members and their lawyers.

Another case highlighted by AI is the conduct of the state in the wake of the Amed Serhildan. Among the problems discussed in connection with the state's conduct in this case are the excessive use of force by Turkish security forces, leading to the murders of children and other onlookers of the demonstrations, the mass arrests of Kurds throughout The Region following the demonstrations, and the torture of those detained or arrested, including the torture of children. AI notes that no action has been taken against the criminal security forces:

Over one year later not a single prosecution had been initiated against any member of the security forces, either in relation to the allegations of torture or the fatal shootings that occurred during the demonstrations. Nor had there been any outcome from the administrative investigation.

Two other cases are highlighted as well, including the case of Birtan Altınbaş, a Turkish leftist who was tortured to death in 1991 while in detention. His murderers were not sentenced until 2006--15 years after the crime. The other example case is that of the torture of prisoners in Izmir's Kırklar F-type prisons Nos. 1 and 2.

AI lists eleven factors that contribute to the continuation of the culture of impunity in Turkey:

1. Intimidation and harassment of victims and witnesses, and "counter-charges."

2. Failure to document medical evidence of torture or other ill-treatment.

3. The inadmissibility of independent medical evidence and the monopoly of the Forensic Medical Institute.

4. Lack of independent evidence collection.

5. Ineffective and delayed investigation by prosecutors.

6. Public statements on cases by senior officials.

7. Charges against human rights groups for reporting preliminary concerns about cases.

8. Failure to suspend pending investigation and leniency towards police and gendarmerie defendants.

9. Unresponsiveness of judges to lawyers for victims and their families.

10. Delayed and protracted proceedings.

11. The statute of limitations for the crime of torture.

Remember, the eleven factors outlined above derive their strength from a constitution written by generals, in the wake of a military coup, the purpose of which is to protect the state from the people.

Of course, this AI report may be the real reason for the TC's freeze of AI's accounts.

Just as the AI report tells us nothing that we don't already know, so the HRW report on South Kurdistan told us nothing that we didn't already know. Even though certain elements in the KRG have denied the veracity of the HRW report, Kurdish activists in South Kurdistan can verify its truth, as in this article from IWPR:

Human rights advocates in northern Iraq say the findings of a new report accusing Kurdish security forces of systematic mistreatment of detainees come as no surprise, and express scepticism that international pressure will end such practices.

[ . . . ]

"We know that arrests have been made without warrants; torture has been carried out; and detention facilities operate with minimal human rights criteria," said Sarwar Ali, a lawyer and a human rights activist at Democracy and Human Rights Development in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah.

[ . . . ]

"The party security establishments function outside the law, and many people are detained for several years without charges," said Ali.

[ . . . ]

"The Kurdish authorities talk a lot about the principles of freedom and human rights, but this report and the US State Department's [human rights] report prove that democracy and human rights are no more than words in this region," said a lawyer, who asked not to be named because he works for the government.

[ . . . ]

Rebeen Ahmed Hardi, a prominent writer and critic in Sulaimaniyah, said the international community may be surprised by the report because the KDP and PUK have "painted a beautiful picture of Iraqi Kurdistan".

"It's too optimistic to think that the Kurdish parties will change their dictatorship-like behaviour immediately. It has become a part of their mindset," he said.

Hardi said international pressure would probably not change human rights policies in the region.

"Pressure needs to be mounted on the parties within Kurdistan," he said. "Newspapers, intellectuals and the public should talk about those violations and other issues constantly until the parties respond."

"The beautiful picture of Iraqi Kurdistan" whose "painting" has been assisted by the likes of Russo Marsh & Rogers should be considered in light of the US policy of globalization, as described by Noam Chomsky:

There is indeed a close relationship between human rights and American foreign policy. There is substantial evidence that American aid and diplomatic support increase as human rights violations increase, at least in the Third World. Extensive violations of human rights (torture, forced reduction of living standards for much of the population, police-sponsored death squads, destruction of representative institutions or of independent unions, etc.) are directly correlated with US government support. The linkage is not accidental; rather it is systematic. The reason is obvious enough. Client fascism often improves the business climate for American corporations, quite generally the guiding factor in foreign policy. It would be naïve indeed to think that this will change materially, given the realities of American social structure and the grip of the state ideological system.

And that's just another reason to be careful what you wish for, because the price of Western investment in South Kurdistan, the price of a "successful" corporate climate may be much more than what the Kurdish people themselves ought to bear, especially in light of the last hundred years of Kurdish history.

Perhaps Rebeen Ahmed Hardi is correct; international pressure alone will not change human rights policies in South Kurdistan, but continuing to speak out about violations, biting the ankles of those in power at every opportunity, both inside Kurdistan and in Diaspora, may shame the powerful enough to make them change their unjust attitudes and practices.

I intend to continue to be one of the ankle-biters.

SOUTH KURDISTAN ON SUNDAY EVENING

On Sunday evening, CBS News' 60 Minutes program did a short piece on South Kurdistan, which you can view here.

I have a certain degree of respect for 60 Minutes because it has, in the past, been one of the very few American news programs to present information on the situation of the Bakûrî. It has also broadcast an interview with Sibel Edmonds. In both of those cases, Ed Bradley was the correspondent who brought the stories out.

I'm a bit conflicted on this piece and am thinking through it. But, if you missed it, take a look and see what you think.