The Halabja Riot and the Kurdish Response

Posted GMT 3-24-2006 15:39:6                               

The PUK, in their response to the recent riots in Halabja, blame political opponents, makes it easier to imprison them without charge, like the KDP does.

Why were government buildings not attacked? Possibly because they were too well protected by the PUK's private army? Do not take that as an indication that the Kurdish people are happy with PUK farcical government.

Yes it is regrettable that the Halabja memorial was attacked, it is disgusting, a desecration, but surely that forcefully brings home the message to those in the PUK who are unhappy with the current leadership that the PUK has failed its own people. Why would a Kurdish "mob" attack itself and its own heritage? The Kurdish people were sold a dream by Talabani and Barzani about a new and bright future where the economy would flourish and basic human needs and civil rights would be guaranteed. "Vote for us and we will deliver these things!" they have failed in their promises.

Meanwhile, neither Talabani nor Barzani goes hungry whilst every Kurdish family has at least one family member who is living thousands of miles away from home and is working hard to send money back to support his family in Kurdistan.

Did Andrew Lee Butters produce an inaccurate report in Time Magazine when he referred to South Kurdistan as a "veritable police state"? PUK state that he did. I would rather ask Dr Kamal Sayid Qadir whether he felt he had walked into a police state when he was arrested without charge last October. Kurds confirm the level of dissatisfaction with the performance of the KRG that the youth of Halabja expressed so violently and inapropriately. They do not feel free in their own Kurdistan. Yet again I say the leaderships should resign.

By Peter Stitt
www.KurdishMedia.com


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