U.S. acting against Kurdish rebel group
By DESMOND BUTLER, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 48 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - The United States is dealing with Turkish complaints about Kurdish separatists operating in northern
Iraq and has not ruled out military action against the rebels, the U.S. official assigned to handle the problem says.
Retired U.S. Air Force Gen. Joseph Ralston, a special envoy tasked with countering the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, said Wednesday in an Associated Press interview that U.S. pressure has resulted in moves against the group's operations by Iraqi and European authorities.
Turkish officials repeatedly have accused the United States of insufficient efforts to prevent attacks into Turkey from Iraq by the PKK, which has waged a guerrilla war for autonomy since 1984 at a cost of 37,000 lives. Turkey also has threatened military incursions into Iraq against the rebels, which the United States fears would alienate Iraqi Kurds, the most pro-American ethnic group in the region.
Ralston said the United States has not yet met Turkish demands for the capture of PKK operatives and destruction of a rebel base in a mountainous area of Iraq near the Turkish and Iranian border. He said, however, that the United States would consider options against the group available to a U.S. military stretched by many challenges in Iraq.
"All options are on the table," he said. "The PKK is a terrorist organization and needs to be put out of business."
Ralston, a former Supreme Allied Commander in Europe who is to testify on U.S.-Turkish Relations in a congressional hearing Thursday, stressed the importance of resolving the deep-seated Turkish worries about the PKK. Turkey, a crucial
NATO ally, provides vital support to U.S. operations in
Afghanistan and Iraq through Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey, one of the most important U.S. military assets in the region.
"This is a country that has suffered greatly at the hands of the PKK," Ralston said. "We ought to be working with our ally to try to solve this problem."
Ralston said negotiators from the United States, Turkey and Iraq are close to a deal to close a Kurdish refugee camp in northern Iraq that Turkey says is a haven for the PKK. In late January, U.S. and Iraqi forces searched the camp, known as Makhmur, and found artillery shells they believe belonged to the PKK, Ralston said.
He said PKK fighters have held a cease-fire since October that was arranged by Masoud Barzani, leader of Iraq's largely autonomous Kurdish region, after a discussion with Ralston.
"We would prefer the PKK announce they are laying down their arms and renouncing violence," Ralston said. "But on the good news side, to my knowledge there have not been major incidents since that time."
Under pressure, the Iraqi government legally banned the PKK in January from operating in Iraq and closed its offices. Ralston said some of the offices had reopened under different names. U.S. and Turkish pressure, he said, also led this year to the closure of PKK fundraising operations in France and Belgium and arrests there of more than a dozen Kurds accused of supporting the PKK.
Officials from Turkey, Iraq and the
United Nations will meet next month to resolve a few remaining issues preventing the closure of the Makhmur refugee camp. Ralston said negotiators need to agree on arrangements for repatriating refugees to Turkey and what to do about those who do not want to go.