|
Article in SMH regarding proscription of the Kurdish Worker's Party (PKK
|
Civil Rights Network
|
Feb 20, 2006 16:01 PST
|
______________________________________________
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/from-refugees-to-outlaws-kurdish-group-banned/2006/02/20/1140284005885.html
From refugees to outlaws: Kurdish group banned
By Tom Allard
February 21, 2006
AUSTRALIAN Kurds are furious after the Federal Government pronounced the
Kurdistan Workers Party a terrorist group, even though it was allowing
sympathisers to become refugees as recently as last year.
The party, which has been running a long campaign for autonomy for
Turkey's Kurdish minority, was listed as a proscribed terrorist group in
mid-December, making it a criminal offence to recruit, train, fund or
have "other forms of association" with the group. A person found to have
links with the party or 16 related entities faces a
jail term of up to 25 years.
A coalition of Australian Kurds, lawyers and refugee advocates has urged
the Government to reverse the decision, arguing it will jeopardise
asylum seekers and that it is politically motivated.
The Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, pronounced the Kurdistan Workers
Party a terrorist group just a week after the visit of the Turkish Prime
Minister, Recep Erdogan, to Australia.
There are about 15,000 people of Kurdish origin in Australia, and
roughly half have fled Turkey. Almost all have sympathy for the party,
according to the Kurdish leader Mehmet Kahraman.
"We view it as a liberation organisation. We are against violence but we
support the cause or support it emotionally," he told the Herald
yesterday.
"Most of the asylum seekers to Australia and Europe came because they
were persecuted for working for the Kurdish people, the Kurdish cause."
The workers party was formed by Abdullah Ocalan in 1974 to promote the
separatist ideals of the Kurdish people, who consider themselves
racially and culturally distinct from their Arab neighbours. In its
early years it had a strong Marxist bent, which eventually waned.
During the 1980s and 1990s the party's campaign was bloody, involving
violent attacks on Turkey's security forces and civilians.
It turned to terrorist techniques from 1989 in response to a Turkish
military crackdown, but called a ceasefire in 1999 when Ocalan was
captured.
The group had shifted its emphasis from creating a homeland to the
protection of Kurdish culture, Mr Kahraman said. "The PKK is against
targeting civilians. The PKK has accepted the Geneva Convention," he
said.
Vicky Sentas, a spokeswoman for the Federation of Community Legal
Centres, said the Refugee Review Tribunal approved one Kurdish person's
asylum claim last year because of links to the Kurdistan Workers Party.
"One year ago we considered Turkish Kurds as refugees. And now we
consider them open to the charge of terrorism. It's absurd," Ms Sentas
said.
"It's a bitter irony that Australia considers the Kurds in Iraq to be
their close allies, while over the border in Turkey they are
terrorists."
However, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation has pointed
to 14 incidents of violent attacks, some against civilians since July
2003.
"ASIO assesses the PKK is continuing to prepare, plan and foster the
commission of acts involving threats to human life and serious damage to
property," it said.
Mr Ruddock told the Herald the listing of the party as a terrorist group
had no link to the visit of Mr Erdogan.
He said the US, the European Union and other countries had also outlawed
the party.
"The judgement at an earlier point in time was that it didn't warrant
proscription. The judgement at this point of time is that it does," Mr
Ruddock said.
"The fact that at some earlier point in time people got refugee status
doesn't in any way derogate from the judgement [to make them a terrorist
group]."
For more information see the Civil Rights Nwetwork website:
www.civilrightsnetwork.org
|
|
 |
|
