By Paul de Bendern

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Kurdish guerillas have declared a unilateral cease-fire starting on Sunday following an escalation in violence in Turkey's southeast and a diplomatic drive against the separatist movement.

A statement on Saturday by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), carried on the pro-Kurdish Firat news agency, followed a call by its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan this week for the rebels to implement a cease-fire.

The PKK began its violent campaign to create a Kurdish homeland in the southeast in 1984. More than 30,000 people have died in the conflict, which dwindled after Ocalan was captured and convicted in 1999.

Leading PKK militant Murat Karayilan made the announcement at a news conference in the mountains of northern Iraq, where some 5,000 rebels are based and from where they launch armed raids into neighboring Turkey.

The move came ahead of an October 2 meeting between Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and President Bush in Washington where the PKK issue is set to be high on the agenda.

Amid mounting soldiers' casualties in Turkey, Ankara has warned that it would attack PKK bases in Iraq if U.S. and Iraqi forces failed to act against them. Erdogan had already dismissed Ocalan's cease-fire offer, saying Kurdish militants had to give up their weapons.

The PKK, considered a terrorist organization by the European Union, the United States and Turkey, said it would only take up arms in self-defense.

"This process has been decided upon by all our national bodies and is made official with this meeting. If there is an attack aimed at destroying us our forces will defend themselves in every way," Karayilan told reporters.

The statement did not mention any conditions or a time limit but said: "This cease-fire process will continue depending on the steps which are taken and the developments which occur."

"OPPORTUNITY FOR PEACE"

Firat quoted the PKK as saying that it reached its decision after a meeting on September 24-25 in the wake of cease-fire calls from several quarters, including Turkey's main Kurdish party, the Democratic Society Party (DTP).

The PKK's forces will not use its weapons and will not conduct any activities other than meeting its logistical needs during the cease-fire, the statement said.

"Now there is an opportunity for peace and we say let's take it. Otherwise we will open the way to the dangerous chauvinist tendencies of warmongers and nationalists who want to stir up hatred between peoples," Karayilan said.

Turkey's government and armed forces have ignored previous PKK unilateral cease-fires and diplomats said the latest move reflected a growing sense of unease among the militants.

"The PKK are feeling increasingly squeezed and this is a public relations stunt," said a senior EU diplomat.

Authorities in northern Iraq have said they have shut down PKK offices, one of many demands made by Turkey.

Any Turkish military intervention in Iraq is seen as destabilizing the only peaceful part of the country. Erdogan is also under pressure at home to crack down on the PKK amid a rise in nationalism ahead of next year's general elections.

Fighting in Turkey, which has NATO's second-largest army, flared after the PKK called off a unilateral cease-fire in 2004. Violence has continued despite a temporary cease-fire last year.

A shadowy Kurdish militant group linked to the PKK has claimed responsibility for a wave of deadly bomb attacks against civilians across Turkey over the last year, heightening concerns about the conflict and prompting international criticism.

EU-applicant Turkey has improved rights for Kurds, but the EU wants more.

(Additional reporting by Daren Butler)

NCRI – The following is a statement by Amnesty International on September 28 expressing concern over the plight of seven women in Iran who are at risk of execution by stoning:

                         AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

PUBLIC                                                                         AI Index: MDE 13/113/2006 
                                                                                       28 September 2006

UA 257/06               Death penalty/ stoning  

IRAN                          Parisa (f)         ]
                                  Iran (f)             ] full names known to Amnesty International
                                  Khayrieh (f)     ]
                                  Shamameh Ghorbani (also known as Malek) (f)
                                  Kobra Najjar (f, aged 44)
                                  Soghra Mola'i (f)
                                  Fatemeh (f)

The women named above are at risk of execution by stoning.

Parisa was arrested in April 2004, while working as a prostitute in the city of Shiraz in southern Iran. She confessed to the charge of adultery during the preliminary investigations, claiming that she had been forced into prostitution by her husband due to the family’s poverty. Her trial took place in June 2004, during which Parisa retracted her confession. Nevertheless, on 21 June 2004, Branch 5 of Fars province Criminal Court sentenced her to death by stoning for adultery. The sentence was upheld by Branch 32 of the Supreme Court on 15 November 2005. Her case is currently being reviewed by the Supreme Court. Parisa is detained in Adelabad prison in Shiraz.

Iran, an Ahwazi Arab from the Bakhtiari clan, was reportedly talking to the son of a neighbour in the courtyard of her house, when her husband attacked her with a knife. She was badly beaten and left bleeding and unconscious on the floor. While she was unconscious, it is alleged that the man killed her husband with his own knife. While police were interrogating her about the killing, Iran reportedly confessed to adultery with the son of her neighbour. However she later retracted her confession. A court in a city in Khuzestan sentenced her to five years' imprisonment for being an accomplice in the murder of her husband, and to execution by stoning for adultery. The verdict was upheld by the Supreme Court in April 2006. Her lawyer has appealed against the sentence. She is detained in Sepidar prison, in Ahvaz city.

Khayrieh, an Ahwazi Arab, was reportedly subjected to domestic violence by her husband. She allegedly began an affair with a relative of her husband, who then murdered him. She was sentenced to death by Branch 3 of Behbahan Court, in Khuzestan in southwestern Iran, for being an accomplice in the murder of her husband, and death by stoning for adultery. Khayrieh has denied any involvement in her husband’s murder, but confessed to adultery. The sentence was upheld, and the case has reportedly been sent to the Head of the Judiciary for permission to be implemented. Talking about her fate, Khayrieh said “I am ready to be hanged, but they should not stone me. They could strangle you and you would die, but it is very difficult to have stones hitting you in the head”.

Shamameh Ghorbani (also known as Malek), arrested in June 2005, was sentenced to execution by stoning for adultery by a court in Oromieh in June 2006. She is reportedly held in Oromieh prison. Her brothers and husband reportedly murdered a man that they found in her house, and she too was nearly killed after they stabbed her with a knife. Shamameh Ghorbani’s case is reportedly being re-examined.

Kobra Najjar, who is detained in Tabriz prison in northwestern Iran, is at imminent risk of execution. She was sentenced to eight years' imprisonment for being an accomplice to the murder of her husband, and execution by stoning for adultery. She was scheduled to be executed after serving her prison sentence, which was finished two years ago. She has reportedly written to the Judicial Commission for Amnesty to ask for her sentence of execution by stoning to be commuted, and is awaiting a reply. Kobra Najjar was allegedly forced into prostitution by her husband, a heroin addict who was violent towards her. In 1995, after a severe beating by her husband, she told one of her regular customers that she wanted to kill her husband. The customer allegedly murdered her husband after Kobra Najjar took him to an arranged meeting place. He was sentenced to death, but he was pardoned by the victim’s family, to whom he paid diyeh (blood money).

Soghra Mola’i was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment for being an accomplice to the murder in January 2004 of her husband Abdollah, and to execution by stoning for adultery. During interrogation she said “My husband usually tormented me. Nevertheless, I did not intend to kill him. On the night of the incident … after Alireza killed my husband, I ran away with him because I was scared to stay at home, thinking that my brothers-in-law would kill me.” Alireza was sentenced to death for the murder of Soghra Mola'i’s husband, and to 100 lashes for "illicit relations". The sentences are pending examination by the Supreme Court. It is believed that Soghra Mola’i is detained in Reja'i Shahr prison, Karaj, near Tehran.

In May 2005, Branch 71 of the Tehran Province Criminal Court sentenced Fatemeh (surname unknown) to retribution (qesas) for being an accomplice to murder, and execution by stoning for having an ‘illicit relationship’ with a man named Mahmoud. Her husband was sentenced to 16 years' imprisonment for being an accomplice to the murder of Mahmoud. The case is currently being examined in the Supreme Court. According to a May 2005 report in the newspaper Etemad, an altercation occurred between Mahmoud, and Fatemeh’s husband. Fatemeh confessed to tying a rope around Mahmoud’s throat, which resulted in his strangulation. She has claimed that she intended merely to tie his hands and feet after he was unconscious and hand him over to the police.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Amnesty International is aware of two other women under sentence of execution by stoning in Iran, Ashraf Kalhori (see UA 203/06, MDE 13/083/2006, 27 July 2006; and updates), and Hajieh Esmailvand (see UA 336/04, MDE 13/053/2004, 16 December 2004; and updates).  The Head of the Judiciary announced a moratorium on the use of stoning in December 2002, but reports indicate a man and a woman may have been stoned to death in May 2006.

Stratfor
Breaking Intelligence

An explosion on an Iran-to-Turkey natural gas pipeline outside the Iranian border city of Maku probably resulted from sabotage by Kurdish separatist rebels, Iranian authorities said Sept. 29. The incident comes shortly after Iraq's Kurdish President Jalal Talabani said Baghdad could make trouble for Iran and Turkey if they do not stop interfering in Iraq's internal affairs. As Iraqi Kurds become more aggressive in their push to secure oil revenues in northern Iraq, Ankara and Tehran have made common cause to suppress Kurdish separatism, creating further complications for Washington's goal of containing Iran.

Analysis

An explosion on an Iran-to-Turkey natural gas pipeline outside the Iranian border city of Maku occurred at 11:30 p.m. Sept. 28. The explosion, which destroyed about 65-75 yards of the line, likely will take three to four days to repair, Turkey's state pipeline company, Botas, said. The company also said the shortage in Iranian gas deliveries to Turkey would be compensated by Russian natural gas coming through the Blue Stream pipeline beneath the Black Sea.

Most Kurdish acts of sabotage on the Iran-Turkey gas pipeline occur in Turkey and are carried out by guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has increased attacks on security, government and commercial targets in Kurdish-majority areas of Turkey in recent months. The 1,600 mile pipeline, running from Tabriz to Ankara, is an attractive target for Kurdish guerrillas aiming to strike at the Turkish economy, since it supplies Turkey with more than a third of its annual gas consumption. Turkey most recently experienced natural gas shortages for four days when PKK rebels blew up part of the same pipeline in the Turkish city of Agri in September.

While the PKK has sustained its level of operations in Turkey, Kurdish separatist rebels in Iran have largely stayed quiet out of fear of incurring a major crackdown by the Iranian regime. Lacking a viable leadership structure, the Kurdish rebel movement in Iran generally sticks to low-level operations, which draw a stiff response from the Iranian armed forces. The latest pipeline explosion, however, reveals the manner in which the Kurds in Turkey, Iraq and Iran can cooperate on some level to further their territorial ambitions through hard-hitting attacks.

Iraq's Kurdish president, Jalal Talabani, made a telling statement Sept. 26 in Washington when he told National Public Radio that Iraq can "make trouble" for its neighbors (e.g., Turkey, Iran and Syria) if they do not stop interfering in his country's internal affairs. With a political arrangement in Baghdad still nowhere in sight, the Kurdish bloc in Iraq has taken the opportunity to push its own demands while Sunni and Shiite factions are deeply consumed in sectarian fighting. The most contentious of the Kurdish demands undoubtedly revolves around the issue of oil revenues in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq. Despite the lack of federal legislation on how to divide oil revenues among Iraq's three dominant factions, the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) has pressed forward in talks with oil majors, having even signed an agreement with Norwegian oil company DNO to start producing up to 5,000 barrels per day of oil in northern Iraq beginning the first quarter of 2007. While this outrages Iraq's Oil Ministry, which has said the government does not need to honor previous KRG oil investment deals, the political disarray in Baghdad prevents the center from taking any real action to suppress Kurdish moves to grab oil returns.

With sizable Kurdish populations, Iran and Turkey have been watching these developments closely, and are becoming increasingly alarmed at the rate at which the Iraqi Kurds are asserting their autonomy without restraint. As a result, Tehran and Ankara have coordinated military operations against Kurds on Iraqi soil, with the deepest Iranian incursion taking place Sept. 5 when Iran fired artillery against Kurdish positions near the Iraqi town of Mandali, 60 miles northeast of Baghdad. Talabani made it clear during his Washington visit that his patience for such actions is wearing thin, and that Iraq will respond by supporting "opposition forces" within its neighbors' borders, a warning that appears to have been actualized by the late-night pipeline explosion.

The pipeline attack will only strengthen Iran's and Turkey's incentive to work together to curb Kurdish separatist tendencies. Major crackdowns against Kurdish strongholds in the region thus can be expected in the coming weeks.

The Kurdish issue also complicates matters for Washington, as U.S. officials are running out of options to contain Iran's expansionist push. Ankara is especially peeved at Washington for not following through with a commitment to help contain the Kurds in Iraq and block support for PKK operations in Turkey. As long as Turkey feels territorially threatened by developments in its Iraqi neighbor, the United States will be hard-pressed to find strong regional allies to help keep the Iranians at bay.

stratfor.com

LAW-SYRIA-ACTIVIST

DAMASCUS, Sept 29 (KUNA) -- Syrian activist Abdu Khalaf was released by Syrian authorities after being arrested last June on the charge of joining a banned political party, National Organization for Human rights in Syria said Friday.

"The activist was released due to his deteriorating health condition," the organization's president Ammar Qarbi said in a statement. "This was a positive step towards political reform," Qarbi said, adding that he called for the release of the rest of political prisoners.

In a related context, Qarbi said that although it had been more than two years since the presidential pardon for Kurd juveniles, charged with rioting in the Syrian city of al-Qamishli, was issued, still 45 were being on trial in a juvenile court.

Qarbi demanded presidential pardon for the 45 juveniles to be implemented.

Al-Qamishli riots that erupted in 2004 took place during a football match and extended throughout the Kurd-dominated city in eastern Syria. Clashes between rioters and Syrian security forces resulted in the killing and injuring of many Kurds.

NCRI – “I wish my life took a different course. I wish I could finish my pre-university studies. I wish I did not reach this state of mind. I have suffered a lot. I am a real victim and now the victim is going to her gallows to be hanged.” These are extracts from a letter of appeal by Kobra Rahmanpour a woman sentenced to death by mullahs’ judiciary. She is about 25 years of age.

She was arrested on November 5, 2000 and was sentenced to death by Branch 1608 of Tehran’s Criminal Court in January 2002 for killing her mother-in-law. In 2003 the sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court. She emphasized that she had acted in self-defense after her mother-in-law had tried to attack her with a kitchen knife. She was forced into marriage against her will by her parents, due to the poverty of her family, and was subjected to domestic violence during her marriage. She did not have access to a lawyer until the beginning of her trial.

She goes on in her letter: “In these days of fear and terror, I once again reach for your help. I thank all those media and individuals who supported me and said that I should not be hanged.” She ended her appeal by saying: “This is perhaps the last time I am appealing but please do whatever is necessary for the last time so that I would not be hanged and perhaps freed. I truly love freedom.”

ISTANBUL, (Reuters) - An explosion shook a gas pipeline between Iran and Turkey overnight near the Iranian town of Bazargan, but it was not clear if there were any casualties, Turkish media reports said on Friday.

The explosion occurred around 10 p.m. (1900 GMT) near a Turkish border crossing into Iran and the flames from the resulting fire could be seen in the Turkish town of Dogubayazit, the NTV/MSNBC Web site reported.

State-run Anatolian news agency quoted local official Rauf Ulusoy as saying the explosion was about 1 km (0.6 miles) away from the border crossing on the Iranian side.

An explosion rocked the pipeline on the Turkish side in Agri province last month and authorities blamed it on sabotage by militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Sep. 29 – Two Iranian brothers were hanged in public on Friday in the western city of Khorramabad, the provincial capital of Lorestan Province, the official news agency IRNA reported.

The two brothers, identified as Reza and Saeid Z., were hanged in Shora Street amid heavy security.

They had been charged with launching an armed attack on Khorramabad’s City Hall in 2005, killing one of its staff, in an apparent revenge attack after another brother of theirs was executed in prison.

An Islamic court also convicted the pair of spreading fear in society, taking part in armed clashes with agents of Iran’s State Security Forces, and being “mohareb”, or waging war on God.

ANKARA (AFP) - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has rejected jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan's appeal for a rebel ceasefire, calling instead on Kurdish separatists to lay down their arms.
Ocalan made the appeal through his lawyers Thursday from his prison cell following an upsurge in rebel violence that has raised tensions in Turkey at a time when stability is crucial for its bid to join the European Union.
"A ceasefire is done between states. It is not something for the terrorist organisation," Erdogan told the private Samanyolu television channel late Thursday, referring to Ocalan's outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
"The terrorist organisation must lay down its arms. That is what we are waiting for to restore peace in the (Kurdish) region," Erdogan said.
This was no surprise, Turkish officials having ignored four previous truces proclaimed by the PKK, the longest of which lasted from 1999 to 2004.
"The first and foremost principle is to entirely eradicate this terrorist group. The PKK should lay down its arms unconditionally ... and surrender to Turkish justice," Edip Baser, coordinator of the struggle against the PKK, said Friday.
Kurdish activists, however, warned against a hasty rejection of Ocalan's move, urging Ankara to seize any opportunity for a lasting solution to the 22-year conflict.
"The country needs this chance at peace," Sirri Sakik, spokesman for the main Kurdish party, the Party for a Democratic Society (DTP), told AFP.
"If this situation is handled well by all concerned -- the politicians, the army and the PKK -- we could obtain an end to the hostilities."
In Diyarbakir, the main city of the Kurdish-majority southeast, Ocalan's call raised expectations for an end to years of bloodshed; a powerful bomb blast blamed on the PKK killed 10 people there earlier this month.
"We believe the PKK will heed Ocalan's appeal and we hope the truce will mark the beginning of a process in which arms will be laid down for good," human rights activist Selahattin Demirtas told AFP.
"The prime minister should not undermine this process in advance and should instead encourage all developments that can help end the conflict," he said.
Pointing to the ravaged economy of the region, local business leader Sah Ismail Bedirhanoglu said: "We want an end to violence. Any contribution is welcome, whoever makes it."
Ocalan has been serving a life sentence for separatism and treason since 1999 in the northwestern prison island of Imrali, where he is the sole inmate.
His appeal came on the heels of change in the Turkish military hierarchy, with General Yasar Buyukanit, perceived as more of a hardliner than his predecessor, becoming chief of the general staff and renewing the army's vow to hunt the PKK down to the last man unless they surrender.
There was no immediate reaction from the PKK to Ocalan's appeal as fighting on the ground continued, with officials in Sirnak province saying two rebels were killed there Thursday in a gunbattle with the security forces.
The PKK's military branch is based in the mountains of neighboring northern Iraq -- a source of friction between Ankara, Washington and Baghdad. Its political leaders live in exile in Western Europe.
Ocalan is believed to retain significant influence over the PKK, which took up arms for independence in the southeast in 1984. The conflict has claimed more than 37,000 lives.
The group, classed as a terror organisation by Turkey, the EU and the United States, abandoned its independence plans after Ocalan's arrest in Kenya in 1999 and called a truce that lasted for five years.
Ankara in the meantime undertook a series of reforms to improve the lot of the country's estimated 10 to 15 million Kurds -- out of a total population of 73 million -- as part of efforts to align with EU norms.

By Jim Abrams

Associated Press Writer
Washington - The House voted Thursday to impose mandatory sanctions on entities that provide goods or services for Iran's weapons programs. The vote came as U.S diplomats continued to press the U.N. Security Council to penalize Tehran if it fails to end its uranium enrichment program.

House sponsors of the Iran Freedom Support Act said they expected the Senate to act quickly on the measure, sending it to President Bush for his signature this week.

The bill, passed by a voice vote, sanctions any entity that contributes to Iran's ability to acquire chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. The president has the authority to waive those sanctions, but only when he can show that it is in the vital national interest.

``It would be a critical mistake to allow a regime with a track record as bloody and as dangerous as Iran to obtain nuclear weapons,'' said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., sponsor of the measure. ``Enough with the carrots. It's time for the stick.''

But critics questioned the need for unilateral action when the United States was pushing for a multinational approach to Iran's alleged nuclear program. ``It is, if you will, a cruise missile aimed at a difficult diplomatic effort just as they are reaching their most sensitive point,'' said Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore. ``The timing for this legislation could not be worse.''

The measure codifies existing economic sanctions against the Tehran government that have been in effect since the takeover of the U.S. embassy in 1979 and states that the president must notify Congress 15 days before terminating any of those sanctions.

It also approves assistance for human rights, pro-democracy and independent organizations and states that it is the sense of Congress that the United States should not enter into agreements with governments that are assisting Iran's nuclear program or transferring weapons or missiles to Iran.

``If we fail to use the economic and diplomatic tools available to us, the world will face a nightmare that knows no end,'' said Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif.

But others warned that language in the bill supporting democratic change in Iran would only antagonize people in Iran who might see parallels to U.S. regime change objectives in neighboring Iraq. It's time, said Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, ``to give assurance to Iran that we are not going to attack them.''

The House passed a similar Iran sanctions bill last April, but that measure met opposition from the administration, which said it reduced the flexibility it needed to reach a diplomatic solution to Iran's uranium enrichment program and the threat that it was developing nuclear weapons. That proposal was defeated in the Senate.

The revised version takes out one section that would have cut off aid to countries, such as Russia, investing in projects in Iran that could be linked to weapons proliferation. The legislation also in effect alters the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act of 10 years ago by taking away restrictions on Libya, which is now cooperating with the West in eliminating weapons of mass destruction.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday again rejected demands that Tehran suspend its uranium enrichment activities, repeating that Iran would continue pursuing nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

NCRI - Over the weekend, the mullahs' henchmen hanged seven people, the semi-official daily Jomhouri-Islami reported on September 26. The men were identified as Khoda-Morad Lashgar-Zadeh, Ali Karimi, Gholam Koohkan, Abdul-Ali Baluch, Sheback, Shah-Mohammad Barik-Zehi, and Nader Rigi. The latter two were Afghan citizens.

The mullahs' judiciary sentenced a man to have one of his eye’s gouged out in the north-eastern city of Mashhad, the state-run daily Quds reported on September 26.

Cruel and inhumane punishments such as eye gouging and limb amputation have dramatically increased in recent months in Iran.

The Iranian Resistance draws the attention of international human rights organizations to the increasing number of executions in recent weeks. It calls on the current session of the United Nations General Assembly to condemn the grave violations of human rights in Iran by the mullahs' medieval regime.  

KRG

Kurdistan Regional Government
Council of Ministers
Office of the Prime Minister

27 September 2006

Erbil, Kurdistan Region- Iraq

Statement by Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani on non-implementation of the Iraqi constitution

In an interview with al-Sabah newspaper published 24 September, Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein Shahristani said his Ministry is not committed to investment contracts signed by the Kurdistan Regional Government. He further stated that the Baghdad Oil Ministry would review the terms of these contracts.

Dr. Shahristani’s comments suggest he is not committed to Iraq’s Constitution. Article 115 of the Constitution gives Regions “all powers not stipulated in the exclusive powers of the federal government.” Oil and Gas are not among the exclusive powers of the federal government. Further, the articles of the Iraqi Constitution that do address oil provide for joint control by the federal government and the regional Government of oil fields currently in production. The constitution gives the federal government no role at all with regard to the new oil fields that are the subject of the KRG-signed contracts. Finally, as if there were any doubt as to the validity of KRG-signed contracts, Article 141 of the Iraqi Constitution specifically validates “decisions issued by the Kurdistan Regional Government, including court decisions and contracts” since 1992.

As the elected Kurdistan official ultimately responsible for my government’s oil contracts, I resent Dr. Shahristani’s efforts to sabotage foreign investment in Kurdistan’s oil sector. The KRG is working to develop petroleum in Kurdistan, an area that previous Iraqi regimes had declared off limits as means of punishing our people. Since 2003, foreign companies have invested more than $100 million in exploration activities in our region and have already made one significant new discovery. Meanwhile, the Baghdad Oil Ministry has done nothing to encourage foreign investment in other parts of Iraq or to start new petroleum activities. Dr. Shahristani would better spend his time getting his ministry working rather than tearing down our achievements.

The people of Kurdistan chose to be in a voluntarily union with Iraq on the basis of the constitution. If Baghdad Ministers refuse to abide by that constitution, the people of Kurdistan reserve the right to reconsider our choice.

Source:kurdishmedia.com

Iran Focus

Ahwaz, Iran, Sep. 28 – Dozens of unpaid workers held a protest outside the governorate of oil-rich Khuzestan Province, southwest Iran, demanding the government put pressure on their employers to pay their overdue wages.

Some 50 workers from the Jangineh Brick Baking Factory took part in the rally outside the governorate in Ahwaz, the provincial capital of Khuzestan.

The protestors claimed that they had not received their wages for the past 12 months.

“We are forced to work but are not being paid. If we quit now then we will have no hope of getting our back-wages for the past year. What choice do we have?” said one disgruntled worker. “We have not even been given our annual bonuses for the past two years”, he complained.

Another worker who was visibly distraught said that he had been forced to get a night job to be able to support his wife and children.

“Is this justice? We have rights too”, he chanted before breaking down in tears. “I don’t even have enough money to replace my son’s torn shoes”.

Hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had run in the presidential campaign on a platform of purging corruption, mismanagement, and poverty in society but Iran experts say that workers in the country have since become in a greater state of financial flux.

Security is tight in Ahwaz which has been the scene of unremitting anti-government protests since early 2005.

Iran Focus

London, Sep. 28 – Agents of Iran’s State Security Forces went up rooftops in western Tehran removing satellite dishes which are banned in Islamic Iran, local residents reported.

“At around 10 am on Tuesday, uniformed agents began climbing rooftops and they started to remove satellite dishes”, a resident, who wishes to remain anonymous, said by telephone.

Dozens of dishes were brought down and confiscated by security agents in the police operation which occurred in Tehran’s Kaj District (formerly Peykan-Shahr).

The Islamic Republic banned satellite dishes in 1995. The crackdown on satellite dishes was prompted by broadcasts from Iranian opposition groups whose television programs reportedly have a large audience in Iran.

By SUZAN FRASER
Associated Press Writer

ANKARA, Turkey - An imprisoned Kurdish rebel leader called on his guerrilla fighters to declare a new cease-fire as rebel attacks targeting civilians and foreign tourists have drawn global criticism, his lawyer said Thursday.

The leader, Abdullah Ocalan, urged his autonomy-seeking Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, to announce a new unilateral cease-fire to seek a peaceful and democratic solution to the Kurdish problem, lawyer Ibrahim Bilmez told The Association Press.

Bilmez and other lawyers met with Ocalan on Wednesday.

A surge of rebel violence has killed more than a dozen soldiers and policemen in recent weeks and sparked widespread condemnation. Militants believed to be linked to the rebels have also bombed tourist resorts, killing three and injuring more than a dozen tourists.

Ocalan's move follows U.S. pledges of support in cracking down on the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.

Bilmez said Ocalan made the call to try to halt the "rising tension and continuous clashes."

"I am fulfilling my responsibilities and I am calling on the PKK (to declare) a cease-fire. I hope that the PKK will heed my call and that results will come out of it," Ocalan said in a statement faxed to the AP by his lawyers.

"Come, let's stop forever the armed fight," Ocalan said. "Let's bury the arms."

The rebels were expected to heed Ocalan's call, which followed a similar one earlier this month from the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party.

The Turkish government, however, is likely to press ahead with its military drive targeting the rebels. Turkey has ignored all previous cease-fires by the group, saying it does not negotiate with terrorists. Military commanders have vowed to fight until all rebels are killed or surrender.

Ocalan said the rebels would be free to defend themselves if attacked by Turkish troops. "The PKK will absolutely not use weapons unless they are attacked," he said.

Ocalan also called on Turkey to use the cease-fire as an opportunity to introduce greater rights for Kurds and appealed to the European Union and the United States to support the process.

Ocalan said this would be his last call for a unilateral truce.

"If no result can be achieved, I may not be able to find the power in myself to make a new call, nor would the PKK listen to me," Ocalan said. "This cease-fire process is very important and must be evaluated carefully."

Ocalan was captured in 1999 in Kenya and sentenced to death on charges of treason. His death sentence was commuted when Turkey abolished the death penalty. He is in solitary confinement on a prison island in the Marmara Sea, off Istanbul.

The rebel conflict has claimed the lives of 37,000 people since the guerrillas took up arms in 1984.

Last year, the guerrilla group declared a cease-fire, but the truce lasted little more than a month. The rebels said the government failed to recognize their group and was maintaining its military drive against its members.

The PKK's longest unilateral cease-fire was declared after Ocalan's capture and lasted five years.

The United States appointed former Air Force Gen. Joseph Ralston as special envoy for countering the PKK, in a show of its willingness to cooperate with the Turkish government in cracking down on the rebels, who maintain bases across the border in Kurdish-dominated northern Iraq.

The government says more than 90 soldiers have been killed in PKK attacks this year, and some 500 civilians have been killed or injured, a dramatic increase over past years.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, himself a Kurd, said while visiting the United States this week that the PKK could declare a new cease-fire in the coming days, saying the group had been convinced to stop fighting, according to the Anatolia news agency.

___

Associated Press reporter Selcan Hacaoglu contributed to this report.

NCRI - Mohammad Tourang, commander of the Revolutionary Guards Corps in charge of security in Greater Tehran, admitted that a gathering of women on Sunday, September 24, outside the offices of the UN in Tehran was brutally repressed. Relatives of four women sentenced to death were among demonstrators, along with students and a number of Tehran residents.

“The participants had not obtained the permission to gather. As they were disrupting public order, the security forces just carried out their duty”, he said.

The official news agency Fars acknowledged that, despite crackdown and arrests of demonstrators, the relatives of four women sentenced to death sentenced to death under the retribution law, including Shahla Jahed and Fatemeh Haghighat-Pajou, were able to meet officials of the UN offices in Tehran.

NCRI - Mohsen Rezai, secretary of the Iranian regime’s Expediency Council, admitted that the clerical regime provided terrorist training to its agents in Iraq, in Lebanon, in Afghanistan, and in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

He was interviewed by the official news agency Fars on September 24 on the occasion of the commemoration of the Iran-Iraq war.

Asked whether the experience or the acquisitions of this conflict were taught in the form of academic courses, he said: “There has not been any transfer of experience in foreign universities, but Iran transmitted its experience to other nations, such as Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Bosnia-Herzegovina, in the form of non-academic contacts and of military training courses. The kind of battle carried out by the Hezbollah is similar to the war led by our warriors against Iraq. In fact, this experience has been transmitted to them, it has also been transmitted in the North front in Afghanistan and to the Badr Corps in Iraq”.

In 1983, he added: “We sent forces to Lebanon to provide training. There were even senior commanders of the Revolutionary Guards Corps. They went there to free Beirut the same way they had freed Khorramshahr, and also to provide training courses.”

Start of the New Academic Year in Iran marked by further Arrests and Harassment

By Anonymous student activist in Tehran

The Islamic regime in Teheran has utilized the opportunity of international concern and involvement over the country’s nuclear file to divert attention away from pressing domestic issues and has begun a systematic campaign to clamp down on all shades of internal dissent. Amongst the advocates of democracy and human rights who are being specially targeted at this time are university students, who have traditionally been the main bastion of support for the promotion of liberal democratic values in modern Iran, all of which have been officially condemned by the Islamic Republic of Iran’s (IRI) hardline fundamentalist president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Read on: www.iranpressnews.com/english/source/016431.html

Iran Press News: The inhumane judiciary of the Islamic regime in Mashhad issued an order to have a defandants’ eyeballs removed as punishment.

The regime-run newspaper GHODS in its Tuesday, September 26th issue wrote: "The criminal court of Khorasan-Razavi province sentenced a man to have his eyeballs removed. His name is Amir. The order has been issued via branch 6 of the Mashhad court and will be carried out soon."

Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Sep. 27 – An Iranian court in the north-eastern city of Mashad sentenced a man to have one of his eye’s gouged out as punishment for blinding another man during a scuffle, state-run press reported.

The defendant, identified only by his first name Amir, was sentenced by the court to have his left eye gouged out, the hard-line daily Quds wrote in its Tuesday edition. It added that Amir was found guilty of blinding a man identified as Mehdi in one eye during a scuffle they had in the open.

Amir, who is currently languishing in jail, was also sentenced to 74 lashes and prison time.

The phrase “An eye for an eye” is very stringently adhered to in Iran’s Islamic law

By Patrick Cockburn in Mosul, northern Iraq
Published: 27 September 2006
The Independent

Across northern Iraq people are voting with their feet. In and around Mosul, the third-largest Iraqi city, some 70,000 Kurds have fled their homes so far this year. Many have run away after receiving an envelope with a bullet inside and a note telling them to get out in 72 hours. Others became refugees because they feared that a war between Arabs and Kurds for control of the region was not far off.

"There is no solution except the division of the province," said Khasro Goran, the powerful Kurdish deputy governor of Mosul. He believes that all the Kurds in the province want to join the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which under the federal constitution is almost an independent state.

Violence in Mosul, a city of 1.75 million people, is not as bad as in Baghdad or Diyala province, claims Mr Goran, who is also head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Mosul, during an interview with The Independent inside his heavily fortified headquarters. This is not saying a great deal, since he added that 40 to 50 people were being killed in Mosul every week.

"Two officials from the KDP working in this building were shot dead outside their homes a few days ago," said Mr Goran, an urbane, highly educated man who spent 11 years in exile in Sweden and speaks five languages. He has been the target of eight assassination attempts, in which several guards have been killed.

Read on: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1761665.ece

“If I only want to say what the government wants me to, then I have to be a government employee, not a filmmaker”
By David Walsh
26 September 2006

David Walsh and Joanne Laurier spoke to Iranian-Kurdish filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi at the Toronto film festival

David Walsh: It seems to me the presence of death is everywhere in this new film.

Bahman Ghobadi: I never live in the present. I’m always thinking about the next 10 years or 20 years of my life. I’m just afraid. But the only time I’m not scared is when I make films. In my life so far, I’ve experienced so many different kinds of death. Private death, and death as the result of political events, of repression. The deaths of my family members. Death in our culture has a magical concept. And at the moment I can see the strength of the Middle Eastern culture. Every day I’m waiting for death and I’m very anxious.

DW: I wonder if artists are especially afraid of death, and art is a way of freezing time, of keeping something alive?

BG: I agree with that. As an independent filmmaker, I also want to look at it in a different light. As an independent filmmaker, I want my film to be seen in the right way. But also when I come to a big festival like Toronto and Cannes and other festivals, I can see the death of independent filmmaking at these festivals. And I’m quite afraid of that. I usual