ACCESSION NUMBER:00000
FILE ID:97031005.NNE
DATE:03/10/97
TITLE:10-03-97 OPERATION NORTHERN WATCH HAS MAJOR OBJECTIVES IN N. IRAQ
TEXT:
(According to former State Department official) (600)
By David Pitts
USIA Staff Writer
Washington -- Operation Northern Watch, the successor to Operation
Provide Comfort in northern Iraq, "remains a very important
operation," according to Alan Makovsky, a senior fellow at the
Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Makovsky spoke March 10 at a forum organized by the Congressional
Human Rights Caucus. He is a former State Department official whose
assignments included Southern Europe division chief, political advisor
to Operation Provide Comfort (the allied operation to provide
assistance and security to Kurds in northern Iraq following Operation
Desert Storm), and special advisor to the special Middle East
Coordinator.
Operation Northern Watch fulfills three major objectives, Makovsky
said. These are:
-- It maintains the no-fly-zone above the 36th parallel, a "key
element," in containing Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
-- It provides the coalition "with useful reconnaissance," about the
movement of Iraqi troops in the north where many Kurds live.
-- It allows the coalition "to be aware of the human rights situation
in the north," so that "intervention may be considered," if conditions
deteriorate. It acts as a protective cover for the Kurds living there.
Makovsky also discussed relations between the Kurdistan Democratic
Party (KDP), active in northern Iraq, and the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan (PUK), mostly active in southern Iraq. Despite a cease-fire
agreement between these feuding organizations, relations "are as
irreconcilable as ever," he said.
For his part, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is "actively wooing," the
KDP, Makovsky noted. "The Iraqi embargo on the KDP has largely ended."
In return, "it appears the KDP cooperates closely with Baghdad on
political decisions, but it is not totally beholden to Baghdad," he
stressed.
One beneficial consequence of this cooperation, however, is that "the
worst fears of an Iraqi takeover of the KDP-controlled area in the
northern part of the country have not come to pass," Makovsky said.
As far as the PUK is concerned, Makovsky said "there is far less
criticism by its leaders of Saddam than there was a year ago, largely
a result of the increase in intimidation," by the Iraqi government.
Iran "continues to supply the PUK with equipment, but also maintains
good ties with the KDP," he added. The area under PUK influence in the
south borders Iran.
Since September of last year, after the agreement between the two
organizations representing the Kurds in Iraq, the United States "has
been more actively involved in trying to work with them to help them
solve their problems," which only to work to the advantage of Saddam
Hussein, Makovsky remarked. "But most of the agreement remains
unimplemented," he said. Because of the ongoing rivalry, "the real
focus on the tyranny of Saddam is lost," he added.
David McDowell, a UK-based historian and Middle East expert, provided
a brief account of the history of the Kurdish presence in the region.
Iraq is just one of the countries Kurds inhabit. Other larger Kurdish
populations live in Iran, Turkey, Syria, and parts of the former
Soviet Union. They number approximately 30 million. About 75 percent
of the Kurds, however, live in the Zagros Mountains region, straddling
the Iraq-Iran border and much of eastern Anatolia.
Iraqi Kurds are provided with protection against air attack under the
provisions of Operation Northern Watch, but the experts said the
continuing political divisions in the organizations representing them
-- the KDP and the PUK -- only weakens their cause and plays into the
hands of the Iraqi government.
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