Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=02/13/03

TYPE=U-S PRESS / WAR PREVIEW

TITLE=KURDISH PRESS SUMMARY

NUMBER=6-12823

BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS

TELEPHONE=619-3335

CONTENT=

INTRO: The Philadelphia [Pennsylvania] Inquirer's senior foreign policy columnist Trudy Rubin writes from the Kurdish village of Halabja, in Northern Iraq, where roughly 5-thousand defenseless men, women and children were killed by poison gas on March 16th, 1988. V-O-A's ____________ has a summary of the commentary.

TEXT: Ms. Rubin begins that: "If crimes against humanity were sufficient reason to oust Saddam, you could find all the necessary evidence in this shabby town.

Set in a beautiful valley . Halabja has a history of horror. It is symbolized by a memorial statue in the middle of the town, much of which still lies in ruins. . This is the town where Saddam Hussein murdered 5-thousand Kurdish civilians in a matter of hours . when his military sprayed and shelled them with VX, sarin and mustard gas.

Ms. Rubin's Thursday report continues, quoting: "Seventy-year-old Mohammed Rashid, wearing the traditional Kurdish turban and baggy pants . 'It smelled like eggs and oranges. We couldn't breathe, and some just laughed like crazy, and some had burns,' he says, in the numb voice of a survivor. . This was a revenge killing by Saddam. Some Ziraqi Kurdish leaders had helped the Iranians."

"Even though the Iran-Iraq war was ending, the Iraqi leader wanted to punish the Kurds further. So he became the first leader since World War One to unleash a major chemical weapons attack on civilians - - and the first ever to gas his own population."

"Saddam has no regrets: He keeps the man who organized the attacks, nicknamed Ali Chemical, as a trusted adviser. Such a thug should be an international pariah, tried for crimes against humanity, not ruling a country.

But are these crimes sufficient reason to launch a U-S war against Baghdad? My heart says yes, but my head says that America would be fighting endless wars if it tried to oust every despot who crushed his own people."

In another news report from the Kurdish-administered city of Sulaymaniyah, Cameron Barr of Boston's Christian Science Monitor reports that Iraqi opposition activists, including some Kurdish leaders, are strongly opposed to the United States plan of having a U-S general run the country after Saddam Hussein is removed.

Mr. Barr reports: "Some Iraqi opposition leaders are already attacking the plan, saying it amounts to a U-S military rule of Iraq that will favor the existing power structure in the country. Instead of turning Iraq into a beacon of democracy in the Middle East . the opposition leaders say the . plan seems designed to ease the fears of Arabs and Turks unhappy with the prospect of a democratic federal Iraq.

But Barham Salih, Prime Minister of an enclave controlled by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (P U K) holds a pragmatic view: "Let's not get too hot about this," he said Tuesday in an interview at his home. "Who is doing the heavy lifting?" [Eds: the heavy, dangerous work in this case fighting Iraq] . The key thing for us is getting rid of Saddam Hussein."

This was a brief summary of U-S news reports regarding a looming war with Iraq from Kurdish-administered areas of the country.

NEB/ANG/MAR