Re: Kurds

   The 33,000-40,000 Kurds killed by NATO ally Turkey (higher
figure from Chomsky's American Intervention book recently published
in Turkey)
are, of course, a horrendous bloodletting.
   That said, looking at, "A Modern History of the Kurds, " 2nd
edition, 2000, published by I.B. Taurus pubs. in London, by David
McDowell this morning at Borders, I see from the documentation
he assembles from sources such as Middle Watch and Kurdish political
orgs. a figure of 150,000-200,000 killed by the Iraqi Baathist
regime during the Anfal operations of '86-'88 directed by Gen.
Al Majid. The Socialist Party of Kurdistan says the death toll
was 182,000.
  Article in Le monde Diplomatique by L. Nezan in March '88
( http://www.en.monde-diplomatique.fr/1998/03/04iraqkn )
goes even higher. "Since 1974 over 400,000 killed in Baghdad's
war against the Kurds. [10% of the Iraqi Kurdish population approx.]
15 million landmines."
  A number of ghastly quotes in the Le Monde Diplo article. Her's
one from the Anfal Commander (btw, much more on the Anfal in
Kanan Makiya's, "Silence and Cruelty, " and the PBS Frontline
documentary which Makiya was part of. See the Frontline website,
which also has a good summary of Kurdish-Iraqi history.) "I will
kill them all with chemical weapons. Who is going to say anything?
The international community? Fuck them!" And replying to the
charge from the Socialist Party of Turkistan about the 182K dead
Kurds "You always exaggerate!" After which he said, though, it
was at least 100,000.
Michael Pugliese