INSTITUT URD DE

Information and liaison bulletin ISpecial Issue I

July-August 1989 This bulletin is issued in French, German, Enghh. Kurdish, Spanish and Turkish.

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Monthly review Director of publication: Mohamad HASSAN

numero de la Commission Paritaire: 659 i5 A.S. ISSN 0761 1285

INSTITUT KURDE 106, rue La Fayette - 7iOlQ PARV; Tel.: (1) 48 24 64 64 - Fax: (1) 47 70 99 Oit spec/a/Issue: A. R. GHASSEMLOU

SUMMARY

o TRIPLE MURDER IN o WHO ARE THE ASSASSINS AND WHAT HAS BECOME OF THEM? o ATTITUDE OF THE AUSTRIAN GOVERNMENT o PUBLIC EMOTIONS AND THE SILENCE OF STATES o FUNERAL SERVICES IN PARIS : MOMENT OF STRONG KURDISH NATIONAL UNITY o PORTRAITS OF THE KURDISH MARTYRS o SPECIAL RESOLUTIONSOF THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN PARIS o ACCOUNT OF THE NEGOTIATIONS BETWEENTHE IRANIAN KURDISH MOVEMENT AND THE AUTHORITIES o BRIEF PRESSREVIEWS

TRIPLE MURDER IN VIENNA

n Thursday, July 13th 1989, at approximately 7 Socialist Congress, having come to Vienna on Tues- pm, the Kurdish Iranian leader AbelelRahman day evening, July 11th,to meet with Iranian emissaries Ghassemlou, Secretary General of the Demo- delegated by RAFSANDJANI, the then powerful presi- O cratic Party of of , and two other dent of the Iranian Parliament and declared candidate important Kurdish individuals, Abdoullah GHADERI- for the presidency of the Republic. The following day, AlAR, representative of the PDKI in Europe, and along with Ghaderi-Azar and Dr. F. Rassoul, Ghas- Dr. Fadhel RASSOUL, researcher at the University of semlou had his first meeting at 2:30 pm with these Vienna, were assassinated inan apartment on Lindes- "emissanes». Because of marked progress during the trasse Street in Vienna. The assassination occurred course of this first meeting, a second and final meeting while they were in the process of peace talks with had been called for Thursday the 13th at 5 pm. That Iranian government emissaries. Dr. Ghassemlou had day, around 4:45 pm, the PDKI representative in Vien- come to Europe to participate in the International na dropped off Ghassemlou and Ghaderi-Azar infront INFORMATION AND UAISON BUUETIN 2

of the Hilton Hotel, approximately 100 meters from the went Into the building and realized what had happened: meeting point. As arranged, he carne back to the same the bodies of A. Ghaderl.Azar and Dr. F. Rassoul were place to pick them up around 7:15; they were not there. lying In pools of blood on the carpet and Ghassemlou was slouched In an armchair. The apartment was In He drove off and came back again at 7:30; he saw complete disorder, Indicating that a fierce struggle police cars and some people gathered In front of a must have taken place between the killers and Ghas- building on L1ndestrasse Street, close to the Hilton. He semlou's two companions.

WHO ARE THE ASSASSINS AND WHAT HAS BECOME OF THEM?

The Inquest by the Austrian police rapidly established strange client being very nervous and asking to be that the killers had not broken into the apartment. taken tothe airport, then changing his mind and asking Neitherthe front doorto the apartment nor the lock had to be taken to the Iranian Embassy. been forced. As early as July 17th, the ballstic report established that the assassinations had been carried Nobody has seen him since. The Austrian justice out by people standing facing the victims. Contrary to a minister affirmed at the end of August that Moustafawi version of the story diffused by Iranian propaganda, was still to be found on Austrian territory and that a war- there is no doubt that an outsider came to commit this rant for his arrest had been sent out at the end of July. crime, neither the moudjahiddin, nor Iraqi agents. The Other witnesses maintain having seen Moustafawi Kurdish figures, carrying no weapons, were assassina- walking about freely in the Iranian capital In September. ted by so-called Iranian negotiators that turned out to be everyday killers. Mohammad Jafar Sahraroudl was injured at the site of the crime by a bullet hitting his forearm and then the The identity of these «emissaries» was all the more lower part of his face. Before, during orafterthe attack? easily established because the same ones had partici- He was taken to Franz Josef Hospital where the report pated in December 1988 in the first set of talks With he gave to the police was incoherent and contradicted Ghassemlou (and now again in Vienna). The three the facts given by Bozorgian. The Austrian authonties people in question are: Mohammad Jafar SAHAROU- decided to confine him to a residence so that he could 01 (alias RAHIMI), head of the Iranian delegation, a be acceSSible to the courts. Sahraroundi and Mousta- high government official at the Ministry of the Interior, fawi were both holders of diplomatic passports. but they specialist on the Kurdish question, assistant comman- were not accredited. On July 22nd 1989, upon leaving der-in-chief of the 15th Division of the Pasdarans Army the hospital, Sahraroudi was escorted by police to the (soldiers of the Islamic revolution), special envoy of airport where he was sent directly to Tehran. From RAFSANDJANI, current President of Iran; Hadji informed sources we know that the Minister of Foreign MOUSTAFAWI (alias DJAWADI or LADJEVARDI), a Affairs received a number of telegrams from Tehran high government official at the central information threatening the kidnapping of Austrians in Iran as a way bureau, in charge of the secret service forthe Western of retaliating, among other forms of terrorism. Azerbaidjan region (Kurdistan), second in charge in the Iranian delegation at the Vienna talks; Amir Mausur Amlr Mansour Borzorgian was Immediately arrested BOlORGIAN, officially SAHAROUDl's body guard. but released 24 hours later. The police did not have any truely valid reasons for retaining him. Borzorgian took Hadji Mustafawi disappeared immediately following refuge in the Iranian Embassy. categorically refusing to the attack. He was momentarily seen near Sahraroudi, put himself atthedispositlon of the authorities in charge who was in the street, hurt. He then disappeared on a of the inquest. Indignant, the police restated their Suzuki motorcycle for which the papers and rear-view demands; a warrant for Borzorgian's arrest was sent mirror were later found in a garbage can in close out for «failure to render assistance to a person in proximity to the site of the crime, along with the wea- danger». In orderfor hlmto agree to leave the Embas- pons used in the attack and a parka spattered With sy, Mr. Foregger, MInister of Justice, was asked by blood - all in a plastic bag. Proof of Moustafawi using Tehran to release the suspect following his interroga- the motorcycle is insufficient, we are told. Somebody tion; an incident which caused great unrest in Vienna else might well have used the motorcycle. Later, and Yielded no tangible results ... And yet, Borzor- Moustafawi took a taxi. The driver of the taxi was able gian's behaVior merits the most attention. He swears to to recognise him from a photo. He remembered this know nothing about the crime, saying that he left the INFORMATION AND UAISON BULLETIN 3 building to go down and buy some food. Nobody In the dl for a few minutes, going away in the direction of a shops In that neighborhood remembers his face. From neighboring park returned. Sahraroudl took out some his side, Sahraroudi denies that Bozorglan ever left.. documents and 9,000 American dollars from his poc- . At 7:30 In the evening, F. Rassoul's brother-in-law ket. The envelope was given back to Its owner by the received a phone call from Bozorglan announcing that Austrian authorities at the time of his departure for something terrible had happened: that F. Rassoul was Tehran. We conclude, finally, that Borzorglan had not dead. Borzorglan affirms having discovered Sahrarou- participated Inthe talks In December/January 1988, but dl hurt on the sidewalk. Although, he then left Sahrarou- that he was nevertheless in Vienna during this period.

ATTITUDE OF THE AUSTRIAN GOVERNMENT

The least that one can say Is that the Austrian authori- sent out a warrant for the arrest of the three Iranians ties have not acted with the promptness and firmness who, aftertheircrime, were reintergrated into the killing necessary to shed light on this horrible attack and bring machine of the Islamic Repubic. What were the rea- its authors to justice. Nevertheless, the police were sons given by the state? It has been said that Iran easily able to apprehend two of the three members of threatened attacks in and kidnappings of Aus- the Iranian delegation: Amir Mansour Bozozrgian and trians in Lebanon and elsewhere. The Austrian press Mohammad Jafar Sahraroudi. The former was arres- also revealed a NORECOM affair being carried out, of ted at the place of the crime on Lindestrasse Street, the clandestine sale of arms to Iran for thousands of was released 24 hours later and took refuge in the Austrian schillings. It appears that an Iranian was the Iranian Embassy. The latter, injured by a stray bullet, principal negotiator of this illegal trafficking committed was able to fly peacefully to Tehran as early as July in Gulf War; Hadjl MOUSTAFANI, the brain behind a 22nd. That is to say, he was released five days after the commando of killers who assassinated A. R. Ghassem- first decisive findings from the balistic report, leaving Iou and hiS two companions. practically no doubt about the Iranian «emissaries' .. responsibility in this triple murder. This report was All were led to think that Kurt WANDHEIM's Austria, its otherwise kept secret by the Viennese government love of justice, could not and would not get mixed up in until mid-November. the Iranian regime, a regime known for being masters of terrorism. It is a Justice, nevertheless, due to all For non-explicit reasons of State, Austria let the assas- Kurdish people and to those Austrians close to some sins go, holding up the inquest. On November 28th, Kurdish individuals who were assassinated on Austrian under pressure from the public, the Austrians finally territory.

PUBLIC EMOTION and THE SILENCE OF SOME STATES

Among the numerous political and intellectual men in International Socialist and several European socialist Europe and the Near East, Abdul Rahman Ghassem- parties, among them the French. Swedish and Austrian Iou enjoyed great estime. His attach me ntto democratic Socialist parties as well as the French Communist and humanist values that he himself put into practice in Party, have condemned the assassination of the Kur- his guerilla movement was known and attested to by dish leaders. Also expressing their consternation were doctors and journalists who, during the past ten years several liberal personalities such as, Jean-Franc;ois were able to go to . A. Ghaderi-Azar DENIAU, former minister of Valery Giscard d'Estaing, had also made numerous friends in France, where he and numerous scholars and intellectuals. In Turkey, was organising the European faction of his organisa- the press informed the public expressing full of tion. F. Rassoul was known and valued in Austria and sympathy. One of the Turkish daily papers, Cumhur- in the intellectual circles of the muslim world. Their riyet, even allowed the publication of «condolence assassinations arroused great emotion in the public messages addressed to the Kurdish people .., signed opinion of many countries in Europe andthe Near East. by hundreds of intellectuals, lawyers, doctors, and Kurdish and Turkish militants. ErdallNONU, president Making itself the vehicle of public emotion and indigna- of the Social Democratic Party (the principal parliamen- tion, the press utilised alot of space for this event. The tary opposition organisation), who had met Ghassem- INFORMATION AND UAISON BUUEl'1N 4

Iou a few days prior at the Congress of the International by representatives of the Iranian state. The French Socialist In Stockholm, publlcallyexpressed his -pain .. government extended sympathy to the Kurdish people and offered his condolences to Ghassemlou's family by facilitating the repatriation of the bodies and In and friends. diligently granting visas to wishing to come and participate In the funeral services. The services were In contrast to the public reactions, governments have organlsed In Paris and represented was the Secretary once more remained silent. Those who were not able to of State for Humanitarian Acts, Bernard Kouchner. find words strong enough to stigmatize w~h Just cause Lionel Jospln, former first secretary of the Socialist the death threat on Salman Rushdle by Khomelny or Party, Mlnlsterof State and Mlnlsterof National Educa- the hostage crisis (kidnapping of Westerners) by Ira- tion, was also present at the services. This gesture by nians or their agents, did not say a word when faced the French authorities went straight to the heart of the with a triple murder perpetrated In the Austrian capital Kurds in mourning.

FUNERALS IN PARIS: A MOMENT OF STRONG KURDISH NATIONAL UNITY

Kurdlstan being in a state of war, the funeral services on July 23rd. This ceremony took place in the presence for the two leaders of the Iranian PDK were held in of a delegation from the Kurdish Institute as well as Paris. A chapel of rest was set up at the Kurdish Ahmed Ben Bella, former president of the Republic of Institute. There, on ThursdayJuly 20th, from ten o'clock Algeria and close friend of the deceased. Also present in the morning to one o'clock in the afternoon, Kurdish were many musllms and Austrians, and numerous personalities coming directly from countries in the friends of this Kurdish-Iraqi scholar who was a terrorist Near-East, representatives of French, Turkish and Ira- victim of the State of Iran. HIs body was buried in his nian political organisations, and European and Orien- native Village of Sounlelmanleh tal intellectuals, all came to pay their last respects. Kurdish merchants in Paris (clothing facotries, restau- rants, shops) closed their doors in a sign of mourning INTERVENTION BY

The funeral procession arrived at La Place de la Repu- BERNARD KOUCHNER blique around two o'clock where a large crowd was SECRETARY OF STATE FOR waiting to accompany it in silence all the way to the HUMANITARIAN ACTION Pere-Lachaise Cemetery. After the funeral-orations, spoken by Bernard Kouchner, French Secretary of State for Humanitarian Action, Thomas HAMMER- Once again, here are the Kurds, assembled to mourn BERG, former Secretary General of Amnesty Interna- their dead. Once again, courageously and in spite of tional, current President of the Swedish Committee for being prohibited to do so , here are Kurdish workers the Kurdish People, Patrick BAUDOIN, Secretary coming from Europe, representatives of Kurdish orga- General forthe International Federation on the Rights n1sations, friends, fellow French travellers ... if these of Man, and Abdoullah HASSANZADH, head of the words stili make sense after having been so misused at PDKI delegation, the bodies were buried not far from times the "Wall of the Federates". We have come together to honor two Kurdish comba- All the Kurdish political organisations of Tul1

When we had the prlvlledge and the luck to meet some Today, In the defense of the Kurdish children, the men who fight for others and for their Ideas, we didn't language, Kurdish poems and village traditions are know they would end up as Chief of State or assassina- there two fewer weapons. Three, fo rwe must not forget ted. that the life of Professor RASSOUL was also destroyed In Vienna. The French Government, which I represent, We know little about the results of the Inquest but we bows to the three .upplch~8and offers Its condolences have taken note of the roaring silences, the excuses and support to their families, to H6lene, his (Ghassem- and the embarrassed denounclatlons. lou's) wife, our friend and to their two daughters.

For those who do not know the Kurds, It Is simply a When I think about you, Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou, matter of an awful attack against two militants. I first of all think of your laugh. You were capable of laughing at everthlng and everyone. Your Immense For those who do not know the Kurds, the loss Is even cultural background, the eye of an historian and an more unbearable. Intellectual on all things; you used to make fine analy- ses which procured a distance which was enlarging to For all Kurds, each and everyone, the deaths of these our vision. two men are an Immense loss, Inthe villages of houses collapsed by bombs, In the cities and In the refugee At the heart of tragedies and confrontations, even when camps. And here, In front of me, I see French doctors, it is a question of fratricidal battles between Kurds, you these ..French Doctors» who can no longer give the knew how to conserve a human approach when spea- _, and take care of the hurt and who find that this king about the tragic destiny of your people placed in a time the injustice is decidedly too great. And I see region of extreme political turbulance. "What geogra- representatives of hu manitarian organisatlons, asso- phical misfortune,» you said. "The Kurds are nottalked ciations thatfight forthe rights of man; all have devoted about enough because we have never taken anybody a part of their lives to the Kurdish population, that they hostage and we have never high-jacked an airplane, might excuse me for not naming them all here. but I'm proud of that,» you added. True, in this region the chOice of alliances was not easy for those who Those who just died were always the first to accept, to defend the Rights of Man. And you had enough indul- demand humanitarian aide foreverbody and in the first gence, Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou, to understand place for their own prisoners. how to stay near those people preoccupied by their living conditions. And that is why you were among the Here we are, once again plunged into barbarism, how first to receive our French volunteer doctors who,once difficult it is to admit that there are political leaders who more will go and take care of civil Kurdish families. We exist for which the daily practice, the principal tool of have often worked at your side in the mountains, ofte power, remains assassination. spoken, and discussed through many a long night; we listened to you To say the three words, ..Rights of Man», we forget too often, we, in our rich and lucky countries, that nothing You were the man of the Third World that I admired the is ever aquired, neither rights nor men. It is an eternal most. Both guerilla and liberal, faithful to a strategy, battle that is In question. There are those battles that holding onto a firm political line and proposing without are popular, are televised, battles that, forthe time are cease. I mean, you wanted to say: Democracy. in fashion. That of the Kurdish people has never been. There is too much to take Into consideration, too much Ohllf only all the leaders of the Third World had been sovereignty from too many states forthis people broken as democratic as you, how many thousands of deaths up by five borders. Ideologists across the globe don't would have been avoided! recognise their disciples and those used to being ventriloquists forthe people don't give forth any sound In your little house: three rooms, of which one is a at all. Thus, we can reduce them to silence so that they library, in the middle of the mountains, you told meyour won't speak their thousand year old language, we can realistic dreams. They were not of a nature to frighten destroy their books, burn their villages, invade their the powerful ones of thiS world and this region. Ghas- lands and towns; we can experiment on their families semlou estimated that not any dream fro the indepen- with atrocious modern bombs, and chemical ones in dence of Kurdistan was possible. With hiS friends, he particular. Those responsible for good and bad, the called for the autonomy of Kurdistan of Iran, and was heros of indignation and the average politician, all lent ready to fight for It. a deaf ear and turned their backs. "Sure, the Kurds are dying. But none of it is very clear. Are they on the left or He wanted to speak with Khomeiny's successors. That the right, these Kurdish children that are being assas- IS why he went to Vienna, despite warnings, to make sinated?» peace In the name of the Kurds. INFORMATION AND liAISON BUILEfIN 6

They were afraid of this message of peace so they killed ges, their traditions. The use of chemical weapons All the messengers. It Is In this manner that some big of this is weighing on the Kurdish people. And what Is children who govern certain lands of the world act. the International public doing? What are the govern- ments doing? Indlffernce, silence I I don't hesitate here Abdul Rahman, men of your caliber are rare as we to express our disgust, our repungence while twenty approach the end of the century. And many of those plus million Kurds live under such conditions, such that ressemble you, combat humanists, have been difficult conditions for so many years. killed as well. ANOUAR EL SADATE, the Egyptian, ISSAM SARTAOUI, the Palestinian, SADEGH But they do It with so much courage. And It Is not to the GHOTBZADEH, the Iranian, BAODIN MAJERHU, the Peshmergas present here that I will speak of courage, Afghan and Jean-Marie TJIBAOU the Iraqlan. Abdul forthey know what that means. For It Is the sense of the Rahman Ghassemlou, I have the Impression of kno- word ccpeshmergas» (don'tfeardeath andgo Infront of wing you everywhere, without a doubt because you it) when it is a question of struggling for their cause, a were a model. just cause. No, there will not be wasted deaths. The struggle will continue, we can be sure. We know the You are not at home in the ground, Abdul Rahman courage of the Kurds and we, who are not necessarily Ghassemlou, at the foot of the Wall of Federates that Kurdish, we are here to support them. We, in any case knows other battles about which you knew and appro- the international organisations with means, will try to ved of. You are far from home. Do you have a home? make it so that the Kurds are spoken of more, so that Eternal exile? Here, with us, your friends, we hope that they are not ignored while atrocious acts being commit- you will feel at home. ccThe struggle is hard,» my friend ted against them and so that international organisa- Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou was telling me days ago, tions, governments might finally put pressure on the especially because in turning around one sees empty authonties concerned in Iran, Iraq, in Turkey .... That seats and thinning ranks. This is the place of compa- this situation might stop and the Kurds might finally nions who have fallen in this struggle. So many of us are have the legitimate rights that they are claiming, that dead, you were telling me. You too, my friend, you are they might aqulre a minimum of autonomy so that they dead. How injust it is. can become something other than a people at war, continually at war, continually oppressed. Stay with us for a while, Abdul Rahman and you too Abdullah; for the time that your country might stop But we know, we know that the courage of the Kurds Will spilling blood and spilling its own; the time that black or help. We know that we must not lose hope. And we white bearded men and women in black extend their know that after Dr. Ghassemlou and the two other hands and stop evoking God at the slightest of massa- Kurdish militants who were so savagely assassinated cres that they perpetrate themselves. there Will rise other men, other militnats to take over. And we, international organisations, all present here today, have come to give family and friends our entire INTERVENTION BY support. And, also to tell them that we hope to draw from thiS moment that IS so painful to us a new energy PATRICK BAUDOUIN for the tnumph of the Kurdish cause, so worthy. SECRETARY GENERAL OF THE INTERNAIONAL FEDERATION FOR THE RIGHTS OF MAN INTERVENTION BY

When words are difficult to find, where discussions AHMED BEN BELLA seem some how in vain; It is moments like this, even for FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC those who have been struggling for years in favour of OF ALGERIA the Rights of Kurds, It must be said, moments that are discouraging. All of Hlwa's family IS In mourning. Our chief editor, How?! Here again are militants of thiS cause, and they Fadel Rasoul has just been cowardly by assinated. are among the greatest who have fallen, cowardly This mourning that has struck his family affects us assassinated. Here is even more proof forthe Kurdish terribly; we, who were his friends and worked With him people! on the Journal ccEIHiwar». Similarly, hiS being lost has reached Innumerable readers of thiS journal who were Fifteen years ago I took my first trip there, to Iraqi able to appreciate the quality of his writing as well as Kurdistan. Atthetimethere was already a war gOing on those who, from close by or from a distance, got close between the others. Barzani was still the historical to him and knew him. And all of those people could do leader then. And since then, what disillusions for the nothing but love him Kurds! What battles! What atrocities have been com- mitted! Villages destroyed, populations massacred, Fadel was the symbol himself of the title of our journal, children who are not allowed to learn their own langua- which before being ours was hiS; before everything INFORMATION AND UAiSON BUUETIN 7 else, he was a man of words over and above his and lasted these three years. He was the one to make Immense culture. a symbol of what he carried inside of himself, his certainties and his hopes. He Is the one who, for three Th Is ma n, who never hesitated f Ightlng wit h weapons In years, inspired the fertile spirit with sythesis so that the hand to defend his Ideals of liberty and dignity, was to journal could develop. the greatest degree, an open, modest, human and profoundly good man. Those flowers which emit a Yes, Fadel is the spiritual father of «EI Hiwar». perfume that never leaves you, that you can never get rid of as soon as you approach it; Fadel gave off that It Is at the moment where we were around him studying smell summa rising all of these qualities. Forthose of us the proper means for making the jou rnal more dynamic who knew him well, that is what we smelt and felt so and for enlarging its distribution, and at the same time strongly when thinking of him. Forever. It Is this that a as our meetings that he was carrying on another activity criminal hand, perpetuating Its forfeit In the shadows, In persulng peace for Iranian kudistan, that the tragedy cowardly dared to strike on this day of forgiving which Intervened occurred. is for us the Aid el Kebir. Fadel was assassinated during this day of celebration. He had left his people for this All this legacy to say how much Fadel has become murderous land where he had seen the day and has sacred to us. We will not stop working to reinforce ccEI become a part of our flesh, to take part in ambitions Hiwar», to spread its distribution, to defend ideals of carrying hopes of peace in favour of his Kurdish bro- peace, dialogue, liberty and dignity which literally lived thers. in Fadel and which will continue in us and in the heart of numerous friends and readers; such a beautiful Fadel's assassination summarises ourtragedy. Men of picture of a man, such a beautiful image. quality have become undesirable at home in the places where our people live. They don't have any other No; men like Fadel don't die. They live in the heart of alternative but to flee to distant horizons orto dlsppear. beings close to them, ennchlng them, staying there for But even so, even in these distant capitals, barbarism ever reaches them, as today is the case for our brother Fadel. .. in that beautiful city of Vienna which had As With men, tyranles are mortal. Often they rush become for him, for his people and for so many others, towards thelrend when, belieVing they are dealing with a haven for peace, peace and important work for the unarmed and innocent Victims, they take on quality elaboration of an IslamiC civilizationing project. Thus, It men like Fadel. The blood of pure men such as Fadel ISessentionally due to him that the Journal «EI Hiwar" doesn't shout vengeance, It creates life ... the life that was able to exist. It was his idea at first. He is the one carnes away tyrants and tyranles and shortens their who made the effort, that the journal came into being Sinister work

PORTRAITS OF THE KURDISH MARTYRS

A.R.GHASSEMLOU nal magnetism - hiS international Influence, his rare if not unique ability to express the traditions and the struggle of a thousand-year-old people in terms of the GHASSEMLOU THE WISE: values of the late 20th century: freedom, democracy, Internationalism. But he was little known to the public, PASSIONATE AMBASSADOR and many Will have learned simultaneously of his OF A DESPARATE CAUSE eXistence and of hiS death. Ghassemlou was not a man of shadows, nor surroun- by Marc KRAVETZ ded by mystery. The Secretary General of the Demo- (translated from Liberation, August 71989) cratic Party of Kurdlstan of Iran, war leader when necessary but political leader above all, he saw himself Abdel Rahman Ghassemlou, murdered In Vienna on as a man of contact and dialogue. He was a passionate July 13th 1989, was in every wayan exceptional man, and tireless ambassador for this cause, who travelled both as leader of one of the oldest and most deeply all over the world to make it better known. But he was rooted national liberation movements and In hiS perso- happiest shanng a mud hut With hiSpeshmergas at the INFORMATION AND UAiSON BUUEI'IN 8 bottom of some remote valley on the Iran-Iraq border, planted bombs In the buses or markets of ..enemy" where he was constantly on the move, taking his library towns, let alone outside the war zone. Though by no with him. means a pacifist, Ghassemlou opposed terrorism on principle, knowing that he paid a price for that and He liked good books and good wine - but could do sometimes remarking, with Justa hint of bitterness, that without the latter more easily than the former. and was It explained why the media showed so little Interest In as much at ease at a Parisian table as In the spartan the Kurdish question. «Any little group can become loneliness of the harsh mountain winter. At nearly sixty, famous by taking hostages or planting bombs,,, he he would have been 59 next December, he combined once wrote, «whereas liberation movements which the serenity of an eastern sage w~h the dynamism of a abstain from terrorism are generally Ignored.» youth, the curiosity of an encyclopaedlst w~h the appe- tite of a bon vivant. As firm In his convictions as he was In November 1979 Ghassemlou condemned, on the pragmatic In action, Ghassemlou seemed to reconcile very first day, the seizure of the diplomats and staff In without strain the toughness required for a polltlcal- the US Embassy In Tehran. For him the liberation of military struggle and the elegant scepticism derived Iran from American control, or of the Third World from from his long academic career. great-power imperialism as the PDKI programme put it, was the objective of a long-term political struggle which He had a doctorate in economics, loved history and entailed freedom and democracy for all. literature and was an expert on Kurdish, Persian and Yet, contrary to the accusations of the Tehran regime, poetry; he also readily quoted Victor Hugo, Washington was not won over to the Kurdish cause. Baudelaire, Walt Whitman or T.S. Eliot. Warm, open, Though American diplomacy had indeed been active approachable, using irony and humour as easily as the during the Kurdish war in Iraq (1961-1975), for geo- six orseven languages he spoke and wrote fluently, he strategic reasons which Dr. Kissinger explains at inspired the same reaction in everyone who met him. length, and quite cynically In his memoirs, it never lifted Sympathizers with his movement, intellectuals, doc- a finger for the Kurds of Iran. Ghassemlou himself was tors, ministers, ambassadors, politicians of left or right. banned from entenng the US until the month of his All, even if recalling only one long-ago conversation, death, when he was forthe first time granted a visa. Just admit that they fell for his charm. Few people In thiS before leaVing for Vienna he was preparing very carful- century could boast such unanimity. Iy for thiS tnp to the US, where he hoped to do a great deal to publiclse the Kurdish problem, though he had no Ghassemlou began his political life as a communist In great IllUSions about the likely political result. the Iranian Tudeh party, in which he rose to a position of leadership. After 15 years in Prague teaching econo- He knew all too well that however great the sympathy mics, he broke with the Communist Party In August felt by a certain educated world opinion for the Kurdish 1968 over the Soviet Intervention in . cause, (not only that of the 5 million Iranian Kurds but Though he abandoned the certainties of MarXist dog- of the 25 million scattered through five countnes) the ma he did not renounce his background. Rather, he cause would never mobilise the diplomacy of the great examined its mistakes as he analysed the political powers, nor even of the European democracies, since situation to understand where and when Justice had they were concerned pnmanly with their own regional slipped into injustice and truth into error, oreven horror, interests. He had learned this dunng hiS frequent tra- and to draw the moral conclusion. He was particularly vels abroad, especially In Europe. For although gene- well placed to know the difficulties of political struggle rally respected, he was rarely welcome in official cir- in a society that was "backward", as he used to say, cles. At best, by playing on old friendships and exploi- because, from being cut offfromthe world and deprived ting his membership of the Socialist International, he of its rights of decision and expression, even of access would now and then secure a little humanitanan aid for to its own culture. But he was not prepared to use his people. Or, by whispenng In a generous ear, would underdevelopment as an ideological justification for all manage to resolve a problem of speCial importance to kinds of excesses, such as the cult of Violence for its him. Jean-Fran~OIs Deniau, a minister In the Giscard own sake, the cult of the leader In an organisation, or government, descnbed with some emotion how Ghas- the dictatorship of an organisation over the people. semlou had at one time laid siege to his office to get the French government to back a new edition of the only Norcould he adopt the idea that it is qUite all nghtto use French-Kurdish dictionary, which had long been out of one language for public relations and the media, and pnnt then forget about it in the field. His great pride, as he was never tired of saying, was that as far as was He was a realist. I remember him telling me once that humanly possible the ideals of the movement were at the end of a century notable for the assertion and reflected in its everyday conduct. The PDKI has never precanous stabllisatlon of different nationalisms it was mistreated prisoners, never used force against ciVI- no good expecting to ..explode the map to allow the lians, never taken hostages, never hijacked aircraft or Kurds to bUild themselves an Independent state on the INFORMATION AND UAISON BULLE71N 9

ruins of three others ... So he demanded autonomy for IIty he assumed as of 1985. Atthe last Congress (1988), Iranian Kurdlstan, not Independenceforthe Kurds. But he continued In his functions. his opponents In Tehran assumed that this was only a hypocritical tactic, crudely disguising a separatism All those who knew him, whatever nationality they wh Ich dared not speak Its name. the first step towards might be, noted his modesty, his listening capacity and a ..Greater Kurdlstan» uniting the Kurds of Iran, Iraq, his great kindness. Turkey, even Syria and the USSR. On this point, -laymen» such as Banl-Sadrwere In full agreement w~h the fundamentalist mullahs. DR. FADEL RASSOUL Ghassemlou's death warrant was signed as early as 1979, when he was elected as the only se~-confessed Rassoul was born In Sulalmanlyeh In 1948, into a secularist In Iran's ..constituent .. assembly. Forsecurl- patriotic family. He finished his secondary studies in ty reasons he refused to go to Tehran. Ayatollah this town. In 1963, at the age of 15, he was Imprisoned Khomelny publlcally regretted his absence In a televi- andtorturedforhls political acltlvltles.ln 1968-1969, he sed speech, adding: "What a shame. We could have was the Secretary of the Student's Union of Iraqi arrested him and had him shot at once." July 13th Kurdlstan. At the same time as he was carrying on his 1989, the day when Muslims celebrated the Id al-Kabir studies in law and political science at the University of or "feast of pardon», was also observed by Shiites as Bagdad, he began to write journalistically. the 40th day of mourning for the Imam. Was that only a coincidence? Or did the murderers, disguised as At the beg Inning of the year 1970 he founded the peace envoys with an ottical mandate from Hashemi- Workers' Association of Iraqi Kurdistan, with the help of Rafsanjani and passports signed by Velayatl, come Chehabi Cheikh Nouri, another martyr of the Kurdish from Tehran deliberately to carry out the sentence on cause, and others. Right until the end of his studies in that ritual day? 1978, he clandestinely carried on his militant political actiVities

In 1978, because of internal struggles among the ABDULLAH Kurdish political parties, he left Iraqi Kurdlstan for GHADERI-AZAR Beirout, which, at the time was an important political thorough fare In the Middle East. For a time he worl

Born into a modest family in 1952 in Naghadeh In In 1980 he left for Vienna, where he finished hiS Kurdistan of Iran, Abdullah GHADEIR grew up the doctorate In political sCience. At the same time he eldest of many brothers and sisters. carned on relationships with Kurdish organlsations, though without belonging to any of them. He also After primary studies in Naghadeh, he went to high developed contact with numerous intellectuals of the school in Ourmiah and graduated with a technical Arab and Iranian world. In 1986 he founded an Arab baccalauriat. Fortwo years he did his military service In language journal, EI Hiwar (Dialogue) forthe exchange the « Legions of Knowledge» as a teacher in the villages of ideas on whatwould become ofthe muslim world. He of the Alamoutdistrict (Ghazvin region). Then he atten- was helped by many intellecuals; notably Ahmed BEN ded the Institut des Beaux-Arts of Tehran. His studies BELLA, former Algerian president and Abol Hassan finished, he became a high school teacher in vanous BANIN SADR, former president of the Islamic Republic establishments in his native town. of Iran. Because of Its high standard and the quality of Its articles, the journal, for which Rassoul was chief Althe time ofthe revolutionary events in 1978, he linked editor, aqulred a large readership among muslim Intel- up with the PDKI where he was very active nght up to lectuals his death; first, under cover, until the ousting of the Shah, then openly in the Naghadeh Committee, assu- Researcher at the University of Vienna, Fadel Rassoul ning numerous responsibilities with an exceptional was also an active co-worker of the Kurdish Institute of talent. Pans. ASide from his articles that appeared in newspa- pers and journals, he published two worl