International Action Center 39 West 14th St., #206 New York, NY 10011 (212) 633-6646 fax: (212) 633-2889 http://www.iacenter.org email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For Immediate Release Contact: Deirdre Sinnott/Sarah Sloan Attention: Assignment Editor (212) 633-6646 February 18, 1999 Protest the arrest of Abdullah Ocalan The International Action Center (IAC), a U.S.-based anti-war, anti-racist organization founded in 1992, issued a statement today condemning the kidnapping of Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Kurdish freedom struggle, by the U.S.-backed NATO regime in Turkey. "It is highly unlikely that the Turkish secret police could have carried out this flagrantly illegal act of international kidnapping without the backing and cooperation of the CIA and the Pentagon and the Israeli Mossad which functions as a proxy for U.S. interests," said Brian Becker, co-director of the IAC. The U.S. military has long provided satellite information to help the NATO Turkish military carry out brutal massacres of Kurdish people in Turkey and northern Iraq. We must also remember that U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright called for Abdullah Ocalan to be handed over to the bloody-handed regime in Ankara, falsely characterizing him as a terrorist. Becker continued, "This is a hypocritical lie. Abdullah Ocalan and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) are being persecuted because they lead a just struggle for self-determination and freedom from brutal discrimination and oppression. They are fighting a regime that has denied them the most elementary rights, including the right to speak their own language. "Washington's goal is to secure the control of the oil wealth of the Middle East for U.S. oil monopolies. The U.S. government shares responsibility for the slaughter of at least 15,000 Kurdish civilians murdered by the Turkey's NATO military. And it must also be held responsible for the like of Abdullah Ocalan. "We call for the immediate freedom of Abdullah Ocalan and for the right of self-determination for the Kurdish people. We call on the Turkish government to open negotiations with the Kurdistan Workers Party and for the United States military and CIA to stop their assistance to the Ankara regime's genocidal war against the Kurdish people." Becker also compared the Turkish regime's discrimination against the Kurdish people to the racist oppression of African American people in the United States and the killings of Kurdish civilians by the Turkish NATO military to the arbitrary shootings of Black youth by racist police in the United States. Noting that the IAC is among the initiators of the April 24 Philadelphia rally to free U.S. Black activist Mumia Abu-Jamal, Becker compared the false accusations of "terrorism" against Kurdish leader Ocalan to the false murder charges fabricated against Mumia by the Philadelphia police department. The IAC, which was founded in 1992 by former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, grew out of the movement opposing the U.S. war against Iraq. It has led campaigns to end the U.S. bombing of Iraq and to end U.S.-imposed economic sanctions against the people of Iraq and Cuba. -30- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
