Press Release

April 13, 2000

Telephone: (202) 483-6444

Kurdish Activist Group Will Join Demonstrators

At Anti IMF & World Bank Headquarters in

Washington, DC

    On April 16, 2000, thousands of activists from around the world will converge at the headquarters of the IMF & World Bank.  The American Kurdish Information Network (AKIN) will join them in solidarity with a banner of its own: "Invest in Tolerance; not Violence.  www.kurdistan.org".

    The Kurdish group will carry pictures of atrocities from Kurdish lands administered by the Turkish, Iranian and Iraqi governments.  The picture from Turkish Kurdistan will show Turkish soldiers posing triumphantly with the decapitated heads of Kurds.  The caption will read: "Turkish troops, American weapons and Kurdish heads.  It is Happening Again.  www.kurdistan.org".  The picture from Iranian Kurdistan will show Iranian pasdarans (soldiers) machine gunning Kurds.  The caption will read: "Kurds in Iran face death by government firing squad.  Sanandaj, August 1979".  The picture from Iraqi Kurdistan will show victims of Saddam Husseinís chemical attack on the Kurds.  The caption will read: "Kurdish father Omar with his infant son and daughter; all frozen in death!  Halapja, March 16, 1988".

    Please join us, the Kurdish contingency, first at Farragut Square at 7:00 a.m. as we march to the headquarters of the IMF & World Bank, and at 11:00 a.m. at the Ellipse behind the White House where we will have an information table.

    Take this opportunity to raise your voice with thousands of others in support of justice in the world and liberation of Kurdistan in the Middle East.  Those who love of money and are impervious to its concomitant ills need to hear your voice for a world of justice, tolerance, and peace.