PRESS RELEASE

April 16, 1996

202.483.6444

TURKISH GOVERNMENT CONVINCES U.S. TO ARREST KURDISH ACTIVIST IN D.C.

In a bold move, trying to discredit the peaceful efforts of the American Kurdish Information Network (AKIN), the government of Turkey persuaded the U.S. State Department to seek the arrest of Kani Xulam, that group's respected spokesman in Washington, D.C.

Xulam has been advising members of Congress and the Administration of the atrocities perpetrated by Turkish armed forces in their destruction ofover 3,000 Kurdish villages, the murder of tens of thousands of civilians, and the forced relocation of millions. Turkey relies on U.S. military aidto enforce its denial of fundamental human rights to some 20 million Kurds.

Xulam comes from Turkish occupied Kurdistan, where he - as all other Kurds - was forbidden to use his native Kurdish language. Now, on the pretext of "passport fraud", the State Department initiated legal proceedings which resulted in Xulam's arrest last week and his appearance on Monday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

In an affidavit to the court, the State Department claimed that it had been informed by the government of Turkey that Xulam "may be a member" of a terrorist organization. Based on that allegation by a foreign power that seeks to silence Xulam, the federal magistrate detained him. Apparently, the government is afraid Xulam may flee the country and they want him held so that he can be deported.

Some twenty local human rights activists appeared to speak for Xulam's character and long time commitment to seek peaceful solutions to the present conflict between the Turkish armed forces and the Kurdish people. Among them were Kathryn Cameron Porter, President of Human Rights Alliance and wife of Rep. John Porter (R, IL.), Maryam Elahi of Amnesty International, and Sister Patricia Krommer of the Human Rights Foundation.

Although the AKIN offices in Washington, D.C. were searched and its papers rummaged, it is still operating and will continue to campaign for the rights of Kurds everywhere.

Ralph D. Fertig, Secretary of the Board of Directors of AKIN and a former federal administrative judge for the E.E.O.C. in Los Angeles, commented: "It is clear that these proceedings against Xulam are testimony to his effectiveness in alerting American public officials to the use of U.S. tax dollars to support and equip the Turkish government in its violation of basic human rights of the Kurds. Xulam is a dedicated pacifist, and his efforts have been used in the best American tradition of peacefully petitioning the U.S. government. Neither he nor his cause shall be silenced."