An Appeal
to the American People to Help Free Leyla Zana

"When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people 
to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, 
and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal 
station ...." -- Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826)
SUPPORT PEACE IN KURDISTAN AND HELP FREE LEYLA ZANA!
	We are Kurds and Americans who believe in nonviolence.
	We are fasting for peace and for the freedom of Leyla Zana.
	Some of us hail from a region in the Middle East known as 
Kurdistan, which spans parts of present day Iran, Iraq, Syria and 
Turkey.  We constitute the largest ethnic group in the world without a 
state of our own.  Some 30 million of us live on our own land and cannot 
call it our home.  As Kurds, we are denied the most basic human rights 
and have become the victims of war against our will.
	In Iran, government firing squads often machine gun the Kurds.  
	In Iraq, Saddam Hussein has gassed Kurdish civilians.
	In Turkey, an ugly and undeclared war has devastated the Kurdish 
lands.  Human Rights Foundation of Turkey reports the death of 17 people 
on an average day.  To date, over 3,000 Kurdish villages have been 
destroyed.  Some 30,000 people have lost their lives.  More than 3 
million Kurds have become internally displaced or refugees.
	Imagine having your home and possessions put to the flames.
	Turkey's Kurds also face torture, "disappearance" and the bullets 
of assassins. Last year, Amnesty International declared a worldwide 
campaign to alert the world to the abuse of the Kurdish people by the 
Turkish government.
	The U. S. government is the principal patron of Turkey's military-
dominated government, providing it with several hundred millions of 
dollars a year in low interest loans to buy new American weaponry.  In 
addition, the U.S. provides Turkey with surplus American arms for free, 
and gives the Ankara government some $ 50 million annually in economic 
support grants.
	By this fact alone the U.S. government shares responsibility for 
the crimes committed by the Turkish government. 
	With our vigil, we seek to move the Members of Congress and the 
President of the United States to use their good offices for the cause 
of peace and human rights.  We want the debate on the Kurdish question 
changed from war to peace, from violence to nonviolence, and from 
confrontation to dialogue.
	Specifically, we call on the U.S. government to seek the release 
from Turkish prison of Leyla Zana, a Kurdish woman and mother elected to 
the Turkish parliament in 1991 who was sentenced in 1994 to 15 years in 
jail for her peaceful advocacy of Kurdish rights.
	Leyla Zana was invited by the U.S. Congress to give testimony on 
the treatment of Kurds in Turkey. The Turkish government branded her 
speech as treasonous, and used it to convict her.  She now shares a 
prison cell with a convicted murderer.
	In addition to Leyla Zana, there are three other Kurdish 
parliamentarians, Hatip Dicle, Orhan Dogan and Selim Sadak who are also 
serving 15-year sentences for the same charges of advocating Kurdish 
rights.
	Mahatma Gandhi opposed violence, saying "The good it does is 
temporary; the damage it does is permanent."  We agree.  We call on the 
White House and Congress to use their substantial influence with the 
Turkish government to stop violence against the Kurds now!