From: trh@jack.sns.com (Al Trh)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish
Subject: News 20dec
Date: 21 Dec 1992 02:41:17 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
Reply-To: Turkish Cultural Program List <TRKNWS-L%USCVM.BitNet@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU>
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

12/20 U.S., French Embassies Bombed

   ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Bombs went off at the U.S. and
French embassies here Sunday night without causing any
injuries or significant damage, the U.S. Embassy said.
   The embassy statement said "an improvised explosive
device" exploded on the grounds of the U.S. Embassy and a
timed explosive device went off seconds later near the
French mission.
   There were no claims of responsibility, the statement
noted.
   A U.S. official told police the bomb had been thrown at
the U.S. embassy from a passing car, the semi-official
Anatolia news agency reported.

12/20 Iraqi Kurds Miss U.N. Food Aid

   ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Representatives of Iraqi Kurds
expressed concern Sunday over the suspension of U.N. food
convoys to northern Iraq as a result of truck bombings that
many people have blamed on Iraqi authorities.
   The Kurdish officials urged the United Nations to send
peacekeepers to guard the convoys and to order a complete
withdrawal of Iraqi troops from the Kurdish region.
   The U.N. World Food Program announced a temporary halt to
the winter relief program Friday after bombs wrecked more
Turkish trucks carrying aid.
   A spokesman for the program, Francis Mwanza, said in Rome
that 71 trucks were being held in Dahuk, northern Iraq,
while U.N. Headquaters considered the agency's request for
more security.
   Turkey's Foreign Ministry summoned Iraqi Ambassador Rafi
Daham al-Tikriti on Friday to complain about the bombings.
But Foreign Minister Hikmet Cetin on Sunday ruled out any
punitive attacks by a Turkey-based Western air force without
explicit authorization by the U.N. Security Council.
   Tikriti portrayed the recent bombings of relief trucks as
a "Western provocation" intended to drum up support for
extending the mandate for Western warplanes in Turkey. The
planes patrol northern Iraq above the 36th parallel to guard
against Iraqi military attacks on Kurds.
   Western troops intervened to carve out the safe zone for
Kurds after the Iraqi army crushed a Kurdish rebellion
following the Gulf War. Iraq's 3.5 million Kurds have since
established a form of autonomy in northern Iraq.
   "We are very much disappointed with the suspension of
aid. Saddam Hussein won another point in his favor," said
Safeen Dizayee, the Ankara representative of the Kurdistan
Democratic Party.
   He said U.N. troops could be sent to protect the relief
supplies.
   "Another alternative will be securing the withdrawal of
some 1,000 Iraqi troops at Sheikhan, Angush and Faida, which
are causing havoc and endangering lives, including those of
the Turkish drivers," he said.
   Dizayee said the asphalt-coated road passing through
Faida was the only link between the Kurdish province of
Dahuk and other Kurdish provinces in the south and the east.
   U.N. officials have reported three bombings of aid
trucks. The latest occurred Wednesday, when eight trucks
were blown up and timebombs were defused on nine others.
   Kurdish leaders have accused Iraqi soldiers of planting
the bombs when the trucks' drivers are questioned at customs
posts.
   Under an Oct. 22 accord between Iraq and the United
Nations, relief supplies are monitored by Iraqi officials.
   The 80-plane Western force that patrols northern Iraq
includes 48 American, British and French warplanes.
   Cetin, Turkey's foreign minister, told The Associated
Press on Sunday that the use of the Western force for
punitive action was out of question.
   "We have to have an explicit call by the U.N. Security
Council for that," he said.

12/20 IRAQ PROPOSES JOINT INSPECTION OF AID TRUCKS

    BAGHDAD, Dec 20, Reuter - Iraq said on Sunday it had
proposed to the United Nations a joint inspection of aid
trucks after a series of bombings in northern Iraq.
    The U.N. suspended aid operations for Kurds in the north
on Saturday, saying it wanted better security guarantees
from the Baghdad government after three attacks on trucks in
18 days.
    A foreign ministry statement said the proposals for
joint Iraqi and U.N. inspections of trucks entering and
leaving government controlled areas would "reduced the noise
disseminated about the bombing of trucks."
    U.N. officials in Baghdad said 10 trucks exploded on
Wednesday while in areas under Kurdish rebel control while
returning from government-controlled areas and explosive
devices were found on another nine.
    Britain, the United States and Turkey have all said the
Baghdad authorities, who oppose the autonomous state the
Iraqi Kurds set up in the north, are behind the explosions.
    The United Nations sent a note to the Iraqi government
on Thursday expressing concern at the latest bombings and
asking for a full investigation as soon as possible.
    Kurds in northern Iraq are under the protection of
allied planes based in Turkey. The Turkish parliament is due
to vote soon on renewing the force's mandate.
    "This incident has been exploited to make the U.S. and
Western intervention continue and to encourage U.S. and
Western forces to remain in Turkey," the foreign ministry
said.
    The ministry denied U.S. television reports of an Iraqi
troop build-up in the north to prepare for an offensive
against the Kurds, saying such allegations surfaced every
time the date for renewing the allied mandate in Turkey
approached.
    "Everyone knows that public opinion in Turkey is against
this presence. Several Turkish personalities have said this
presence is endangering the security of Iraq and Turkey,"
the statement said.
    The ministry also said the northern governorate of
Sulaimaniya, Dohuk and Irbil were being supplied with food
and fuel as normal, denying Kurdish and Western claims that
the areas are under blockade by Baghdad.
    The U.N. deliveries, which include food, kerosene and
seeds, for winter sowing are of great importance to the
Kurds as winter begins to bite in the north. U.N. officials
have said that without relief many might flee to
neighbouring countries.