|
|
Q&A: "U.S. Funding Armed Groups to Overthrow Iranian Govt"
Interview with Reese Erlich
BERKELEY, United States, Mar 16 (IPS) - Author of the upcoming book "The
Iran Agenda: the Real Story of U.S. Policy and the Middle East Crisis",
due for release in September from Polipoint Press, Reese Erlich recently
spent three weeks investigating Kurdish resistance organisations in Iran
and Iraq's Kurdish region. He tells IPS that "the United States is
officially funding armed groups to overthrow the Islamic government" in
Tehran.
In an interview with IPS's Omid Memarian, Erlich, who has covered the
Middle East as a freelance journalist for the past 20 years and co-wrote
2003's "Target Iraq", says that Washington's strategy is primarily focused
on media propaganda - such as websites and satellite television and radio
stations - but also includes covert military training.
The Iranian government has itself accused opposition groups of
destabilising the border region, and recently warned Kurdish Iraqi
officials to expel armed bandits and anti-Iranian groups from their
province, or face military incursions.
IPS: What do the Kurdish opposition groups look like? What constitutes the
daily life of these small groups who are fighting an established
government?
Reese Erlich (RE): The Kurdish compounds are like small villages. They
have barracks for the single men peshmurga. Political cadres live with
their families in small homes, much like Iraqi Kurds in that area. They
have meeting halls and offices. PJAK's [Partiya Jiyana Azad a Kurdistanê,
or Party of Free Life of Kurdistan] conditions are much more like
guerrillas, living in the cold mountains with more rudimentary huts.
I described one PJAK leader as the "very model of a modern guerrilla
general." He has a cell phone, internet access and satellite TV. The women
guerrillas claim they only watch news programmes, but I got them to admit
they also like movies with Brad Pitt and Mel Gibson.
IPS: Is the U.S. support limited to media or does it include other
activities, such as military operations?
RE: Secretly, U.S. intelligence services are also sponsoring armed attacks
within Iran. I discovered the U.S. and Israeli support for PJAK in
Kurdistan and from so-called former MEK members. The U.S. asks a
Mujahedin-e Khalq Organisation (MEK or MKO) member if they have left and
if they support democracy. If they answer yes, they can be trained and
armed for clandestine actions inside Iran.
I believe that Kurds and other minorities within Iran have legitimate
grievances. They are not allowed to learn in their local languages and
face other forms of discrimination. But the U.S. finds the most extremist
of minority groups and encourages them to engage in violence. The PJAK is
affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and has become a
nationalist cult built around the personality of Abdullah Ocalan. MEK is
really a cult, run by very secretive and authoritarian leaders. Both these
groups consider themselves social democrats, but ironically, they receive
the most support from extreme right wingers in the U.S.
IPS: How do they get support from [sympathisers in] Iran when the Iranian
government has extensively shut down their operations in the west of Iran?
RE: I met with three Iranian Kurdish opposition groups with camps in
northern Iraq. KDPI [the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran] and Komala
say they recruit new members from Iran and both have peshmurga militias.
But neither currently engages in armed activity inside Iran. It's hard to
know what actual support they have inside Iran, but they historically
certainly had supporters in the Kurdish regions. PJAK is much smaller and
more isolated. But they have picked up some support from young people
angry at the oppression they face inside Iran.
>From my sources among Kurds, all three groups carry out clandestine
meetings with supporters inside Iran. When big demonstrations broke out
inside Kurdistan in 2006, all three groups participated in the
demonstrations. PJAK took a more militant line, calling for armed
struggle, and that appealed to some youth.
IPS: What can they achieve while there are many dynamics to reform the
Iranian political system?
RE: All three groups agree on certain things. They say they support a
revolution in Iran with the ultimate aim of establishing a democratic,
federal system. They want the central government to control major issues
such as foreign affairs, the military and economy. But local regions
should control education, health, police and similar local issues. They do
not call for separatism. The danger, of course, is that if Iraqi Kurdistan
becomes independent and the Iranian government continues its current
policies, the mood could shift in support of separatism.
It's very hard to judge how much support these groups have in Tehran. I
met with some intellectuals, NGO leaders and others who - I suspected -
supported one or another group. But since the groups are illegal, they
can't be very specific. I think the support for much greater local control
or federalism is strong among the Kurds I met.
IPS: Does the Iranian opposition, which is supported by U.S. money,
support any kind attack against Iran?
RE: KDPI strongly opposes any U.S. military attacks against Iran, arguing
it will just alienate Iranians, including those who oppose the government.
PJAK welcomes such attacks in hopes they will topple the government.
Komala says it neither supports nor opposes such attacks. U.S. attacks
might help topple the regime, they argue, but they don't advocate it.
U.S. military officials I spoke with deny any U.S. support of PJAK. The
official position of the Bush administration is to support Iranians to
bring about a new government, but they don't officially call for "regime
change." In reality, the U.S. is doing everything in its power to
overthrow the Iranian government and install one friendly to the U.S.
IPS: Is there any direct connection between the Kurdish opposition groups
and U.S. officials? Do they meet on regular basis?
RE: In 2006, top Komala and KDPI leaders visited the U.S. to meet with
middle level State Department and intelligence officials. It was an
official meeting covered in the press at the time. They wouldn't tell me
the content of the meetings except that the meetings were very friendly.
Hejri visited Washington in 2006 to meet with State Department and other
U.S. government officials. Hejri and other KDPI leaders deny accepting
U.S. financing, although he said KDPI would accept such aid if offered.
Morteza Esfandiari, the KDPI representative in the U.S., told me that KDPI
had applied to get some of the 85 million dollars allocated to "promote
democracy" in Iran in order to improve its satellite TV station.
The KDPI opposes U.S. or Israeli military attacks on Iran's nuclear power
facilities as counterproductive.
I think it will very hard for Iran to crush the Kurdish opposition. Kurds
are a very independent people who have never liked repression from the
central government. In addition, the Kurdish guerrillas can retreat into
Iraq, and return to fight another day.
IPS: The Iranian government has a very friendly relationship with Iraq's
president, who is a Kurd himself and has strong ties with Iranian
officials. Why does the Iraqi government allow the Kurdish opposition
groups to operate in Iraq?
RE: The KRG (Kurdish Regional Government) allows Komala and KDPI to
maintain compounds in Iraq and train peshmurga, so long as they don't
carry out armed actions inside Iran. I think KDPI and Komala agree to
those terms. PJAK does carry out armed actions. KRG officials claim they
can't stop PJAK because of the rugged mountain terrain. In reality, they
just look the other way, since PJAK has U.S. and Israeli backing.
Kurdish nationalism is very strong. The KRG, which has good relations with
Iran, can't ignore the plight of Kurds living in Iran. So they compromise
by not allowing the two major groups to engage in guerrilla activity. But
it's a situation that can't last forever. Last year, on two occasions,
Iran shelled Iraqi Kurdish villages, killing five people as a warning to
the KRG.
In the past, Iran has asked the KRG to shut down opposition groups
operating in Kurdistan. They even made a deal with one of the Iraqi
Krudish groups to attack KDPI's camp. But KDPI was warned in advance and
no one was hurt. Right now the KRG relies on the U.S., and the U.S. wants
Iran attacked. So I don't think Iran's entreaties will go anywhere. If the
general political situation changes, however, who knows?
*Omid Memarian is an Iranian journalist and civil society activist. He has
won several awards, including Human Rights Watch's highest honour in 2005,
the Human Rights Defender Award. His blog can be found at http://omidmemarian.blogspot.com/.
(END/2007)
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
What is RSS?
