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Iraqi Kurdistan-based Kurdish PJAK
guerrillas do battle with Tehran 1.9.2010
By Guillaume Perrier |
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Iran's Kurdish insurgency brings troop mobilisation
along borders with Iraq and Turkey
September 1, 2010
QANDIL,— After driving for two hours along
the rocky road that winds up into Mount Qandil in
Kurdistan region in Iraq's north, our vehicle
stopped. Five Kurds in combat gear with rifles
emerged from a stone house.
Among them was Sherzad Kemanger, 35, an Iranian
Kurd, the military leader of the Free Life party of
Iranian Kurdistan, PJAK. It is considered to be the
Iranian branch of the Kurdistan Worker's party, PKK.
Since 2004, PJAK has been fighting the Iranian
regime in the country's western provinces.
Iran's Guardians of the Islamic Revolution have been
mobilised along the borders with Iraq and Turkey
since 2008. |
Recruits of Iranian PJAK, the Party for a Free Life
in Kurdistan, near a training camp in the Qandil
mountain range. Photograph: Yahya Ahmed/AP |
The political leaders of
the Iranian Kurdish movements are entrenched in
Mount Qandil on the Iraqi side, in a zone controlled
by the PKK. "Our party is first and foremost a
political party, fighting for our freedom in Iran,"
said the rebel army chief. PJAK claims to have
thousands of partisan fighters.
Originally from the town of Kermanshah in western
Iran, Sherzad Kemanger joined the resistance
movement ten years ago after a period in prison.
"Many of our comrades are in Evin prison in Tehran,"
he said.
In May, four activists were sentenced to death by
hanging in Tehran's Evin prison for belonging to
PJAK. Their lawyers claimed the trial was held
without a jury or witnesses. According to the
official version, they had been caught with 5kg of
explosives in 2006, and were responsible for attacks
on government buildings.
A general strike was called in the Kurdish provinces
in protest against the executions, and demonstrators
stormed the Iranian embassy in Oslo.
After the massive protest movements that followed
the Iranian election in June 2009, pressure on the
Iranian Kurds was increased. "The crisis continues,www.ekurd.netboth
inside and outside the country," stressed the
guerrilla leader. "Iran is a threat to the security
of the entire region. We support international
sanctions, but they have been in place for years and
Iran is still making nuclear weapons."
The guerrillas are very mobile on the hilly terrain
that is so favourable to ambushes, and they claim to
have inflicted heavy losses on the Iranian army.
Last month fighting broke out in the region of
Mariwan, which, according to Tehran, led to the
death of "11 terrorists".
Iran regularly bombs the Qandil hideout. In June and
July, several villages inhabited by farmers and
smugglers were pounded by artillery. Hundreds of
people sought refuge in the Qandil valley, where
they still live in tents supplied by the UN.
In their raids against the PJAK, the Iranians have
crossed the Iraqi border several times in the Hajji
Omran region, provoking tensions with both Baghdad
and Irbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.
This article was originally published in
Le Monde
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
guardian co.uk
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