1. PLO Husseini Questioned on Arabization of Kirkuk
Kurdish Media - Apr 3, 2000

MONTREAL, Canada (Kurdish Media) Apr 3, 2000 - Faisal Husseini, a
high-ranking member of Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) who have
been the Palestinian spokesperson in the past was questioned in his public
lecture in Montreal on Arabization of Kirkuk.

On 31 March 2000, Faisal Husseini, head of the Jerusalem National
Council/Palestine and head of the Palestinian delegation to Middle East
Peace Conference gave a lecture on "The Judaisation of Jerusalem and the
future of Peace in the Middle East". More than 600 people attended his talk
which took place in Concordia university, Montreal.

In his talk, he gave a history of Palestinian struggle and the policy of
isolation, deportation and replacement of Palestinians (ironically a mirror
of Iraq Arabization policy). His lecture was an attempt to win the
international public opinion for the struggle of Palestinians. After his
lecture, he replied to questions from the audience. The last question on the
floor came from a Kurd about the Iraqi Arabization of Kurdish areas by
Palestinian refugees.

"Iraqi regime uses Palestinian refugees in its Arabization of Kurdish
cities. 30,000 Palestinians have been settled in Kirkuk replacing Kurds who
have been deported by the Iraqi regime. Why should Palestinians who have
suffered deportation, be part of a policy of Aabisation of Kurdish land? Why
should Palestinians and Arabs do this to Kurds whose Salaheddin Ayubbi
liberated Jerusalem?" Hussieni was asked.

In his reply Husseini pointed out that "we are the victims of victims [i.e.
Jews]" and we do not want to make others [Kurds] victim. He pointed out that
Palestinians do not accept this but he failed to come up with a solution to
end this Iraqi policy and condemn it.

Hussiei himself was born in Baghdad in 1940 and studied in Cairo, Baghdad
and Damascus.

A representative of Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP) present in the
meeting contacted the Kurdish protestor in the meeting and condemned the
Iraqi policy. In IAP February letter (a copy distributed by Kurdish Media on
2 Apr 2000) after condemning the Iraqi policy, they quote Mr Faraqe,
president of "The Iraqi Activists", a Washington based organization claiming
that the US politicians are behind the Arabisation of Kirkuk (See Rebwar
Fatah's interview on www.kurdishmedia.com/interviews).

According to the Farage report, "In the summer of last year, U.S.
congressional staffers representing Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL), Rep. Sam
Gejdenson (D-CT), Rep. Earl Hilliar (D-AL), Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA),
and Rep. Bernard Sanders (I-VT) visited Baghdad and met with the son of
president Saddam Hussien. Among the issues discussed in that meeting was the
possibility of settling one million Palestinians in Iraq as one of the
conditions to lift the sanctions."

The Kurdish parties and organizations in Washington should also ask the US
state department and US Democrat party to make their position clear on the
accusations that the mastermind behind Arabization of Kurdish areas are US
politicians from Democrat party.

The Palestinians should also be aware of the extent of damage to the support
for their struggle in the world and that in any future public meeting of
them in diaspora the Kurds will raise the fate of Kurdish refugees who are
being replaced by Palestinians in Iraq.