Kurds threaten 1-for-1 executions

          
          Kurds threaten 1-for-i executions
          The Sun (183 7-1985); Aug 23, 1979; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Baltimore Sun, The (1837-1986)
          pg.A4
          Kurds threaten I -for- I executions
          From Wire Sersen
          Tebran, fran—The leaders of Inn's Kurdish
          rebellion yesterday threatened to execute an Is-
          larnic utionary guard prisoner for every
          rebel ot by firing squads.
          - A unique issued by the secretariat of
          the Central Committee of the banned Kurdish
          Democratic party (KDP) followed an an-
          nouncement by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
          yesterday that be had offered the Kurt the
          equivalent of $75 million while warning their
          rebel leaders they would be harshly punished if
          they did not accept his Islamic republic.
          The Kurt' statement saidi
          “Up until now the KDP has released 311 rev-
          olutionary guards who were arrested and for-
          eign correspondents, governors and the heads of
          town revolutionary councils have observed this.
          Wehave been kind.
          “Now we have arrested many guards and if
          the executions [ of Kurtj continue the XI)
          execute one revolutionary guard for each
          executed?
          So far, 29 Kurdish rebels are officially ac-
          knowledged to have been gcuted following
          the fighting in the west of t' '
          A spokesman for the ayatollah, Iran's moffi-
          cial head of gate, said that no communique had
          been received from the KIM ' and therefore no
          comment could be made.
          in an eight-point statement broadcast by tne
          state radio, Ayatollah Khomeini, the 79-year-
          old religious leader, said he had ordered the
          chairman of the National Iranian Oil Company
          (N bC), Hassan Nazih, to put a day's oil reve-
          nue at the disposal of the western province of
          Kurdistan within the next week.
          At normal export levels, this would be worth
          $75 million.
          Meanwhile, heavy fighting was reported in
          Kurdistan, where rebels, battling for political
          autonomy, accused Ayatollah Khomeini's Is-
          lamic regime of trying to “annthllate thea
          ish masses.”
          The state radio reported 86 pessousdead, in-
          eluding 11 government troops, in the last two
          days of a renewed Kurdish revolt in th
          tainous Kurdistan province in northwest
          Rebel leaders equated the policies of the
          revolutionary government with those of ousted
          Shah Mohainmad Ken Pahlavi.
          “The only difference tin the two govern-
          mentsj is that during the Pahlavi regime, they
          did not kill innocent people so ruthlessly,” said
          Karim Hesami, an official of the Kurdish Dem-
          ocratic party.
          “The religious leaden should understand
          that they cannot silence the masses with their
          forces,” Mr. Hesarni said in a statement read
          over the telephone from Mahabad, which Kurt
          declared their capital in a rebellion against the
          shahin 1946.
          The shah suppressed the uprisin& jailed its
          leaders, and maintained subsequent control of
          Kurdistan with a strong military presence.
          Ayatollah Khomeini, whose forces over-
          threw the shah's regime in February, outlawed
          the Kurdish political party Sunday when he mo-
          bilSd the Army against the rebeflion, and de-
          dared its leaders responsible for the fighting in
          which about 1,000 have died sInce March.
          The Kurdish rebels are seeking some meas-
          ure of autonomy for their four-million member
          Iranian community, located primarily in the
          northwestern part of the country.
          Mr. Hasemi said the rebels would retaliate
          against Ayatollah Khomeini's revolutionary
          guards for the execution of 11 Kurt Saturday
          and l8Tuesday .,,,,,,, ,
          “For every W executed, we will punish
          one revolutiooarf uard captured by our
          forces,” he said, but did not specify bow they
          would be punished.
          He also said the Kurdish party would ask
          Ayatollah Khomeini to recali Ayatollah Sadegh
          Khalkali, head of the Islamic court in Paveh,
          for “committing atrocious ac m against the
          Kurdish people.”
          The heaviest fighting yesterday took place
          near the provincial capital of Sanandaj, where
          60 Kurt and 10 revolutionary guards were
          killed. -
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