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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