THIS MONTH, a Turkish court will probably condemn to death Kurdistan Workers Part (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan, hunted down and kidnapped last autumn with the aid of international security forces.
The PKK has been waging a 15 year struggle against the Turkish state's savage repression and refusal of nationhood to its 14,000. strong Kurdish population.
40,000 people have been killed, 3,000 Kurdish villages burnt and 3.5 million refugees driven from their homes. Organisations and parties supporting Kurdish interests have been continually banned and intimidated, and activists harassed, arrested, "disappeared" and murdered by state-sponsored death squads.
The trial of Ocalan, begun last • month, seeks to show that organising for freedom from such oppression constitutes treason against the state, and is punishable by death. The aim is to destabilise, discredit and demoralise resistance movements by executing their leaderships. However, the kidnapping provoked massive and world-wide protests, and Öcalan himself remains a symbol of continued Facing death sentence: Ocalan struggle. The trial itself has been widely condemned as unfair due to intimidation of defence lawyers, the presence of the military and a vicious "trial by media" vilifying both the PKK and the Kurds generally.
In his defence, Öcalan has repeated previous PKK offers of a cease-fire and readiness for a negotiated peace involving international mediation. Turkey, however, continues to reject such proposals because neither it nor the "international community" have any interest in a political settlement to the Kurdish issue. Why is this? The US and its allies (who call the tune here) are well aware of NATO member Turkey's repres sion of the Kurds. They know, for instance, that it is far more extensive, longer lasting and bloody than even that of the Serbian forces in Kosova, which they used to justify their interventionist war against Serbia. And they know that they (especially Britain) play a shameful part in this repression by arming the Turkish military to the teeth.
However, Turkey has always been too important a strategic ally to upset, and especially right now. In the words of US ambassador Mark Parris last month, it is "... a country that can make, and is making daily, a unique contribution to the peace, stability and prosperity of a region extending from Europe to central Asia and the Middle East."
The prosperity referred to here, of course, is principally the huge profits for multinationals from the Caspian Sea oilfields newly opening up after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and requiring pipelines through Turkey and the surrounding region. The peace and stability is Turkey's guarantee to contain any unwelcome conflicts that might interfere with the extraction and exploitation of these and other resources. This means keeping the lid on any Kurdish aspirations to nation or statehood within Turkey itself.
It also means denying the rights of more than 20 million Kurds elsewhere in the region (especially in Iraq, Iran, Syria and the former Soviet Union). Struggles by Kurds in these different states could begin ton pose the question of a united Kurdistan - anathema both to Western powers and the states in the region.
Until now, the PKK had hoped the US and European powers would press Turkey to negotiate with them for an end to the oppression and for some form of self-determination.
Their main strategy recently was to increase diplomatic pressure towards this end. But it is clear, especially from the collusion in Öcalan's arrest, that any Western "solution" to conflict in the region falls far short of such demands.
Instead, a cosmetic clean-up of Turkey's abysmal human rights record, some involvement in the cash-starved Kurdish south east of Turkey, and some regional concessions on cultural autonomy are being considered sufficient to stay criticism of treatment of the Kurds and allow Turkey to remain a respectable and highly useful ally. Most importantly, these limited palliatives do not require direct peace talks with Kurdish resistance movements, which can be marginalised.
An independent voice for the Kurds is also being stifled by attempts by British and European governments to silence the Kurdish media in the diaspora. MedTV was recently shut down by the ITV Commission in Britain and the 'Ozgur Politika' newspaper threatened with banning in Germany.
Maximum support and solidarity is now more vital than ever to the Kurds' long and hard fought struggle against oppression and for self-determination. The immediate aim is to stop Ocalan's execution by demanding an end to the present unjust and politically motivated show trial, and for his immediate release, together with the many other political prisoners in Turkish jails, both Kurds and Turks.
We can further build on the support that has united campaigners around the Öcalan case to demand the right of Kurds to decide their own future through their own organisations and leaderships. Only a political solution which recognises this can secure freedom and an end to the repression and conflict in Turkey and in the surrounding region.
Contact: Freedom for Ocalan c/o ICAD PO Box 8446, London NI7 6NZ Preliminary results of a Commission for Gender Equality Report show that less than one in four jobs in the private sector are held by women. Black empowerment companies have done very little to improve the lot of women in the work place.
The study showed firmly entrenched racist and cultural stereotypes, 'such as "black women cannot be depended upon as they are always having babies', and "men are the heads of households and therefore should be in higher positions."
There are other challenges for the Mbeki-led administration including, among other things, the problem of rural poverty. In the small towns and hinterland of the Western Cape, and in other parts of the country, little seem to have changed, especially for farm workers.
South African wines in British super-markets are competitively priced. The unseen element is that wages range between R35 (£ 3.60) and 1160 (£6.25) per week.
There is great frustration about housing and unemployment. White farmers carry on as if nothing has changed. They not really implement the labour laws. There are still some who think they can hit and intimidate people. The ANC have received this overwhelming vote. Now the people expect them to fulfil their promises. They do not want to wait another four years for jobs, decent housing, piped water and electricity. They want an end to economic apartheid. If the ANC's pro-capitalist policies continue to leave the majority of the majority no better off, the space for a political alternative may begin to open up again.