Uighurstan [East Turkestan]

Other spellings: Uyghurstan

National symbol of Uigurstan [http://hantengri.blogspot.com]

Uighur ancestral lands are located within the jurisdictions of the Republics of Kazakhstan, Tajikstan, Krgyzstan, Uzbekistan and of PR China's Sinkiang Autonomous Region.

[http://www.uyghuramerican.org]

Uyghur Human Rights Project [http://www.uhrp.org]

Nations of the San Francisco bay area

Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area
[PO Box 360791, Milpitas, CA 95036]
Phone: [404-434-1668]
Fax: [408-434-1673]
[Muwekma@muwekma.org]
[www.muwekma.org]

Mishewal-Wappo Tribe
[fifthworldnews.blogspot.com/2011/10/mishewal-wappo-tribe-usa-california.html]

Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation 
[fifthworldnews.blogspot.com/2012/04/yocha-dehe-wintun-nation.html]

Winnemem Wintu Tribe 
2013-07, nation under threat of genocide! [fifthworldnews.blogspot.com/2013/07/winnemem-wintu-tribe.html]

Catalonia [EU - Kingdom of Spain]

Governmental entities claiming jurisdiction over the Catalonia countries

European Union - Kingdom of Spain - Autonomía of Catalonia

Principality of Catalonia



Vanguards of Catalonia national interest

"Help Catalonia"
[http://helpcatalonia.blogspot.com]




[http://catacciouk.blogspot.com/]
 



"Solidaritat Catalana per la Independència (SI)"
led by former Barcelona FC manager Joan Laporte, a millionaire

"Reagrupament Independentista"



Flags of the Catalan Countries 

Red-star version


Blue star-field version

2009 photograph titled "FREEDOM FOR CATALONIA: Political demonstration. Brussels" [http://catacciouk.blogspot.com/2011/08/heribert-barrera-name-will-be-written.html]




Maps showing the Catalonia area of national identity


 
 Graffiti in Vilassar de Mar, which reads "One nation, Països Catalans! One language, Catalan!"

Graffiti in Argentona. It reads "for the unity of the language and the Països Catalans"

Hawai`i

Awaiaulu / ‘Ike Kū‘oko‘a — Liberating Knowledge
[http://www.awaiaulu.org/main/index.php]

Over 125,000 pages of Hawaiian-language newspapers were printed in more than a hundred different papers from 1834 to 1948. They equal a million or more typescript pages of text - perhaps the largest native-language cache in the western world. They became an intentional repository of knowledge, opinion and historical progress as Hawaiʻi moved through kingdom, constitutional monarchy, republic and territory, yet only 2% of that repository has been integrated into our English-speaking world today.  'Ike Kū'oko'a is a dynamic move to change that percentage and to open up this resource for general access today.
‘Ike Kū‘oko‘a — Liberating Knowledge is working to take 60,000 digital scans of Hawaiian-language newspapers that were printed from 1834 to 1948 and transcribing them into searchable typescript.


2012-06-20 message from "GMO Free Marin"
"Stop Monsanto From Poisoning Hawai'i", presented by "Hawai'i GMO Justice Coalition" at the "GMO Free Marin" planning committee and Film series: For over 20 years, Hawai'i has been the global center for the open-field testing of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO's), including pharmaceutical crops. Over 5,000 experimental tests have been conducted by Monsanto, Dow, Dupont/Pioneer, Syngenta and BASF that spray chemicals on an almost daily basis on our most valuable lands. They are supported by tax-breaks, and beneficial relationships with landowners, regulators and politicians. We estimate GMO companies own or lease 40,000 -- 60,000 acres that are sprayed with over 70 different chemicals.


"It is time for us to make our international case for the restoration of sovereignty based upon the human rights abuses of the illegal occupation of Hawaiʻi. In addition to all the great efforts already underway, I want to set up a "Human Rights Wiki" for this purpose, to document the everyday genocide and oppression that the people of Hawaiʻi are experiencing."

Newe Sogobia [Western Shoshone Nation]

News:
[fifthworldnews.blogspot.com/2012/03/newe-sogobia-2012-03-20-announcment-of.html]

Representative bodies representing the people of Newe Sogobia:
* Western Shoshone National Council
* Western Shoshone Nation [PO Box 252, Austin, NV]


Western Shoshone Flag at Indian Ranch
 
 Will Powers photo, on cover of "The Way It Is" book (Blue Dolphin, 1995) by Corbin Harney
 

The Western Shoshone Defense Project (WSDP)
[http://www.wsdp.org/]

The Western Shoshone Defense Project is an organization formed by the WSNC to support the Dann band, in Crescent Valley, NV. In 1973, sisters Mary and Carrie Dann were charged with trespassing by federal officials, for grazing their livestock on traditional lands. It seems more than a coincidence that the government had designs to site MX missiles on a randomly roving train in their region at the time. The family has struggled to survive against the onslaught of court battles, military-style invasions, and livestock confiscations for nearly thirty years. They currently face over $5 million in grazing fines and confiscation of their extended family home.

WESTERN SHOSHONE LAND AND SOVEREIGNTY by Corbin Harney, Spiritual Leader of the Western Shoshone Nation
[http://www.nativeweb.org/pages/legal/shoshone/]

HOME: Healing Ourselves & Mother Earth           
NV Office: 2440 Sutter Circle, Reno NV 89503 775.348.1986
Member of Alliance for Nuclear Accountability
[http://www.h-o-m-e.org/Shoshone/]

Nevada Test Site Oral History Project
[http://digital.library.unlv.edu/ntsohp/index.php?view=landscapes&subview=sacred]








2004-07 "Dann Sisters Hold Firm as Western Shoshone HR884 Turns Public Law 108-270" by Barbara J. Hunter from "THINK & ASK",  Original story published in October 2003:
[http://www.thinkandask.com/news/shoshone.html]
President George W Bush signed HR884 / PL 108-270 into law which distributes 15 cents per acre to the Western Shoshone Nation. The land is marked for gold extraction, nuclear testing and to expand Yucca Mountain for a nuclear waste repository. The House reported this new law would not impact the Federal budget.
Mary and Carrie Dann, Western Shoshone elders, Eureka County, NV. (Photo by Western Shoshone Defense Project)

 Mary and Carrie Dann sued the United States government for violating their rights. The Nevada sisters say the United States used illegal means to gain control of Native American ancestral lands slowly encroached upon by industry and private landowners. The U.S. government says it paid the Western Shoshone Nation for its use of their land in 1979, and has since privatized millions of additional acreage. The Western Shoshone Distribution Bill, HR 884, sets to relax territorial rules held by Shoshones for 150 years.

 Approximately 26 million acres will transition to the U.S. Government if the Senate passes HR Bill 884. This Shoshone acreage is marked by the Bureau of Land Management for mining minerals, storing nuclear waste, and for geothermal energy production. Yucca Mountain, a historical and spiritual area for Shoshones, will expand its current nuclear storage facilities during the next 5-7 years.
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights found the U.S. government violated the Dann sisters' rights, although did not state that the Dann sisters owned land. The Commission suggested an "effective remedy" should ensure respect for the Danns' claim to their ranch of 70 years. The Organization of American States (OAS) human-rights commission reaffirmed land-rights use of the Western Shoshone Indian tribe, rejecting the U.S. government's claim the Danns live on public land. It was the first time both councils charged the U.S. government with violating human rights, and the case will be heard by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. 
The Treaty of Peace and Friendship signed in 1863 between the U.S. government and Western Shoshone tribe included the use of 43,000 square miles of territory extending north from the deserts of Southern California, across much of Nevada, and into South central Idaho, and East into Utah. The treaty gave Shoshone permanent use of land in exchange for "peace," so that the [then] Union of the United States in the midst of Civil War, could guarantee the flow of gold out of California to points East. Shoshones agreed to end warfare with settlers and the U.S., and to allow transportation and telegraph wires through its territory.
The U.S. government acknowledged, 115 years later, that they had further encroached upon Shoshone land through privatization, mining, and nuclear testing, and paid the tribe $26 million through trust, or 15 cents per acre. Today the amount is valued at $140 million (79 cents per acre), although the Western Shoshone have not withdrawn a penny. Shoshone say the 1863 treaty did not sell their land to a government, but instead secured their rights to own and occupy.
About an hour southwest of Elko, NV, the Dann sisters live in a makeshift dwelling, shaded by trees, and powered by a gasoline generator. They have fought the government for 30 years, for land they say is theirs. Except, their ranch butts-up against a new wealth of gold deposit discovered at an ever expanding Cortez gold mine.
Cortez splits its operation into three units; the Cortez open pit, and two independent Carlin-type disseminated gold deposit pipelines. The operation is owned by  Placer Dome Inc., (60 percent) and Rio Tinto (40 percent). The U.S. government permitted gold mining at Cortez in 1969 with expansion plans still underway 24 years later. In 2003, more than 3 million ounces of gold will be produced from Cortez on Shoshone land.
Children hold signs written in support of Mary and Carrie Dann, Eureka County, NV. (Photo by Western Shoshone Defense Project)

 Until September 2002, when federal agents first seized 227 cattle from the Dann ranch, the Danns were raising cattle and horses on land purchased by their father Dewey Dann in the 1930s. In December 2002, the Danns were ordered to remove remaining livestock, 250 additional cattle and 1,000 horses, and they were charged with trespassing on public land. They were served with $3 million in fines for past due grazing fees.
The Dann sisters, both of whom are in their 70s, did not transfer grazing permits into their name from their late father, Dewey Dann. They say that their land is within the boundaries of the Western Shoshone and therefore live under territory rule. The government says the land is now public and it was purchased from Western Shoshone in 1979.
The Bureau of Land Management served the Danns warrants, and followed through with their warning to auction off remaining livestock in January 2003. The sisters sued the Bureau of Land Management to establish rightful ownership of land, and watched federal agents remove their cattle and horses on the morning of 18 January. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that since the Danns received no money for their land, it was still theirs, but the ruling was overturned in the Supreme Court, using a "bar clause" which states that Indian Claims legislation denotes; whenever money is paid for land, its use and rights to use are forever barred. Shoshone land had been gradually encroached upon, according to the Supreme Court, and it therefore no longer belonged to the Dann Ranch.
Carrie Dann says she wouldn't have sued the Bureau of Land Management had she known the court would favor the government.
Bureau of Land Management says Dann livestock caused irreparable damage to the countryside due to over grazing. Dann claims overgrazing damage is nothing like the damage caused at the neighboring Cortez. Grass grows back, but mining causes irreparable damage to the earth, according to Carrie Dann. 
Danns' struggle was the catalyst for a handful of protesters to organize, mobilize, and fight alongside the grandmothers, but their case also acts as a media smoke screen to the broader government plans underway for Shoshone land.
On 24 September 2003 Bill HR 884 made its way to the Resources Committee, House of Representatives. This Bill disburses Western Shoshone land in Nevada for expansion of Cortez mines and for massive development at Yucca Mountain. Shoshone tribe elders met in Washington DC one month earlier to at least place "hold" on the Bill, but their request was ignored.
In the late 1970s the U.S. government started using Yucca Mountain as a repository for nuclear waste, but it since has maxed-out capacity with 77,000 metric tons of nuclear fuel and radioactive waste. All except 2 percent of U.S. nuclear waste is earmarked for Yucca Mountain with HR Bill 884, beginning in 2010.
Commercial nuclear power plants produce 2,000 tons of waste per year, at which rate will surpass expansion plans of Yucca Mountain by 2035. Nuclear waste remains lethal for 10,000 years, and is dangerous to humans for 250,000 years.
Nevada is sparsely populated. Outside of Las Vegas or Reno, most U.S. citizens do not think about those living throughout Nevada. HR Bill 884's successful pass depends upon little public knowledge, and upon the silence of rogue ranchers.
 At least three other Shoshone ranchers face trespassing charges by the Bureau of Land Management. Raymond Yowell, who is Chief of the Western Shoshone National Council, watched federal agents cart-off 157 of his cattle to auction in 2003. Bureau of Land Management says it will continue to prosecute as needed.
Traditionally, Native American tribes kept to themselves, acknowledging their differences and disagreements between each other, bloodshed was the price at another time in history. As the early colonial settlers moved West, Native American tribes experienced a different threat, and lost battles to modern guns. One man, Shawnee Chief Techumseh envisioned a "united tribe" able to align little nations into one powerful voice.
Environmental groups today lack such a voice or the power Techumseh envisioned for his brothers and sisters. The Danns fight for their property with little support. However, united in cause, environmental groups and human right's groups together would indeed change the course of the Danns' story, and perhaps prevent Bills like 884.
 The Western Shoshone Distribution Bill and plans for Yucca Mountain would not be mandated through a governmental body without the approval of citizens.
Corporate giants set a good example of strength in numbers, their partnerships and wealth influence law makers with benefits and cash. Corporate moguls buy-up independent companies to add to their own financial returns. The once small company becomes apart of an untouchable conglomerate, made up of many small units. Corporate is an unbreakable force, with financial resources, powerful voice, and lobbying power in Washington DC.

 Many groups simply cannot find enough time in a given day to defend every issue. But with resources joined there is time and money. An environmental summit could be the body enforcing policy to prevent government invasion, say, witnessed by Shoshone.
The Dann sisters have fought their government without the help from Human Rights Watch, or the American Civil Liberties Union. This family is committed to preserving its ancestral land. United they stand, divided we are, perhaps tomorrow we can rise to their call.

People's Republic of India

News:
2012-02-25 "Suicides in India linked to microfinance debts" from "Associated Press" [http://fifthworldnews.blogspot.com/2012/02/peoples-republic-of-india.html]


Information
The People's Republic of India is composed of CPI-Maoist Liberated Zones which are a federation of nations, including Gondi, and individuals working together to form permanent areas of control for their protection against Plutocrats and their agents in the Union of India government.

The People's Republic of India is operating as a legitimate manifestation of many nations working together against fascist monopolist cartels who are seeking to control agriculture land and erect dams and other manifestations of foreign capitalist penetrations...

[http://indianvanguard.wordpress.com/]
[http://www.thenaxalbari.blogspot.com/]

"Operation Green Hunt - India's War on the People", a selection of articles from "Democracy and Class Struggle" [http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.com]. To buy a copy visit here: [http://www.alternativebookshop.com/BookDetails.php?bookid=1579]

Photograph from 2010-12-08 "Women in Red Corridors" by Mahima Singh
[http://www.bellbajao.org/2010/12/08/native-women-amidst-naxal-wars-2]

Photograph from "BBC" showing a Gondi National Militia member:

2010 map showing "The Red Corridor" within which the CPI-Maoist conducts government:

2007 map showing "The Red Corridor"



2011-03-04 "Profile: India's Maoist rebels" from "BBC"
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12640645]
India's bloody Maoist insurgency began in the remote forests of the state of West Bengal in the late 1960s.
Several decades later it had become, in the words of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, India's "greatest internal security challenge".
Maoists are also known as "Naxalites" because of the violent left-wing uprising in 1967, which began in the West Bengal village of Naxalbari.
Although this was eventually quashed by police, over the years India's Maoists have regrouped and asserted control over vast swathes of land in central and eastern India, establishing a so-called "red corridor".
This spans the states of Jharkand, West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh and also reaches into Uttar Pradesh, and Karnataka.
The Maoists and affiliated groups are active in more than a third of India's 600-odd districts, the authorities say.
And more than 6,000 people have died in the rebels' long fight for communist rule in these states.

Maoist aims -
The Maoists' military leader is Koteshwar Rao, otherwise known as Kishenji.
He reportedly suffered temporary paralysis in June 2010 when a police bullet hit him in the knee.

Normally a regular communicator with the press, Kishenji was little heard of until January 2011 when he issued a statement saying he expected India to succumb to a Maoist revolution by 2025.
Latest estimates suggest he commandes at least 20,000 armed fighters. They are said to get most of their weapons by raiding police bases.
Analysts say the longevity of the Maoist rebellion is partly due to the local support they receive.
The rebels say they are fighting for the rights of indigenous tribespeople and the rural poor who they say have been neglected by governments for decades.
Maoists claim to represent local concerns over land ownership and equitable distribution of resources.
Ultimately they say they want to establish a "communist society" by overthrowing India's "semi-colonial, semi-feudal" form of rule through armed struggle.
The BBC's Subir Bhaumik in Calcutta says that while there is little prospect of them making any headway in urban areas - or indeed non-jungle rural areas - the rebels remain a force to be reckoned with in remote areas where the security forces are thin on the ground.
Our correspondent says the key question now is whether to deploy the army against the rebels in the same way it has been used in Indian-administered Kashmir and some north-eastern states.
Such a move would be highly controversial, because it would inevitably been seen by some critics as evidence that the rebels are making headway in what is seen by some as "mainland India".

Major rebel attacks -
Over the years the Maoists have managed to launch a series of damaging attacks on Indian security forces.
In 2009, rebels gained virtual control of Lalgarh district in West Bengal barely 250km (155 miles) from the state capital, Calcutta.
For many months, rebels, supported by local villagers, held hundreds of paramilitary forces at bay. The Maoists declared it to be India's first "liberated zone" but Indian security forces finally overwhelmed the rebels.
April 2010 saw rebels ambush paramilitary troops in the dense jungles of central Chhattisgarh state, killing at least 76 soldiers. Correspondents say it was the worst-ever Maoist attack on Indian security forces.
In 2007, also in Chhattisgarh, Maoist rebels killed 55 policemen in an attack on a remote police outpost.
Almost every week, Maoist rebels are blamed for minor skirmishes and incidents across India's north-east - common tactics include blowing up railway tracks and attacking police stations.
In 2010, the Maoists faced India's biggest ever anti-Maoist offensive.
Nearly 50,000 federal paramilitary troops and tens of thousands of policemen took part in the operation across several states.
While the rebels were pushed back deep into their jungle strongholds, they have continued to carry out hit-and-run attacks and numerous high-profile kidnappings.
India's government in turn has pledged to crack down even harder unless rebels renounce violence and enter peace talks.
At the same time there have been differences not just within the central government over how to tackle the rebellion, but also between Delhi and various Indian states affected by the insurgency.
Experts say that disagreements over whether to deploy the army against the rebels is a manifestation of these tensions.
On one issue however the analysts remain united - the chances of any kind of meaningful dialogue with the rebels in the foreseeable future are slim.


2011-11-22 "Where the Maoist war is far from won" by Suvojit Bagchi from "BBC"
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15716211]
Bengali, Dantewada, Chhattisgarh -
More than six years since the launch of Salwa Judum, the government-sponsored anti-Maoist vigilante group and two years since Operation Green Hunt, the full-blown military offensive on Maoists, officials in the state of Chhattisgarh accept that the rebels have regrouped and consolidated their jungle base.
Central government figures suggest there has been a sharp dip in Maoist violence in 2011, compared to the past two years.
While this may be true of other states in India, in parts of Chhattisgarh, the epicentre of the Maoist movement, nothing can be further from the truth.
Here, according to police sources, the Maoists have raised new military forces from the local population.
In the past eight years, since various radical-left military factions decided to unite to form the Communist Party of India (Maoist), the number of Maoist military divisions here has risen from five to 10.
In Bastar district, in the south of Chhattisgarh, the Maoists recently launched a new division of the party called Mahasamund, named after a district on Bastar's eastern fringe and thus connecting Bastar with Maoist-affected districts in neighbouring Orissa.
Southern Chhattisgarh is an area just a little smaller than the Netherlands.
There are four zones dominated and governed by the Maoists here, each not less than 4,000 sq km in size.
One officer told me that the Maoists controlled 40% of the land area in southern Chhattisgarh, while the police controlled another 40%.
"The fighting is going on for control of the remaining 20%," he said.
If Maoist military activity such as ambushes has reduced here it is because the sides have cut their operations in the areas not under their control.
Retaliatory attacks by the Maoists have therefore also reduced.
In a month-long visit to one of these four "Maoist liberated zones" above the River Indravati I did not see any police camps or police personnel.
"We don't enter their areas, they don't come to ours," said one paramilitary soldier in Dantewada district.
The head constables of several police stations told the BBC that they received very little information about Maoist movement from the "kotwals", or village-level police personnel.
"The kotwals' families live in the villages and are exposed to the Maoists. So they refuse to divulge information," one head constable told me.
In the small, sleepy town of Dantewada, in southern Chhattisgarh, several people confirmed that Maoist cadres moved around in plainclothes, interacted with locals and ran errands for the party.
"I have never witnessed them so relaxed in the main town," said one local travel agent.
It could be because, locals feel, Maoists know that the police will never come out of their barracks at night.
'Carrot and stick' - So why is the Indian government's offensive going wrong here?
Its policy against the Maoists uses the anti-insurgent "carrot and stick" policy, using multiple development projects to win over locals.
This, combined with a sustained offensive to "neutralise" the top Maoist leadership and known sympathisers, worked very well in northern Andhra Pradesh, bordering southern Chhattisgarh.
Having now shifted across the state border into southern Chhattisgarh, the Maoists acknowledged that they had failed to address the developmental model introduced by the government.
In Chhattisgarh, they say they have fought back "politically" against the policy.
Jagesh, the chief of the northern regional command of the Maoist Party in Chhattisgarh, told the BBC last year: "The tribals are convinced that development is introduced to quash resistance and to take away land for mining. We have managed to impart this education."
Jagesh said that hundreds of boys from the local Gondi tribe, fearing displacement and police atrocities in the name of development, were joining them every year.
Large numbers of the boys have formed into "militias" or have become plainclothes Maoist informers and have made life difficult for the security forces.
Besides gathering information, these militias actively assist the Maoists' People's Liberation Guerrilla Army in combat by slowing down the security forces and preventing them reaching the rebels.
Indian security has so far failed to break up the ranks of the plainclothes tribal boys.
This, combined with increased Maoist forces here, have led to a series of setbacks for the security forces over the past couple of years.
Senior officials, however, told me that Maoists had won only "half the battle".
 "We will turn it around," said one officer, before instructing his son not to go out of the house after five in the evening.


2011-03-06 "Life in an Indian Maoist jungle camp" 
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12637562]
Thousands of people have been killed in the bloody Maoist insurgency across swathes of central and eastern India. The BBC's Suvojit Bagchi, who was granted unprecedented access to a Maoist camp in the depths of the Chhattisgarh jungle, describes the rebels' precarious life.
After eight hours of walking in dense forest, in the early evening we entered a narrow, barren stretch of land hemmed in by hillocks.
At the far end stood a few blue and yellow tents.
Somji, one of the men who collected me between a small town in south Chhattisgarh and the thick central Indian forest, picked up speed as we approached.
A tall man standing guard with a rifle flung over his shoulder whistled and people started rushing towards us.
In under a minute, the camp members stood in formation and began singing a welcome song.
Each member in the queue raised their fist to whisper "lal salaam" - "red salute".
Mostly aged between 15 and 30 years old, the men and women in the camp wore rubber sandals, olive green battle fatigues and carried guns of various makes.
India's Maoist rebels say they are fighting for the rights of indigenous tribespeople and the rural poor. But the battle has been brutal: they frequently launch deadly attacks on India's security forces and those thought to support them.
In April 2010 Chhattisgarh was the site of the bloodiest Maoist attack yet on the security forces - 75 troops were killed. Paramilitary forces also launched attacks on tribal communities to restrict Maoist activities.

Camp security -
Maoist platoons normally set up their camps in a semi-circle with one tent in the centre - the "headquarter".
Every time a camp is set up, the commander conducts a roll-call and updates camp members about their responsibilities if they come under attack.
Akash, 18, was in charge of my security at the first camp. He also gave me a few lessons in self defence.
He slept for about four hours each night: two hours were spent guarding the camp from under a mohua tree in drenching rain.
Nonetheless, he never failed to wake me up early for my walks through several kilometres of rain-sodden forest.
Though the purpose of these walks was to take me to villages and camps in the Maoist-controlled Dandakaranya forest, I learned the rebels walked long distances every few days for their own safety.
"If we stay in a place for long, chances are that information of our stay will get out and we will get encircled."
The constant movement, he told me, also helps them gather information about the whereabouts of security forces from villagers.
The relationship with villagers in areas they control is generally positive, but not always. Maoist will kill suspected informers and that has the potential to create a climate of fear. But they are also aware that harming ordinary villagers will simply erode their support base.
But this is a highly polarised area. In areas controlled by the paramilitary units there is little support for the Maoists - and villagers who display such sympathies have uncertain fates.

Camp routine -
On days when we were not moving camp, I would rest on my makeshift bed of a plastic sheet, and watch the "comrade-soldiers" swinging their guns to instructions being shouted out by a platoon commander.
Ganita, 18 and a deft hand with a rifle, also gave me a detailed account of their daily chores.
Maoists participate in "community service", she said, such as helping elderly farmers, digging village wells and providing basic health care to locals.
This week Ganita was assigned to kitchen work.
Her kitchen was spread under one tent. Breakfast was limited to rice cooked with turmeric and ground nuts, while both lunch and dinner were just lentil soup and rice.
However, during my stay, frog, wild boar and monitor lizard meat were served a few times.
Evenings were dedicated to the study of party literature.
Published by the publicity wing of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), the writings highlighted party strategy and criticised the Indian state. They have about 12 magazines and the main one is published in the local tribal language, Gondi.
Each camp had one or two solar-powered car batteries that were used to power LED lamps that lit tents at night.
A couple of times each week, everybody assembled for a singing session in one of the plastic tents.
Local Gondi tunes were fused with revolutionary lyrics and hymns were sung to the memory of martyrs. The singing session would end with the BBC's Hindi news bulletin on the radio - its future is in doubt because of spending cuts.
"This is our only source of objective information," Maoist spokesperson in south Chhattisgarh, Gudsa Usendi, told me.

Films -
When there were no sing-songs, films would be played on a laptop late into the night.
One film that was repeatedly screened was Do Bigha Zameen or Two Acres of Land, made in 1953 about the plight of a small farmer in Nehru's India.
Another popular film was The Axis of War which includes a depiction of Mao's long march.
Interestingly, Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon is a roaring hit among the young cadres.
The guerrillas often invited locals to join their late-night soirees when they stayed near villages.
Most villagers had never seen a film before the Maoists showed them one.
"Families finish dinner early and come here to watch the late-night show whenever there is one," said one villager.
At the end of the day, I would lie down with up to a dozen guerrillas in one of the cramped tents.
As I drifted off to sleep, I couldn't help thinking how the peace of the night - despite the snoring of sleeping rebels and the buzzing of countless mosquitoes - belied the dangers that surrounded us.


News from COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (MAOIST) from MAOIST_REVOLUTION@yahoogroups.com
January 12, 2011
Condemn the indiscriminate killings and fake encounters by the police and paramilitary forces in Odisha !
People would surely defeat the conspiracy of Naveen Patnaik to hand over the natural resources of Odisha to the Corporations by decimating the Maoist revolutionary movement !
As part of the massive offensive Operation Green Hunt being conducted in coordination by the central and state governments with the avowed aim of decimating the Maoist revolutionary movement completely, the special police and paramilitary forces have resorted to indiscriminate killings in the past two months in Odisha and have taken nearly 25 lives in cold-blood in various incidents. Of these most of them were fake encounters while others were incidents where hundreds of police and paramilitary were deployed with specific information about the whereabouts of the guerillas and fired indiscriminately on the guerillas and the people with them.
 Recently on January 12, 2011, in an `encounter' in a forest area in Keonjhar district two Maoists had died and on January 9, 2011 in an alleged encounter in Bandhkamali mountains which fall under the Niyamgiri area of Rayagadha district, nine comrades were martyred. Ravi, one of the martyred comrades, is an important leader who has been working among the oppressed people of Odisha for the past few years. He hails from East Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh. Just one week back, on January 2, 2011 in the encounter which was said to have taken place in the Rayaghati forests under Kalinganagar area in Jajpur district, five Maoists including three women comrades were martyred. One among these martyrs was an Area Committee member of the Kalinganagar area. They were in preparation for some mass activities on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the massacre of Adivasis on January 2 when this incident occurred. On 29 December, 2010, in an alleged encounter in Talpada forest area of Keonjhar district one woman comrade was martyred. Before this in the fourth week of December the police announced that three Maoists had died in an encounter at Adaba forest area in Gajapati district. In the beginning of January, in another alleged encounter in Bargarh district two persons had died but the people had declared that they were ordinary people and that the police had killed them in cold-blood. Some days before this there were news items in the media that even the encounter in Gajapati district was also a fake one and that ordinary people had died in this. Though huge scale protests were staged by people and democrats on these fake encounters, the Naveen government is not caring a damn and is resorting to murders of ordinary people and revolutionaries unscrupulously.
 Odisha is a state abundantly rich in mineral, water and forest resources but it has become the abode of dire poverty and hunger deaths. Odisha is in the first place in iron reserves and it has many other valuable mineral resources. But all this wealth is filling the coffers of the wealthy while the conditions of the poor people are deteriorating. In the past 63 years of so-called independence, the oppressed people of Odisha, particularly the adivasis are getting crushed under the feudal and imperialist exploitation. The Odisha government led by the Mining Mafia Boss Naveen Patnaik has turned Odisha into the paradise of the mining corporations by signing innumerable MoUs with them. More than 49 MoUs regarding steel plants, more than 20 MoUs regarding thermal power plants, some MoUs for alumina refinery projects and a harbor were signed. The MoU worth 55,000 crores of rupees signed with the MNC Posco belonging to South Korea is the biggest foreign direct investment in India. The Odisha government had shamelessly violated its own laws while granting permissions to Tata in Kalinganagar and Vedanta in Niyamgiri apart from Posco. All these MoUs lead to untold miseries for the Odisha people. These would lead to destruction of the forests, lands, water, ecology and all aspects of their lives. This could be one of the biggest man-made disasters in the world. That is why the people of Odisha are fighting against this atrocity and exploitation.
 In the recent past, Odisha people agitated and are still agitating against the exploitation and atrocities of the MNCs and big comprador bourgeoisie companies like Tata, Vedanta, Posco etc. and also against the feudal exploitation in the Narayanapatna area of Koraput district. Government used brutal force against these struggles and killed many people. On January 2, 2006, the police fired on the adivasis who refused to hand over their cultivable lands to the Tata Steel company in Kalinganagar and killed at least fourteen of them. In many other instances, people had become injured or have lost their lives in police firings. People launched agitations against bauxite mines of Vedanta company in Niyamgiri area and against Vedanta Alumina refinery in Lanjigarh. Caving in before the people's agitations, the Central government had cancelled permission to Vedanta with the reason that it had violated rules and regulations. But the people are still continuing their agitation as they feel that as long as the Vedanta refinery exists in Lanjigarh it is detrimental to their very existence and that it would adversely affect their lands and ecology. People of Odisha are fighting against such issues in many places. The Maoist party is leading these agitations in many places and supporting them in others. More important is the fact that people are welcoming the leadership of Maoists and are aspiring for it. The Odisha people have realized that there is no political party other than the Maoist party which could put an end to feudal and imperialist exploitation. The Maoist movement is expanding to many new areas. The Naveen Patnaik government with the full support of the UPA government at the centre is resorting to these massacres precisely because the Maoists constitute the main hurdle to their blanket loot of resources. Particularly, it is obvious to one and all that the callous murder of nine revolutionaries in Niyamgiri area has happened with the aim of facilitating the wholesale loot of Vedanta and under its aegis. Similarly it is also very clear that the fascist massacres resorted to by the government in the Kalinganagar area (in Jajpur and Keonjhar districts) is to facilitate the exploitation of corporations like that of Tata and others waiting in the wings to occupy this whole area. Naveen Patnaik who is gobbling billions of rupees as the stooge of the corporations and his administrative machinery are being threatened seriously by the existence of the Maoist movement. That is why they are resorting to fascist onslaught on the people and the guerilla squads spending billions of rupees on increasing police, commando forces (SOG), SPO and informer network on a huge scale.
 History has proven many a times that it is impossible to suppress the people's movements with murders, offensives and suppression campaigns. The comprador Naveen Patnaik, Vedanta ex-director and the CEO of the present Operation Green Hunt Chidambaram, other ruling class oligarchs and their imperialist masters are dreaming that they would be able to put aside all the hurdles in the path of exploitation of the feudal classes and the corporations by crushing the Maoist revolutionary movement. The people are bound to come to the fore more militantly to intensify their struggles. Though the spate of encounters in the past few days indicate the intensity of the offensive on the Maoists this should be seen as part of the overall offensive on all the people's movements fighting against their loot. We can stop these massacres only by taking up arms and fighting in a united manner against the anti-people, pro-imperialist policies followed by the blood-thirsty Naveen government and against corporate exploitation.
 The Central Committee of the CPI (Maoist) is appealing to all the people of our country and democrats to condemn in severe terms these atrocious massacres and fake encounters. We are appealing to the people to demand independent judicial inquiry into all these incidents of firings and to demand punishment for all the police officials involved in them. We are appealing to all that they should realize that these offensives are not carried on exclusively on the Maoist movement and that they are aimed at all those who are raising their voice or fighting against this corporate loot. Our Central Committee is calling upon all the democratic, progressive and patriotic forces to unite and fight against the corporate exploitation and against the massacres perpetrated by the central and state governments and against the Operation Green Hunt carried on for the incessant loot of our resources. (Abhay)
Spokesperson,
Central Committee,
CPI (Maoist)


2010-04-14 "Revolutionaries Deal Setback to India’s ‘Operation Green Hunt’" by David Hungerford
[http://www.fightbacknews.org/2010/4/14/revolutionaries-deal-setback-india-s-operation-green-hunt]
On April 6 a battle in India’s Dantewada district claimed the lives of 76 government security personnel. A patrol of 80 soldiers was attacked by a 300-person detachment of the People’s Liberation Guerilla Army (PLGA), military wing of the Communist Party of India (Maoist). Eight communists were also killed in the battle.
Most of the government personnel who died were members of India’s Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF.) 15 were members of the Combat Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA.) These forces are organized in battalions, that is, military formations. The distinction between police and soldiers is only technical.
The communists are following the strategy of people’s war in the countryside. The strategy is to surround and eventually capture the cities. The goal is to overthrow the existing government and oppressor classes, bring about a new democratic revolution and the revolutionary transformation of society.
Since October of last year as many as 250,000 troops have been engaged in Operation Green Hunt in communist-held base areas of central India. Dantewada is in the state of Chattisgarh. When Interior Minister P. Chidambaram announced Operation Green Hunt, there was an uproar that the government would declare war on its own people, even going so far as to call it a “hunt,” and conducted by forces called CoBRAs, Greyhounds, Jaguars, and the like. Since then Chidambaram has been pretending there is no such thing as Operation Green Hunt.
Soldiers of the People’s Liberation Guerilla Army, on the other hand, are drawn from and fight for the oppressed masses. About 45% of them are women. Estimates of their numbers range from 90,000 to 150,000.
The authorities are calling their defeat in Dantewada a “massacre,” “murder,” an act of “brutality,” and the like. They are talking nonsense. Their soldiers were on patrol. They were looking for a fight. A fight found them. The Communists had planned their attack for months. In its April 12 issue Time Magazine said it was carried out with “fierce precision”.
The People’s Union for Democratic Rights, a civil liberties and democratic rights organization based in Delhi, said in a statement that, “Since war remains the preferred option of the Indian government they have no one else but themselves to blame if and when combatants die.”
Before the April 6 battle the CRPF and CoBRAs were considered elite units. Now there is a lot of grumbling about poor training, weapons and morale. Now, say the authorities, they will get serious with the Maoists. They have been saying that for years.
The General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) is known as Ganapathy. He has been the most wanted man in India for a long time but he is available to the people. In January he gave an interview to Jan Myrdal and Gautam Navlakha. He said, concerning Operation Green Hunt, “This war is meant for destroying the revolution which is gradually emerging as an alternative political power to the existing reactionary political power in the country…They are imposing this war on those who are against this war, i.e. Maoist revolutionaries, Adivasi and local people of the vast forest areas, workers, peasants, urban middle class, small and medium bourgeoisie, Dalit, women, religious minorities and oppressed nationalities, democratic organizations, progressive and patriotic forces who comprise more than 95% of the population…This war is imposed by the Comprador Bureaucratic Bourgeoisie, Feudal forces of this country and imperialists, particularly America. These are real looters, plunderers, corrupters, blackmailers, hoarders, scamsters, murderers, conspirators, oppressors, suppressers, autocrats, fascists, most reactionaries and number one traitors…”
“People will completely oppose this unjust, most cruel, inhumane and treacherous war. It will be defied by all people of our country and people of world. This unjust war is totally against the interest of the people and the interest of the country. People will unite and counter this unjust war by waging a just war. People will never tolerate any kind of unjust war. In the history of entire class society people never tolerated any kind of unjust war for ever but they fought back every unjust war by paying price of their own blood and ultimately won it…If we look at the political developments of the country, this inhumane all-out war is giving a tremendous scope to unite vast masses of people and certainly it will become counter productive to the ruling classes.”
After the battle, Interior Minister Chidambaram said, “I think we should, while we grieve the dead, hold our nerve and continue to do what we are doing.” He will surely only succeed in doing what Ganapathy said: Give a tremendous scope to unite vast masses of people - against himself and the oppressor classes.


2009-06-25 "Maoist leader leads PSBJC rally near Lalgarh; Even as Chief Secretary Ashok Mohan Chakraborty was holding discussions with senior officials on the joint operation" by Raktima Bose
[http://www.hindu.com/2009/06/25/stories/2009062559401000.htm]
 LALGARH: Even as West Bengal’s Chief Secretary Ashok Mohan Chakraborty was holding meetings with senior police and administration officials here on Wednesday on the operations against Maoists and the Maoist-backed Police Santrosh Birodhi Janasadharaner Committee (PSJBC), activists of the PSBJC took out a procession, led by a prominent Maoist leader, at Dharampur – not more than 10 km from here.
Starting from Goumichowk, six km from here, the PSBJC supporters marched down the narrow gravel path through villages with traditional weapons, beating drums and shouting slogans against the police and the CPI(M).
Maoist leader Bikash, who came into spotlight after holding a press conference on June 15 where he admitted that Maoists were supporting the PSBJC movement, moved around with an AK-47 toting henchman, supervised the crowd and ordered it to maintain order.
Bikash said though the security forces reached Lalgarh without much resistance, they would not find it easy to penetrate further.
Asked about their strategy against the security forces, which were camping at the Lalgarh Police Station since June 20, he said: “Time will tell. But we will stop them for sure.”
At the end of the procession, several local PSBJC leaders addressed the crowd.
One of them, a close aide of Bikash, Asit Mahato, said roads had been dug up at several places and camps set up to keep an eye on police movement.
“The joint forces have to walk over our bodies if they try to enter the area beyond Lalgarh,” he said.

 More forces arrive -
Though there was no force movement on Wednesday, seventh day of the offensive against Maoists and the PSJBC, combing operations in adjacent villages continued. On the request of the State government, 10 companies of the Border Security Force reached Lalgarh.
Some companies of the Eastern Frontier Rifles (EFR) and the Central Reserve Police Force also reached Goaltore, 20 km from here.
Distribution of relief materials resumed on the day at the Block Development Office here and long queues of men and women were seen outside the office premises.

 Remanded -
Ananya Dutta writes from Kolkata:
Spokesperson for the Communist Party of India (Maoist) in West Bengal Gaur Chakraborty was remanded to police custody for 14 days by a court in Kolkata on Wednesday.
He was produced at the Bankshal Court where he was remanded to custody by Acting Chief Metropolitan Magistrate C. Bhattacharya.
On Tuesday evening, the city police apprehended Mr. Chakraborty outside the office of a private news channel in the Park Street area. He was later arrested under Section 20 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
The Communist Party of India (Maoist) was declared a banned organisation under the Act by the Centre on June 22.

STIFF RESISTANCE: Hundreds of supporters of the People’s Committee against Police Atrocities at a rally in Dharampur near Lalgarh on Wednesday. — Photo: Arunangsu Roy Chowdhury

2009-06-26 "Lalgarh: is it liberated or ruled by fear? Is the violence in West Medinipur district really an adivasi uprising? Land reform has given adivasis a high level of freedom and security. Poll results in the area showed no resentment against CPI(M)" by Praveen Swami 
[http://www.hindu.com/2009/06/26/stories/2009062659761000.htm]
LALGARH: Early this month, as police marched into the forests around Lalgarh, the adivasi residents of Salboni were told, by Maoists, to start building barricades.
Insurgents armed with rifles and side-arms watched over the villagers as they felled trees and dug trenches. Not surprisingly, no one disputed their orders.
But on Monday, Bongaram Lohar summoned courage to speak up on behalf of the dozens of local residents who had been press-ganged into the building work. For his defiance, Mr. Lohar was brutally beaten up and forced to flee the village.
Most commentary has cast the violence in Lalgarh as an expression of primal adivasi rage: rage against being denied development and justice. One critic even claimed the Lalgarh region had, for the past three decades, been “untouched by development.”
But Mr. Lohar’s story — and a mass of empirical evidence — give reason to doubt this telling of the story.

 No development?
Back in 1977, after the first Left Front government took power in West Bengal, entire villages were freed from the control of jotdars, or landlords, by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) workers.
Data from West Bengal’s Department of Land and Land reforms shows that till 2002-03, land measuring 16,280 hectares was redistributed to peasants in the blocks of Jhargram, Binpur and Salboni — the areas now under Maoist assault. “In the Jhargram block village where I conduct research”, says Aparajita Bakshi, Senior Research Fellow at the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata, “75 per cent of all households are land reform beneficiaries. Of Scheduled Tribe households, no less than 70 per cent gained agricultural land and 90 per cent gained homestead land as a result of land reform.”
Income poverty and deprivation continue to exist throughout the region — but land reform has given adivasis a level of freedom and security their counterparts in the rest of India do not enjoy.
Marketed as the liberation of Lalgarh, Maoist rule, in fact, made the life of most adivasis worse. Income from forest produce, on which most local residents are dependent, dried up. Government programmes intended to mitigate hardship collapsed altogether.
“In November,” says Bhumidhansola resident Manek Singh, “the Maoists forbade us to enter the forests to cut wood. The Forest Department used to pay us Rs.70 a day for this work. Now, no one even enters this area to purchase the leaf-plates we make. We have been left with nothing.”

 Extortion and attacks -
Faced with extortion and attacks by Maoists, government staff also fled the area. Lalgarh residents told The Hindu that the Integrated Child Development Scheme workers were ordered to pay Rs.1,000 each month; school teachers and staff at the Block Development Office said they were compelled to part with twice as much to local Maoists.
Following the assassination of government doctor Honiran Murmu and staff nurse Bharati Majhi in October, the Lalgarh area has had almost no access to health care.

 Politics and power -
Election data debunks the idea that there is a popular rebellion against the CPI(M) under way in Lalgarh.
In the 2006 elections to the West Bengal Legislative Assembly, the CPI(M) had won six of the seven Assembly seats which together make up the Jhargram Lok Sabha seat: Garhbeta East, Garhbeta West (SC), Salbani, Nayagram (ST), Gopiballavpur and Jhargram. The CPI(M) has held the Jhargram Lok Sabha seat, of which Lalgarh is a part, ever since 1977.

 Police raids -
Last year, the West Bengal Police carried out raids across the Lalgarh area, following a November 2 attempt to assassinate Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. Fighting between police and Maoist supporters broke out during the raids; several people were injured.
Backed by the Maoists, Trinamool Congress leader Chhatradar Mahato — the brother of the principal accused in the November 2 bombing — set up the Police Santras Birodhi Janaganer Committee (PSBJC), or People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities.
The PSBJC activists blocked roads, shut off police access to the area, and attacked CPI(M) workers.
Prior to this year’s Lok Sabha elections, the Maoists even initiated protests insisting that the police not enter the villages of Boro Pelia, Chhoto Pelia, Dalilpur Chowk and Khas Jungle — all areas where they had a substantial armed presence.
Had the PSBJC represented widespread resentment against the CPI(M), it ought to have showed up in this year’s Lok Sabha elections. But Jhargram constituency swam against the anti-CPI(M) tide. The CPI(M) candidate, Pulin Bihar Baske, polled 5,45,231 votes, giving him a respectable lead over the 2,52,886 claimed by the Congress’ Amrit Hansda. Mr. Baske even won in the Binpur Assembly segment, of which Lalgarh is a part.

 Rule of fear -
 How, then, have the Maoists gained so much influence in Lalgarh? Jharkhand Party candidate Chunibala Hansda had this simple answer for one journalist reporting on the Lok Sabha elections: “People are scared of them”.
Last year, even as the PSBJC was mobilising people against the West Bengal government, the Bharat Jakat Majhi Marwa — an organisation of traditional adivasi community leaders, which is opposed to the CPI(M) — organised a rally to protest Maoist violence. More than 10,000 adivasis gathered in Bhulabheda area of Belpahari on December 9.
Sudhir Mandal, the adivasi leader who organised the rally, was shot dead less than 48 hours later.

Kurdistan

Map showing the Kurdistani people's homeland:


Information
[landofthesunkurdistan.blogspot.com/2005/10/freedom-invasion-iran.html]
[zagrosphoto.com/index.php]
[jawadmella.net/id9.html]
Alliance for Kurdish Rights [kurdishrights.org]
Kurd Net [ekurd.net]

Kurdistani National Organizations
Democratic Party of Kurdistan in Iran (advocates for a Federal Republic of Iran)
[en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_of_Iranian_Kurdistan]

News

The Alliance (USA, the British "Empire" Commonwealth, and Israel) have subsidized a national government for central Kurdistan within the jurisdiction of the Republic of Iraq, while the Allies have destabilized the sovereign Socialist People's government of central Kurdistan within the same region. It is because the Allies are securing energy deposits and, in order to enhance security for their natural resources they are laying claim to, are subsidizing a capitalist regime.

"The new PKK unleashed a social revolution in Kurdistan" (2014) [link]

"Turkey extends mandate for strikes on Kurds in Iraq" 
2013-10-10 from "AFP" newswire:
Ankara -
Turkey's parliament on Thursday extended for one year a mandate that would allow Ankara to order military strikes against Kurdish rebels holed up in neighbouring northern Iraq.    
The vote coincides with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's reforms to boost the rights of the country's sizeable Kurdish community and secure an end to the nearly 30-year battle with the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).    
All opposition parties, except the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, gave solid backing to the motion providing the government with another year-long mandate for cross-border operations against PKK hideouts in northern Iraq.     
The current mandate expires on October 17. Parliament has extended the mandate every year since it was first approved in 2007.    
On September 30, Erdogan moved to scrap restrictions on the use of the Kurdish language, allowing it to be used in private schools and letting election candidates campaign in Kurdish.    
The reforms are aimed at breaking an impasse in the peace process between Turkey and the PKK, which is classified as a terrorist organisation by Ankara and its Western allies.    
In March the PKK's jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan declared a ceasefire after months of clandestine negotiations with the Turkish secret service.     
Last month, Kurdish rebels announced a suspension in their planned pull-out of their fighters from Turkish soil, accusing Ankara of not keeping its promises of reform. They called the measures introduced by Erdogan as unsatisfactory.     
In return for withdrawing its fighters, the PKK demanded changes such as the right to education in the Kurdish language, changes to the electoral system and a degree of regional autonomy.    
The PKK has been fighting for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast and east of Turkey since 1984.

"Iraq's oil-rich Kurds move steadily toward independence" 
2013-09-26 [http://www.energy-daily.com/reports/Iraqs_oil-rich_Kurds_move_steadily_toward_independence_999.html]:
Erbil, Iraq (UPI) -

Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region is moving ever closer to declaring independence, thanks largely to its oil reserves of 45 billion barrels and increasingly close energy links with neighboring Turkey.     Iraq's central government is diametrically opposed to Kurdistan breaking away for fear it will encourage other federal regions to seek greater autonomy at Baghdad's expense, and can be expected to do all that it can to prevent that.     But the Kurdish enclave already operates like a de facto state with its own legislative, executive and judicial branches, its own army, and firm economic foundations provided by the oil and large reserves of natural gas as well.     Kurdistan is on the cusp of an oil boom, with international companies lining up to get a stake in the world's newest petrostate which since the 1990-91 Gulf War has enjoyed an unprecedented level of political and economic stability in a region where turmoil has long been the norm.      Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Total of France have all turned their backs on Baghdad, despite its vast energy riches, to develop Kurdistan's oil industry.      Other companies, like BP, are coming on to join around 40 small and medium-sized independents who set up several years to get exploration moving.     But Turkey's support is critical right now if the Kurds are to move forward toward the independence for which they battled Baghdad and Saddam Hussein's grotesque regime for decades, and suffered horrific losses in the process.     Saddam waged a scorched-earth genocidal war against the Kurds. The blackest day was March 16, 1988, when the Iraqi dictator's forces smothered the eastern town of Halabja with poison gas, massacring 5,000 men, women and children.      Now another showdown is steadily building between Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government in Erbil, the Kurdish capital.     This one is focused on the Kurds' energy reserves and the KRG's claims that the Kirkuk oilfield of northern Iraq, which holds about one-third of Iraq's reserves of 150 billion barrels, is Kurdish because it was part of Kurdistan under the Ottomans.     Baghdad, which is scrapping with Erbil over oil revenues, will never surrender those fields and the prospect of conflict is real.     For now, though, the primary focus is the Kurdish fields, whose reserves are sure to expand once full-scale exploration gets under way.      Much to Baghdad's annoyance, the Kurds are currently exporting 30,000-40,000 barrels of oil per day by road tanker to Turkey, and then by sea from the Mediterranean port of Mersin.      But that will rise sharply when a Turkish consortium builds a new pipeline from Kurdistan's big Taq Taq and Tawke fields into Turkey, totally bypassing Baghdad's export pipelines. Exports could be boosted to 250,000 bpd, possibly rising to 400,000 bpd.     Under a wide-ranging energy partnership concluded earlier this year, Turkey, which has no energy resources of its own, could soon be importing 353 billion cubic feet of gas, about 20-25 percent of its annual consumption.     So far there's no infrastructure for delivering it, though analysts believe that could be remedied within 30 months.      For obvious reasons, these highly sensitive projects have been shrouded in considerable ambiguity since Ankara does not want to provoke Baghdad, or Iran, which increasingly dominates Baghdad -- not yet, anyway.     "Turkey and the KRG have been carefully avoiding a major confrontation with Baghdad while creating confusion over their projects in northern Iraq," the U.S. global intelligence consultancy Stratfor observed.      "The further Turkey goes in these energy endeavors with the Iraqi Kurds, the more resistance it will encounter from Baghdad -- and by extension, Iran...     "The KRG is even escalating the pressure... But a decision to bypass Baghdad-controlled infrastructure and receive payment for oil independent of the central government is one fraught with danger, and it is unlikely that Turkey is ready for that level of confrontation," Stratfor said.     Baghdad claims sole authority over all oil operations, from exploration to production and exports.      "The only acceptable option for oil exports is through the federal pipeline network," a senior Baghdad official stressed. "We consider any other trade, whether it be through Iran or Turkey, as smuggling. It's illegal."     Meantime, Baghdad government troops are locked in an armed confrontation with Kurdish forces along Kurdistan's southern border, including tanks and artillery. It's a standoff that the energy rivalry could ignite.


2013-08-20 "IRAQI KURDISTAN: Kurdish villagers resist U.S. oil company’s confiscation of their land"
from "CPTnet" [http://www.cpt.org/cptnet/2013/08/20/iraqi-kurdistan-kurdish-villagers-resist-us-oil-company’s-confiscation-their-land]:
[Note: For security reasons, the team is withholding names of the villages and the oil company for the time being.  More details will follow in the coming weeks.]
A couple weeks ago, our team learned of the Kurdish villagers about three hours away from Suleimaniya protesting against a U.S.-based oil company that had confiscated their land.
On 6 August, a hot sunny day, we traveled there.  Our host, Kak Miro, expressed joy that we had made the trip.  Even though he, his wife, and two children were fasting for Ramadan, they served us water, tea, and a delicious local watermelon.
Several men arrived and began to share their story.  A U.S.-based oil company came into the surrounding valley in spring and began to build an oil well in the middle of the orchards and vineyards that hundreds of families in three villages have worked on for generations.
The construction site and adjacent roads destroyed seventy dunums (around seven hectares / eighteen acres) of five-decades-old grave vines that belonged to mukhtar's (village mayor’s) family.  The mukhtar spoke with tears in his eyes about his vines and a company worker who also cried while bulldozing them.  “He understood what he was doing, how much damage he was causing. But he was forced to do his job,” said the Mukhtar.
In May, before the destruction took place, the mukhtar and other villagers protested and stopped the company workers but the government forces arrested him and brought in soldiers and security forces to “protect” the construction.  They also threatened the villagers with repercussions if they spoke to the media.  The company offered to pay them a ridiculously low five-year  $100 “rent” for a dunum of land.  An emotional cost is, of course, uncounted.  The villagers refused the offer and instead have searched for a human rights organization that would support their resistance and expressed much gratitude for CPT's arrival.
Kak Miro and his friend took us to the well construction site.  The company confiscated and blocked off the only road leading to the village orchards and vineyards.  The villagers have to ask the company security for a permission to enter their land, which it often denies. When allowed access, they cannot bring vehicles into their massive orchards and vineyards, so the ripe fruit is drying out because the villagers cannot harvest it.
The Irish construction manager called by security seemed a little confused with an international human rights organization demanding access to the orchards.  He let us all in. Kak Miro gave us armfuls of beautifully ripe grapes and talked about the history and geography of theland. We took pictures. As we drove back, a truck full of military men with angry faces and fingers on rifle triggers stopped us.  They were the Zeravani: Kurdish government Special Forces deployed here to guard the construction. The officer took our camera, searched the pictures, and tried to delete them. A passionate discussion broke out, mostly between Kak Miro and the unit officer. We presented our NGO status documents. One of the company’s senior workers came in as well and gave some explanations. Kak Miro offered soldiers some of the grapes.  Eventually, the Zeravanis let us go.  We rejoiced with Kak Miro and his friend to be lucky enough to be able to enter the site and have the important photo documentation. We planned the next steps and asked Kak Miro about his safety.
“We are not afraid of them,” he said.  “We don't care what they do to us. We will continue. And we would be happy if CPT could accompany us.”             


2012-03-21 "On Nowruz Day... Kurds Affirm They Are Part of Syrian Society"
[http://www.sana.sy/eng/28/2012/03/21/407447.htm]
ALEPPO, (SANA)-The National Initiative for the Syrian Kurds on Tuesday held its annual festival at Sky Rose Hall in Aleppo celebrating al-Nowruz ( Spring ) occasion, with the participation of popular, civil and official activities in Aleppo.
"The Syrian Kurds, as other national constituents, have foiled all wagers, showed high national awareness and sense to become a real defender of the Homeland," Chairman of the Initiative Omar Ossi said, referring to the hostile powers' bids to exploit the Kurdish file within their hostile agendas.
He pointed out to the role of the US-backed Zionism and their tools represented by Al Saud, Al Thani, Turkey and its war against the Kurds in safe regions, preventing them from celebrating the Nowruz Day.
He added that the Kurds will engage, along with their partners in the Homeland, in the national political life to build the features of modern Syria that will consolidate the basic principles of the Syrian people's rights.
The festival included a lot of shows, songs, folkloric dances that reflected the Syrian people's civilization and history.