Recent letters allegedly drafted and signed by Assyrians in northern Iraq denying Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) involvement in the previously reported attacks against Assyrian villages in the Nahla region of northern Iraq (AINA 10-16-1999), demonstrate a new desperate and dangerous intensification of intimidation by the Behdananis and Soranis of northern Iraq.

In a letter published by the Sorani newspaper Brayati on November 14, leaders of the eight Assyrian villages in the Nahla area of northern Iraq allegedly denied any KDP blockade or attacks on Assyrian villages as reported by the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA) on October 16, 1999. The letter of denial included the statement that "On the contrary, the KDP has put the area and its inhabitants under its protection against continual attacks by PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) guerillas."

The letter of denial is widely believed by Assyrians to have been written by the KDP and the subsequent signatures by Assyrian villagers to have been coerced by strong arm tactics. This new form of desperate intensification in intimidation of Assyrians has been likened to terrorists and kidnappers compelling their hostages to declare that they were quite content with their captivity, the conduct of their captors, and that their captors were in fact protecting them from outside dangers. Forcing vulnerable and persecuted villagers to praise their persecutors is simply primitive and crude propaganda. Such desperate tactics are inconsistent with the basic standards of civilized and decent people as well as the very tenets of international law.

Most deplorable of all, however, is that the coerced statement designed to praise the KDP actually places these vulnerable Assyrian villagers at significantly greater risk for reprisals by the PKK. The very proof of the non Assyrian authorship of the letter is that no Assyrian villager caught between two warring ethnic factions would willingly embrace one faction in the ongoing internecine Sorani-Behdanani-Kurmanji blood feuds in northern Iraq simply because such a position would expose them to potentially brutal reprisals from other factions e.g. the PKK. Assyrians in northern Iraq are all too familiar with the attacks from all of the factions including the recent Behdanani murder and subsequent cover up of Helen Sawa (AINA 8-11-1999), the Sorani Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) murder of two Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM) members in May, 1996 (Assyrian Human Rights Report), and the PKK massacre of seven civilians from Mangesh (AINA 12-28-1997) in 1997 to name but a few. Assyrians in northern Iraq have wisely stayed clear of the Sorani-Behdanani-Kurmanji interethnic blood feuds.

The accompanying denial by the Bet Nahrain Democratic Party (BNDP) also published in the November 14 Brayati newspaper is similarly seen as a desperate act of coercion by the KDP. The statement correctly points out that "since the great uprising in 1991... for the first time Assyrians are able to work in politics, form parties, open offices and produce all kinds of publications freely." However, the statement conveniently neglects to point out that such freedoms are strictly contingent upon towing the Sorani-Behdanani political line. Freedom of speech and the press entail freedom to speak the Behdanani or Sorani line only.

The risks of dissent in northern Iraq are by no means trivial. The recent closure of the Assyrian Patriotic Party (APP) in Dohuk (AINA 11-04-1999) served notice to Assyrian political organizations that their very existence is contingent upon what the KDP perceives as "good behavior." In other instances retaliation has been swift and deadly as in the case of Mr. Francis Shabo of the ADM.

According to Amnesty International's (AI) 1995 report on "Human Rights Abuses in Iraqi Kurdistan Since 1991" (AI Index 14/01/95), Mr. Francis Shabo was "born in Mangesh (Dohuk Province), married with four children. An Assyrian Christian of the Chaldean sect, he was an active member of the ADM. He became a Member of Parliament after the May 1992 elections and was a member of the National Assembly's Economic Committee. He was also responsible for dealing with complaints submitted by Assyrian Christians regarding disputed villages in Behdinan from which they had been forcibly evicted by the Iraqi Government and subsequently resettled by Kurds. He was shot dead by armed assailants on 31 May 1993 as he approached his home in Dohuk. No suspects were subsequently apprehended (pp. 90-91)."

Regarding Mr. Shabo's assassination, AI "had received the names of people said to be linked to the KDP's First Liq who were allegedly responsible for the killings (p. 96)." Regarding numerous victims' families' pursuit of legal justice, AI reported that "Some believed that the real perpetrators would not be brought to justice since they were protected by their respective political parties. Amnesty International shares that conviction (p. 95)."

In their discussions with the KDP, "Amnesty International expressed its skepticism to Mas'ud Barzani about the families' ability to produce hard evidence of the KDP complicity, about their willingness to initiate legal proceedings, and about the effectiveness of the official investigations. The organization said that the killings themselves deterred the victims' families, eye-witnesses, other informants and members of the judiciary from taking measures for fear of meeting the same fate (pp 96-97)."

The Sorani and Behdanani political organizations have reportedly established assassination squads to minimize dissent. According to AI, "The security apparatus of the KDP, Rekkhistini Taybeti, and that of the PUK, Dezgay Zanyari, are said to have units akin to assassination squads, whose members receive orders from senior party officials. There is also widespread conviction that such unlawful and deliberate killings could not have been perpetrated without the knowledge, consent or acquiescence of the leaders of these two parties, to whom the security and intelligence apparatuses are ultimately responsible. The names of individuals alleged to be members of assassination squads within the KDP and PUK have been submitted to Amnesty International, including by officials of both parties who supplied information about the other's security and intelligence activities (p. 94)."

Assyrians outside of Iraq are keenly aware of the difficult predicament of Assyrians living in northern Iraq as well as in Baghdad and the impossibility of safely expressing dissent. It has always been expected and understandable that vulnerable Assyrian villagers and political organizations would be coerced into signing letters written by non-Assyrians denying any mistreatment. It is even probable that future letters will even deny that the very letters have been coerced.

The sudden increase in pressure and intimidation to deny incidents such as the attacks against the Nahla Assyrian villages suggests a genuine desperation on the part of the Behdananis and Soranis. Having gained international sympathy as the victims of the Iraqi government's brutality, the usually warring political leadership of these groups is now hard pressed to explain reports showing that they have all along been similarly victimizing Assyrians in northern Iraq. By denying legitimate Assyrian human rights and political concerns, the Soranis and Behdananis as well as the Iraqi regime hope to blunt calls by Assyrians for justice in the very historic heartland of Assyria. With potential for international awareness of the victimization of Assyrians eroding worldwide sympathy for their movement, the KDP and PUK have unfortunately incorrectly concluded that a still more desperate and intense intimidation of Assyrians will somehow better advance the cause of democracy and pluralism in Iraq.