Kurdish party reports Iranian army bombardment of border pasture areas
Ozgur Politika website, Neu-Isenburg
2 Jun 05
Text of report by German-based Kurdish newspaper Ozgur Politika
website on 2 June; subheading as published (report by Mesopotamia
News Agency’s Sherko Mahabadi in Mahabad entitled “Iranian Military
Bombs Mountain Pastures”; Mahabad is in eastern Iran, near the Iraqi
and Turkish borders)
The PJAK [Free Life Party of Kurdistan ] has announced that the
Iranian military has bombed the mountain pastures between Qandil
Mountain and East [i.e., Iranian] Kurdistan in an operation in which
thousands of troops took part. It was also reported that Iran has
been putting pressure on the people in East Kurdistan by utilizing
Village Guards and “repentants” dressed as guerrillas.
The Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK), in a statement it has issued,
has reported that Iranian state forces have staged a large-scale
operation, in which thousands of troops took part, in the mountain
pastures between Qandil Mountain and the town of Piranshahr, in East
Kurdistan. It is stated that hundreds of sheep have been killed and
a large number of houses and tents have been destroyed in the pasture
areas, which were bombed with helicopters.
The PJAK reported that, on 27 and 28 May, the Iranian army conducted
an operation against the mountain pasture areas between Qandil Mountain
and the Eastern Kurdistan town of Piranshahr.
It is reported that in the bombing, which was carried out because
PJAK guerrillas were there, peasants going up into the [summer]
pastures have suffered great material losses. It is noted that
thousands of Iranian soldiers and hundreds of Village Guards took
part in the operation.
The PJAK, noting that Iran has recently been taking the operations
it conducts in villages up into the highland pastures, pointed out
that Iran has achieved no results in these operations, which have
been staged against the PJAK, but that civilians were harmed greatly
in the two-day operation conducted in the Sheykhaisheh region.
It is reported that peasants whose sheep were killed in the operation
went to the PJAK headquarters and asked that these operations by the
Iranian military not be left without a response.
Pressure on people from “repentants”
Meanwhile, it has been reported that Iran has been exerting pressure
on the people in East Kurdistan by utilizing Village Guards and
“repentants” dressed as guerrillas. It has been learned that, after
Village Guards in the Salmas, Orumiyeh, and Mahabad regions of East
Kurdistan extorted money from the people while dressed as guerrillas,
now in Mako, Village Guards going about dressed as guerrillas, as
well as a “repentant” by the name of Ali Balkhanlu Milan, have been
forcing the people to vote in the elections.
Both Azeris and Kurds live in Mako, which is situated between Turkey,
Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Nakhchivan. It is stated that the people
of Mako have reacted against the Village Guards and “repentants” who
have been engaging in election propaganda while dressed as guerrillas.
Meanwhile, the PJAK has issued a call to the people and asked that they
not remain silent in the face of these machinations of the Iranian
state. The PJAK again called for the elections [in Iran on 17 June]
to be protested against.