Fleeing Refugees Say Turkmen Executed By Hussein’s Troops Iraqi Government Says Rumors Have ‘Evil Political Aims’

Turkmen refugees who fled to this town on the Iraq-Turkey border to escape an Iraqi offensive said Saturday that Saddam Hussein’s soldiers arrested dozens of their people, killing at least two.

Thousands of Turkmen, a seminomadic tribe, live among Kurds in northern Iraq under the U.S.-protected “no-fly” zone.

Saddam sent tanks into the area a week ago to oust an Iranian-backed Kurdish faction from Irbil, about 185 miles south of Zakho. Soon after, Iraqi secret police started rounding up Turkmens, the refugees said.

The Iraqi government denied Saturday that its forces had detained Turkmens in Irbil. “These are rumors prepared by circles with evil political aims,” the Information Ministry said.

But Mehmet Kemal, who fled Irbil on Tuesday, said: “They took 53 Turkmens away - at least those are the ones we know.” Kemal said two of them, leaders of the Iraqi National Turkmen Party, were executed. The party is banned as part of Saddam’s effort to subdue potential rebellion.

Hasan Ozmen, a representative of the Iraqi National Turkmen party in Ankara, Turkey, said that about 300 Turkmens were detained after Iraqi troops stormed Irbil.

Kemal said the two party leaders were among 96 people executed in Irbil after Iraqi forces stormed the city.

Mass executions have been reported by many Irbil residents and by Iraqi opposition groups, but no witnesses have been found.

Irbil, the largest city in the Kurdish enclave of northern Iraq, was quiet Saturday. Guerrillas from the Iraq-allied Kurdistan Democratic Party, or KDP, patrolled the city in pick-up trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns.

The KDP teamed up with Saddam to push the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan out of Irbil. The KDP now controls PUK installations in Irbil, including the television station.

Saddam’s incursion into the enclave prompted the United States to retaliate with missile strikes against air defense targets in southern Iraq on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The United States and Western allies established the “safe haven” to protect Kurds after they made a failed uprising against Saddam following his defeat in the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

Turkmens make up 14 percent of Iraq’s 18 million people, while the Kurds account for 19 percent. At least 100,000 Turkmens moved to the protected enclave in the last two years to escape Iraqi oppression.

Saddam does not tolerate dissent of any kind. He may have targeted the Turkmen because the Iraqi National Turkmen Party belongs to the Iraqi opposition umbrella group, the Iraqi National Congress.

Iraqi tanks and artillery were positioned 15 miles south of Irbil on Saturday. The Turkmen refugees and others say Iraqi secret police remain in the city itself.

Kadriye Mehmetemin said Saddam’s secret police went to her house Sunday night in an unsuccessful search for her husband. The next morning, the whole family fled Irbil.

Previously, the secret police had twice arrested her husband in the town of Kirkuk. When he was released the second time, they fled.

“We had fled Kirkuk three months ago fearing Saddam. Then he came to Irbil. Now, he will come here, we know,” she said as her two children watched.

Mrs. Mehmetemin is among 53 people being sheltered at a three-room house. Mattresses were jammed into the small rooms and overflowed into the kitchen, the terrace and the garden.

By Saturday, about 300 Turkmen refugees had reached Zakho.

Turkey asked its Western allies Saturday to give the Turkmens the same kind of protection they have tried to give the Kurds.

Most of the Turkmen live outside of the safe haven, but it was not clear if Turkish Foreign Minister Tansu Ciller was asking the United States to extend the no-fly zone to cover Turkmen-populated cities.