Tahir D. OB
(Con'td) What is the PKK ? Who is Abdullah Öcalan ?
Mon Feb 27, 2006 02:33
In recent years, it has become increasingly evident that terrorism and drug trafficking are intertwined. The terms "narco-terrorism" and "narco-terrorists" have started to gain circulation in describing the link between terrorist organizations and narcotics smugglers. This fact is illustrated by certain international documents. The UN Convention Against Illicit Traffic In Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (1988) refers to the relationship between illicit drug traffic and other organized criminal activities which undermine the stability, security and legitimacy of sovereign states.
Paragraph 5 of the UN International Narcotics Control Board (INCB)'s 1992 report points out that "illicit cultivation of narcotic plants and illicit trafficking in drugs continue to be a threat to the political, economic and social stability of several countries. Links appear to exist between illicit cultivation and drug trafficking and the activities of subversive organizations in some countries." The 1993 INCB report draws attention to the organic connections between drug cartels and terrorist organizations, and also to the globalization of drug smuggling. The successive INCB reports point out that these drug cartels concentrate their activities in ethnically and economically troubled regions of the world. It is no coincidence that terrorist organizations thrive in the very same regions. The Vienna Declaration and Program of Action adopted at the World Conference on Human Rights (25 June 1993) stresses that "the acts, methods and practices of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations as well as linkage in some countries to drug trafficking are activities aimed at the destruction of human rights, fundamental freedoms and democracy, threatening territorial integrity, security of states and destabilizing legitimately constituted governments, and the international community should take the necessary steps to enhance cooperation to prevent and combat terrorism."
The Final Communiqué of the Council of Europe Pompidou Group 2nd Pan-European Ministerial Conference (Strasbourg, 4 February 1994) underlines the fact that "considering the continuous increase in and the spread of drug trafficking incidents, the involvement of violent organizations in such activities constitute a serious threat to the contemporary society" (Art.9), and thus, "it is vital for the security forces to combat terrorism effectively" (Art.l5).
The UN Declaration on Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism adopted at the 49th session of the General Assembly, underlines the concern by the international community at the growing and dangerous links between terrorists groups, drug traffickers and their paramilitary gangs which have resorted to all types of violence, thus endangering the constitutional order of States and violating basic human rights. This Declaration also emphasizes the desirability of closer cooperation and coordination among States in combating crimes closely connected with terrorism, including drug trafficking, unlawful arms trade, money laundering and smuggling of nuclear and other potentially deadly materials.
PKK's Involvement in Drug Trafficking
The 1992 annual report of the United States Department of State Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, entitled "The International Narcotics Control Strategy" (INCS) proposes that the European drug cartel is controlled by PKK members. Likewise, the 1996 INCS report underlines the fact that the terrorist PKK uses heroin production and trafficking to support its acts of terror. The 1998 report, pointing to persistent reports of PKK's involvement in narcotics trafficking through Turkey, reiterates that the PKK not only uses "taxes" extracted from narcotics traffickers and refiners to finance its operations, but "may be more directly involved in transporting and marketing narcotics in Europe" as well.
A 1995 report prepared by the Drug Enforcement Agency of the US Department of Justice emphasizes that the PKK is engaged in drug trafficking and money laundering activities and is well-established in the production of almost all kinds of opium products and their smuggling. The revenues from these activities, the report continues, are used for purchasing firearms, munitions and other equipment used by the terrorists. The report cites other sources of revenue of the PKK as extortion, robbery and counterfeiting. In "Political Violence and Narco-Trafficking", a booklet published by the Paris Institute of Criminology in October 1996, PKK's narcotics network and its functioning are detailed; the amount of narcotics captured by the European security forces are quoted; and the
PKK's role in drug trafficking is thus documented.
The involvement of the PKK in all stages of drug trafficking has been further documented in a conference held by Dr. François Haut of the Paris Institute of Criminology in Brussels on 25 April 1997. It is stated that the PKK is engaged in producing, refining and marketing of drugs and has contacts in numerous countries. The PKK's "turnover" from drug trafficking is estimated at "millions of US dollars". Dr. Haut notes that the problem of narcotics trafficking has entered the Parisian suburbs thanks to the PKK, which he thinks is responsible for 10 to 80 percent of the heroin smuggled to Paris. Similarly, a 1996 report prepared by Jean Claude Salomon, François Haut and Jean-Luc Vannier for the Paris Institute of Criminology, utilizing such reliable and impartial sources as the Interpol, British NCIS and the national police agencies of the EU member states, notes that the narcotics route that runs through Turkey to the Balkans and western Europe benefits the "separatist" organizations of Turkish/Kurdish origin and the PKK militants and their intermediaries.
The March 1997 issue of "The Geopolitical Drug Dispatch," a monthly report prepared by the " Observatoire Geopolitique Des Drogues" points to the role of the PKK in the smuggling of drugs through the "Balkan route" and emphasizes that the terrorist organization has started using Romania and Moldavia, positioned along this route, as its rearward bases. The report also states that the Turkish traffickers arrested in these countries are of Kurdish origin and thus that many criminal activities attributed to Turkish individuals or groups "are in fact carried on by Kurds, usually with links to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)." The report continues to point out that the PKK often hides behind its umbrella organizations, such as the ERNK and business, youth and women's associations. To illustrate, it is noted in the report that "the ERNK business group in Romania, called the Association of Eastern Businessmen, is an excellent cover for the illicit activities of the PKK which has tight control over the drug deals as the local PKK leader also heads the ERNK."
Last but not least, the final report of the thirty-third session of the Sub-commission on Illicit Drug Traffic and Related Matters in the Near and Middle East, held under the auspices of the UN International Drug Control Program (UNDCP) in Beirut from 29 June
to 3 July 1998, noted that "there were clear linkages between some narco-terrorist organizations, for example, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), and other organized transnational criminal groups."
Turkey's position astride the "Balkan route" makes it a significant transit point for narcotics. Using this route, the PKK smuggles morphine base and heroin from Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan into Turkey across Turkey's eastern borders. Since the late- 1980s, the terrorist organization has, instead of trafficking externally-produced heroin, opted for a more profitable way of producing heroin from non-heroin opiates. To this end, the PKK refines base morphine into heroin in mobile laboratories near Istanbul and in the southeastern parts of Anatolia. The PKK also cultivates opium and cannabis in the Beka valley (Lebanon) and in the isolated regions of southeastern Anatolia and northern Iraq.
Narcotics smuggling therefore constitutes a major part of the PKK's financial apparatus, alongside extortion, blackmailing, robbery, arms smuggling and illicit labor trafficking. The PKK is actively involved in all phases of narcotics trafficking, from the producing and processing of the drugs to their smuggling and marketing. The revenues gained from illicit drug dealings and marketing are channeled to funding its arms purchases, which is required to sustain its terrorist activities.
PKK's involvement in narcotics trafficking is thus now well-documented. Below there are some further examples compiled from the reports of the foreign media and foreign or Turkish security authorities which conclusively indicate PKK's role in drug trafficking.
Foreign Press Reports
In January 1992, the Bremen Police arrested a "Kurd" selling drugs. The police found a bunch of keys in his pocket, which belonged to an apartment where "Kurds" lived. Hanging on the walls of the said apartment were posters of the PKK and its leader
Abdullah Öcalan. The police also found some clues suggesting that the PKK finances its armed struggle by the heroin trade (SAT-1 TV, 24 Hours, 6 January 1992).
In 1992, a total number of 2,069 drug addicts died in Germany. In the same year, the German police apprehended some children aged 10-12, coming from southeastern Turkey and selling drugs in Hamburg. A child of 8 carrying a firearm was also arrested. All these children confessed that the PKK was using them to sell drugs, since they did not have penal responsibility. The police seized 30 kg. of heroin from a "Kurd" who was said to have transferred DM 150,000 to his partners. The estimated figure the PKK earns from the narcotics trade is more than 56 million DM (VOX TV ; Germany, 12 February 1993).
In 1993, more than 50 PKK members were arrested by the Essen Police of Germany. The Federal Criminal Department in Wiesbaden found out that the PKK was organizing drug trafficking in Germany and the narcotics trade in Hamburg, Bremen, Frankfurt and Essen was under the control of the PKK (German Daily "NRZ," 30 March 1993). The Hamburg Criminal Police arrested a band of Kurdish drug smugglers on 15 September 1993. 11-year-old children, who were also arrested with the other members of the band, later confessed to the police that the PKK illegally brought them from Turkey to Germany in order to make them sell drugs for the organization (Hamburg Local TV Broadcast, 15 September 1993).
Three years of intensive police investigation by the Slagelse Police and the Narcotics Section of the National Police Force in Denmark resulted in the solution of several armed robberies whose spoils were used to finance narcotics purchases. The police captured a Danish person, who had links with two Turkish narcotics kingpins living in Denmark. During the trial the close relationship between these people and the PKK was proven. The superintendent Niels Bech of the National Police Force expressed that large parts of the profits from the narcotics sales in Denmark have returned to Turkey. In one case DDK 140,000 were sent to Turkey and kilos of heroin was sent to Europe in return (Danish Daily, "Berlingske Tidende," 31 October 1993).
Two young PKK members (aged 14 and 16) were caught by the police selling drugs at the Trabrennbahn Train Station near Wandsbeck on 26 September 1994 ("Bild-Hamburg" 28 September 1994).
On 5-6 October 1994 the "Bild" reported that narcotics were being distributed from Jork in Alten Land to Northern Germany and that the Kurdish dealers transferred 15 million DM to their collaborators in Turkey.
On 24 October 1994 the German magazine "Focus" wrote that in the last 9 years 315 PKK members were involved in drug trafficking around Europe, 154 of whom were captured in Germany.
Ralf Brottscheller, the Senator of Interior of Bremen, accused the PKK of extortion and organized narcotics smuggling ("Focus," 18 September 1995). In France, the Aulnay Sous Bois Public Security Units and Paris Bureau of Combating Narcotics Trafficking conducted an operation which was completed after long and careful preparations of 18 months. 30 people involved in narcotics trafficking on behalf of the PKK and the Mafia active in France and Belgium were taken into custody after the operation (French Press, 4 November 1996).
The Belgian Gendarmerie raided a camp in Zutendaal/Genk, in which the PKK militants were being trained, and apprehended 35 people, including children and some internationally wanted criminals ("Arnhemse Courant," 22 November 1996). The administrators of a facade company helping the PKK's activities in France were taken into custody in Paris (French Press, 25 February 1997).
The "Observatoire Geopolitique Des Drogues" noted in its monthly report that the biggest heroin seizure in Hungary to date was made on December 12, 1996, aboard a Turkish bus belonging to the Toros Line company. The Turkish traffickers, caught with 42 kg. heroin turned out to be "Kurds." The report mentions the case of a Romanian citizen who, upon his arrest with 2 kg. heroin by the Turkish police in Edirne in September 1995, admitted that he was running for the PKK drugs in one direction and explosives in the other.
The report also notes that 65 percent of the drugs confiscated by the Romanian customs officers are found on passenger vehicles and that "every time Romanian police make a drug haul at a Turkish company, Kurds are involved" ("The Geopolitical Drug Dispatch", No. 65, March 1997).
A high level member of the PKK, known as the PKK chief in the Hannover area, was arrested in Berlin. He had been wanted by the German police on charges of arson attacks, and damage to private property. The police found out evidence regarding the PKK’s involvement in illicit labor trafficking ("Berliner Zeitung" 4 April 1997). 20 refugees were arrested in a police raid on a refugee hostel which was discovered to be a PKK base, in Grimma, Bahren. The operation was conducted jointly by the German police and experts from the Federal Criminal Department. The police confiscated various fire arms, thousands of DM and receipts. These immigrants were actively involved in the activities of the PKK and its facade branches (German Press, 4 April 1997). The Bavarian police conducted a series of operations against the PKK militants in refugee camps, arrested 2, and took into custody 17 of them (Statement by Straubing Police Directorate dated 17 June 1997).
The PKK transfers people, weapons and drugs through the FRY (Former Republic of Yugoslavia) and purchases weapons in return (Croatian daily "Vjesnik" August 1997). The "Focus" magazine remarked on 23 March 1998 that members of the PKK invested the money laundered from drug trafficking and extortion in the real estate market in Celle, Germany.
On August 1, 1998, the Croatian and Slovenian security forces jointly confiscated 38 kg. of heroin in a vehicle bound for western Europe. According to the Croatian reports, the shipment of the heroin was realized by Turkish citizens "who are most probably members of the PKK" This is consistent with the statements made by Slovenian security forces who have pointed to a "reasonable suspicion" that a member of the PKK is involved in the smuggling (Croatian and Slovenian press reviews, 6 August 1998).
Four "Kurdish" people were captured with 2.6 kg. heroin, the largest amount of narcotics ever captured in west Norway. It is thought that the four people caught were merely couriers and that the trafficking was carried out by a "Turkish/Kurdish" network (Bergen, 7 August 1998).
"…The PKK has financed its war against Turkey by extortion and the sale of heroin, and according to British security service sources it is responsible for 40 percent of the heroin sold in the European Union…" (British weekly magazine "The Spectator", 28 November-5 December 1998 issue).
Reports of Foreign Police and Foreign Officials
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- (Con'td) What is the PKK ? Who is Abdullah Öcalan ? —Tahir D. OB, Mon Feb 27 02:36
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