IRAQ: Kurdish rebels have announced the end of their five-year ceasefire with Turkey because of Ankara's failure to match the truce, a news agency close to the guerrillas said yesterday.
The PKK rebels, also known as KADEK, launched their fight for an ethnic homeland in south-eastern Turkey in 1984.
More than 30,000 people have died in the conflict, though violence largely subsided after the 1999 capture of rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan.
"It is announced that the unilateral ceasefire has come to an end as of September 1st and that the ceasefire can only continue bilaterally," KADEK was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the Mezopotamya News Agency.
Any resurgence of the rebellion in the south-east could have implications for relations with neighbouring Iraq and the Kurds who live there, as well as for Turkey's EU application.
EU members criticised Turkish military operations in the 1980s and 1990s, raising accusations of torture and other abuses. Ankara shrugged off the KADEK statement.
"The terror group's shouting in recent days is the result of panic stemming from the partial amnesty law," Turkish Foreign Minister Mr Abdullah Gul told reporters during a visit to Vienna.
Turkey began implementing a partial amnesty for the rebels this month, but KADEK says it does not go far enough.
The group demands that all rebels receive a full amnesty and be allowed to participate in political life.
Ankara has vowed to fight the rebels until the movement is stamped out, rejecting the ceasefire as a ruse.
Turkey keeps a few thousand troops in the northern Iraqi border area to pursue some 5,000 rebels believed to be stationed in mountain camps there.
However, the US occupation of Iraq has limited its freedom to carry out such incursions. Turkey, which is deeply suspicious of any move for independence by Iraqi Kurds, is seeking US action to crack down on the KADEK rebels while it weighs up a request from Washington to send peacekeeping troops to Iraq.
Despite the ceasefire, first called in September 1998, there have been sporadic clashes between rebels and security forces.
The Europe-based satellite station Medya TV, also close to the rebels, reported KADEK as saying that if Turkey responded with its own ceasefire by December, then a fresh truce would be possible. - (Reuters)