PRESSURE IN TRAQ
Iraq's dictatopial Aref regime, which seized power last month in a bloody coup d'etat, seems to be seeking to equivocate on th issue of autonomy for the Kurds. .
_ Mulla Mustafa al-Barzani, main leader of the Kurds in their two-year-old rebellion, sent Jalal Talabani to negotiate with Aref at Baghdad.
The nev; government, however, stalled for time. It inveighled Talabani into going to Cairo and Algiers with an Iraqi delegation which visted Nasser and Ben Bella.
When Darzani heard about this, he expressed annoyance. "Talks there have nothing to do with us," he was reported to have declared.
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At a press conference February 2C, the Kurdish leader said ™ that "If they don't declare our autonomy within the Iraqi Republic, Sen We will fight and maybe we will have to declare our indepenence,
"We are not begging for our rights," he went on. "If they don't declare our rights we will fight for them until death, and even if this should mean separation from the Iraqi Republic."
The rebellion of the “some 2,000,000 Kurds in Iraq was one of the key factors in undermining the Kassem regime which was toppled by Aref.
Meanwhile the new Iragi dictator is continuing his savage ‘ nationwide witch-hunt. “The Iraqi Communists are the worst enemies of the Arab nation and must be completely eliminated," he said in an interview published February 26 in the weekly Egyptian Rosa El Youssef. "We believe in God, while the Communists profess atheisn.” -
Accounts of the repression in Iraq continue to filter into the press. Under the label "Communist" the prisons have been filled with trade-unionists and people of the mildest social beliefs. There have been no reports of new killings but on February 25 the press reported that tanks were again patrolling the streets of Baghdad.
BELGIAN