US concerned over Kurdish abductions, Turkey monitors situation

US concerned over Kurdish abductions, Turkey monitors situation
Friday, June 17, 2005ANKARA - TDN with wire dispatches
The United States has "serious and credible" reports from Iraq of Kurdish mistreatment of Arabs and Turkmens in the country's north, the U.S. State Department said, while Turkey said it was closely monitoring the situation.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Namık Tan said in a statement that Ankara was closely following the situation in the northern Iraqi city and that inquiries were being carried out with U.S. and Iraqi officials.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Wednesday the United States had expressed "serious concern" over the reported conduct of the Kurds, who The Washington Post said had abducted hundreds of Arabs and Turkmens in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk and hauled them off to prisons.
McCormack would not go into the details of the report but rejected the Post's suggestion that the U.S. military backed the raids and mass detentions.
"We have had serious and credible information about allegations of extra-judicial conduct, both arrests and detentions of individuals in the northern areas of Iraq," McCormack said.
"These allegations and these reports are a very serious concern to us, and we have raised our concerns in a forthright manner with the authorities involved or who we believe to be involved," he said.
The Post said Kurdish security forces had transported hundreds of Arabs and Turkmens to prisons in the Kurdish cities of Arbil and Sulaimaniya with the backing of the U.S. military.