Title: COLLUSION, CONSPIRACY & CORRUPTION:AN “ON THE GROUND” REPORT INTO TURKISH WAR CRIMES AND USE OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS
Author: Steve Sweeney
Place of publication:
Publisher: PEACE IN KURDISTAN
Release date: May 2022
INTRODUCTION
Steve Sweeney is a journalist from Britain’s Morning Star newspaper and spent more than a year living in Slemani in Iraqi Kurdistan. He is working on a book titled Bashur: Kurdish resistance movements in Iraqi Kurdistan.
This report was compiled using information gained from numerous meetings and trips across the region over a two year period including the Qandil mountains,Ranya, Kuna Masi, Makhmour refugee camp, Shengal, Dukan, Kalar, Halabja, Duhok, Erbil and the Medya Defence Zones.Steve was able to meet with local politicians, journalists, medical staff, NGOs, activists and security officials along with military commanders, peshmerga forces and guerrilla fighters along with local residents of the many towns and villages he visited.
He does not claim to be an expert on Kurdish issues however has reported extensively from the ground on the impact of Turkey’s invasion and occupation and the intolerance of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to any form of dissent.
Summary
Turkey has bombarded Iraqi Kurdistan’s Duhok province for more than a year to global silence. The main victims of Operation Claw Lightning are civilians.It has been accused of hundreds of chemical attacks yet the OPCW and world bodies have so far refused to send a fact-finding team to the area.
Medics, peshmerga, NGOs, Kurdish officials and villagers all state clearly their belief that chemicals have been used.Testimonies from health officials claim they have been threatened and forced to
Samples of soil, clothing and hair have been collected from the affected areas, but there has been a refusal to test them for the presence of chemicals.Turkey’s military operation has seen the construction of many new military bases linked by a network of roads that also lead across the border. The expansion has led to charges of a de facto occupation.[1]