Kurds melt away in face of Turkish offensive

On the mountain road leading to the village of Sindi, Kurdish guerrillas of the PKK exploded a mine early last week to stop the advance of Turkish tanks and trucks. The explosion tumbled hundreds of tons of earth and a retaining wall across the road, which Turkish soldiers were yesterday struggling to clear.

Despite the landslide, Sindi, perched above a waterfall in the depths of the Kurdish mountains, had fallen quickly, according to a senior Turkish officer.

Few signs could be seen from a Turkish military helicopter that the Turkish Kurds, who had sought refuge there, had anywhere resisted strongly. On the snow-covered mountain which towers above Sindi, Turkish soldiers said they killed 21 PKK guerrillas out of a total of 182 dead in the week since 35,000 Turkish troops advanced into northern Iraq.

It is a mysterious war. The Turkish tanks and self-propelled howitzers supported by helicopters and fighter bombers seem out of proportion to any resistance by the several thousand PKK whom the Turkish army has been fighting since 1984. Almost everywhere they retreated into the mountains further south long before the Turkish forces arrived.

At the main Turkish base at Silopi in Turkey, the senior officer, who refused to give name or rank, showed off captured weapons - an anti- aircraft gun used to defend Sindi,and 200 old sub-machine guns and rifles. Anybody firing a mortar on display might not have survived, judging by the rust inside the barrel. As the officer spoke about the booty, a soldier standing nearby spoke of the progress of the present campaign: "Twenty days before, they [PKK guerrillas] knew everything, so they went away."

That is confirmed by the low casualties. At Sindi, the Turks say the PKK had a hospital inside a cave below the village but no wounded guerrillas were captured. Ten minutes' helicopter flight away at the most advanced Turkish position at Aunkati, a heavily fortified hillock on a plain surrounded by mountains, the commander said he had captured two PKK rebel camps and killed two guerrillas.

The skirmishing had taken place up a steep valley called Pirbella, where, amid pink cherry trees coming into flower, the Turkish army had established five camps. As the snow has melted, the tanks' tracks have turned the road into a muddy swamp beside which Turkish soldiers have erected small tents. At the top of the road was a small field of hashish, allegedly grown by the PKK.

There is no doubt that the Turkish army is in total control of the positions it took at the start of last week. The soldiers, all from lite units, look relaxed and confident. But the PKK, positions, so firmly marked on maps in the military spokesman's office in Diyarbakir, appeared to have been mobile camps, easily constructed and as easily abandoned.

As they retreated, only the heavy supplies - mortar bombs and mines - were left behind.

The right thing, page 15