EU to put PKK, more groups on terror list -diplomat
BRUSSELS, April 26 (Reuters) - The European Union will add the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which waged an armed campaign in southeast Turkey, on its common list of "terrorist" groups despite the group changing its name, EU diplomat said on Friday.
The decision to include the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to the list next week was sure to delight EU candidate Turkey which has long pushed for tougher European action against the organisation.
Germany and the Netherlands had until now resisted Ankara's call to put the PKK on the EU list.
The PKK decided earlier this month to cease activities and change its name to the Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress, according to the Mezopotamya News Agency, which is close to the movement.
Turkey said the change of name did not mean the PKK had ceased to be "terrorist." But it was not immediately clear whether the EU's move to add the PKK to its "terror" list would mean any assets in the EU's 15 member states could be frozen following the PKK ceasing activities.
"It is true that the PKK is to be added to the list on Monday when the list is revised," one diplomat told Reuters.
The PKK launched its armed campaign for a Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984 and more than 30,000 people have died in fighting between the group and Turkish forces.
Violence tapered off after PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan was captured in 1999. He has ordered his followers to withdraw from Turkey and to seek greater cultural rights for its estimated 12 million Kurds through political means.
The EU will also outlaw Aska Tasuna, a Basque separatist group, and may also move against the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the diplomat added.
Sweden's TT news agency said other additions to the list would include Japan's Aum Shinrikyo, FARC in Columbia and Peru's Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso).
This could not be independently confirmed.
The list is part of the EU's efforts since the September 11 attacks on the United States to show a united front in the U.S.-led fight against terrorism. The bloc has also created an EU-wide arrest warrant and a common definition of terrorism.
The first version of the list issued in late December included radical Basque separatist, Northern Irish and Middle Eastern groups.
04/26/02 12:56 ET