SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) President Bafel Tabani on Saturday expressed his “heartfelt” condolences over the death of United Kingdom’s MP Ann Clwyd.
Former UK’s Labour MP Ann Clwyd and a close friend of Kurds has died at the age of 86 today.
“I’m deeply saddened by the death of Ms. Clwyd, an old friend of Kurds, as well as late President Mam Jalal Talabani,” PUK’s Talabani said.
“We won’t forget Ms. Clwyd’s support during the harsh stage of the Kurdish struggle, and advocating the Kurdish people’s rights, and we are remembering her with utmost respect and loyalty,” he said.
“I extend my deepest condolences and sympathy to her family and colleagues and we share this grief,” he added.
Clwyd represented the Cynon Valley constituency for 35 years and became the oldest woman to sit in the UK’s House of Commons before standing down in 2019.
She held many political posts including shadow secretary of state for Wales and chairwoman of the Parliamentary Labour Party.
Clwyd was renowned as a close ally and firend of the Kurds, especially during times of hardship.
During the 1990s, she traveled to the Iraqi-Turkish border to witness the plight of the Kurds who were subjected to many cruel crimes by the former Iraqi regime of Baath.
As a member of the International Development Select Committee of the UK’s parliament from 1997 to 2005, she again raised concerns about the situation in Iraq, and the then Prime Minister Tony Blair made her a special envoy on human rights there in the run-up to the 2003 invasion.
