KURDISH ACTIVIST IS ACCUSED OF TAKING DEAD TOT'S IDENTITY - The Washington Post 7/7/20, 11(41 PM

The Washington Post

KURDISH ACTIVIST IS ACCUSED OF TAKING DEAD

TOT'S IDENTITY

By Toni Locy
April 16, 1996

To his friends in the human rights community, Kani Xulam is a gentle, peace-loving man who used
his position as the head of the American Kurdish Information Network here to speak out against
oppression of Kurds in southeast Turkey.

But to the government of Turkey, Xulam is an alleged terrorist, a leader of the rebel Kurdistan
Workers' Party or PKK, which has been battling the Turkish government in hope of creating an
independent state for the Kurdish ethnic minority.

Now Xulam is in a District jail, but not for terrorism. He has been arrested and charged with lying
on his passport applications, hiding his true identity by assuming the name of a toddler killed more
than 30 years ago in a car crash in Louisiana.

Xulam's lawyer, Daniel S. Alcorn, blames the Turkish government for Xulam's arrest and said the
United States wanted to help out an important NATO ally. A State Department official denied that
Turkey had initiated the passport inquiry, but declined to say who did.

Xulam, 36, was arrested Friday after a two-month investigation by the State Department's Bureau of
Diplomatic Security, and is being held here on charges filed in Los Angeles that accuse him of lying
on passport applications.

During a brief appearance yesterday in U.S. District Court here, Xulam waived an "identity hearing,"
thereby admitting that he is the man named in the Los Angeles warrant, Steven Barry Citron, the
name of the dead child whose identity he assumed in 1986.

Court papers say that Xulam got a U.S. passport in Steven Barry Citron's name and, beginning a
bizarre series of actions, he changed the name legally two years later to Sereno Citron. Then in 1993,

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/04/16/kurdish-a…-of-taking-dead-tots-identity/9e702ae2-f889-41bf-bbc6-e268f98f112c/ Page 1 of 3
KURDISH ACTIVIST IS ACCUSED OF TAKING DEAD TOT'S IDENTITY - The Washington Post 7/7/20, 11(41 PM

he changed the name again, this time to Kani Xulam. His real name is believed to be Namet Gunduz,
Reuter reported.

According to court papers, State Department agents interviewed the grandmother of Steven Barry
Citron, who told them that her 18-month-old grandson was killed in a car crash along with his
mother, father and sister in 1963.

Xulam, wearing round wire-rim glasses and a prison-issued jumpsuit, waved to about a half-dozen
friends, who showed up to support him when he appeared in court yesterday.

He is well-known in Washington, where he has headed the Kurdish information office for three or
four years, and has friends in such groups as Amnesty International and the Lawyers Committee for
Human Rights. His other supporters in the courtroom included a nun, who has known him since
they both lived in California, and the wife of a congressman.

Those friends say there either has been some terrible mistake, or the government of Turkey has
succeeded in getting its powerful NATO ally, the United States, to help it silence one of its most vocal
critics. "This is the sort of thing that happens in Turkey, not the United States," said Maryam Elahi
of Amnesty International.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson will hold another hearing Wednesday on prosecutor
Valinda Jones's request for pretrial detention. Jones said the government wants Xulam held without
bond because he might flee the United States if released. Ultimately, he would face trial on the
passport fraud charge in Los Angeles.

Kathryn Porter, wife of Rep. John Edward Porter (R-Ill.) and a human rights activist, said she has
known Xulam for three years, and has worked with him on trying to help Kurds in southeast Turkey.
"He is a gentle, loving man," she said. "He's been to my home many times. He's played with my
granddaughter."

Porter said that politically active Kurds sometimes assume false identities when they come to the
United States to protect family members left behind. Staff writer Thomas W. Lippman contributed
to this report.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/04/16/kurdish-a…-of-taking-dead-tots-identity/9e702ae2-f889-41bf-bbc6-e268f98f112c/ Page 2 of 3
KURDISH ACTIVIST IS ACCUSED OF TAKING DEAD TOT'S IDENTITY - The Washington Post 7/7/20, 11(41 PM

! 0 Comments

Get a year of access for $29. Cancel at any time.

Get this offer now

Already a subscriber? Sign in

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/04/16/kurdish-a…-of-taking-dead-tots-identity/9e702ae2-f889-41bf-bbc6-e268f98f112c/ Page 3 of 3