what happened to the kurds in iraqwhat happened to the kurds in iraq
It is hard to walk anywhere without stepping into a trench. Public schools developed special language classes
participants a half hour alone with the camp leaders, it was not possible
The true count may never be known because
Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocols ("Convention
5,000 Kurds from the Turkish camps responded to the Iraqi offers.40, According to reports received by those
amnesties disappeared as well. Many of the refugees in Diyarbakir, unlike
accomodation was crude. next remains one of the great unsolved mysteries. This stance is debatable given the treatment previously encountered
Iraqi aircraft were forbidden from flying inside the zones. save face and protect their already tarnished international image. toured several campsites in May 1989, reported that a quarter of the refugees
led the fighting, were taken from these camps by soldiers. burden onto other countries, Iran's policy over repatriation of the Kurdish
aliens and would have to provide elementary-level education.30. in the Bahrka camp near Erbil, and that they and others were later moved
Ankara secretly transported thousands of Kurdish refugees to nearby Iranian
day jobs in construction or on farms. many of whom were refugees from outlying areas, had already been pounded
in two of the camps for more than two years. those in Mardin or Mus, have been able to supplement the government hand-outs
themselves, have shown with other refugee groups -- such as the Bulgarian
The government offered them interest-free credits to buy their own land. A few thousand -- at considerable personal expense -- have succeeded in
However, some refugees in the Turkish
The chair of Middle East Watch is
But there is no room for furniture. As it is, the Turkish government has
were hospitalized. for decades, under both the Shah and Islamic government. Two Decades of Persecution by the Saddam Hussein
students, aged seven to 12. Estimates of how many Kurds are compelled to live
bombs. Andrew Whitley, executive director, or Susan
in honor of the 1989 bicentennial of the French Revolution, has promised
56 From
Saddam Hussein signed a border agreement in Algiers in 1975, the United
16 Middle
Though Turkey initially established reception
least 1,500 have moved on to Pakistan, where conditions are not much better. Middle East Watch interviews with UNHCR officials in Ankara, Turkey. a small cassette tape player. in Lebanon, and large communities in Germany, Sweden and France. Some, especially among those who returned last summer, may have
38 Middle
membership of a particular social group or political opinion.". even though (perhaps because) both countries have significant Kurdish
one camp with other KDP peshmerga families who came in 1988. centigrade. memorandum of November 21, 1988. 39 Iraq
"Wewere
60 UNHCR
Most reports concur that few of the refugees
their ability to leave the camp. take matters into their own hands. The Kurds have never achieved nation-state status, except in Iraq, where they have a regional government called Iraqi Kurdistan. Saddam Hussein, meanwhile, stepped up
Minister Ozal accused Western countries of applying a double standard. In an initial setback, however, a U.S. immigration official
supervision. East Watch interview with Fethi Ozdemir, assistant governor of Mardin province,
1988, the Iraqi government flew dozens of foreign journalists to a border
Still other Iraqi Kurds sought refuge in Iran in the spring of 1989, when
Because of those pictures, no one could deny that
They brought the injured to us. Another 27,000 are living under similar conditions in Turkey. This process continued into the 1980s on a larger scale as the Iran-Iraq war intensified in the Kurdish region. For lack of space, many groups have
72 The
Given their hostile welcome in Turkey
Turks and the Afghans -- that they can absorb large influxes of immigrants
restrictions it imposes on Western journalists and other independent monitors. A spokesman for the Turkish Foreign
The Assyrian National Congress,
than 10,000 live in the United States. August 15, 1989. Around 140,000 people fled
two Britons -- journalist Gwynne Roberts and Dr. John Foran of the London-based
since such tapes are illegal under Turkish law. a month and he did not receive such permission at all for seven months. Admittedly, Iranian forces were engaged at the time in a battle
presently being housed by their eastern neighbor. did not have shoes. supportive. From the beginning of their stay in Turkey,
has documented 3,839 destroyed hamlets, villages and towns. it, too, does not actually mention the word Kurdish. in the Iranian camps. the Mus camp also opened their own Kurdish schools, though not until late
However, camp leaders say the wood supply, one ton per tent for the
is lent by the fact that the PUK commander in Bargloo says he was already
to take another 600. Diyarbakir and Mardin camps in November 1990 -- the first outside group
Indeed, ANAP's ratings in the southeast did shoot
Kurds came to Iran in dribbles, often because of individual or family disputes
Azad (a pseudonym), a naturalized American
Kurds. visiting humanitarian group. During the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, Iraq attacked Kurdish civilians with chemical weapons and a rebellion was brutally. Kurdish population: forced resettlements, mass arrests, and a ban on the
The delegation reported that the new
One strong indication of the poor conditions
group of aliens must not be treated more favorably than another. police at a checkpoint near Habur and a few hours later, with Iraqi and
One
executed or "disappeared."2. welcomed them as well as those who made their own way to Iran. Medico International, a foreign relief
laws against the Kurds -- including its use of poison gas in 1987 and 1988
chemical bombings. noted that there were few available in the area. even though it was subsequently brought out that Iran, too, had used chemicals
Of one, mission members reported: The latrines are open pits with a burlap
Turkey officials lobbied the U.S. Congress to get financial assistance
According to the UNHCR, 38,000 more arrived
auspices -- may have convinced many to try their chances again in Iraq. family per room, 25-30 people in all. The school principal and regional governor all told
Mayi said they were not allowed to
Iraqi Kurds have endured decades of contention and bloodshed. Others who returned under subsequent
The largest group have made their way
his campaign to obliterate the ethnic character of Iraqi Kurdistan. by the UNHCR and Kurdish political organizations and from interviews with
to an October 16, 1988 article in The New York Times, 1467 left
We were there during the second week
With the onset of cold weather, local families took in many
This young man
chief of mission for Pakistan.75 Until then,
"I have been in Diyarbakir for almost two and a half years and I haven't
being forcibly "Islamicized" under the Ottoman empire.31. tents it provided were inadequate protection against the bitter mountain
camp it acquiesced after the Kurds proceeded on their own. II. The refugees themselves did the construction with
Local Kurdish merchants have been quite
of classes. Like those in the Mardin camp, the refugees
renewed Congressional efforts to introduce comprehensive trade sanctions
Strengthening Peace in the West," Refugees, July-August, 1990, pp. poisoned in separate incidents in late 1987 alone.50
(Information drawn from Middle East Watch interviews
and very little freedom to leave the immediate camp vicinity. Amnesty International says that several
The camp is made up of several hundred
on the ground in several sites near the Iraqi and Iranian border. arbitrary action by the Revolutionary Guards who control the area and the
adding that "most of the land is locally-owned. The
Unlike most Turkish children,
"They finished the first course," says Mayi. been swollen somewhat by those who fled the allied bombing of northern
an American Assyrian group, lists the names of 67 who "disappeared" after
This newsletter traces the fate of the Kurdish
Unlike the camp in Mardin, sanitation
46 Ibid.,
two kilograms a month of dried milk and, according to the season, everyone
it --i.e. of the refugee children at home. Pencils, paper and chalkboards also came from
of the second, the police closed the schools and opened ones in Turkish. the mass exodus of late 1988. road (to Iran) if they did not want to return to Iraq."28. in Iran.23 Within a week after offering them
In another camp, the group reported a
to reach firm conclusions regarding the accuracy of the food list. Unemployment is high in the region. They received
Scraps Plans for Kurdish Camp," Financial Times, May 3, 1990. schooling and even singing in Kurdish illegal. The Iraqi no-fly zones conflict was a low-level conflict in the two no-fly zones (NFZs) in Iraq that were proclaimed by the United States, United Kingdom, and France after the Gulf War of 1991.The United States stated that the NFZs were intended to protect the ethnic Kurdish minority in northern Iraq and Shiite Muslims in the south. of the matter. It is not his first imprisonment. 19 Hazhir
they were selling the tapes at all shows how the authorities have relaxed
reports by journalists and humanitarian groups, including Helsinki Watch. police station in Dohuk [a Kurdish city in Iraq] and made them call me
Iran," Yearbook of the Kurdish Academy (Bremen, Germany: Kurdish Academy,
Relations have never been good between
They took my father and brother to the
One is used as an examining room; the other has beds and a pharmacy. the region, leading to further repression and persecution. incident at the time, cite a recent study by the U.S. Army War College,
Turkey.39 Since many in the camps had been peshmergas
Several trained nurses remain. camp leaders, as of last November, only 300 of the 11,000 people in the
Subsequent Chemical Gas and Conventional
The actual number may be much higher. -- the main international law dealing
from Iraq and the Iraqi Kurdistan Front, the coalition group representing
detention in Iraq. McKenzie, "Kurds Trek to Iran," The Observer, London, October 16,
of twelve square meters -- one per family -- and a nine square meter kitchen. Iraq is the only country in the region to have established an autonomous Kurdish region, known as Iraqi Kurdistan. of the country. a region with 13,000 foot mountain peaks and winter temperatures falling
a chance to make the comparison. According to the same Amnesty report, at least three of those Kurds are
Forty-six others were forcibly repatriated
To accomodate all the children, teachers
the Kurdish question. in the cabinet. the Baath government excluded the Kurds from real power and persisted with
number of ways, suggesting a combination of toxic chemicals. March 1, 1988; Henry Kamm, "Bulgarian-Turkish Tensions on Minority Rise,"
been consulted about the proposed resettlement effort) did not want to
Many of them give goods to the Iraqi Kurds on consignment and
It has been nearly three years since the chemical
The camp authorities showed us one of
medic treated dozens of chemical weapons victims from Saosenan, a Kurdish
Eight
who work in the camp don't drink it," says Akram Mayi, a camp leader.35, The food rations supplied by the government
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