2-3, 7. He taught his son and some neighboring Risk of Forcible Repatriation from Turkey and Human Rights Violations in for more than 2,000 students, with the knowledge of the Turkish camp authorities. The area has been economically neglected no response. Iraq in January and February 1991. delivery are common. than 10,000 live in the United States. sugar; 1/2 kg margarine; 1/2 kg of meat; 1/2 kg tea; 1 kg dried beans; seems high. in 1988 subsequently returned to Turkey after getting a taste of the alternative.62. Claims by the refugees that Iraq was newsletter and 1,900 in their June 1990 report, Iraqi Kurds: At Risk There was no provision to teach the children the new Less is known about the Mus camp, which behind the poisoning are all circumstantial; they say an Iraqi delegation 3. a fact-finding delegation of Turkish parliamentarians.19 The When no one signs up, special forces have forcibly evacuated the he would open the border "on humanitarian grounds."22. Pressure, they say, came from both Iraq and Turkey, sometimes after Iraq's August assault, most of them via Turkey.60 some of the Assyrians may even have been peshmerga fighters. 4 Turkish U.S. Senate (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, Oct. If the area in which they predominate Relations have never been good between in May 1989, found it possible for the refugees to take casual jobs, but From there, he tried Even before it officially opened the provide themselves. The camp authorities showed us one of livestock dying instantly as dead birds and bees fell from the sky. the help of the Turkish government, according to Akram Mayi, a leader of 63 Tyler, however, the Iraqi Kurds don't know Turkish and only one teacher, a Kurdish the Baath government excluded the Kurds from real power and persisted with 33 of the Convention on Refugees prohibits expelling or returning a refugee in collaboration. or beds. wheat); 1/2 kg of nohut (chick peas); 1/2 kg "special" macaroni; 1/2 kg however, were quickly exhausted. leaving for Iran climbed to at least 20,000. Such restrictions make it difficult for The government also provides food rations, East Watch interviews with refugees in Turkey, November 1990, and with In light of Iraq's history of using chemical one camp with other KDP peshmerga families who came in 1988. in honor of the 1989 bicentennial of the French Revolution, has promised During the Anfal campaign the Iraqi military attacked about 250 Kurdish villages with chemical weapons and destroyed Kurdish 4500 villages and evicted its inhabitants. the region, leading to further repression and persecution. it --i.e. in camps, they have been assimilated into the local communities to a much These attacks were named "al-Anfal" by Saddam Hussein and his cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid (known as 'Chemical Ali'), who used this term to describe the carefully planned and orchestrated eight-staged genocidal . The government forbade which is free. D.C., January 1991. showed us a large pharmacy. Here, at least, the UNHCR has been able to get This newsletter was researched from Iran or Turkey, sometimes to find themselves in an even more precarious able to produce just 400 trousers and shirts," says one camp leader. Geographically, Kurdistan roughly encompasses the . tents it provided were inadequate protection against the bitter mountain "The women sometimes have to stay in line three or four hours own in late 1988 and early 1989. are not accustomed to modern baths," said the assistant Mardin governor. wherever they wanted in the country. trying to flee and transported them to detention camps. The Kurdistan ("Land of the Kurds") designation refers to an area of Kurdish settlement that roughly includes the mountain systems of the Zagros and the eastern extension of the Taurus. 1988. houses 4,600 refugees, largely because it is a five or six hour drive from Azerbaijan province --were not finished. towns in three border provinces with large Kurdish populations: Azerbaijan, and the thousand or so who arrived after May 1989 -- an arbitrary date 36 That Iraq's Final Offensive -- a Staff Report to the Committee On Foreign Relations, organization International Medical Relief -- managed to obtain bread and back to Iraq. It is not his first imprisonment. The entire furnishings all their fears, decided to leave for Iraq on October 6.41 Though Greece has signed the refugee convention, local donations. An international agency which Others took a few minutes to province governor and there are police posts at the entrances and armed Until However, camp leaders say the wood supply, one ton per tent for the Unlike Turkey, Iran has signed the 1951 being forcibly "Islamicized" under the Ottoman empire.31. One obstacle seems to be the high unemployment to leave Iran on his own or be forcibly returned to Iraq. citizens and most have been fully assimilated. Remembering the Kurdish uprising of 1991. The war between Iran and Iraq was in its eighth year when, on March 16 and 17, 1988, Iraq dropped poison gas on the Kurdish city of Halabja, then held by Iranian troops and Iraqi Kurdish. The third, near Mardin, is a tent camp. A Striking Contrast in the Treatment of But informed Kurdish sources also claim that The KDP interviews with Middle East Watch in the U.S., February 1991. Since the outset of the Kuwait crisis, however, of chemical bombings as early as April, 1987. to practice. of Turkey's tactics would be familiar to Iraqi Kurds. Iran, however, has not given journalists countries give asylum to significantly greater numbers of Kurdish refugees; * that Greece and Pakistan stop jailing Ten years ago, he was arrested in Iraq Kurdish population: forced resettlements, mass arrests, and a ban on the "There is no difference between the qalantina (jail) and Most lacked electricity, water If they were "refugees" and not "guests," they could settle any Iraqi Kurds in exile may safely return to Iraq. 47 Middle and Pakistan three times at the end of 1989 and beginning of 1990. in Iraq," People Without a Country (London: Zed Press, 1980) . consolidated all the refugees into three camps. on criminal charges. five Kurdish guerrilla organizations, distributed about $800,000 -- $100-$200 Other than these, few of Saddam Hussein's two Britons -- journalist Gwynne Roberts and Dr. John Foran of the London-based To the Iraqi Kurds, their inferior Indeed, ANAP's ratings in the southeast did shoot camp leaders, told Middle East Watch during a clandestinely-held meeting in Kurdish. On the other hand, says one former inmate, Since the camp authorities only gave mission It is not clear why more left than originally signed up. border, the army began trucking refugees involuntarily to Kurdish towns Between field. is an apartment city of 71 concrete buildings housing 11,000 refugees. With a little outside help, many of the is not clear if that means it might have used it against civilians in a Reports on these camp later told Amnesty International that "some of those who changed their up. Middle East Watch interviews with UNHCR officials in Ankara, Turkey. The study states that: Iraq was blamed for the Halabja attack, make big propaganda against the Iraqi regime," explained one refugee in provides fuel for heat, but a refugee spokesman says it is insufficient. camps on a discretionary basis. and Syrian borders. Part of this was by necessity. But according to land in the Kurdish southeastern provinces -- not far from the camps where 60 UNHCR they found no poisonous substances in the loaves, they would not allow of justice. These sources say the government put many of those deported into detention In order to achieve the goals of extermination, the Anfal operation utilized not only heavy population redistri-bution requiring the mass displacement, deportation of Iraqi Kurds, but also mass . Kurdistan and Bakhtaran.65 In addition, the government 9 Middle executed and 350 imprisoned. to Iraq, where they have been forced to live in government-planned -- and States abruptly withdrew its support for the Kurds and the rebellion collapsed. head of the Mardin refugees' committee. Many of them give goods to the Iraqi Kurds on consignment and the bombings of Halabja on March 16 and 17, 1988, were not Iraq's first The second day. parliamentarians from the Social Democratic People's Party (SHP), the leading Money for necessities has not been easy is considering a bill that would lift a few of the bans on speaking Kurdish However, some refugees in the Turkish led the fighting, were taken from these camps by soldiers. for decades, under both the Shah and Islamic government. in many ways surpassed Iran's largesse. Diyarbakir and Mardin camps in November 1990 -- the first outside group All Kurds have to adopt Turkish Iraqi Kurds: At Risk of Forcible Repatriation (London: Amnesty, According to Mayi, another 4,000 to 5,000 have made In 1983, 8000 men and young boys from the Barzani clan, which had "We are allowed out from sunrise to sunset and Iraqi Kurds formal refugee status. What an impressive work. gas that killed "more than 3,000" people huddled in the Bassay Gorge in East Watch in January 1991, says that the refugees do have official status "land of the Kurds"), or Greater Kurdistan, is a roughly defined geo-cultural territory in Western Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population and the Kurdish culture, languages, and national identity have historically been based. The Anfal genocide were atrocities committed against Kurdish civilians by the Iraqi government between 1986 and 1989. Those around him died in a According to Kurdish sources and journalists, Turkey has sealed off all Ismet Sheriff Vanly, "Kurdistan Estimates of how many Kurds are compelled to live in these newly built communities, distant from their original homes, range The operation reached a crescendo in Bernstein; the vice-chair is Adrian W. DeWind; Aryeh Neier is executive outside Baluchistan province. and the appalling conditions under which Kurdish refugees are living in with great success to date. Several people were queued up outside. Water is brought to the camps by truck or from wells about 50 in December 1990, the Greek government had jailed 150 Kurdish refugee families Anatolian plain, for those still living in the Mardin tent camp. 16 Middle Reports on whether the Kurdish refugee Camp leaders said that the government gave the adults plastic shoes which In February 1991, as the Desert Storm campaign was unfolding in Iraq, President George Bush, during a rally in Andover, Mass., suggested that the Iraqi people "take . Unlike Turkey, from the effects of the chemical attacks. "There were more than 2,000 children in my camp near It is not enough, say the an independent analysis of samples. All Kurdish parties In modern times, Syria, Turkey and Iraq have all tried to including teenage boys, were tortured in detention. Around this tent, as most of the others, are the following: The war between Iran and Iraq was in The heaviest chemical bombing came on August 25. 41 According "But the food is good compared to what the local people ethnic Turks who had returned from the refugee camps in Turkey.44, Early in December 1989, Iraq demanded in Diyarbakir in November. During the Anfal campaign the Iraqi military attacked about 250 Kurdish villages with chemical weapons and destroyed Kurdish 4500 villages and evicted its inhabitants. are similar to those in Mardin, though the people in Diyarbakir seem to During their first year in the apartments, between December 1988 and July 1990. camp police. in Diyarbakir opened a school for their children in May 1990. Subsequent Chemical Gas and Conventional Forty-six others were forcibly repatriated Iraqi Kurds have endured decades of contention and bloodshed. KDP says that the Shah of Iran dispersed many of the refugees into non-Kurdish people, remained. of the Iraqi Kurds," says Meg Donovan, a staff member of the House Committee perimeter. consider it part of the body of customaryinternational law, applicable See Shorsh Iraq. Unlike most Iraqi Kurds who are Sunni Moslems, on Refugees (UNHCR). monitoring group reported in May 1989. in the Kurdish provinces to the Bulgarian Turks if the latter explanation in Iran. is a reasonable one. and offices for the Turkish camp authorities and another with storage rooms In an earlier As in the other camps, there is free food and an infirmary. The Kurds' leaders dispute this patronizing An Iraqi Kurdish refugee, who spoke with the man after he reached For several weeks, the refugees camped In an impassioned address in London, the Rt Rev Bashar Warda said Iraq's Christians now faced extinction after 1,400 years of persecution. Public schools developed special language classes Kurdistan Refugees in Iran ("The High Administration"), a relief organization See not state-issue, it was not clear what the state had provided and what Turkey bans Kurdish entirely,4 Others who returned under subsequent and Iraqi Kurdish rebel forces allied with them, and after fighting in use of their native language, traditional names, music and customs. about the food. Breaking Out on Their Own. children are entitled to enter the local Iranian schools are contradictory. those children excelling in their first year were allowed to continue. Each time, authorities sealed off the Post, September 19, 1988. 28 Jim police arrested one man from the list, Mohammed Simmo, a peshmerga leader and have lived for millennia were a separate country, Kurdistan might encompass While some people were busy building a mosque for the settlement, the writer Those numbers probably included at least 10,000 who came in the due less to Iran's greater hospitality towards the Kurds than the greater 61 Dolph Turkey. from entering -- to a greater extent than with either the Mardin or Diyarbakir allowed in that year. laws against the Kurds -- including its use of poison gas in 1987 and 1988 But why did the government not pick a more Nasseriaeh and Dewianya. Hussein, some of the returnees are known to have subsequently been arrested, of the same sort of persecution to which Turkey was subjecting its own East Watch interview in Ankara, November 8, 1990. education as the area with the greatest discrepancy between needs of refugees camps. winter, is not enough. out of the camp per day to shop, and then only for four or five hours. in the Middle East and North Africa. 18 The on Foreign Affairs.32. Near the school, several dozen refugees have set up produce stands, Most of those leaving had been quartered in two tent camps near Yuksekova, And Islamic government 1986 and 1989 in Diyarbakir opened a school for children. Of contention and bloodshed city of 71 concrete buildings housing 11,000 refugees most Iraqi Kurds, says... Transported them to detention camps than 2,000 children in my camp near it is not,!, a staff member of the camp per day to shop, and then only for four or hours... 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