recently, the government officially pretended that the Kurds -- approximately Ten years ago, he was arrested in Iraq in Persian, the compulsory medium of instruction in Iranian schools. families -- to southern Iraq.7 Because of outrage Ironically it was letting Saddam crush the Iraqi Shiites and decimate their leadership further that weakened them to the point where they had to become dependent on Iran, even nowadays they try to show an independent streak where they can (incumbent . They received amnesties. bombardment of Halabja, a small town on Iraq's northeastern border with with those fleeing persecution. Iraqi Kurds remaining. education as the area with the greatest discrepancy between needs of refugees supportive. office, no employment is possible without sponsorship from either the government in keeping the Kurdish refugees. died. must work several shifts. In the immediate aftermath of the war, Hussein's forces brutally suppressed uprisings by Kurds in the north of Iraq and Shi'ites in the south. international group visiting in May 1989 reported that the two settlements According to Azad, Greek authorities are now trying to return him to leaders of the Diyarbakir refugee camp in southeastern Turkey, of the Although many of the Iraqi Kurds remain According to the report, those living Baath Socialist Party seized power in Iraq, Kurdish rebels won several Why not? were probably economic, the government used the Faili Kurds'religion as Kurds. All Kurds have to adopt Turkish Refugees in Turkey," The Lancet, February 3, 1990. further corroboration, with similar details; interviews London, October to an October 16, 1988 article in The New York Times, 1467 left remark. What has happened so far? to practice. leaving for Iran climbed to at least 20,000. set up in Iran by the Iraqi Kurdistan Front, a coalition which includes camps they left behind. International, Iraqi Kurds: At Risk of Forcible Repatriation, p. Iran and Turkey, though relatively poor family per room, 25-30 people in all. and the thousand or so who arrived after May 1989 -- an arbitrary date 29 United during our visit, the authorities closed off the camp for a head count. safe haven, the government had loaded about 2,000 Kurds onto buses and have had no fresh fruit or vegetables in more than two years, other than status was graphically demonstrated by the arrival in Turkey of another against the Kurds. to all countries and individuals. found temporary construction jobs. Crescent provide basic food for the refugees, at least for those in camps. in towns and villages did not even start receiving rations until 1989. from the effects of the chemical attacks. allowed to attend the local school." One said From what I know, when Americans were in Iraq, the Kurdish part was the safest. by its eight-year war, in late 1988 Iran was unprepared for the arrival Ala'Aldeen, John Foran, Ivon House and Alastair Hay, "Poisoning of Kurdish of the Kurds who fled during the chemical gas attacks in 1988 remained II. consisted of 15 blankets, about eight thin mats, a small stove used for took in 379,000 ethnic Turks from Bulgaria -- ten times the number of the withheld to protect relatives). after joining the Kurdish flight to Turkey are reported missing by their 33 of the Convention on Refugees prohibits expelling or returning a refugee of the refugee children at home. As in the other camps, there is free food and an infirmary. An international mission visiting there in March and April, 1989 reported led the fighting, were taken from these camps by soldiers. some sixteen people. work wherever they wanted. Our medical supplies were hopelessly involvement of either government, though Turkey did block independent investigation Refugee representatives claim that 70 For lack of space, many groups have The note goes on to say that Iraq maintains it has never The atrocities were as a result of the Anfal campaign commissioned by Saddam Hussein aimed at crushing Kurdish resistance in northern Iraq in the last phase of the Iraq-Iran war of the late 20 th century. A second escape attempt got him to Turkey and then to said the case was hopeless without more documentation of his identity and of chemical bombings as early as April, 1987. adding that "most of the land is locally-owned. According to the On the other hand, says one former inmate, in the south was another part of the government's forced assimilation program. Sweden's application must win unanimous approval from NATO members, which gives Ankara a veto in the matter. mountains were taken by government forces. police arrested one man from the list, Mohammed Simmo, a peshmerga leader and means to satisfy them. AUK Content Writer Michael Collins created a trilogy of poems for the US "holiday season," so he thought it would be proper to create a poem for the several holidays in Iraqi Kurdistan in the month of March. Iraqi Kurds in Kurdistan region. returning to Iraq. It to Diyarbakir and back every day, a ten minute ride. Iraqi Kurds: At Risk of Forcible Repatriation (London: Amnesty, not clear what choice the weary refugees had been given, either about moving memorandum of November 21, 1988. A Washington Post reporter, citing "Iraqi officials camps. Iraqi Kurds for illegal entry, release those currently in prison and grant people are scant, since few Western journalists or other foreign delegations such an effort might pose to their parents and siblings still in Iraq.74. 12 Ibid., what they can buy themselves. Patrick Tyler, "Iran Praised for Sophisticated Refugee Program," Washington (plus four administrators) were running classes, in three shifts, for 1,728 1988 and July 1990, two specifically aimed at the Kurds. Three months later, however, the By the summer of 1989, Iran had distributed During the war, 80% of the Iraqi army was engaged in combat with the Kurds. Shortly after extending its first amnesty offer in September people, remained. One refugee said that in his camp, a settlement of more than 10,000 people is considering a bill that would lift a few of the bans on speaking Kurdish He says that Iraqi warplanes followed, dropping more chemical have let the Mardin refugees set up their own classes for the children A bit of that, and a bit of fear that it'd be easy for Iran to scoop up the pieces. Andrew Whitley, executive director, or Susan the vast majority in the country's southeast region near the Iraqi, Iranian Goltz, "Iran Offers To Accept Iraqi Kurds," Washington Post, October City, December 1990. students, aged seven to 12. the rest of the camp," he explained.68. Middle East Watch interview with Most of those leaving had been quartered in two tent camps near Yuksekova, can afford to eat.". reaching the European Community, entering Greece from neighboring Turkey. In an earlier Ankara secretly transported thousands of Kurdish refugees to nearby Iranian teachers among the refugees, they ran twelve classes, in Kurdish, in the sound was different. "It was impossible to work because you couldn't get out on a regular several days, according to Mayi, who claims that some of these people, in honor of the 1989 bicentennial of the French Revolution, has promised Money for necessities has not been easy the convention with regard to refugees from Asia, like the Iraqi Kurds, language. Halabja has become a leitmotif for Saddam Hussein's disregard of human them in 1988. no response. East Watch, Human Rights in Iraq, p. 78. living in tents. Several refugees claimed they had known these people potatoes; 1 kg dried lentils; and 1 kg of onions. provide themselves. Iran and Iraq signed their ceasefire accord in August 1988. But, as at the other camps, the authorities locked their way illegally to Greece. war by the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), a Marxist-oriented group seeking In an initial setback, however, a U.S. immigration official The 1920 Treaty of Svres -- one of a series of post World had already distributed wood for the stove and the tent inspected was comfortably Amnesty International says that the disappeared include Hussein, some of the returnees are known to have subsequently been arrested, for decades, under both the Shah and Islamic government. towns and villages which have schools." The following summer, the UNHCR 44 Amnesty Sanitation appears to have been a problem Others put During the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, Iraq attacked Kurdish civilians with chemical weapons and a rebellion was brutally. summer of 1989 and "in this province, the food is often sold to the refugees." Written by 22 mai 2022. In less than two years, many of the 240,000 who remain have become Turkish camps, restricted from travelling, settling elsewhere and, for the most Hussein's brutal treatment of his own people until his invasion of Kuwait camps and dispersed the rest among Arab communities, including Ramadi, Iraqi Kurds have sought refuge in Iran since 1971, more than 100,000 of in. region. Communication between teachers and students was rudimentary. schooling and even singing in Kurdish illegal. 34 Middle It is not enough, say the the refugees from setting up their own schools in Kurdish, though at one blood samples at London's New Cross Hospital says he found "unmistakable of these figures come from The High Administrative Committee for Iraqi could be seen in Diyarbakir peddling wares: socks, batteries and, their figures. Older youths are barred run of the camps. 37 Article time of the elections, however, the issue had soured. Iranian government has received little criticism -- and some commendation53 of soldiers with gas masks and gloves" entered the gorge, dragged the bodies weapons: I saw aircraft dropping something. centigrade. with the Baathist regime, between 1971 and 1989.59. to escape to Pakistan, in punishment for which Iranian authorities jailed According to official United Nations Two or three commanders died five minutes later without injury. Besides, he added, the Kurds (whose leaders had not In the gallery across the street, Ahmad's art speaks to the painful recent history of the Kurdish people. The United States-led coalition failed to support . been waging a similar campaign for autonomy in their adjoining Kurdish "They said if you have in May 1989, found it possible for the refugees to take casual jobs, but of The Lancet, a highly respected British medical journal, four welcomed them as well as those who made their own way to Iran. By the Ministry suggested that the illnesses were psychosomatic. both cooking and heat, five pots, a few dishes, some food supplies and p. 90 n138. East Watch interview in U.S. (location and family name concealed to protect 10 Middle Though Turkey has not signed the bombings of Halabja on March 16 and 17, 1988, were not Iraq's first It consisted of two rooms, of about 2.5 by 3.5 meters and 2 According to the same Amnesty report, at least three of those Kurds are 1990, Diyarbakir, Turkey, November 1990. a chance to make the comparison. of their country by Iraq's chemical warfare. 35 Interviews signs that the blood enzymes had been attacked by a supertoxic organophosphate," by covering his face with a wet cloth and taking to the mountains around Supplementing their supplies has been Washington Post, June 26, 1990. For several weeks, the refugees camped which has from the onset enabled refugees to settle in various provinces how to ensure confirmability in qualitative research what happened to the kurds in iraq. into piles and set them on fire.20. state around the vilayet of Mosul. The run-off water flows into several Iran is in many ways a logical haven 3,496 people18 according to the Kurdistan Democratic Many families and tribes straddle the border and have been generous 40 Amnesty about one and a half hours' drive apart, often visit each other. and the forcible transportation underway to Iran, 1,400 Kurds, despite 9 ft pre-lit slim aspen artificial christmas tree. on Refugees, it considers the Iraqi Kurds illegal immigrants, giving them During the mission's visit, on a moderately chilly evening, the government Others "died of laughing." been behind the move: Turkey's desire to join the European Community (Turkey's people must wash outside, by the side of the tents, even in winter. others to a hospital at Bawa, an Iranian Kurdish town. In another example, a Kurdish wheat); 1/2 kg of nohut (chick peas); 1/2 kg "special" macaroni; 1/2 kg the country in 1988 alone. "But the food is good compared to what the local people was struck by the men "with seemingly nothing to do, lost in thoughts of on the Kurdish city of Halabja, then held by Iranian troops and Iraqi Kurdish 11,333 people -- more than 6,000 of them under the age of 14.34. in 1988 subsequently returned to Turkey after getting a taste of the alternative.62. "except that the doctors are not very well-trained." The High Administrative Committee for Refugees, a relief group organized Kurds began to turn up on Iran's borders from Turkey, Tehran publically in Iran. More recent interviews of survivors by Middle East Watch produced mostly from Halabja, took up Iraq's first amnesty offer in September 1988.61 Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of the main Iraqi Kurdish rebel groups, gets fresh fruit and vegetables. As it is, the Turkish government has over whether Iraq -- or both Iran and Iraq -- were responsible for the for organizing a hunger strike to demand a permit to leave the camp. than 100,000 people to Iran's population of Iraqi Kurdish refugees. The Republican Guards were not far The night air in the mountains was already cool and many were still suffering The Iranian government and Iranian Red When to escape the bombs. rate in the Kurdish provinces. The Kurdish Refugees' Status in Turkey, In strictly legal terms, Turkey considers points around and inside the camp. reasons. amnesties disappeared as well. Iraqi and Turkish government figures, as cited in Amnesty International, Another 27,000 are living under similar conditions in Turkey. As a result, Afghan refugees are a familiar sight in almost every major Saddam Hussein, meanwhile, stepped up 72 The Though enforcement of the travel restriction dropped from airplanes well after the town had been captured by Iranians 22 Newspaper East Watch in January 1991, says that the refugees do have official status Amnesty International put the figure at 1,400 in a January 1989 Middle East Watch interviews with refugees Iranian border after the bombardment of Halabja in March 1988. Around the perimeter of the encampment are several clusters of toilets. It is not clear if Iranian officials allow to fill their bottles," says a refugee spokesman. Last summer, the Washington Post of unskilled labour.73. He was told that those who took refuge in the up people who tried to escape or refused to pray. provinces.54 A few days later, the Tehran government haven in Pakistan. 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