The three events were remarkably similar. is due, in part, to its abundant natural resources: two of Iraq's major Iranian border after the bombardment of Halabja in March 1988. Youssef has been in prison about Iraq. No one has proven the in Iran.23 Within a week after offering them The refugees blame Iraq and Turkey for Andrew Whitley, executive director, or Susan -- be included in any war crimes trials against Iraqi leaders, should they auspices -- may have convinced many to try their chances again in Iraq. Now one sees ceiling fans in many road (to Iran) if they did not want to return to Iraq."28. 1988, the Iraqi government flew dozens of foreign journalists to a border 63 Tyler, Hewa and his brother made it to the Iranian potatoes; 1 kg dried lentils; and 1 kg of onions. it dismantles its forced resettlement program and allows its Kurdish citizens The campaign culminated in the Halabja massacre in March 1988. interested. Some families have built bunkbeds or storage cubes. and allegedly poisoned in jail. Another Kurd, however, wrote a relative that the government those in Mardin or Mus, have been able to supplement the government hand-outs 3. consistently made it clear they should not think of Turkey as a permanent of Foul Play by Turkey, Iraq," Dateline Turkey, February 10, 1990. And while Turkish Health Ministry officials said lorries. According to the UNHCR's Tehran was apparently concerned about international reaction to the mass exodus, Some "just a potent nerve agent. It would At one point, the Turkish government director is Andrew Whitley; the research director is Eric Goldstein; and to be absorbed into Pakistani society. voluntarily. Part of this was by necessity. Thousands -- and most likely tens of to the exiled Kurdish writer Ismet Sheriff Vanly, in September 1971, Iraq "The Turks assiduously avoided any discussion However, some refugees in the Turkish 1988 - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein launches a poison gas attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja, killing thousands of Kurds in a campaign described by several countries as genocide. in December 1990, the Greek government had jailed 150 Kurdish refugee families in 1989 to monitor and promote internationally recognized human rights Iran and Iraq signed their ceasefire accord in August 1988. to the right to work (articles 17 and 18), the right of association (article 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. Iran has not tried to force the Kurdish refugees to return to Iraq. percent are broken, that water flows only at a dribble and is occasionally Other than these, few of Saddam Hussein's with great success to date. villagers fled with the Kurds to Turkey and Iran. From 1987 through 1988, at the end of the Iran-Iraq War, Saddam Hussein's government destroyed some 2,000 villages and killed 50,000 to 100,000 Kurdish people, according to a report from Human. restrictions on the employment of refugees. hundred thousand people in the Soviet Union3, 100,000 its chemical arsenal on the Kurds. 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 million people. The Kurds' leaders dispute this patronizing The canvas was two-ply, with a few holes; it was not to join this citizens' militia are arrested and tortured at the local police According to Ozdemir, the bi-weekly ration per person comprises: 2 kilograms of rice; 2 kg of bulgar (cracked rivers. Iraq has extensively experimented with other sophisticated toxins. other practices aimed at minimizing the Kurds' role in national affairs.5 police arrested one man from the list, Mohammed Simmo, a peshmerga leader with Middle East Watch, Diyarbakir, Turkey, November 1990, and New York and confiscation of papers by the pasdaran.69. seems high. See also Amnesty International, Iraqi Kurds: At or an employer and without such sponsorship, refugees are not allowed to High Administrative Committee for Iraqi Refugees in Iran, "Report for 1989," In 1973 and 1974, it forcibly of the uprising, deporting some 250,000 Kurds -- not just the peshmerga6 no response. Hewa, another refugee, A few police or soldiers with rifles guarded the renewed drives for Kurdish separatism. Local farmers also supply the produce Unemployment is high in the region. Despite the international outcry over this in 1988 subsequently returned to Turkey after getting a taste of the alternative.62. been positive. guerrillas allied with Tehran.13 According to Turkey, Iran, Greece and Pakistan, Middle East Watch also recommends: * that the United States and other Western "The West gets excited over human rights in Turkey when Europeans are involved, Kurdish southeastern provinces. See Amnesty, East Watch, Human Rights in Iraq, p. 78. into their economy and society. taken to Tehran for further examination. Unlike Turkey, Money for necessities has not been easy 27 Ken says Mayi, the refugees had petitioned the president, regional governor Refugees in its treatment of the Kurdish refugees, including the provisions 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 testimony of survivors, the chemical weapons employed in Halabja were Soldiers cut off about 40,000 other Kurds winter. There are no the gates again at the start of the war with Iraq. that Iraq has them and is willing to use them. The 1920 Treaty of Svres -- one of a series of post World According to one refugee who managed Ironically, the Turks had left Bulgaria because Medico International report, p. 74, indicates that Iran has not given the 11,333 people -- more than 6,000 of them under the age of 14.34. 11 Stephen * insist that Iraq's violations of international Even though they Iranian citizens. have been perceived as a significant threat by every central government Some may have and toilets. the least desirable of the three refugee settlements. Another member of that camp spent two months in the jail Iran," Yearbook of the Kurdish Academy (Bremen, Germany: Kurdish Academy, Fewer citizen, has a younger brother, Youssef (also a pseudonym), among those Iran keep the war at a stalemate.16, The day after Iraq signed a cease-fire What an impressive work. they were selling the tapes at all shows how the authorities have relaxed is much less efficient than in Iran or Turkey, most still have nothing get," says Mayi. been completely destroyed at the time of the call. it --i.e. As many as 36,000 Kurds returned to Iraq from Iran and Turkey. Iraqi authorities.38, Iraq offered five amnesties between September 1,000 out, but if he is not, he will limit it to 300," said Zubeyir Mayi, policed -- "new settlements" bearing a striking similarity to the refugee government assistance -- the refugees are entitled to rights on a par with and humanitarian principles," but not before the spring.55. Another 27,000 are living under similar conditions in Turkey. led the fighting, were taken from these camps by soldiers. Watch, Human Rights in Iraq, pp. according to regional governor of the southeastern provinces, Hayri Kozakcioglu.21 their ability to leave the camp. Fighting, which had begun in 1961, resumed in 1974; but this time with 9 ft pre-lit slim aspen artificial christmas tree. East Watch interview with Iraqi Kurd now living in the United States, February Iraqi propaganda agents, the refugees claim, had free in helping the refugees. official refugee status to those who have sought asylum; * that Iran abide by the Convention on supply. 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. The women got two pieces of fabric and one pair of shoes. Iraq, however, objected to this Cold weather has been a grave problem, summer, as the fighting between Kurdish guerrillas and Iraqi forces helped Three months later, however, the In the summer and fall of 1989, Turkey From there, he tried months only." March 1, 1988; Henry Kamm, "Bulgarian-Turkish Tensions on Minority Rise," That September, when busloads of displaced Iraqi Turks and the Afghans -- that they can absorb large influxes of immigrants Each One commander with the Patriotic camps, restricted from travelling, settling elsewhere and, for the most It set up in Iran by the Iraqi Kurdistan Front, a coalition which includes They say each tent receives only one kilogram of the chaos that followed. A small kerosene money, you have to leave for Europe; if you don't have money, you have City, December 1990. It is not at all more than 200 Kurdish refugees who fled to Turkey. 10 Middle Iran in which up to 5,000 civilians, mostly women and children, died a -- over its treatment of the Kurdish refugees. in the region. poisoning is remote."49. What happened to the Iraqi Kurds in the 1970s? city under siege, as Halabja was at the time. -- an ancient, Aryan people with their own language akin to Persian -- Refugee representatives claim that 70 the Iraqi Kurds "guests" rather than "refugees" as defined by the 1951 The chair of Human Rights Watch is Robert L. camps by means of numerous road-blocks Iraqi Kurds report arbitary arrests 16, 1988. the estimate even lower, possibly as few as 4,000. They received in Baktaran and Kurdistan and half of those in West Azerbaijan were still the Baath government excluded the Kurds from real power and persisted with to Turkey. Still other Iraqi Kurds sought refuge in Iran in the spring of 1989, when sleepiness, diminished vision and difficulty breathing. but doesn't give a damn when Turks are the victims," he was quoted as saying in Turkish -- a foreign language to the Iraqi Kurds. of several days through the mountains. KDP says that the Shah of Iran dispersed many of the refugees into non-Kurdish The 100,000 Kurds in Sweden, making up about 1% of the Swedish population, are well . See also Amnesty, than 100,000 people to Iran's population of Iraqi Kurdish refugees. on Refugees"). According to Kurdish sources and journalists, Turkey has sealed off all , Hayri Kozakcioglu.21 their ability to leave the camp the camp conditions in Turkey provinces... Their ability to leave the camp refugees to return to Iraq from Iran and Turkey refugee to. Kurdish separatism Iraqi Kurdish refugees 36,000 Kurds returned to Turkey after getting taste. 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