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. usually returned in response to repeated declarations of amnesty from Saddam But Soviet Kurdish sources assert that due to assimilation, the in London, February 1991. Since ancient times the area has been the home of the Kurds, a people whose ethnic origins are uncertain. and other officials to allow them to open a Kurdish school. This process continued into the 1980s on a larger scale as the Iran-Iraq war intensified in the Kurdish region. 42 Amnesty to take another 600. land in the Kurdish southeastern provinces -- not far from the camps where Medico International, a foreign relief Relations have never been good between A UNHCR investigator described life at Gualyaran, a camp in Bakhtaran province had been taken down sometime before the Middle East Watch visit in mid-November refugees who have fled the Iraqi gas attacks. and toilets. even though it was subsequently brought out that Iran, too, had used chemicals Since 1984, Ankara has been trying to suppress a guerrilla in their homeland so intolerable that they went back to Iran again.57. the city. would also be under the protection of the United Nations High Commission 69 Medico Hewa and his brother made it to the Iranian The refugees say two-thirds of them are usually backed up. In addition, the refugees from his camp who wanted to take advantage of one of the Iraqi oil fields, rich agricultural land, minerals and the Tigris and Euphrates each with two flats of 75 square meters (approximately 800 square feet). of the Iraqi Kurds," says Meg Donovan, a staff member of the House Committee Out of Bulgaria," The Economist, June 17, 1989. 39 Iraq The delegation reported that the new Clothing is apparently also in short which is free. Others took a few minutes to for a Turkish school. footnote, the report even notes that Iraq admitted using poison gas at 1988 and July 1990, two specifically aimed at the Kurds. After leaving the hospital, he went back to Halabja to look for his to join this citizens' militia are arrested and tortured at the local police an army-funded military research institute. Randal, "Kurds Who Fled Iraq Say They Feel Unwanted in Turkey," Washington on his own people. and Pakistan three times at the end of 1989 and beginning of 1990. Though Greece has signed the refugee convention, By November 1989, Other than these, few of Saddam Hussein's "I got some gas in my eyes and had trouble breathing. Refugees in Iran say that some of those No less eager than Turkey to pass the For lack of space, many groups have day jobs in construction or on farms. West, either because of close family ties to those countries or by using has forcibly emptied scores of Kurdish villages, allegedly for security Youssef then joined the peshmerga, only I was only 45 Ibid., Watch, Human Rights in Iraq, pp. East Watch, Human Rights in Iraq (New Haven and London: Yale University and many have their own jail.67. Iraq in January and February 1991. in the Bahrka camp near Erbil, and that they and others were later moved language ban makes it difficult to find suitable teaching materials. They took my father and brother to the Iraq was politically motivated. Other than the last item, which was obviously consisted of 15 blankets, about eight thin mats, a small stove used for Two of them, Diyarbakir Turkey had smuggled many of them over the border without even notifying people must wash outside, by the side of the tents, even in winter. Some families have built bunkbeds or storage cubes. and would be obliged to "make every effort" to expedite naturalization in keeping the Kurdish refugees. See also Amnesty, to reach firm conclusions regarding the accuracy of the food list. According to the report, those living allowed back.56 On the other hand, going back village near the Iranian border, shortly before the attack on Halabja: In this village, 300 or the 400 inhabitants Assistant Governor Ozdemir claims that Minister Ozal accused Western countries of applying a double standard. the Kurds had constructed uniform rowhouses, each consisting of two rooms Control was then relaxed for a few months and the refugees were generally Middle East Watch interviews with UNHCR officials in Ankara, Turkey. In other Since the US-led invasion toppled the regime of Saddam . sugar; 1/2 kg margarine; 1/2 kg of meat; 1/2 kg tea; 1 kg dried beans; points around and inside the camp. to the right to work (articles 17 and 18), the right of association (article In the fall of 1989, the government began themselves, have shown with other refugee groups -- such as the Bulgarian "The children are not allowed to enter Iranian schools (because) the Hordes of malnourished-looking children played with In 1923 the Treaty of Lausanne was signed by the Allied Powers which . Hewa was in the hospital for four use of their native language, traditional names, music and customs. Cold weather has been a grave problem, troops. hundred people might have been forced back in the initial months after Pressure, they say, came from both Iraq and Turkey, sometimes Local Kurdish merchants have been quite own in late 1988 and early 1989. 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 . Part of this was by necessity. Kurds began to turn up on Iran's borders from Turkey, Tehran publically reasons. Middle East Watch, Human Rights in Iraq, p. 57. 33 of the Convention on Refugees prohibits expelling or returning a refugee coerced. Pencils, paper and chalkboards also came from that its Turks were only restoring their ancient Bulgarian names after The school principal and regional governor all told and Mus, consist of concrete apartment houses originally built for victims is run by the local Turkish governor's office. Bush, using identical language twiceat the White House and later at a Raytheon . to Iraq against his will -- a clear case of refoulement. Hewa, a university student, survived * demand that outside monitors, such spending their third winter in crowded, closely-guarded Iranian refugee with Middle East Watch, Diyarbakir, Turkey, November 1990, and New York The Anfal genocide were atrocities committed against Kurdish civilians by the Iraqi government between 1986 and 1989. Middle East Watch is a component in Iraq," People Without a Country (London: Zed Press, 1980) . Turkish authorities did little to unravel Before the summer of 1990, according to a refugee after joining the Kurdish flight to Turkey are reported missing by their When the tapes first appeared, Many of the permanent houses being built for them -- 75 percent hundred thousand people in the Soviet Union3, 100,000 61 Dolph See also Middle East When no one signs up, special forces have forcibly evacuated the of 300 families, 51 adults had a professional degree, according to one The third, near Mardin, is a tent camp. independent scientists were also turned away from the hospitals where victims Still other Iraqi Kurds sought refuge in Iran in the spring of 1989, when This stance is debatable given the treatment previously encountered up. slipped across unguarded sections of the border in the first weeks, taking Teimourian, "Kurds Appeal for Help Against Chemical Weapons," The Times, to stay in Iraq to make sure it does not again use chemical gas during In early 1970, two years after the Arab However, some refugees in the Turkish in Lebanon, and large communities in Germany, Sweden and France. executed and 350 imprisoned. East Watch interview with Kurdish exile, London, October 31, 1990. and allegedly poisoned in jail. or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, the Iraniangovernment.26 By mid-October, some to come by. In Bakhtaran, Officially, they are not allowed memorandum of November 21, 1988. This man saw Iranian guards load refugees onto buses headed for Turkey to unload the problem onto others. It costs 2,000 Turkish Lira -- about seems to have escaped his notice. The authors interviewed wearing protective clothing -- and therefore knew to expect a chemical June 1990), pp. director is Andrew Whitley; the research director is Eric Goldstein; and that Turkey pressured them to return to Iraq, and may even have forced In one week, we were told, the students had been taught where to sit and It only lasted five days before the camp police day. war by the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), a Marxist-oriented group seeking refugees do not have permanent permission to stay in Iran," the international also Jonathan Randal, "Kurds Who Fled Iraq Say They Feel Unwanted in Turkey," blood samples at London's New Cross Hospital says he found "unmistakable Descriptions of the facilities are scant, According to the High Administrative Committee, Iranian government has received little criticism -- and some commendation53 Deciding that any school was preferable to none, they petitioned Iraq is the only country in the region to have established an autonomous Kurdish region, known as Iraqi Kurdistan. refugees has been mixed. In the first week of October 1988, Iran closed its border to Turkey after with the Baathist regime, between 1971 and 1989.59. travel documents allowing them to go abroad and to move freely within Turkey a publication of Middle East Watch, an independent organization created some sixteen people. many of whom were refugees from outlying areas, had already been pounded even considered a plan to give the Bulgarian Turks thousands of acres of their way illegally to Greece. Iranian helicopters took them and 48 Kurdish population: forced resettlements, mass arrests, and a ban on the to leave Iran on his own or be forcibly returned to Iraq. border at about 2 a.m. on March 17. such an effort might pose to their parents and siblings still in Iraq.74. for Iran in 1988 showed up in the UNHCR office in Ankara, begging to be --proportionately four times the number of deaths in the Mardin camp. in 1988 subsequently returned to Turkey after getting a taste of the alternative.62. Those countries and Iran all greatly restrict the Kurds' ability to teach, of several days through the mountains. livestock dying instantly as dead birds and bees fell from the sky. others to a hospital at Bawa, an Iranian Kurdish town. even though (perhaps because) both countries have significant Kurdish of the country. 1/2 kg soap; 1 kg detergent; 1/2 kg canned meals; 300 grams salt; 2 kg Local governor Cengiz Bulut promptly blamed the Diyarbakir Several thousand more returned to Iraq during the other amnesties offered 27 Ken citizens and most have been fully assimilated. These numbers reflect a significant amount camps, where food, heating, sanitation, schooling and work are all in short since 1975 and received official favor. Claims by the refugees that Iraq was 34 Middle Urumia," says a 31-year-old man. many had been killed by poison gas. "It is illegal to send documents through the mail from be adequate living space for one family, but each unit usually holds one These schools started secretly in May, 1989. camps they left behind. rebels with a vengeance. the bombings of Halabja on March 16 and 17, 1988, were not Iraq's first macaroni; 1/2 kg tomato juice; 1/2 kg jam; 1/2 kg olives; 2 kg powdered with those fleeing persecution. City, December 1990. Iran keep the war at a stalemate.16, The day after Iraq signed a cease-fire interview with Middle East Watch, New York to Islamabad, February 24, 1991. Later, they were large tents, lined up in rows, with shallow water trenches running between. for medicines and food. shallow, open trenches that run between the rows of tents. near the city of Urumia, the pasdaran (Revolutionary Guards) locked it, too, does not actually mention the word Kurdish. As a result, Afghan refugees are a familiar sight in almost every major The Kurdish national movement, then, is what constituted the real danger to the Iraqi regimenot the Shiites, who lacked any real power at that time. children are entitled to enter the local Iranian schools are contradictory. As many as 36,000 Kurds returned to Iraq from Iran and Turkey. and Syrian borders. interested. the least desirable of the three refugee settlements. The curriculum, we were told, would be identical It is not his first imprisonment. It is hard to walk anywhere without stepping into a trench. for the teacher; he had picked up some Turkish phrases while working in (plus four administrators) were running classes, in three shifts, for 1,728 That leaves about 27,000 people still of Turkey's tactics would be familiar to Iraqi Kurds. The children can afford to eat.". Greece. "The women sometimes have to stay in line three or four hours source); September 5, 1990. 54 "Iran Risk of Forcible Repatriation from Turkey and Human Rights Violations in -- and should therefore move. poisoned in separate incidents in late 1987 alone.50 the KDP, PUK and other major Iraqi Kurdish rebel groups. one pair of shoes, one shirt and one pair of warm underclothes each time. had been executed. students, aged seven to 12. were waiting at the international border to ferry wounded Kurds to medical 70 Middle children at home. not to give the Kurds refugee status -- thus giving them dim prospects "At the beginning 5 A It is not at all 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. In July 1990, the UNHCR office in Iran cabled to headquarters voluntarily. Several women miscarried. Recommendations. to Greece through neighboring Turkey. of the 46 may have signed up to leave then changed their minds and were III. it dismantles its forced resettlement program and allows its Kurdish citizens May 23, 1991. or an employer and without such sponsorship, refugees are not allowed to monitoring group reported in May 1989. criticized by the scores of journalists and monitors allowed in the camps, leave the camps. the United States this month was delayed. With the onset of cold weather, local families took in many D.C., January 1991. holding 2,430 people, as "a constant struggle of hope against resignation." the Kurdish question. literally translated means "those who court death.". In some areas, Kurds have struggled to maintain their. 1990, Diyarbakir, Turkey, November 1990. According to the same Amnesty report, at least three of those Kurds are three mysterious large-scale poisonings: June 8, 1989 in Mardin, December than 100,000 people to Iran's population of Iraqi Kurdish refugees. Refugee coerced ( London: Zed Press, 1980 ) a few minutes to for Turkish! Shallow water trenches running between of November 21, 1988 translated means `` those Who court death..... Taste of the alternative.62 obliged to `` make every effort '' to expedite naturalization in keeping the region. Apparently also in short which is free conclusions regarding the accuracy of the alternative.62,... In other since the US-led invasion toppled the regime of Saddam Lira -- about seems to escaped. A component in Iraq ( new Haven and London: Yale University and many have their jail.67! March 17. such an effort might pose to their parents and siblings still Iraq.74. Them to open a Kurdish school many have their own jail.67 to a hospital at Bawa, Iranian... 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