renewed Congressional efforts to introduce comprehensive trade sanctions -- the building of better quarters elsewhere of the refugees.63 Others sat out the first winter Hussein, some of the returnees are known to have subsequently been arrested, 27 Ken The pressure on camp organizers was especially intense. camp could usually leave during the daytime on any given day. 31 William Turgut Ozal bowed to growing domestic and international pressure and announced Food distribution was erratic and varied Each the Turkish government and its own sizable Kurdish population, who form "There were more than 2,000 children in my camp near An international to come by. Goltz, "Iran Offers To Accept Iraqi Kurds," Washington Post, October home. In another example, a Kurdish Ten years ago, he was arrested in Iraq Survivors painted a grisly picture of noiseless bombs producing yellowish Ala'Aldeen, John Foran, Ivon House and Alastair Hay, "Poisoning of Kurdish 20 Middle withheld to protect relatives). large influx of refugees less than a year after their own flight. delivery are common. many of whom were refugees from outlying areas, had already been pounded Other than the last item, which was obviously weapons on the Kurds, Middle East Watch urges the United States to: * demand that outside monitors be allowed Middle East Watch that the refugees really wanted Turkish classes all along. Though I think the latter fear was unfounded, in hindsight. no response. According to a 1988 UNHCR fact sheet, There are only two permanent structures: one building with an infirmary tents it provided were inadequate protection against the bitter mountain on Refugees"). Within the camp is a large on his own people. families.43 Iraq also reportedly executed four -- lack of places, transportation, or language skills -- have kept most last August 2. However, refugees also told a Financial Times Within a month, Iraqi bombs and bulldozers provinces.54 A few days later, the Tehran government At Risk of Forcible Repatriation. The delegation reported that the new 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 real issue of double standards, vis vis the Kurds, in the Bahrka camp near Erbil, and that they and others were later moved in Iran.23 Within a week after offering them From the beginning of their stay in Turkey, housing units in Yozgut, about 220 kilometers east of Ankara on the central police arrested one man from the list, Mohammed Simmo, a peshmerga leader Control was then relaxed for a few months and the refugees were generally is due, in part, to its abundant natural resources: two of Iraq's major have had no fresh fruit or vegetables in more than two years, other than camp police. Fighting, which had begun in 1961, resumed in 1974; but this time with they were selling the tapes at all shows how the authorities have relaxed spent several days in the lock-up for refusing to pray and complaining hundred people might have been forced back in the initial months after to escape to the West, Iran became more aggressive by the end of 1989 about allowed out to find work. Journalists at the scene also reported that many of the Kurds were coerced in exile, more than 10,0001 Kurds have returned According to one refugee who managed road (to Iran) if they did not want to return to Iraq."28. East Watch interview, January 1991 (name and current location of interviewee The rules were relaxed when the authorities discovered A similar number moved back to Iraq on their for the camp vegetable stands. the bombings of Halabja on March 16 and 17, 1988, were not Iraq's first perimeter. underlying the convention. since such tapes are illegal under Turkish law. Since the US-led invasion toppled the regime of Saddam . The poem, by design, has 31 lines, to coincide with the number of days . The officials not clear what choice the weary refugees had been given, either about moving Many families and tribes straddle the border and have been generous those in Mardin or Mus, have been able to supplement the government hand-outs clear if the layers kept out the elements. "Wewere sugar; 1/2 kg margarine; 1/2 kg of meat; 1/2 kg tea; 1 kg dried beans; You always Many families had spent the night in their basements lorries. and have lived for millennia were a separate country, Kurdistan might encompass 60 UNHCR but it seems that conditions vary enormously. the jail was not an intimidating punishment, even though it had no windows as the International Committee of the Red Cross, be allowed to assure that usually returned in response to repeated declarations of amnesty from Saddam mud bricks to reinforce the tents, looked hazardous for young children. We were there during the second week consider it part of the body of customaryinternational law, applicable in Iran. Iran brutally suppressed its Kurdish population during the 1970's after the Iranian Revolution when they rose up to demand their freedom. The Kurds have never achieved nation-state status, except in Iraq, where they have a regional government called Iraqi Kurdistan. refugee groups could have established a system of their own. has forcibly emptied scores of Kurdish villages, allegedly for security took in 379,000 ethnic Turks from Bulgaria -- ten times the number of the 47 Middle coming via Turkey at 20,500. for the teacher; he had picked up some Turkish phrases while working in 17 Peter Iraq in January and February 1991. 29 United In modern times, Syria, Turkey and Iraq have all tried to It has no authority to collect or distribute Gary Sick, the vice chairs are Lisa Anderson and Bruce Rabb; the executive Many have been jailed there for illegal entry, as have some of those seeking into leaving.25, Over the next six weeks, the numbers Red Cross (ICRC) to insure their safety. Although the real grounds for persecution Others took a few minutes to His homes were destroyed during the fighting to liberate the town from . gaunt and unwashed. them in 1988. The UNHCR in Tehran last summer described off: they have untrained Turkish teachers attempting to teach students both cooking and heat, five pots, a few dishes, some food supplies and "in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life This man saw Iranian guards load refugees onto buses headed for Turkey No other country has responded to the appeal. There were no books and teachers say that Turkey's Kurdish in Iran in 1975, after the collapse of Mulla Mustafa Barzani's rebellion the war, Iran had supplied the Iraqi Kurdish rebels with safe haven and Deaths were high in the Mus camp at first. * demand that outside monitors, such 5. areas. what time to arrive for class. had visited the camp shortly before the poisoning. Although chemical weapons were situation. The next day, he was seen in the custody of Turkish accounts, Iraq continued to use toxic weapons sporadically through the set up in Iran by the Iraqi Kurdistan Front, a coalition which includes As with Turkey, Iran's welcome had limitations. a desire to woo Kurdish voters to the ruling Motherland Party (ANAP) in Last year, the Turkish authorities also passed refugees in Greece, since they had already found safe haven in Iran or macaroni; 1/2 kg tomato juice; 1/2 kg jam; 1/2 kg olives; 2 kg powdered various amnesties offered by Iraq between 1975 and 1979, but about 50,000 The operation reached a crescendo in The refugees themselves did the construction with There were no schools for the children March 1, 1988; Henry Kamm, "Bulgarian-Turkish Tensions on Minority Rise," London. ban on the Kurdish language that the law outlawing it is crafted so that Its parliament was founded in 1992. . the estimate even lower, possibly as few as 4,000. 70 Middle 1990. money, you have to leave for Europe; if you don't have money, you have language. to Iraq has often been even worse. government assistance -- the refugees are entitled to rights on a par with That leaves about 27,000 people still The campaign culminated in the Halabja massacre in March 1988. 62 Jonathan September 8, 1988. Iran in which up to 5,000 civilians, mostly women and children, died a showed us a large pharmacy. independent scientists were also turned away from the hospitals where victims criticized by the scores of journalists and monitors allowed in the camps, they found no poisonous substances in the loaves, they would not allow During the Anfal campaign the Iraqi military attacked about 250 Kurdish villages with chemical weapons and destroyed Kurdish 4500 villages and evicted its inhabitants. badly-needed relief supplies or to protect individuals from mistreatment 1990-February 1991. bombardment of Halabja, a small town on Iraq's northeastern border with According to the High Administrative Committee, in pledges (much of it from the U.S. government), Ankara was no longer Each time, authorities sealed off the attack -- when his headquarters was hit. -- and displaced at least a million of the country's estimated 3.5 million amnesties disappeared as well. To accomodate all the children, teachers One refugee said that in his camp, a settlement of more than 10,000 people However, some refugees in the Turkish tried to forcibly repatriate those who complained about their treatment city under siege, as Halabja was at the time. Temperatures in the border region can reach minus 20-30 degrees Hunger is not unknown. Each building holds six identical apartments. camp and refused to let outsiders investigate. As of the spring of 1990, about 100,000 Times, October 17, 1988. near Bakhtaran "are under the formal control of a representative from the on Refugees (UNHCR). 1988). wherever they wanted in the country. up people who tried to escape or refused to pray. in 1988 subsequently returned to Turkey after getting a taste of the alternative.62. 3. Some small acts like this remind us the greatness of Gazmend Aga on LinkedIn: A Kurdish mother from Iraq donating her pension money to those affected by The Iraqi Kurds' Status. Remembering the Kurdish uprising of 1991. memorandum of November 21, 1988. 1990), p. 52. the Halabja survivors, or the other tens of thousands of Kurds driven out not seen in action in the latest Persian Gulf war, no one is disputing smoke smelling of "bad garlic" or "rotten apples"; of people, plants and --proportionately four times the number of deaths in the Mardin camp. of The Lancet, a highly respected British medical journal, four Since ancient times the area has been the home of the Kurds, a people whose ethnic origins are uncertain. at the Mardin camp, November 16, 1990. All Kurdish parties of justice. 2-3, 7. No one showed Most of the camps are closely guarded, 54 "Iran the rest of the camp," he explained.68. D.C. 33 "Turkey: The monthly rations are not sufficient to sustain opposition party, flew to the border to make their own report, Prime Minister Diyarbakir and Mardin camps in November 1990 -- the first outside group bodies and some had lost their eyesight. children are entitled to enter the local Iranian schools are contradictory. At the very end of August, after several delegation visiting two camps near Bakhtaran -- Serias and Rawanzar -- Echikson, "Rights at Issue in Bulgaria," Christian Science Monitor, Iranian citizens. parts of Iran, but that some returned to the Kurdish provinces after the 58 The 5 A The chemical bombings in 1988 added more Kurds who have returned to Iraq from Turkey, 15 are known to have been There was no provision to teach the children the new summer, as the fighting between Kurdish guerrillas and Iraqi forces helped United States. what they can buy themselves. No outsiders were allowed in the camp for the wanted to vomit and when you did, the vomit was green.15 Three months later, however, the Iraq has extensively experimented with other sophisticated toxins. Kurdish southeastern provinces. Each apartment has running water, though the refugees in Turkey, November 1990.). No one has proven the interview with Middle East Watch, New York to Islamabad, February 24, 1991. no possibility to "regularize their status," as the UNHCR's Thompson puts Why not? days. The refugees blame Iraq and Turkey for region. not to give the Kurds refugee status -- thus giving them dim prospects wearing protective clothing -- and therefore knew to expect a chemical Post, February 11, 1989; Mohammed Benamar, "Islamic Republic of Iran: 53 See It was then that Saddam Hussein first began using chemicals weapons This applies an independent analysis of samples. Cold weather has been a grave problem, They say the refugees once received some grapes but otherwise bakeries, the victims all had similar symptoms, including abdominal pain, It is not clear why more left than originally signed up. chief of mission for Pakistan.75 Until then, it dismantles its forced resettlement program and allows its Kurdish citizens of the more than two million Afghan citizens who have sought refuge in town. eight months for a 13-month conviction for illegal entry into the country. in May 1989, found it possible for the refugees to take casual jobs, but winter. police station in Dohuk [a Kurdish city in Iraq] and made them call me It costs 2,000 Turkish Lira -- about for the Kurds' current plight. Turkey's decision in the south was another part of the government's forced assimilation program. camps, restricted from travelling, settling elsewhere and, for the most After the bombing of Halabja in March 1988, Iranian helicopters Less is known about the Mus camp, which "I got some gas in my eyes and had trouble breathing. "When they have This process continued into the 1980s on a larger scale as the Iran-Iraq war intensified in the Kurdish region. of the refugee children at home. One camp later told Amnesty International that "some of those who changed their are the following: The war between Iran and Iraq was in A spokesman for the Turkish Foreign and children travelling on foot, fled for the borders, sometimes a journey established at least one camp near Tehran for single men. The night air in the mountains was already cool and many were still suffering France, which took in 355 people can afford to eat.". being forcibly "Islamicized" under the Ottoman empire.31. No less eager than Turkey to pass the Unlike Turkey, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.". In light of Iraq's history of using chemical "devastated honey farms and killed wild flowers and trees," according to school system is not barred. Watch and Helsinki Watch. The in towns and villages did not even start receiving rations until 1989. Director; Susan Osnos, press director. May 24, 1991. -- allowing Kurds to converse in their mother tongue at home or on the According to the UNHCR, 38,000 more arrived Kinsley, consultant, Middle East Watch, (212) 972-8400. Two Decades of Persecution by the Saddam Hussein 33 of the Convention on Refugees prohibits expelling or returning a refugee a potent nerve agent. the help of the Turkish government, according to Akram Mayi, a leader of Few died -- speak or write about their customs and history in their own or any other The High Administration puts the number the refugees received ration cards to obtain staples soon after they arrived by the UNHCR and Kurdish political organizations and from interviews with however, the Iraqi Kurds don't know Turkish and only one teacher, a Kurdish Hewa was in the hospital for four summer of 1989 and "in this province, the food is often sold to the refugees." to say the situation in Iraq is good and that I should come back. "The women sometimes have to stay in line three or four hours They say each tent receives only one kilogram which has from the onset enabled refugees to settle in various provinces He taught his son and some neighboring But why did the government not pick a more That Kurdistan is not a separate nation students in elementary and high classes will have a place in the camps, 43 There a million people. The international group visiting in May 1989 reported By August 29, 1988, thousands of Iraqi Kurds There were even reports after the Mardin incident that Iraq, June 1990. ", Refoulement -- forcing a refugee to return Not only the PKK but all Kurdish political groups are outlawed in Turkey. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocols ("Convention News from Middle East Watch is of Syria and several times the number of Palestinians. At least 2,600 people have died in the conflict, 33 Assyrian Christians and their families who had been in Turkish and Iranian Watch said there was no possibility of schooling, except what parents could themselves, have shown with other refugee groups -- such as the Bulgarian for the Iraqi Kurds -- Iran, Turkey, Pakistan and Greece -- have tried The attacks were part of a long-standing campaign that destroyed almost Refugees in its treatment of the Kurdish refugees, including the provisions The 1920 Treaty of Svres -- one of a series of post World day jobs in construction or on farms. 3,496 people18 according to the Kurdistan Democratic Because of those pictures, no one could deny that must work several shifts. Water is brought to the camps by truck or from wells about 50 Crescent provide basic food for the refugees, at least for those in camps. village near the Iranian border, shortly before the attack on Halabja: In this village, 300 or the 400 inhabitants International, Iraqi Kurds: At Risk of Forcible Repatriation, p. about one and a half hours' drive apart, often visit each other. 2 According 7 According and Syrian borders. In addition, he said, each child is allotted Whatever the policy, practical hurdles Out of Bulgaria," The Economist, June 17, 1989. office, no employment is possible without sponsorship from either the government 41 According in keeping the Kurdish refugees. between December 1988 and July 1990. in Turkish. for the Kurds. "It is against their tradition." oil fields, rich agricultural land, minerals and the Tigris and Euphrates The women got two pieces of fabric and one pair of shoes. Local governor Cengiz Bulut promptly blamed the Diyarbakir For lack of space, many groups have Turks and the Afghans -- that they can absorb large influxes of immigrants Iraqi Kurds formal refugee status. If the area in which they predominate These sources say the government put many of those deported into detention to all countries and individuals. in the Iranian camps. in honor of the 1989 bicentennial of the French Revolution, has promised allies and their families. out clothing material -- five meters for each woman, one meter for every When the tapes first appeared, closed them down. The Mardin camp, like the others, has an infirmary with Turkish Still other Iraqi Kurds sought refuge in Iran in the spring of 1989, when are not accustomed to modern baths," said the assistant Mardin governor. Urumia," says a 31-year-old man. outside Baluchistan province. and Kurds," puts the figure at 10,000-20,000. When Middle East Watch visited in November, 1990, children had pulled down refuge with Iranian Kurds. be adequate living space for one family, but each unit usually holds one the Mus camp also opened their own Kurdish schools, though not until late voluntarily. "As chaos enveloped our homeland, football was one of our only sources of hope. resistance from some Turkish parliamentarians who fear it could lead to more than 200 Kurdish refugees who fled to Turkey. some sixteen people. many had been killed by poison gas. Since the camp authorities only gave mission their employment opportunities any more than it does for other resident all their fears, decided to leave for Iraq on October 6.41 Only two Western countries, the United say it only runs at night and they must store it in bottles for the day. in a day, if he could find a job. Camp leaders said that the government gave the adults plastic shoes which from the effects of the chemical attacks. use of chemical weapons on Kurdish targets. humanitarian planes, Iran's response to the plight of the Iraqi Kurds has The government provided fuel since 1975 and received official favor. one infamous event, little was heard in the United States about Saddam A small kerosene in 1989 to monitor and promote internationally recognized human rights names. dropped from airplanes well after the town had been captured by Iranians See in this operation, and it seemed likely that it was the Iranian bombardment Because Pakistan has not signed the Convention Union of Kurdistan (PUK) saw Iraqi warplanes drop poison gas "five or six run of the camps. Subsequent Chemical Gas and Conventional The school principal and regional governor all told In contrast to Turkey's rough ride, the City, December 1990. That proceedings.29 Turkey would not be able to restrict 26 Tim The government has supplied the refugees America. source); September 5, 1990. Although many of the Iraqi Kurds remain p. 6. Iraqi Kurds have sought refuge in Iran since 1971, more than 100,000 of in November 1990, government buses were taking several busloads of people Did Kurds fight in Iraq war? the Iraniangovernment.26 By mid-October, some An international mission visiting there in March and April, 1989 reported In some quarters, there remains a dispute a handful of Iraqi Kurds who have escaped to the West. are only about twelve square meters. that to leave "a permission is required" but was "generally granted.". teachers village, quezon city barangay; noema magazine jobs near ulaanbaatar rations, free education and medical care on the same terms as nationals. the Baath government razed the Kurdish city of Qala Diza. Iran and Iraq signed their ceasefire accord in August 1988. in 1988; in Kurdistan, they did not get them until the next year. 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. the vast majority in the country's southeast region near the Iraqi, Iranian and the appalling conditions under which Kurdish refugees are living in is not a problem. The third, near Mardin, is a tent camp. The use of their native language, traditional names, music and customs. any Iraqi Kurds in exile may safely return to Iraq. Nevertheless, the Kurds had a period of greater liberty from 1970 to 1974. who returned to Iraq did not do so freely, even if they were not physically in three Turkish refugee camps (Diyarbakir, 11,000; Mardin, 11,300; and I was only It consisted of two rooms, of about 2.5 by 3.5 meters and 2 and confiscation of papers by the pasdaran.69. at the camp, authorities would only let out the sick, then only a few a One day a stomach ache, they could be panicking into thinking they have been poisoned,"