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Qadir Elyasi (Eliassi) |
Bahman Qanbari |
Kianoush Javanmiri |
Samrand Eliassi |
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Rezgar Hawrami |
Nahida Fathi (Hawrami) | Jamal Eliassi | Hersh Hawrami |
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By Kamaran Najm issue No:47 ( 17/10/2008) Iranian Kurdish refugees in Iraq have waited 30 years for the right to hold an identity.
Source: Soma-digest.com | |||||||||||||||||||
| RESETTLEMENT PROJECT: Barika Camp, Kawa transit Camp, Makhmur Refugge Camp
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Iraq Voices: Iranian Refugees in Arbil, IraqMon, 02/25/2008 - 15:38 Not far from Arbil city center is a scattered speckling of UN-blue gates, tarps, and barrels. Kawa Settlement, which presently houses the residents of the now-closed camp of Al-Tash, is home to about 230 Iranian Kurdish refugee families (totaling 1,350 individuals) who fled their homes in Iran between 1979 and 1988. Women in the settlement are generally housewives, while men work in construction and the local markets. In Al-Tash many of the school-age youngsters were also employed on construction sites, but in Kawa all of the children between ages of 6 and 12 attend school, and about 90 percent of those over age 12 do as well. source: www.refugeesinternational.org | |||||||||||||||||||
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New Kawa Camp houses constructed 14 June 2007 ( Kurdish Globe )
The UNHCR is coming through with its commitment to shelter exiled Iranian Kurds, providing them with homes, security, and education.By Qassim Khidhir
As exiled Iranian Kurds looked for new homes in Kurdistan, the United Nations (UN) began constructing them and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) added Kurdish security forces to protect the exiles. Under the guidance of the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees (UNHCR), 152 houses were completed last week, and 50 more are under construction. In the new Kawa Camp, everyone, women, children and men are working side by side with other workers to build their own homes. Kawa Camp is located on the outskirts of Erbil city, the capital of Kurdistan Region. "I am very happy that the UN built houses for us. Our life is very good here; we have very good security," said Amina Abdul Muhammad, 50, the mother of seven children. She mentioned the lack of electricity in the new camp and urged the UN to solve the problem. Bayar Abdullah, 17, a pupil, said living in Kawa Camp is unspeakably better than living in Altash Camp in Ramadi city 70 miles west of Baghdad. School is better, things are more organized and there is good security. "There was no government or law in Ramadi city; the school's door was always closed and we were scared to go to school because of insurgents and thieves," said Abdullah. He pointed out that even though the language used in Kurdistan schools is Kurdish and in Ramadi schools is Arabic, the pupils in the camp speak and write both so they are not left behind in classes. "We thank the KRG for providing security to the camp, and also we thank the mayor of Qushtapa city, the city near the camp, for helping the people of Kawa Camp," said Dindar Zebari, the Kurdistan Government Coordinator to the United Nations. The finished houses were handed over to the refugees last week. Kawa Camp has around 230 families that were abandoned by Iran in 1979 after they opposed the government. That same year they headed to Iraq, and the Iraqi government at that time built a camp (Altush Camp) in Ramadi city, a majority Arab city. When the Iraq War began in 2003, insurgents started attacking them, killing four and kidnapping six. In 2005, the KRG opened its doors to the refugees of Altush Camp to settle in the peaceful region of Kurdistan, and the UN built the camp. Karim Bawani, a refugee and chief of Kawa Camp, said the housing problem is almost over, but unemployment is now the biggest problem for the people of the camp. "There are some people in the camp who are working in Qushtapa municipality; some are construction workers in Erbil city, but many still are jobless," said Hassan. He asked the KRG to help people at Kawa Camp find employment or to employ them in government establishments. Jianbakhsh Ali, 32, wants the Iraqi government to grant him Iraqi citizenship, and he would like to stay in Iraq forever. "We are sick and tired of moving. We have been here (Iraq) for more than 20 years, but still we don't have Iraqi citizenship; if you go to European countries, after seven to ten years they will give you citizenship," said Ali, adding, "I demand the Kurdistan and Iraqi governments give us Iraqi citizenship." The Globe has learned that some of the people in the camp want to go back to Iran, but only on the condition that the Iranian government compensate them and guarantee their safety. Tens of thousands of Iraqi Arabs have fled north from middle and southern Iraq to Kurdistan since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq began in 2003. The Iraqi Red Crescent in Erbil said they have registered more than 5,000 displaced Arab families since the war began. Also, Kurdistan Democratic Party's headquarters in Mosul province stated that since the Iraqi war began in 2003, more than 20,000 Kurdish families have been displaced in Mosul province due to terrorist threats. A source said that most of the displaced Kurdish families are inhabitants of the left side of Mosul. City terrorists threatened most of the Kurdish families to leave the city or otherwise they would be slaughtered | |||||||||||||||||||
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The Hewler Globe, 20:45:57 05 Jul. 2006
KRG coordinator to UN speaks of Kawa Camp refugees By Rebar Jaff
In an exclusive interview with The Hewler Globe, and in response to recent claims that the Iranian Kurdish refugees of Kawa Camp are not being provided the humanitarian aids received for them, Dindar Zebari, KRG Coordinator to the UN and other NGOs in Kurdistan, speaks about the conditions of these refugees, and outlines the series of aids they have been given by both, the Kurdistan Regional Government and UNHCR. Disagreeing with what he has been quoted as saying previously that $9 million was spent on the Kawa Camp, and yet inadequate services offered to the refugees living there, Zebari says, “I have made clear that the $9 million was allocated by the State Department, not for the Kawa Camp refugees alone, but for the entire Altash Camp refugees, which number some 3 to 4 thousand individuals.” He added that the money was put into transferring these refugees from this tense and dangerous area in Al-Anbar Governorate due to ethnic violence. In addition to spending it for relocating these refugees to safer places in order to save their lives, Zebari explains that the amount was also used to assign a UNHCR agency to implement this project. This was something agreed upon by both, the UN and the KRG – that UNHCR could be the organization to deliver these funds. He says that this capital is being spent wherever these former Altash refugees are and not just the Kawa campsite. In his comments, Zebari confirms that he has not said or implied that UNHCR has mismanaged the money for refugees allocated by the US Department of State. The agreement was basically signed between KRG-Erbil and UNHCR for removing and transferring these refugees from Altash Camp to Kawa Camp in Erbil, but the major responsibilities were given to UNHCR. These responsibilities included providing shelter as well as all other basic needs. He says large amounts of money have been spent for support to other refugees of Altash in the process of moving them to Suleimaniya and other areas in Kurdistan, and all the relevant costs associated with this process, such as: interviews, surveys, training, public services, health and education support as well as other facilities, in addition to providing them security. “Supplying electricity generators and buildings for schools and health centers are other things we are now carrying out,” Zebari says, adding that UNHCR has made great input and was the sole body to support the situations of these refugees in Kawa Camp. “The Swedish Qandil – the organization that is implementing the housing plan – has already begun the process of building homes for refugees,” Zebari says. “The final procedures will include the ultimate number of these refugees, at which time no family must stay without a home.” The UNHCR has made the commitment to fully support the refugees, and its latest reports do show the money that has been given to the vulnerable, needy families, he explains. Zebari refused that he has previously said the issue of giving residency to these refugees in Kurdistan depends on the Iraqi Interior Ministry, as The Globe had reported in its last issue. “Iraq has special arrangements and procedures for giving residency permission in the country, and I have not held Iraq’s Ministry of Interior responsible by any means,” he says, adding that as KRG Coordinator, he has pushed forward, along with UNHCR, to issue identification cards to these people in order to legitimize their stay in Kurdistan and make it as legal as possible for them to remain in the country. The former published report had also stated that these refugees were not allowed to get employed in government institutions – something Zebari completely denies in his comments to The Globe. “In regards to employment, these refugees have been given identity cards in this region and have full rights to work,” Zebari says, “… and as I understand from the Governor of Erbil officials, dozens of these refugees are now employed in the municipalities of Erbil Governorate and are given jobs with no problems.” He also adds that these people can move, relocate, educate and travel in the region with no questions asked and their situations are much better now that they have come to Kurdistan. source: krg.org | |||||||||||||||||||
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Al Tash refugees hope for freedom
15 August 2005 he Al Tash Iranian Kurdish refugees hope that they will finally be given a chance to have free and safe lives after spending more than twenty years in the squalor of the Al Tash refugee camp in Iraq’s Anbar governorate, the country’s westernmost province commonly known as a site of violence and instability. Of the 12,000 Al Tash refugees, 3,000 have relocated to Kalar, Kifri, and Bareka in the Sulaimaniya governorate in Kurdish autonomous region in Iraqi Kurdistan. Approximately 1,200 others have sought refuge in Jordan, and approximately 800 living in the Ruweished refugee camp in Jordan, located some 60 km from west of the Jordan’s border with Iraq. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has increased its efforts to relocate these refugees by providing housing assistance in the region and working with NGOs to assist with refugee reintegration and resettlement. Desperate to be safe and acquire new refuge, these families have been moving for months. The trickle turned into a flood as violence in Iraq, concentrated in the Anbar governorate and other areas populated primarily by Sunni Arabs, peaked between the coalition and Iraqi security forces and various terrorist groups. Since the 2003 liberation of Iraq and the subsequent conflict, Al Tash residents have been attacked by insurgents and experienced frequent water, food and supply shortages, introducing further danger and hardship into the refugees’ already difficult lives. Over the last few years, some of these refugees were resettled to third countries after receiving asylum, and some refugees are still struggling and are considered “irregular movers”[1] stranded in Van, Turkey as they await decisions to be made on their fate. A majority of the Al Tash refugees were forced to leave Iran as early as the 1979 Islamic Revolution led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a revolution that seemingly made killing Kurds legal. Since this revolution, Kurds have faced violent oppression at the hands of the Iranian regime for both ethnic and religious reasons, as the majority of Kurds are Sunni Muslims living under a Persian and Shi’i regime. We now see reenactment of similar ethnic cleansing once again as violence flares up in the Iranian cities of Mahabad, Sanandaj, Prinshar, Mariwan, Bana, and Saqiz. The people of Iranian Kurdistan have been engaging in mass protests against the Iranian regime’s repressive policies for more than a month at the current time. According to KurdishMedia.com and the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI)[2] the government’s security forces and the military have taken heavy-handed steps to crush the mass protests, which to the present date has resulted in the deaths of over fifty Kurds. In addition, a large number of Kurds have been arrested, including prominent Kurdish human rights and women’s rights activists, journalists and writers. Many of those who have been injured are afraid of going to the hospitals for medical care, fearing arrest and further reprisals from the security forces. A new flow of refugees is to be expected if the situation in Iranian Kurdistan continues to worsen. According to the same sources[3] the Iranian state has implemented de facto martial law in many parts of Iranian Kurdistan. Furthermore, the state has extended its military presence in Kurdistan since the protests began, and has reportedly deployed over 100,000 troops and helicopter gunship to the region. In one incident on August 3, 2005, in the city of Saqiz, a military helicopter gunned down civilians. The number of dead and injured is rising, among them a number of women and children. In a statement dated August 5 2005, Amnesty International[4] expressed alarm at the cycle of violence in Iranian Kurdistan and called for an investigation into the killing of demonstrators, and furthermore demanded that officials suspected of responsibility for human rights violations such as extrajudicial executions should be brought to justice in accordance with fair trial procedures. As these events, which will likely increase the magnitude of the Iranian Kurdish refugee issue, occur in Iran, a chronic refugee population in Al Tash continues to exist. Al Tash is in an extremely dangerous location, close to the city Ramadi, capital of the restive Anbar governorate, which has been a stronghold of terrorist organizations in Iraq. In this dangerous region, the refugees are being dragged into violence that has nothing to do with them. These refugees and their families left their country of origin and then experienced the first Anfal campaign of the early 1980s. Deported the Al Tash camp, they awaited execution and lived were forced to live in squalor conditions. They became pawns of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s political games before the International Red Cross and UNHCR intervened. Since the liberation of Iraq from Saddam’s regime in 2003, these refugees have remained in the Al Tash camp, where they are now susceptible to attacks by the attacks by terrorists that plague much of Iraq. Approximately 3,500 refugees still live in Al Tash despite persistent danger due to the security situation in the region and inhuman living conditions. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been unable to meet their needs due to instability and increasing terrorist attacks on humanitarian relief workers in Iraq. During a recent trip to Iraqi Kurdistan, I had the pleasure of visiting the refugees and talked to their team and village leaders, called Anjumans, and saw first hand their dire conditions and needs. Each Anjuman or team leader is responsible for approximately 30 to 50 families and speaks for them. They are without legal papers, have menial jobs, mostly in construction, if they can compete with workers brought in from Fallujah and other places who have agreed to work for very little. Many of their children and now their grandchildren have been born into the life of a refugee, knowing only the living conditions of a refugee camp. They have not received the education or the skills they need to succeed in life and become self-sufficient and contributing members of society; they have only known a life of struggle for basic necessities that we take for granted. Local universities and vocational training institutions in the University of Salahuddin in Erbil governorate and the University of Sulaimaniya now stand ready to take those who seek higher education. In the little village of Bareka, where I met with a few of the team leaders, close to Sulaimaniya, approximately 250 houses have been built for these refugees through UNHCR funding as well as the efforts of the international donor community and non-governmental organizations. An additional 300 units are needed to meet the needs of remaining homeless refugees in the region. An additional 500 units with support services, income generation and health services could assist the remaining Al Tash families in a transfer to safe territory and facilitate their local integration. The host communities of Kalar, Kifri, and Bareka, will welcome these refugee families. The community leaders, Anjumans, teachers of schools, the little under equipped health clinic, they are all in favor of the relocation of these families to their respective communities. They are willing to share the little they have. Neighborhoods are packed with “guests from Al Tash” and the schools can be expanded to take in more children. This is the “Kurdish hospitality” we can see across all borders in Kurdistan on all levels. We saw it following the influx of refugees into Iranian Kurdistan, who were stranded in the cold mountains after the failed uprising that followed the 1991 Gulf War. We see similar hospitality in Diyarbakir, Mardin, Silopi, Zakho, Duhok, Sulaimanya and Erbil. We Kurds must welcome the Al Tash stranded refugee families with proverbial open arms, continuing a proud and noble Kurdish tradition of hospitality. The safety and well being of the remaining Kurdish refugees in Al Tash is in jeopardy. They need to know a life without intimidation, attack and intolerable living conditions. Freedom and opportunity are the basic rights that the Al Tash refugees have requested for the past twenty years. The UNHCR and the US government stand ready to help make the transition of these refugees to safer regions within Iraq smoother. The Al Tash refugees will face increasingly dire conditions if this opportunity to assist them is ignored. To save their lives, they must not be forgotten. They need secure shelter and life’s daily necessities. They ask for a chance to live their lives with security and hope, a chance that other Al Tash refugees and many Anfal Kurdish victims never received. Let us not walk away from this responsibility. In a speech made earlier this year regarding world poverty, South African former President Nelson Mandela and 1993 Nobel Peace laureate said, “Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that generation.” The new generation of Kurds in many parts of Iraqi Kurdistan knows freedom, and the generation of Kurds who comprise the political and social leadership in today’s Iraqi Kurdistan know both the trials and tribulations of living under a constant threat without basic rights and the feeling of liberation after a lifetime of dedication to the Kurdish cause. It is now time for both of these generations to make the necessary steps to aid their brothers who are living in terror, poverty, and uncertainty in Al Tash. Footnotes: [1] Irregular movers, UNHCR term for refugees moving from one country (Iraq in this case) to another country Turkey. [2] PDK-I [3] Several Killed, Martial law still in force across Eastern Kurdistan, KurdishMedia.com article August 9, 2005 [4] Amnesty International source: www.khrw.org | |||||||||||||||||||
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Appeal to humanitarian organizations to aid the thousands of Iranian Kurdish refugees stationed in Altash camp in Iraq Paris - 22 April 2003 Close to thirteen thousands of Iranian Kurds who have taking refuge in Iraq for more than 20 years, escaping the regime of Islamic Republic of Iran’s suppression, have faced difficult conditions with the start of the war in Iraq. These refugees were placed in Altash camp by the Iraqi government near the city of Romadieh in Alanbar province. These refugees who prior to the start of the recent war in Iraq received a trivial aid from the Iraqi institutions, and in this way lived a deprived life, with the start of the war, and especially with the collapse of the regime and the breakdown of government institutions, they have faced a dreadful condition: electricity and water are completely cut off; food is either unattainable or is enormously short. There is no presence of medicine or Doctors. All these deficiencies plus the hot weather has resulted in various diseases that almost every day takes the lives of several people; furthermore, lack of security must also be added to these horrible conditions, because the armed mobs created following the disintegration of government institutions storm the camps of these refugees almost every day and loot their basic belongings. It should also be noted that about one thousand of these refugees, tolerating long and severe destitution, have been fortunate enough to reach the Jordanian border. Unfortunately, so far the Jordanian officials have allowed very few of these desperate refugees to enter their country, and relocate them in camps designated for the possible influx of refugees of the war in Iraq. The rest are still awaiting the Jordanian permission to enter the country. Considering the dreadful and miserable conditions that thousands of these remained refugees in Altash camp face, we call upon the international community and humanitarian organizations, particularly the United Nations High Commission for Refugees and Red Cross to reach out to these refugees and relieve them from these inhumane and unbearable conditions. Democratic party of Iranian Kurdistan The Burue Of International Relations