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Iranian Exiles Kurds find new home in
Kurdistan
25.8.2006
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Erbil,
Kurdistan-Iraq, August 25, 2006, -- More than 10,000
Iranian Kurds living near the Iraq border were
forced into exile in Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war.
They eventually were relocated to a refugee camp
near the southern Iraqi city of Ramadi. Over the
years many have quietly moved back to Iran.
Today 214 families remain. Last year they were moved
again, this time north to the Kurdish region of
Iraq. VOA's Brian Padden recently visited the camp
and reports that the group's long journey home is
still not over.
Since fleeing Iran in 1979, these Iranian Kurds have
been a people set apart. They now live in the Kawa
transit camp in the Kurdish region of Iraq.
Jangir Ahamdi is one of the group's leaders. He says
Iran has abandoned them, in part because of their
opposition to the government there. And the Iraqis
here will not fully accept them either.
“Our hearts have been broken," says Ahamdi. "We feel
that we as a people lost everything. There is great
pain in our heart. For that we lost all feeling
about everything.”
These Iranian Kurds left the southern Iraqi city of
Ramadi last year after insurgents targeted their
group. Conditions in this camp are sparse but there
is hope that some of their long-term problems will
be resolved.
The Kurdish government is building permanent housing
for the refugees. Many of the men are employed
building these homes. And many of the women work for
a local poultry producer.
The children do not remember Aras Sulieman lost her
husband in a car-bomb explosion last November.
She was a girl when she left Iran. She says she now
prefers the security being offered in this camp. “My
kids are very young. They lost their father. I'd
like to stay here until the kids grow up and God
opens a new door for us.”
Mohammed Rahim and many older people rely on the
support given in the camp. “I ask God to help me
here in Kurdistan. I have no one, no job back in
Iran. Here is better.”
But Jangir Ahmadi holds on to the dream of one day
going home to Iran, after the current government
changes. “I need a government that believes in human
rights and democracy. I am not ready to go home with
this government still controlling the country.”
Until then, their long exile continues.
voanews com
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