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Over 12,500 Iraqi Arab families seek
refuge in Iraqi Kurdistan
15.10.2007 |
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October
15, 2007
Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan region 'Iraq', Oct
15, -- According to figures compiled by local
officials in the three provinces that make up Iraqi
Kurdistan autonomous region, at least 12,500 Iraqi
Arab families (about 75,000 individuals) have fled
to the Kurdish region.
There they find themselves in what feels like a
foreign country: Kurdistan has been autonomous since
1991 with Kurds running their own affairs. While
Arabic is still an official language, it is all but
eclipsed by Kurdish.
But Iraq's Kurdistan has largely been spared the
relentless car bombings, suicide attacks and Shia-Sunni
infighting that has left thousands dead in Baghdad,
central Iraq and the south.
According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), an
estimated 60,000 people are being forced to leave
their homes every month due to the continuing
violence in Iraq.
As of September, the UNHCR estimated that over 4.4
million Iraqis had left their homes. Of these, some
2.2 million were IDPs while over 2.2 million had
fled to neighbouring countries, particularly Syria
and Jordan.
"We couldn't even read the signs in the streets,"
said Abu Mohammed, a Sunni Arab from Baghdad's
western neighbourhood of Gazaliyah. "At the
beginning it was very hard to find an Arabic
language school for the children," said the
46-year-old engineer.
Now he says he is thrilled to have found the
Jawahiri elementary school - Sulaimaniyah only
Arabic language school - where he has enrolled his
two sons.
IDPs strain infrastructure
The influx of IDPs has strained social services in
Iraqi Kurdistan and fuelled rising housing prices.
Jamal Abdullah, a spokesman of the Kurdistan
regional government, said rents had doubled since
last year and some schools had been forced to run
three shifts to cope with the increasing number of
children. He said the federal government should do
more to help immigrant families by paying them money
and sending them food rations.
Manal Ali, the headmistress of Jawahiri elementary
school, said that despite the school shift system
class sizes had increased to 40.
The influx also comes at a time of heightened
Kurdish-Arab tensions over the status of Kurdish
city of Kirkuk (a referendum on its incorporation
into Iraqi Kurdistan is due to be held in December).
Similar Kurdish-Arab tensions have also arisen in
the northern city of Mosul. Kurds say that under the
regime of former President Saddam Hussein they were
oppressed, and efforts were made to Arabise the
region.
In the light of this, the current migration of Iraqi
Arabs to Kurdish cities like Sulaimaniyah may appear
somewhat unusual, but so far it has not sparked
significant ethnic tensions.
Fakher-Eddin Hayas, a taxi driver and father of 11,
became an internally displaced person (IDP) two
years ago in Sulaimaniyah, after death threats drove
him from his house in the city of Mosul, also in
Iraqi Kurdistan.
"Militants accused me of being a collaborator with
the US army as I was driving Americans to their base
in Mosul," said Hayas. His whole family now lives in
two cramped rooms in a floor tiles' factory in
Sulaimaniyah's industrial area.
Meanwhile, at the "border" between Kurdistan and the
rest of Iraq, Kurdish fighters at checkpoints now
stop and search Arab cars. Families are allowed in
without permits, but single men must have a Kurdish
sponsor and a work permit - a security measure to
prevent militants from entering, the Kurdish
authorities say.
Since 1991, the Kurds of Iraq achieved self-rule in
part of the country. Today's teenagers are the first
generation to grow up under Kurdish rule. Most Kurds
don’t speak Arabic, especially the younger
generation, the 2nd language in Kurdistan after
Kurdish is English language. In the new Iraqi
Constitution, it is referred to as Kurdistan region.
Kurdistan region has all the trappings of an
independent state -- its own constitution, its own
parliament, its own flag, its own army, its own
border patrol, its own national anthem, its own
education system, even its own stamp inked into the
passports of visitors.
irinnews org
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