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Iraqi Kurdistan: 120 Kurdish Families flee
homes near Turkish border 6.11.2007
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November
6, 2007
ZAKHO, Kurdistan Region 'Iraq', --
The group of about 120 families has joined nearly
7,000 people who have fled areas near the border
with Turkey since mid-October, Kalif Dirar, a senior
official in the Kurdistan regional government, said.
Dirar told IRIN that tensions were rising despite
the Iraqi government’s efforts to prevent a major
offensive at the border, which could lead to a
humanitarian crisis.
“Iraq is already living in humanitarian chaos and
more than four million people are displaced
countrywide. We need to prevent this, the safest
area of the country where thousands of families are
taking refuge, from becoming another area of
devastation and destruction,” Dirar said.
“Frightened families are fleeing their homes near
the border on a daily basis at the rate of about 25
families a day and many residents of Zakho have been
moving to cities in other governorates, increasing
the number of displaced families which the
government and NGOs are now not able to fully
supply,” he added.
www.ekurd.net
Few NGOs offering support
Rastgo Muhammad Barsaz, a spokesman for the
Kurdistan Campaign to Help Victims of War, said the
displaced families needed urgent assistance. “Most
families who fled villages near the Iraqi border
left their homes carrying few items of clothing and
some of them, anxious about their relatives’ safety,
fled without taking anything,” he said.
Barsaz said most families initially tried to find
refuge at Zakho but few NGOs have been offering
support in the area and he called for a faster
delivery of supplies, including food parcels, tents,
potable water and clothes.
“Some families have travelled to Erbil and
Sulaimaniyah but are in the same critical situation
as prices in the area have risen and they cannot
afford the high rents and food supplies,” Barsaz
said.
No civilian casualties have been reported but
doctors in hospitals near the border have asked for
painkillers, syringes, intravenous glucose and
surgical supplies.
“Our hospitals aren’t prepared for a major
offensive. We hope NGOs and the government will
provide enough supplies to prevent chaos at the
health centre, which until now has been functioning
well in Kurdistan,” said Ahmed Behi from Zakho
General Hospital.
Turkey has massed an estimated 100,000 troops on the
border with Iraqi Kurdistan for an eventual incursion it hopes
will end the PKK campaign that has claimed more than
37,000 lives, since 1984 the PKK took up arms for
self-rule in the country's mainly Kurdish southeast
of Turkey.
www.ekurd.net
Iraqi Kurdish politician says, Turkey is using
Turkey's Kurdish separatist PKK rebel group as an
excuse to invade Kurdistan region 'Iraq' to prevent
the establishment of Kurdistan state in the Kurdish
autonomous region in 'northern Iraq'.
irinnews org
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