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Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis fleeing to
Kurdistan region
22.3.2007 |
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March 22, 2007
Baghdad, Iraq --- Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan
About 160,000 Iraqis from outside the mountainous
Kurdistan north have moved there to flee a growing
civil war, according to a draft of a report by an
international group that tracks refugees and
displaced people.
That number is the first comprehensive figure for
internal flight to Iraqi Kurdistan that has been
released by any organization.
It is also far higher than partial estimates
previously disclosed by Kurdish officials.
The draft report, by Refugees International, which
is based in Washington, says the Iraqis who have
fled north face harsh living conditions. Inflation
is rampant, and outsiders have few decent job
opportunities.
Little aid is available for those or other
internally displaced Iraqis, because the Iraqi and
United States governments, as well as the United
Nations, have failed to acknowledge the extent of
the crisis, the report said.
The report's number of 160,000 displaced Iraqis in
Kurdistan is based on estimates by the Iraqi Red
Crescent Society.
Government statistics have been difficult to come
by. Last August, the chief security officer for
Sulaimaniyah, the largest city in eastern Kurdistan,
said that about 1,000 Arab families had moved into
the Sulaimaniyah area and that thousands more
families had settled in other parts of the Kurdish
north. The officer, Sarkawt Hassan Jalal, said most
of the migrants were Sunni Arabs.
Two researchers for Refugees International recently
conducted a two-week survey of conditions in Iraqi
Kurdistan and found that "many of the internally
displaced are struggling to survive, the victims of
inattention, inadequate resources, regional politics
and bureaucratic obstacles," the report said.
The movement of Iraqis within and outside their
homeland has produced the world's fastest-growing
populations of refugees and internally displaced
people. The United Nations estimates that two
million Iraqis have fled the country, which has a
population of 26 million.
According to United Nations figures, 727,000 have
been displaced within the country since the bombing
of a revered Shiite shrine in February 2006 set off
waves of sectarian violence. The Iraqi Ministry of
Displacement and Migration says about 470,000
displaced people have been officially registered
with the government since the fall of Saddam
Hussein, though that figure is almost certainly an
undercount.
The movement is mostly driven by sectarian killings
and intimidation taking place in mixed Sunni Arab
and Shiite Arab areas.
Many Iraqis have fled to the Kurdish north because
of the relative safety there. Iraqi Kurdistan
maintains a formidable militia that guards its
borders. Also, the economy of Iraqi Kurdistan is
believed to be growing faster than that of the rest
of Iraq.
Iraqis moving to the north must pass through
security checkpoints and provide the name of a
Kurdish guarantor. Arab Muslims generally have a
tougher time getting in than Kurds or Christians.
Single Arab men have an especially hard time.
Iraqi Kurdistan has enjoyed de facto independence
since 1991, when the American military established a
no-flight zone over the area to prevent incursions
by Saddam's forces. Kurds are generally suspicious
of or hostile toward Arabs because of attempts by
Saddam, a Sunni Arab, to wipe out entire swaths of
Kurdistan.
Many Kurds favor secession from the Arab part of
Iraq, but Kurdish leaders are wary of the
international outcry that the move would provoke,
especially from Turkey, Iran and Syria, which fear
that it could encourage separatism among their own
significant Kurdish populations.
The Refugees International report said Kurds from
outside Kurdistan did not necessarily have an easy
time moving into the region. Kurdish officials
prefer that Kurds living in mixed areas like Kirkuk
and Khanaqin remain there, so that the Kurdish
regional government will later be able to make a
legitimate claim on those places, the report said.
The Iraqi Constitution says the province of Kirkuk,
which is rich in oil reserves, must hold a popular
referendum by the end of 2007 to determine whether
it will be governed by Kurdistan.
Christians have had an easier time moving into Iraqi
Kurdistan than Muslims, the report said. "Christians
going to Dohuk receive financial assistance from the
Kurdistan regional government of $85 per month, as
well as land in their villages of origin and
assistance to build houses," the report said. The
region's finance minister is a Christian.
Over all, displaced people "who reach the Kurdish
provinces must surmount difficulties in finding
housing, shelter, employment and education for their
children," the report said. That conclusion was
reached based on interviews conducted by the two
researchers, Kristele Younes and Nir Rosen.
Families that have moved from their original
residences cannot get monthly food rations from the
government, under a system started in the 1990s
during the United Nations oil-for-food program. The
children of displaced families often cannot enroll
in schools, and few schools have classes taught in
Arabic. Rents in urban areas have skyrocketed.
The report recommends several ways to help alleviate
the problems. It said that the United States and the
international community should take urgent steps to
ease the lives of the displaced and that the Iraqi
government should devise a new ration card system
that would allow people to receive food and fuel in
their new locations.
nytimes com
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