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Iranian bombardment displaces hundreds of
Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan
1.9.2007
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September 1, 2007
Mardow, Kurdistan region (Iraq), -- As
explosions boomed in the distance, a Kurdish woman
stood outside her house and pointed to where shells
scorched parts of her father's grapes and plum
orchards. "It was a bad day when some 20 shells hit
our village in a single day last week. We were
crying as we prayed to God to protect us from the
bombs of the Islamic Republic of Iran," said Serwa
Ibrahim, one of the few remaining villagers in
Mardow, about 25 miles from the Iranian border.
"Despite the shelling, I will stay in my village
until the end," Ibrahim, 33, said Thursday.
Iranian troops have been accused of bombing border
areas for weeks against suspected positions of the
Free Life Party, or PEJAK, a breakaway faction of
the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party. Iran says
PEJAK -- which seeks autonomy for Kurds in mainly
Kurdish northwest Iran, half the members of PEJAK
are women. -- launches attacks inside Iran from
bases in Iraqi Kurdistan region.
The Iranian shelling has been
criticized by Iraqi officials
and Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari warned it could
have negative effects on the crucial relations
between Iran and Iraq's Shiite-led government.
Ari Yashir, a PEJAK member, took a reporter in a
tour around several deserted villages and claimed
the Iranian attacks only serve to harm civilians. |
Kurdish refugees sit near the village of Shewe Perde
Hasso, an a improvised refugee camp, in Kurdistan
region (Iraq), near the Iranian border, Thursday
Aug. 30, 2007. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari
on Thursday strongly criticised Iranian artillery
barrages against Kurdish guerrilla positions in
border areas, warning that if such shelling
continues it will negatively affect relations
between the two neighbouring countries. |
"The bombing is only targeting villages where we
have no bases," he said. "After three weeks of
Iranian shelling none of our positions was hit and
not a single member of our party was wounded."
Most of the people who fled their homes have
gathered in an area known as Shewe Hasow, a valley
with water springs in the Qandil Mountain area that
borders Iran and Turkey. Many of them stay in tents
or under covers mostly supplied by the International
Committee of the Red Cross.
"We are here because the refugees are in need," said
ICRC member Patrick Youssef, standing by a truck
with canned food
and bottled water. "We are helping them with needed
stuff because most of them left their homes leaving
their things
behind."
The Kurdish region's interior minister, Othman Haji
Mahmoud, told the Kurdistan regional parliament
Tuesday that the Iranian shelling led to the
displacement of some 450 families in 20 villages,
adding that several people were wounded in addition
to material damages.
He said the latest wave of shelling began Aug. 14.
In Baghdad, Zebari said Tuesday that the main areas
struck are in the northern Kurdistani provinces of
Erbil and Sulaimaniyah. Iranian shelling "has been
ongoing and unfortunately has become a daily or a
routine practice. Recently, we summoned the Iranian
ambassador and handed him a note of protest."
"PEJAK sometimes moves in border area, but this does
not permit all this continuous, daily and intensive
shelling," said Zebari, a Kurd, who noted that Iraq
was prepared to hold negotiations with Iran on the
disputes over Kurdish rebel groups.
"We hope that these attacks will stop immediately."
To some Kurds in the region, they have been living
the war for decades, including widespread atrocities
blamed on Saddam Hussein's regime in the 1980s.
"We are the victims of a continuous struggle. My
house was destroyed five times and I rebuilt it. Let
this be the sixth time," said Abdullah Wasou
Ibrahim, who fled to the refugee camp with 10 family
members.
AP
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