February 10, 2008
AMMAN,-- The Red Cross on Sunday urged a
solution for 190 Iranian Kurds stranded in a no
man's land along the Jordanian border ever since
they fled war-torn Iraq three years ago.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
appealed "to those who have the power to conceive
and implement a durable and safe solution for these
people to do all they can to solve at least one
pinprick of tragedy in the region".
"They subsist as best they can in an extremely
precarious environment characterised notably by a
lack of access to safe water, inadequate sheltering
facilities,www.ekurd.net
unsatisfactory diet, and
an absence of tangible hope," said Paul Castella,
head of the ICRC in Amman.
The Iranian Kurds, who had fled the 1979 Islamic
revolution in their own country, were until early
2005 resettled in a refugee camp in central Iraq.
But they were forced to flee the violence in Iraq to
the no-man's land on the border with Jordan, a
military zone to which the UN refugee agency (UNHCR)
does not have access.
They have refused to be relocated to Erbil province
in Kurdistan region of northern Iraq under an
agreement between Kurdistan's regional government
and the UNHCR.
And Jordan, which is already home to 1.7 million
Palestinian refugees and more than 500,000 Iraqis,
has repeatedly refused to accept Iranian Kurds for
demographic and economic reasons.
"This situation cannot go in for much longer. All
these people want is a place where they can live a
normal life," said the ICRC.
"The present living conditions and especially the
absence of any programme to resettle these people in
a country where they will feel safe is regrettable."
AFP
Iranian Kurdistan
**
Iranian Kurdistan (Kurdish: Kurdistana Īranź or
Kurdistana Rojhilat (Eastern Kurdistan) or Rojhilatź
Kurdistan (East of Kurdistan)) is an unofficial name
for the parts of Iran inhabited by Kurds and has
borders with Iraq and Turkey. It includes the
greater parts of West Azerbaijan province, Kurdistan
Province, Kermanshah Province, and Ilam Province.
Kurds form the majority of the population of this
region with an estimated population of 4 million.
The region is the eastern part of the greater
cultural-geographical area called Kurdistan.
More about Iranian Kurdistan
KDPI
The Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran in Kurdish
(Hīzbī Dźmokiratī Kurdistanī Źran) is a Kurdish
opposition group in Iranian Kurdistan which seeks
the attainment of Kurdish national rights within a
democratic federal republic of Iran.
The current
General Secretary of the Democratic Party of Iranian
Kurdistan is Mustafa Hijri
More about KDPI- Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran
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