|
Iraqi
Kurds exiles in own country
By
CNN's Brent Sadler
Oct 21, 2002
ERBIL, (Southern
Kurdistan) (CNN) --Many Kurds are exiles in their own country eking out a
survival among the dirt and waste-ground of the desert's so-called
safe-havens.
One of those
refugee camps is Benswala, close to Erbil in northern Iraq, which is a
dirt-trodden waste-ground in the desert. The best homes are made of mud and
straw while the worse off make do in a patchwork of tents. Families who
struggle to exist here are exiles, Kurdish exiles, in their own country.
They are subject
to a new policy from Iraqi President leader Saddam Hussein, which allows Kurds
and other minorities the chance to stay only if the disavow their non-Arab
heritage, and register themselves as Arabs.
These people are
the losers in a presidential strategy to dilute, if not eradicate, a Kurdish
presence in strategic areas -- especially here, near the oil-rich Kirkuk
region.
Kirkuk, just 40
miles (60 kilometres) away, was the home of Marwan Taher and his family. He
shows us paperwork which he says explains how they were forced to leave,
abandoning all their possessions.
"They told us
we should change our nationality ... to be Arab if you want to stay,"
Marwan said through a translator.
This is little
more than a dumping ground for the Iraqi president's unwanted Kurds, victims
of an official Baghdad policy to change the population of Kirkuk, forcing
Kurds out and putting Arabs in. Kurds call it Saddam's version of ethnic
cleansing.
It is not new.
Iraq's Muslim Sunni Arab rulers have been applying similar policies for
decades to tighten their grip on restive minorities.
Kurds have been
herded into collectives since the late 1980s. In a nearby refugee camp another
marooned family, that of Lukman Shurj says he was an Iraqi soldier in Kirkuk
until he was forced out.
They are sick of
seeing their lives waste away, they say. "We live in mud," says
Lukman's wife, Suzanne. "And we work in mud ... this is our life."
Lukman spells out
what he wants."America," he says. Even more so, the U.N. should
force Saddam's regime to collapse so he can go on trial, he adds.
If not, they fear,
their aimless lives might only get worse. |
