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| 30,000 Returning Kurds Replace 100,000 Arab Colonists in Kurdistan |
| 2004-02-21 |
| An international body that monitors displaced people says about 100,000 Arabs have been forced from their homes by returning Kurds in northern Iraq. The Global IDP Project estimates that about 30,000 Kurds who were evicted under Saddam Hussein have gone back to their home towns and villages. .... The report says political tensions are particularly high in the oil-rich area round Kirkuk. Arab and Turkmen residents are afraid the Kurdish authorities are trying to lure more Kurds to resettle there, so that the non-Kurdish population will be outnumbered in any future referendum on the status of the city. |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |
| #3 In Saudi Arabia the Sunni Arabs have displaced the Shias from the oil regions. In Algeria the Sunni Arabs have taken control of the oil regions owned by the Berber. In Sudan the Sunni Arabs have displaced the Blacks from the oil regions. In Iraq the Sunni Arabs have displaced the Kurds from the oil regions. Can you see a pattern? |
| Posted by: JFM 2004-2-21 5:08:44 PM |
| #2 Yep, Rantburg has been following this. I have a little sympathy for the people Saddam trucked in to occupy the place -- most of them were ordinary folks who got an offer they couldn't refuse in Saddam's Iraq. But you're right, the Kurds have to be allowed to re-settle. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2004-2-21 12:56:49 PM |
| #1 Note the accurate use of the word 'resettle'. These were people who were driven out of their homes and only the survivors for that matter. I think they have every right to return. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2004-2-21 5:20:41 AM |