Kurdish refugees' lives at risk
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees announced on December 21 that the Atrush refugee camp, inside the "safe haven" in northern Iraq, would be closed within a month. The camp houses 15,000 Kurdish refugees who fled Turkey when the Turkish army burned and destroyed Kurdish villages after April 1994.
The UNHCR has issued letters to camp residents informing them of a program of "voluntary repatriation" to Turkey.
The Atrush camp, 60 kilometres from the Turkey-Iraq border, has continued to receive new arrivals seeking protection from Turkish attacks right up to the closure announcement. Camp residents began an indefinite hunger strike.
The London-based Kurdish Information Centre said that the UNHCR "has finally bowed to pressure from the Turkish authorities to close the camp which has long been an political embarrassment to them. The threatened closure endangers the lives of 15,000 Kurds.
"These civilian, 80% of whom are women, children and elderly villagers, deserve the same protection under the Geneva Convention as any other refugees. All are Kurds who have already lost their homes, livelihood and members of their families during attacks on their villages by Turkish forces. More than 3400 villages have been destroyed and 3 million Kurds forced out of south-east Turkey during military operations."
The Kurdish Red Crescent said the decision to close the camp exposed the hypocrisy of the international community towards the Kurdish people. "This policy is in stark and revealing contrast to that pursued by the USA and the United Nations last year when 7500 PUK [Patriotic Union of Kurdistan] supporters were hastily evacuated, with transport by the CIA, via Guam, to the US in order to protect them from possible reprisals by Saddam Hussein's regime. But for the Kurds from Turkey new standards and different criteria apply."
On January 9, more than 1000 refugees chose to leave the Atrush camp for protection in areas controlled by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).