Turkish military kills Iraqi refugees
Thirty Iraqi refugees from the fighting in Iraqi Kurdistan were killed by Turkish security forces north of the Turkish border with Iraq in the last week of October, according to the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees and Immigrants Organisation.
The news, received from the main hospital in Sulaimaniya, also indicated that the bodies of eight of the 30 were disfigured and mutilated beyond recognition. IFIRIO said the group of asylum seekers had fled from Iraq to Turkey to escape the fighting between Kurdish nationalist parties in northern Iraq and described their killing as a crime against humanity and a mockery of basic human rights.
IFIRIO has asked that letters protesting against the Turkish military and government's outrage against refugees be sent to the Turkish consulate in Sydney, fax (02) 9362 4533. n