Exode (des Kurdes d'Irak) - Institut kurde de Paris

--- -----------------------------------------------
REVUE DE PRESSE~PRESS REVIEW~BERHEVOKAÇAPÊ~RIVISTA STAMPA~DENTRO DE LA PRENSA.BASIN ÖZETÎ
An old Kurdish man and a boy yesterday
stroll though the tented camp of Silopi. Thousands of refugees have beè~
moved from terrible coIiditions at Isikveren in the border mountains to Silopi where aid distribution is better - --
Safe haven plan brings relief to Turkey
'but long-term worries over Kurds
- -
:By John Murray
Brown in Ankara
'TURKEY'S sense of relief was
'all too apparent yesterday after
•the announcement that the US
.military is to help establish
.safe havens in northern Iraq
-for the thousands of refugees
camped on the Turkish border.
Although officials emphasise
it is only a temporary solution
for the Kurds, the plan clearly
lets Turkeyoff the hook.
; Turkey has faced grOWing
'criticismfrom the aidcommu-
.nity for confining the refugees
-'to border areas inaccessible to
'normal relief operations - the
:main reason for this week's US
'led-helicopter airlift to the esti-
;mated 300,000refugees on Tur-
.key's southern border. Ankara
-has argued that the nature of
-the terrain makes it more practical
to assist the refugees
inside Iraq. As one official
explained, the Iraqi lowlands
are.some 10km from the border
areas while Turkey's flat lands
suitable for camps are 150km
away.
Voicing support for the plan,
Mr Yacob Youssü, a member of
the Iraqi opposition, predicted
last week that 80 per cent of
the refugees would return if
their security could be guaranteed.
Ankara's worry now is that
the safe havens could all too
easily become a permanent
Kurdish presence on its
southern borders. A main concern
for Turkey hasbeen to
avoid a repeat of tile 1988crisis
when it opened its borders to
60,000 Kurds fleeing President
Saddam Hussein's chemical
attacks. Of these, fewer than
2,000 were resettled, whilealmost
28,000 remain in three
Turkish camps in the southeast.
-
The US was flying reconnaisance
missions yesterday while
US officials confirmed that
experts from the Disaster
Assistance Response Teams
(Dart) were already inside
-~~~hern Ir!l9 s~rveyin_irpossi. __
ble sites. Meanwhile in Diyarbakir,
UK and French officials
were in talks with the US military.
One diplomat suggested the
plain between Habur bridge on
the Turkish border and the
Kurdish town of Zakho 'might
prove the most suitable site.
Yesterday a US military offi.
cial -confidently predicted the
refugees could be back inside
Iraq within 30 to40 days.
Mr Murat Sungar, the foreign
ministry spokesman, said
the plight of refugees could not
just be -ignored "because there
is no consensus in the UN".
Earlier this week, Mr Kurtcebe
Alptemocin, the foreign
minister, said there would
have to be a UN sanction for
the plan. However, the ministry
said yesterday it was
unlikely the Security Council
would pass "anything more
forceful than 6SS" - which
states that' Iraq's repression of
the Kurdsc!)nstitutes
a threat
to international peace and!
security. -
Before Tuesday's announce.'
ment of. the safe havens, Mrs
Sadako Ogata, the UN High-
Commissioner for Refugees~
saidthe aid' community had t