Kurds force 7000 Shiite to evacuate
Iraq, Politics, 7/10/2003

Several Bashmarka Kurds who returned back to Khanqin in the downtown of Iraq after the collapse of the Iraqi regime three months ago expelled thousands of Shiite families who settled in the area, at the directives of the former regime, 30 years ago.

The committee in charge of evacuees rights which takes al-Miqdadeyah as a headquarters ( 80 Km north east Baghdad) indicated that 7,000 families were forced to evacuate walking on foot or by cars and headed to the south and resorted to deserted buildings.

Adnan, a fighter from the Bashmarka who returned back to the region after he was forced to leave it, 30 years ago said "I left together with my family to Babel ( 100 Km to the south of Baghdad ) in 1975. After ten years I joined my father in Iraq where I joined the Kurdistani democratic party and I returned back in 1991 and settled in al-Suleimaneyah in Kurdistan of the self- rule. Today I have returned back home."

Adnan, who is a member in the new police which was formed after the collapse of the Iraqi regime, said that hundreds of the Kurdish families which evacuated along years to the south or Baghdad or al-Ramadi "returned back to their houses and restored back their lands taken from them." He said "the Kurds used to represent 90% of the population of Khanqin and we do (want) to relink the region with Kurdistan and not Baqouba, the center of Deyala " Shiite province.

Khanqin which is inhabited by 500,000 is 145 Km to the north east of Baghdad and just 10 Km from Iran. This area was exposed to a campaign of forced "Arabization" carried out by Saddam Hussein through transferring the Kurdish families from it. The population said that the Arabs who were expelled were used to deal with the former regime and they were expelled because they are responsible for liquidating large number of Kurds.

Previous Stories:
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  Kwaiti says it identified four missing Kuwaitis dead in Iraq   (7/9/2003)
  Kurds become the new tyrants in northern Iraq   (4/21/2003)

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