Front page of current PEACE NEWS

[peacenews at gn.apc.org]

Frontpage comment in May issue of Peace News. 
(for full issue contents, see conf "wri.news")
A disaster like the one that has unfolded in Iraq since the end of the
Gulf War poses some difficult questions for Western peace activists.

The first temptation is to accuse our governments of hypocrisy in
encouraging the people of Iraq to overthrow their government, then
standing idly by as they were cut to ribbons. 

True, the US and UK governments have been particularly inconsistent
in their dealings with the Iraqi oppositions -- armed and unarmed.
Nowhere in Europe have Kurdish refugees been welcomed.

The creation of "safe havens" in Iraqi Kurdistan appears to be an
admission of responsibility for the refugee crisis. But not all Kurds can
or will return to Iraq at this time.

In early April, up to a thousand a day -- mostly children -- died of
dehydration and malnutrition. The situation was far worse on Iraq's
border with NATO-member Turkey than on the eastern border with
Iran, the West's favourite former bogeyman.

The Iranian authorities -- who managed to deal with the flow of
refugees with negligible help from the international community --
seem better to understand the ancient Indian principle of
_hirat_. Populations fleeing tyranny depopulate their own state
and take refuge in a neighbouring state as a way of hastening the fall
of their ruler.

If that is what comes to pass, we will be as glad as anyone. But
wherever the Kurds are at the moment, in the mountains, in exile, or
within Iraq, relief must get to them.

In the UK, the Kurdish Cultural Centre is responding to the changing
refugee situation. They can be contacted at 14 Stannary St, London
SW11 4AA (tel 071 735 0918; fax 582 8894; email gn:kurds).

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>From _Peace News_ May 1991. Please credit if reprinting.
Peace News, 55 Dawes St, London SE17 1EL (tel +44 71 703
7189;
fax +44 71 708 2525; email gn:peacenews)
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