Washington, March 14, 2003) – Iraq´s practice of expelling Kurds, Turkomans, and Assyrians in the oil-rich regions of Kirkuk and turning their property over to Arab families from the south continues, Human Rights Watch said today.
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Iraq has used systematic intimidation, harassment, and discrimination to make the lives of Kirkuk´s minorities intolerable. The government´s clear intent is to ‘Arabize´ this key oil-producing region by force and repression.
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“Iraq has used systematic intimidation, harassment, and discrimination to make the lives of Kirkuk´s minorities intolerable,” said Joe Stork, Washington director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch. “The government´s clear intent is to ‘Arabize´ this key oil-producing region by force and repression.”
The report, based on interviews conducted in September 2002 with recently displaced families, details policies that include: · forcing minorities to “correct” their ethnic identity, · compelling them to join supposedly “volunteer” paramilitary forces such as the Popular Army and Saddam´s Martyrs, and · seizing the land of farming families without prior notice or compensation.
“Some of the more valuable properties were presented as ‘gifts´ to high Ba`th Party officials,” Stork said, “ while most was distributed to Arab families enticed to move into the area.”
Human Rights Watch said that the systematic forced and arbitrary transfer of populations is a crime against humanity under international law, and urged that those responsible be brought to justice.
“Iraq operates a bureaucracy of expulsion, complete with formal expulsion orders and deportation centers,” Stork said. “This report documents a crime against humanity that the government continues today.”
