Dokument #1073228
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Autor)
For information on the above-mentioned
subject please consult the attached documents. Please note that
between 1986 and 1988 Kurdish, Iraqi and Iranian troops were all
involved in fighting in the region.
According to Keesing's Record of World
Events,
Kurdish guerrillas fighting in the north of
the country for autonomy from the Baghdad government achieved a
number of successes during 1987-88, capturing a number of towns and
forcing the Iraqi Army to reinforce the area to counter the threat.
On April 14, 1987, the guerrillas, aided by Iranian Revolutionary
Guards, were reported to have overrun Iraqi military bases and
fortifications, killing 1,500 Iraqis and capturing strategic
heights near the town of Suleymaniyeh. It was alleged that the
Iraqis then carried out a number of gas attacks against 20 Kurdish
villages in the area in an attempt to regain control of the
villages. It was reported that 33 Kurds, mostly civilians, were
killed and 450 wounded (Apr. 1988, 35862).
Furthermore,
On May 22, 1987, more than 4,000 Iraqi
Kurds were reported to have fled to Iran following clashes with the
Iraqi Army which was attempting to evacuate villages and towns
close to the front-line to the east and north of Suleymaniyeh
(ibid, 35863).
Please note that Middle East Watch has
published two extensive reports on a 1987-89"campaign of
extermination against the Kurds of northern Iraq" (1993, 3). Please
find attached the introduction to one of these reports entitled
Genocide in Iraq: The Anfal Campaign Against the Kurds which
outlines a number of conflicts and human rights abuses committed by
the Iraqi Armed Forces against the Kurds in various locations in
northern Iraq between 1987 and 1989 (ibid.).
This Response was prepared after
researching publicly accessible information currently available to
the DIRB within time constraints. This Response is not, and does
not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular
claim to refugee status or asylum.
References
Keesing's Record of World
Events (Cambridge(. April 1988. Vol. 34, No. 4. "Kurdish
Insurgency-Gas Attacks-Taking of Italian Hostages."
Middle East Watch. July 1993.
Genocide in Iraq: The Anfal Campaign Against the Kurds.
New York: Human Rights Watch.
Attachments
Brogan, Patrick. 1990. The
Fighting Never Stopped: A Comprehensive Guide to World Conflict
Since 1945. New York: Vintage Books, pp. 267-68.
Hiro, Dilip. 1990. The Longest War:
The Iran-Iraq Military Conflict. London: Harper Collins, pp.
287-96.
Keesing's Record of World
Events (Cambridge(. April 1988. Vol. 34, No. 4. "Kurdish
Insurgency-Gas Attacks-Taking of Italian Hostages," pp.
35862-35863
Middle East Watch. July 1993.
Genocide in Iraq: The Anfal Campaign Against the Kurds.
New York: Human Rights Watch, pp. 3-21.
The World in Conflict 1989. War
Annual 3: Contemporary Warfare Described and Analysed. Edited
by John Laffin. London: Brassey's Defence Publishers, pp. 103-16,
137-42.