INTERVIEW-Arab states urged to let in Palestinians from Iraq
Source: Reuters
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis DAMASCUS, Jan 23 (Reuters) - A U.N. refugee agency appealed to Arab governments on Tuesday to take in 600 Palestinians who have been stranded for months at the Iraqi-Syrian border after fleeing persecution in Baghdad. "We appeal to their common sense and generosity to allow them in. Having pregnant women, children and newborn babies there under snow and rain is no solution," Panos Moumtzis, head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Syria, told Reuters. "What they told us is that they have experienced horrific human rights abuses in Iraq. Some of them were arrested, tortured and beaten up. Others have lost family members who were killed during interrogation or during attacks," Moumtzis said. Half of the refugees headed to Syria in June last year. The Syrian government did not allow them in and they became stuck in no man's land near a desert highway linking Baghdad with Damascus. The rest fled later and gathered nearby, inside Iraq. The 600, mostly women and children, mostly came from the Baladiyat district of Baghdad. The community has been the target of attacks, including killings, by militias because of the assistance awarded to Palestinians by Saddam Hussein. The late Iraqi president gave Palestinians housing and portrayed himself as a defender of the Palestinian cause. U.N. aid workers visit the refugees at the Iraqi-Syrian border regularly and bring food and medicine. Syria allows pregnant women to have their babies in its hospitals but sends them back afterwards. Parents are being trained to give lessons to children in absence of schooling. TWO-TIME REFUGEES "The Palestinians have suffered tremendously over the past decades. Here we are in 2007 and you have Palestinian refugees living in a tented camp," Moumtzis said. "People need desperately to come out from where they are. Thousands of Iraqi refugees cross the borders daily. It shouldn't make a difference if the Palestinians also enter." Up to one million Iraqi refugees have fled to Syria since the U.S. invasion that removed Saddam from power in 2003, most fleeing sectarian strife and attacks on minorities ranging from Palestinians to Christians to Shi'ite Kurds. Syria -- which hosts 435,000 Palestinian refugees registered with the U.N. -- allowed in 250 Palestinians from Iraq in May and put them in a desert camp after Jordan refused them entry. Damascus says it is the responsibility of the rest of the countries in the region to share in hosting the Palestinians. Jordan has allowed 2,000 Palestinian, Arabs, Iranians and Kurds who fled post-Saddam Iraq to stay in a desert camp inside its borders, but refused to grant them residency. Most were resettled in the West. About 100 Palestinians remain in the camp. Iraq had 30,000 Palestinian refugees before 2003. They carried special travel documents, not passports. Many of them have managed to leave the country with false Iraqi passports. Up to half remain there. Palestinian refugees registered with the United Nations number over four million. Most are descendants of those who fled their land when Israel was created in 1948. UNHCR, another refugee agency, said armed men wearing police uniforms on Tuesday seized 17 Palestinians from a house it rents in Baghdad. The agency said it was concerned about their fate and is seeking information about their whereabouts.
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