"Gaza - The noticeable increase in numbers of Palestinian refugees killed and kidnapped in Iraq has apparently spurred PA refugee affairs' ministry to urge the government of Iraqi premier Nuri Al-Maliki to protect Palestinian refugees in his country.
In an open letter he sent to Maliki, Dr. Atef Odwan, the PA refugees' affairs minister, deplored the unexplainable silence on the part of the Iraqi government vis-à-vis those heinous crimes, and called on the Iraqi clergymen and high-ranking religious leaders to shoulder their religious and human duties in sparing lives of those innocent refugees.
"As you know, harsh circumstances had forced those refugees to land in your country as temporary visitors after they were driven out of their homes at gunpoint, believing that their stay in Iraq won't last long; yet, their fate in addition to political circumstances made them stay till now", Odwan explained.
However, Odwan added, "The American occupation of Iraq changed a lot of political, social, and economic equations in Iraq amidst increasing internal conflicts that turned Palestinian refugees in your country into targets of armed militia groups sanctioned by the American occupation".
So, Odwan furthermore explained, "We talk to the Arab chivalry in you to help us save those refugees who have nothing to do with the conflict in your country".
Scores of Palestinian refugees in Iraq were killed or kidnapped at the hands of armed militias affiliated with a number of Iraqi political parties and sanctioned by the American occupation forces since the American invasion of that Arab country in 2003.
Thousands others of those refugees managed to flee the war-torn Iraq to a number of Arab and foreign countries; yet tens of thousands of them, including children and women among others still reside in Iraq. "
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