Tuesday, April 7, 2009

IRAQ: Whither the Palestinian minority?


"BAGHDAD, 7 April 2009 (IRIN) - The remaining estimated 14,000 Palestinians in Iraq or holed up in camps on the Iraqi-Syrian border still face a precarious existence, despite a slowly improving security situation, say observers......

“We’ve been hearing such statements and promises since 2003 and nothing has happened. Instead, our life and situation have deteriorated.”

He said that in 2005 his father was gunned down in a Baghdad street: Hundreds of Palestinian refugees have been killed in ethnic attacks since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.....

Some 35,000 stateless Palestinians were living in Iraq before 2003, but many were intimidated or attacked by armed groups who accused them of loyalty to the Saddam Hussein regime. Killings, abductions and persecution have forced thousands to flee to Jordan and Syria, while others fled to makeshift refugee camps. A few have managed to get resettled abroad."

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