After the Iran-Iraq was over in 1987, Iraqi forces invaded the state of Kuwait claiming that it is part of Iraq, looting the properties of people, destructing the in-fracture and captivating the Kuwaiti women, children and old men. The international community interfered and asked Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait and return the looted property to the People of Kuwait and release the prisoners. Iraq refused to withdraw and the allied forces led by the U. S. A. decided to resort to military force. The military attack "Desert Storm" started in January 1991. In this attack, the allied forces had inflicted heavy casualties on the Iraqi army and defeated most of the Iraqi forces.
Kurds in the north of Iraq, the number one enemy of Iraqi regime, supported the allied forces in their attack against Iraqi forces. They started a mass uprising against the Iraqi forces and supporters in the north and destroyed most of the troops and liberated most of the Kurdish populated area. After the Gulf war was over, Iraq regime officials announced to withdraw from Kuwait and their compliance with United Nations Security Council resolutions. After that, they attacked the Kurdish controlled area to regain the power and control the uprising. Knowing the brutality of the Iraqi forces and officials, the Kurdish people made a mass exodus to Iran and Turkey to save their lives, and this attracted the attention of the international community.
The international community interfered and put pressure on the allied forces led by the United States to create the Safe Haven and no flying zone for Kurdish people in the north of Iraq (Kurdistan) and help the Kurdish refugees to return to their homes and rehabilitate their villages.
Then United Nation's agencies and other international Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) from Europe and United States came to the north of Iraq in April 1991 to provide humanitarian aid to Kurdish people. They started recruiting professional staff form Kurdish people to help them in delivering humanitarian aid to the needy and vulnerable people.
I have started working with a British NGO in 1991 and with the American Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) in 1995 to help the Kurdish refugees and displaced people to resettle in their villages.
In 1996, the Iraqi government issued an amnesty for the Kurdish people excluding the Kurdish local staff of the NGOs, considering them as traitors and agents of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). When the internal fighting broke out between the two Kurdish Factions in 1996, the Iraqi army invaded one of the Kurdish cities where the NGOs based their offices and killed many of the Kurdish local staff of the NGOs. The expatriate staff of OFDA withdrew from the north of Iraq, and later the State Department to evacuate the rest of the surviving local staff.
In December 1996, many Kurdish families, including my family and me were evacuated to Guam, a U. S. territory and then to the United States to protect us from the brutality of the Iraqi regime.
I feel safe here, but the rest of my family, brothers, sisters, and other relatives are still in the north of Iraq. The question is, what will happen to them if Iraqi forces regain power in the north of Iraq? The answer is, they will be in real danger.
Thank you,
Ahmed Mirawdaly
