Violence and resentment of US military push tens of thousands of Arab families toward secure provinces of Iraqi Kurdistan

RAW STORYPublished: Friday September 1, 2006

Violence and resentment of the US military have pushed tens of thousands of Arab families to migrate towards the more secure provinces of Iraqi Kurdistan, according to an article slated for the front page of Saturday's New York Times.

"Along with a Ferris wheel and ice cream stands, the park at the heart of this Kurdish city has a monument listing the names of dozens of Kurds killed in a torture compound here by Saddam Hussein's intelligence officers," Edward Wong writes for the Times.

" Yet, there was Sabah Abdul Rahman, a former intelligence officer, strolling just yards from the monument with his family on a recent evening," the article continues. " Driven from Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, by violence and their resentment of the U.S. military, the family had arrived here that very day and found a $30-a-night apartment."

"This is the only safe place in all of Iraq," Abdul Rahman tells the Times. "There's terrorism elsewhere and the presence of the Americans."
Excerpts from the article:
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With sectarian violence boiling over in much of Iraq, tens of thousands of Arab families are on the move, searching for a safe place to live. Surprisingly, given the decades of brutal Sunni Arab rule over the Kurdish minority and continuing ethnic tensions, many like Abdul Rahman are settling in the secure provinces of Iraqi Kurdistan, run virtually as a separate country by the regional government.

The influx of Arabs has made many Kurds nervous, and regional leaders are debating whether to corral the Arabs into separate housing estates or camps.

"For the Kurdish people, it's a sensitive issue," said Asos Hardi, the editor of Awene, a newspaper that has run editorials in favor of segregating the Arab migrants. "Of course, everybody supports those people who have left their lands and their homes because of violence, but we don't want it at the expense of giving up our land or changing the demographics of our land."
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FULL TIMES ARTICLE CAN BE READ AT THIS LINK