Iraqi regime issues new rules to control travel to Kurdistan

(The Kurdistan Observer) Aug 24, 2001. A column published by the London-based Al-
Zaman today reports that the Iraqi government in Baghdad has set up new restrictions to
limit Kurds and Arabs residing in Iraqi-controlled areas from travelling to Southern (Iraqi)
Kurdistan.  The new travel  regulations ban any Iraqis, and in particular Iraqi Arabs, from 
entering the Kurdish-controlled region via Iraqi checkpoints.  The Iraqi authorities at the
border checkpoints have been instructed to interrogate travelers prior to their enforced return
to Iraq.

The new restrictions have prevented hundreds of Iraqi Arabs from reaching Kurdistan where
they engaged in business activities or to receive money sent by their relations living in
Europe or Arab countries.  In addition, many Iraqi Arabs traveled to Kurdistan to
rendezvous with relatives residing abroad who cannot head to Iraqi-controlled regions.

These actions by the Iraqi government have impacted negatively on commerce in some
Kurdish cities especially in the city of Zahko where hotel and restaurant businesses catered
to hundreds of Iraqi Arabs.  Some Kurds believe that the the goal of the latest Iraqi
regulations is to prevent Iraqi awareness of relative peace and prosperity in Southern
Kurdistan that is lacking in Iraq and to prevent Iraqis fleeing Iraq through Kurdistan. 

As for residents of Kurdish-controlled  regions travelling to Iraq, they are subjected to
harassment and levies of at least 250 and on occasion to thousands of Iraqi dinars.  

Saddam's regime has used these actions to augment their longstanding ethnic cleansing of the
oil-rich Kurdish city of Kirkuk by arresting travelers carrying identification indicating their
origin as Kirkuk.
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