Iraqi Kurds were fleeing the city of Kirkuk for a Kurdish-run zone in rising numbers yesterday, and a Kurdish regional governor came to the border crossing to work out where to house the influx.
Kurds have been leaving the city all week for a separatist Kurdish zone in the north, their numbers swelling as a possible US-led war to oust President Saddam Hussein appears closer.
At the Qushtapa border crossing between Iraqi-controlled territory and the Kurdish-run zone, many Kurds seemed unsure where to go next after leaving their homes at short notice. A few hundred were milling around on the Kurdish side of the border among crowds of Kurdish police and militia.
"We're not afraid of the Americans, we're afraid of Saddam," one woman of 32, surrounded by members of her family, told Reuters at the checkpoint. She added that her husband had been killed by Saddam's regime 12 years ago.
Officials of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, which governs the Kurdish-administered provinces of Arbil and Dohuk, said that 150 Kirkuk Kurds had been expelled and sent to the Kurdish zone on Thursday, with another 120 following yesterday.
But journalists met only people who had left Kirkuk willingly, with some saying the Iraqi government was more likely to arrest Kurds than expel them.
The Kurdish-run area, occupying three northern Iraqi provinces, was set up in 1991 after Saddam brutally put down a Kurdish uprising at the end of the Gulf War. It has since been effectively independent of Baghdad, protected by a US- and British-patrolled no-fly zone.
Guards at Qushtapa estimated that around 2,000 Kirkuk residents had crossed into the Kurdish zone by 11 a.m. local time yesterday. Many came from three Kurdish districts, Rahim-Awa, Iskan and Azadi.
"If you go to Rahim-Awa you can't find anyone now, even with a microscope," a 21-year-old labourer said. "There are rumours that the regime is coming to arrest everyone. People are escaping in every possible way."
Iraq has long been wary of its Kurds, who are in a majority in the north, and the government used chemical weapons against them in March 1988. Kirkuk is a historically Kurdish city and the oil hub of northern Iraq, producing 800,000 barrels per day.
Many of those leaving Kirkuk have told reporters over the last few days that they believe the oilfields have been mined, but this could not be independently confirmed.
Most of those arriving in the Kurdish zone said they were staying with friends or relatives. For those with no place to stay, Arbil's governor, Mr Akram Mantek, arrived at Qushtapa in the late morning to arrange accommodation in refugee camps.
There are several camps around the city, as the government has been expelling Kurds from Kirkuk for years to make way for Arabs.
A border post commander said all was quiet, but Iraqi troops often fired at night "to create fear so people don't come too close".
- (Reuters)