The International Alliance for Justice (AIJ) and the International
Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH) conducted an
investigation and observation mission from July 9 to July 25,
2002, among internally displaced persons located in the
autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan, and Iraqi Shiite refugees living in
the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The members of the mission were Fabienne Messica for the
FIDH and Françoise Brié for the AIJ.
Their mandate was to investigate the causes of displacement of
Iraqis hosted in the Kurdish autonomous region and the
reasons that push Iraqi refugees into exile in Iran.
The mission also wished to collect information on the current
state of human rights in Iraq, on the living conditions of families
housed in camps for displaced persons and refugees, on the
management and the hosting of these populations by the
international community. The goal was to determine if, in the
current political context, the policy of repression, forced
enrolment in the army, terror, forced arabisation and ethnic
cleansing, as witnessed during the previous joint mission1
conducted by the FIDH and the AIJ, were still being pursued.
continuous and silent ethnic cleansing
The investigation mission particularly wishes to thank the
persons who, with courage, patience and determination,
accepted to testify. We are also grateful to Mr Ismail
Kamandar Fattah, to the representatives of the Kurdish
authorities and the members of Iraqi political parties in exile,
to the Kurdish non-governmental and governmental
organisations, to the Iraqi human rights and humanitarian
organisations based in Iran, and to the interpreters, Barzan
and Hamid, for their translation and investigation work.