Turkey Agrees to Move Kurds Closer to Aid

The Turkish government bowed to international pressure and human misery Sunday, agreeing to allow some of the hundreds of thousands of mountain-bound Kurdish refugees from Iraq to be temporarily resettled in more accessible camps within Turkey.

Government officials stressed, however, that the decision does not reflect any change in Turkey’s refusal to accept the refugees permanently.

A first detachment of American soldiers arrived at the Turkish-Iraqi border Sunday to evaluate needs of an estimated 400,000 Kurds--more than half of them children--clinging in mud and squalor to mountain perches. As many as twice that number have flooded across Iraq’s border with Iran.

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, whose ferocious repression of postwar uprisings in southern and northern Iraq triggered the exodus, said refugees may return home without reprisal, Baghdad newspapers reported Sunday.

“What is past is past, and we are starting again. We are used to starting again,” Hussein was quoted as saying.

After a visit of his own to the border, Turkish Prime Minister Yildirim Akbulut told reporters that aid cannot reach many refugees in the remote, cold and mud-scarred region, even though American, British and French planes have dropped 850 tons of supplies in the past week.

The government said it would today start moving refugees down from the steep mountain slopes around Isikveren, where conditions for 150,000 refugees at a series of holding areas are most appalling. A group of American soldiers reached Isikveren on Sunday to assess needs and to instruct refugees in first-aid techniques and the erecting of shelters, a U.S. spokesman said.

On Saturday, about 2,000 refugees at Isikveren, the largest of about a dozen concentrations of refugees, pillaged army food from supply tents in defiance of Turkish troops, who fired in the air and at their feet.

U.N. agencies coordinating the relief effort told the Turkish government late last week that the refugees had to be moved down from the unsanitary and inhuman conditions in the 6,000-foot-high mountain ranges, aid organizers said. By some estimates, hundreds of refugees have died each day in Turkey and Iran, under the grave threat of epidemics.

“It is not possible to aid the people of Isikveren where they are. We believe we must move them . . . to the valleys. We must take them somewhere decent,” Akbulut told reporters here after returning from the area.

Akbulut said that U.S. troops would help Turkey set up camps at lower altitudes, “if necessary on the Iraqi side.” The United States has not said that camps would be built in areas of northern Iraq where Hussein’s forces have been warned not to interfere.

Hayri Kozakcioglu, governor of Turkey’s southeastern region, told Turkish television that the effort is humanitarian and any actions inside Iraq would have “no military aspect.”

He said that 20,000 refugees would be moved by bus and truck beginning today from Isikveren to Silopi, where there is a large prepared site usually used for pilgrims on their way to Mecca.

Akbulut stressed that there had been no change in Turkey’s resolve that the Kurds not stay permanently on the Turkish side of the 209-mile border.

“These are temporary measures. Basically, these people must return to their homes. That is what must be done,” he said.

The easing of the no-entry restrictions came as U.S. helicopters and cargo planes spearheaded an airlift of emergency provisions in what officials are calling “the largest American relief effort mounted in modern military history.”

In all, up to 9,000 American noncombat troops will deliver and help distribute food, shelter and medical supplies to the refugees, aiming to provide up to 700,000 meals a day for a month while other nations and private and international relief agencies gear up their own efforts.

As American military planners sought to conquer logistic nightmares and establish forward centers along a border whose formidable terrain is complicated by the scarcity and poor condition of its roads, the U.S. Operation Provide Comfort added new punch Sunday.

The American warships Guadalcanal, Austin and Charleston docked at the Turkish port of Iskenderun carrying 3,000 troops of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit. They brought 16 helicopters and supplies for medical and engineering assistance and water purification, the U.S. European Command said. Two supply ships, the San Diego and the Sirius, are expected this week with about 3,000 tons of food and medical provisions.

The Kurdish exodus from Iraq began last month after counterattacking Iraqi troops regained control of the northern areas of the country and began killing civilians in retribution for a short-lived rebellion.

On his first postwar visit to the north, Hussein called on refugees to abandon their flight, which he said was the result of “propaganda,” the official Iraqi News Agency reported.

Saturday’s visit, complete with photos of Hussein praying at a mosque, was featured on the front pages of Iraq’s official newspapers Sunday.

The controlled Iraqi media said that Kurds who merely voiced support for the rebels during street demonstrations have nothing to fear from the authorities. Hussein said he has ordered security agents to leave ordinary Kurds alone. “Don’t even ask them a single question,” he was quoted as saying.