Barzani calls for international aid HELP THE REFUGEES ! –
By Freeyad Ibrahim: Kurdistan Tribune – – 20.8.2013 – President Barzani calls on the international community to help the Syrian Kurdish refugees. Finally, and under the internal and external pressure, Barzani has opened the border between the Kurdish region and the west Syrian Kurd region.
The refugees who are in very bad conditions are non-stop storming into Kurdistan.
They lack everything and need everything urgently.
And Barzani calls for international aid.
But the question is:
Could he not independently supply the Syrian Kurds with the most primary means of living, such as water, food and shelter?
The answer is: Yes he can.
Oil flows in abundance to Jihan harbour in Turkey. Don’t mention the huge amount of oil smuggled on a daily basis across the borders with Turkey, Iran, Jordan and Syria. Don’t mention the prosperity the region witnesses today. The high hotels and buildings, spacious villas, mountainous mansions, high rate of individual incomes and salaries, and more, are just a few evidences and examples of the economic prosperity the region now experiences.
Why do you cry then Mr. Barzani?
I’d not be mistaken to announce with my full heart that South Kurdistan (Great Kurdistan), of which Erbil is the capital, can afford to supply, not only the Syrian Kurd refugees, but also those who fled Iran and Turkey.
The experience has taught us that he is still the same Barzani as he was in the 1991 Intifada when he (the leader) and his family and his party called for international support in the form of food and shelter, blankets and medicines etc.…and he got it but only 1% reached the fleeing citizens, while the rest was misappropriated by members of his family, friends, his party members and high ranking officers.
Also, in 1997, during the notorious Kofi Annan’s and scandalous Bill Clinton’s Oil for Food program, the greatest proportion of the aid sent from the whole civilized world to the Region’s population went to the same elements just mentioned, who later sold the charity and aid items on the black market for twenty times their original price.
As a result, poverty struck the citizens even harder. The food was stored in big stores and basements under the direct supervision of his family and high officials belonging to his ruling party, the KDP, and authorized corrupted officials and ministers in his frail, fragile corrupt cabinet whose mustaches always ‘needed to be oiled’ by the average citizen whenever they needed them for one reason or another.
I hope that the international community will take urgent measures to help the Syrian Kurds, but it must keep firmly in mind that no help, no aid will reach the needy and the afflicted unless it is directly delivered hand – to – hand to them.