Mass expulsion from Iraq

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32803, 31 December 1971, Page 13

Mass expulsion from Iraq

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) TEHERAN, December 30. Iraq today expelled a record group of 30,000 Iranians from the towns of Karbella and Khaneghin, bringing the total number of refugees expelled from Iraq to 41,000 in four days.

Correspondents covering these mass movements report from the Chasser-Shirin frontier post that Iranian men, women and children, loaded in hundreds of buses, trucks and cars, were driven from Khaneghin and Karbella to the Iranian frontier. AU were deprived of their belongings, and forced to leave the country after decades of residence in the two towns in which religious shrines are centred. Before settling them into temporary rehabilitation camps at Chasser-Shirin and other frontiet towns, Iranian security authorities are said to have alleged the finding of “several dozen members of Iraqi subversive elements disguised as refugees.” “Some of the agitators who entered Iran among the refugees were found to be carrying hand-grenades and dismantled machine-guns,”

one officer is quoted as saying. As a precaution, Iranian security agents have established check-points where the expelled Iranians are searched. So far the Iranian Government has not taken any effective measures to stop Iraq’s expulsion of Iranians, but one Government source says that “more serious action” is expected now that so many agitators have been found among the Iranians. The mass expulsions coincide with a recent military pact signed by Bagdad and Moscow.