To: United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees - Geneva

CC: Turkish Foreign Ministry, all Human Rights groups and mass media

Stop This Human Tragedy

As you might have been informed by various media channels, 29 days has passed since a group of about 1200 Iranian-Kurdish refugees started an unlimited hunger strike in three Turkish cities. These refugees are nicknamed “Northern Iraqi’s” because of the way they entered Turkey. Some of them are in grave health conditions and a number of them are hospitalized. Each day the number of hunger strikers increases.

These people have all been accepted by UNHCR as political refugees and are under increasing pressure from the Turkish government to leave the country. The 2-month ultimatum for exiting or deportation is about to expire. The deportation of these 1200 people who are all members or activists of Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran is very imminent. Their deportation to Islamic Republic of Iran is like signing their death certificates. We need to remind everyone that within the last 4 years at least 6 of the refugees who were deported back to Iran, have been executed by the Iranian Regime.

Ignoring the humane and just demands of those refugees from UN and deportation of them by Turkish authorities is a human tragedy and unconscionable. It should not be accepted by any human being anywhere in the world.

We ask that the UNHCR:

1. Speak to these refugees and resolve their problems immediately.
2. Do its very best to move them from Turkey and transfer these people to a third country as soon as possible.
3. Financially support all of these refugees until they are out of Turkey.
4. Secure their well-being and negotiate a deal with Turkish authorities so they stop harassing them.

Komala’s Representative in Northern America

Hamid Bahrami

July 1, 2005

E-mail: na@homala.org

www.komala.org

Fax: 1-561-7605814