Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basm Özeti
northern Iraq.
As far as Saddam was concerned, he was a spy -- a
charge Samin denies, although he makes no secret of
his 'dislike for Saddam. So when Saddam's troops
regained strength in the north last year, Samin's life
was in danger.
But like 6,600 other asylum-seekers, Samin and his
family made it to the Turkish border and then to this
military outpost in the western Pacific in one of the
biggest evacuations of threatened U.S. allie.s in recent"
years.
Now they wait -- in transit to a new life in America.--
on a tightly secured comer of this tropical island, away
from the beaches and swarms of sunbathing Japanese"
tourists at its far end. Many still wear the baggy clothes
of their homeland. Men sit chatting under palm trees,
rubbing prayer beads between their fingers.
The asylum-seekers are mostly Kurds who worked
directly for U.S. interests and international
humanitarian groups in Iraq or were members of
dissident groups, including the CIA-aided Iraqi
National Congress.
"They're being granted asylum because if Saddam got
his hands on them, he would kill them, no doubt
about it," said Col. Frank Hicks, who came to Guam
with nearly 400 U.S. Marines from Okinawa to run a
temporary overflow camp.
Along with shelter, the Kurds have been provided
with food, medical care, English lessons for those who
want them and a weekly newspaper with articles in
Arabic introducing American culture and history.
Five times a day, their makeshift mosque -- half of
which is just a camouflage-colored tent over a dusty
plank floor -- fills to overflowing. A wooden signpost
outside points to Mecca.
Though safe, the Kurds are by no means free.
Fences surround their complex and all gates are
watched round the clock by military guards.
Guam, which has a population of about 150,000,was
chosen in part because of its isolated location -- 1,580
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