536 Palestinians went missing or were murdered in Iraq in 2006
Gaza
- Ma'an -The Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee member, Dr
Zakariyya Al-Agha, who is also in charge of refugees' affairs, confirmed on
Wednesday that the numbers of dead or missing Palestinians in Iraq had mounted
to around 536 over the past year. The total number for the past three years has
now reached 22,100.
Al-Agha added that a group of the Palestinians who have fled Iraq have
established a camp within the Jordanian borders at Ruweishid. The residents of
the camp previously numbered around 1000, but this number has dropped after the
Jordanian government gave permission to families with Jordanian wives to pass
into Jordan and those who have Egyptian passports passed into Egypt.
These measures came after the Palestinian department for refugees' affairs,
reached a series of agreements with the Jordanian government. There are 391
Palestinian refugees still within Iraqi borders and within Syria, about 300kms
from the Syrian capital. They are living in tents. The Syrian government has
allowed 280 Palestinians to enter its territories and live in a refugee camp
near Al-Hasaka.
Al-Agha affirmed that violent acts against Palestinians, based on sectarian and
ethnic discrimination, had escalated to such a degree in Iraq that any one who
speaks the Palestinian dialect is abducted and murdered