Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 4, 1991 TAG: 9104040621
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
"Our borders are open to all refugees, be they Afghan, Iraqi or Kuwaiti," Tehran radio quoted Iran's foreign minister, Ali Akbar Velayati, as saying in Tehran after meeting with visiting European envoys.
The country's official Islamic Republic News Agency said 1 million Kurds had crowded into Iran's western border town of Nowsoud in the past 48 hours, hoping to be allowed into the country.
It said thousands more were waiting at crossings farther north, with long lines of cars and other vehicles stretching into Iraq. The agency said many refugees were ill, suffering the effects of severe cold and lack of food.
Meanwhile, United Nations diplomats say they're confident the burden of trade sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security Council will compel Iraq to accept their tough cease-fire terms, and have turned to considering how to protect Iraq's rebellious minorities.
The resolution for a permanent cease-fire in the Persian Gulf War, overwhelmingly approved by the council on Wednesday, is unique in U.N. history because the world body had never set peace terms after a war.
Iraq's ambassador, Abdul Amir al-Anbari, called the resolution "outrageous" and a violation of international law that would destabilize the region. But he did not reject it.
He said a formal response would come in several days from Saddam Hussein's government. The decimation of Saddam's army in the war over Iraq's invasion of Kuwait makes further Iraqi military adventures unlikely for years to come.
In another development, Iraq today claimed to have crushed the last pockets of rebel resistance in the north and south, and said it was granting amnesty to army deserters in a northern region that Kurdish insurgents had held.
Fearing government retribution, Kurds have all but emptied the major cities of their traditional homeland in the north. As many as 3 million have fled to rugged terrain abutting the Turkish and Iranian border, seeking to leave Iraq.
On Wednesday, after government troops recaptured the last major rebel-held city in the north, Saddam's government urged Kurdish refugees to return to their homes.
The Iranian news agency quoted border officials in Nowsoud, the town southeast of the Iraqi city of Suleimaniyah - the last major Iraqi city to fall to Saddam loyalists - as saying all the refugees might be allowed in.
Iranian Foreign Minister Velayati also called for assistance from the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross to help the refugees.
And in another sign of cooled relations with Baghdad, Velayati also accused Iraq of firing Scud missiles at its own civilians during the month-long civil war that broke out after Baghdad's defeat in the Gulf War.
Velayati made his remarks at a news conference late Wednesday after meeting with foreign ministers Gianni De Michelis of Italy, Jacques Poos of Luxembourg and Hans van den Broek of the Netherlands.
The three are in Iran to discuss Iraq's civil war, future security plans for the Persian Gulf region and the plight of Western hostages in Lebanon.
Journalists reporting from Iraq on Wednesday said hundreds of thousands of Kurds were being denied entry into Iran near Diana, which is well north of Suleimaniyah.
Turkey closed its border on Wednesday, saying it could not cope with the influx of refugees.
As many as 3 million Kurds are fleeing the towns and cities of northern Iraq, fearing chemical attack or other reprisals as Iraq quashes the anti-government rebellion.
The huge exodus is one of the largest in the Kurds' more than 50-year-old struggle for an autonomous homeland in Kurdish areas of Iraq, Iran and Turkey. The Kurds have clashed repeatedly with governments of the three states.
Iran had already let in tens of thousands of Iraqi Shiite Muslims, whose rebellion in the south also appears to have been crushed. Most Iranians are also Shiites.
Velayati said Persian Iran would not discriminate between Arabs and Kurds, according to the Tehran radio broadcast.
Poos, the current European Community chairman, praised Iran's neutrality in the Persian Gulf War, and said the community shares Iran's concern over Baghdad's crackdown. Iran has greatly improved relations with all European Community countries in the past two years.
Analysts agree that four Britons, two Germans and an Italian missing in Lebanon and believed held by pro-Iranian Shiite fundamentalists remain the major hurdle to closer Iranian-European ties.
Six Americans are also missing in Lebanon including Terry Anderson, the longest-held hostage who was kidnapped March 16, 1985.
Sources in Tehran have said that a deal for the release of the hostages is being hammered out and that the captives could be freed soon.
Swiss Foreign Minister Rene Felber met with Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani in Tehran earlier Wednesday, the radio reported. The Swiss have been used as intermediaries between Tehran and Washington, which severed ties in 1979.
Tehran moved a step closer to better ties with Britain, a community member, by freeing British businessman Roger Cooper from jail on Tuesday. The Iranians had accused Cooper of being a spy, an allegation Britain denied.
by CNB