E/CN.4/1503
Annex I page 18
Iran and Iraq
55. In Iraq, an armed rebellion by Kurds dissatisfied by the terms of a March 1974
1974 offer of autonomy by the Revolution Command Council led to a long-drawn out war and the exodus to Iran of tens of thousand of Kurds, mostly women, children and old men. After Iran and Iraq signed an agreement a year later to end their border dispute, the Kurds' supply of arms and other commodities was cut off.
The rebellion lost its initial force while many of those displaced by the fighting were able to return. Five years later, border fighting between Iran and Iraq occurred again and there were reports of the expulsion of thousands of Iraqi Shi'ites of Iranian descent.
56. When war broke out between the two countries in 1981, large sections of
of the population of each country came to be affected by the hostilities. Numbers of Iranians had already started leaving Iran following the overthrow of the government of the Shah and the violent upheavals that followed. addition to members of political parties and groups opposed to the authorities or those in some way connected with the previous government regarded as guilty by association, it is reported that members of ethnic and religious minorities have also been facing severe hardship. At the beginning of 1982, the problems inherent in the over-all situation in the area and the consequent disruptions affecting civilian populations were nowhere near a final solution.
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57.
WESTERN SAHARA
was
The sparsely-populated former Spanish Sahara, due to be made an autonomous state according to expectations to which the colonial power had given rise in July 1974 when it was stated that a referendum would be held in early 1975 to enable the population to express its will with regard to its future - ceded to Mauritania and Morocco under the terms of a tripartite agreement signed in November 1975. After the colonial power withdrew in
February 1976, the Governments of Mauritania and Morocco duly partitioned the territory, and a large number of people left and sought asylum in Algeria as hostilities broke out betweeen forces of the Western Sahara Liberation Organization, Polisario (Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguiet el Hamra and Rio de Oro), and Moroccan and Mauritanian troops. Years of fighting, while proving inconclusive, have resulted in considerable damage being caused to the economies of both countries.
Sah Maur
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