Word: iranian
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...wretched as they are, Omar's family is among the blessed ones. They live in one of the thousands of tents pitched on the steep slopes of the Sirwan River valley, a few miles inside the Iranian border. The Iranian army provides shelter, bread every day, and a crude dispensary gives basic medical help, especially against rampant dysentery caused by the lack of clean drinking water. But Omar's family must make do with only one blanket to stave off the frigid nights. The terrible cold and disease claim young lives every day, a tragedy underscored by the cemetery...
Life is even more chaotic at the border checkpoint up the road, where a crush of vehicles and humanity begins and stretches back into Iraq for miles. With maddening slowness, Iranian troops let a sprinkling of refugees through the checkpoint, taking care not to let them pass before the campsites are ready. Perhaps they could be settled faster, but so far the Iranians have been left to do the job almost entirely by themselves. Commitments from Western countries to help the more than 1 million Kurds at the border have just started to pick up beyond the initial trickle according...
...fleeing Kurds are barefoot peasants as well as prosperous city dwellers and farmers who have tried to escape with their cars, trucks and tractors. A white Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera joins the line, along with a brand-new Massey- Ferguson harvesting combine. Iranian soldiers drive up the road, throwing bread to the Kurds and starting a frantic scramble that sends more than one person rolling down a steep embankment. When the crowd parts, old men patiently pick the crumbs out of rocks and mud, their only margin of survival. Whenever the refugees discover a reporter in their midst, they crowd around...
...border post, the Iranian troops carefully search each vehicle for weapons -- Tehran insists that Kurdish fighters will find no haven in Iran -- as well as articles offensive to strict Islamic sensibilities. Pop-music tapes, for example, are forbidden, as is immodest dress. One woman, about to drive her Volkswagen up to the checkpoint, frantically tied a scarf over her hair but still stood out in a short skirt and knitted leggings. She managed to get through the checkpoint, but not before giving away her collection of tapes...
...Bush Administration is considering rewarding the Iranian government for its gulf war neutrality by allowing the export of U.S. satellite technology to the fundamentalist regime. Iran wants to build a $13 billion domestic communications system and aims to buy American hardware and engineering experience. Many European firms have already made bids for satellite contracts, but the Iranians extended the deadline in the hope that U.S.-based companies would be allowed to enter the fray...