Word: kirghiz
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Despite some reports that the Kirghiz had not been declared refugees by the UNHCR--the state department uses the commissioner's decision to fit groups under its own refugee heading--officials with the UNHCR in Geneva and with the Pakistani Embassy in Washington say the Kirghiz are indeed refugees, part of the whole body of people fleeing to Pakistan to escape the fighting in Afghanistan...
With this out of the way, the Kirghiz would have to meet any one of four conditions the State Department uses to decide who has priority in coming to the United States under the Refugee...
...Kirghiz, regardless of their suffering at the hands of the Russians, maintain no ties with the United States other than their involvement with Dupree, Jones, and Nassif Shahrani--an anthropologist at UCLA who has done field work with the Kirghiz in Afghanistan. As a result, Lynch says, Qul and his tribe do not stand a chance on earth of qualifying for the U.S. refugee program...
With their romantic appeal, the Kirghiz--fierce mountaineers left suddenly destitute--have drawn more attention than other Afghan refugee groups. They are also one of the few not wanting to return to Afghanistan. During the past 50 years, the Kirghiz have fled from the Communists twice: first from Soviet Kirghizistan to Xinjiang--Chinese Turkestan, whence they fled to Afghanistan at the time of the Communist take-over in China. The Soviets, according to Dupree, have annexed the entire Wakhan Corridor, the sprit of land jutting off to the northeast of Afghanistan, where they are busy building roads to consolidate their...
...says, acording to Alan Jones, no one has heard from Kirghiz remaining behind in the Pamirs, or the families who returned home, unable to adapt to their new life...