Word: tented
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...that end, American, British and French troops over the weekend began moving into northern Iraq, an area the allies had largely left alone throughout the gulf war. Over the next two weeks or so, these soldiers will build on relatively flat land as many as seven tent cities, each housing up to 100,000 Kurds. The idea is to bring the refugees down from the barren, freezing and almost inaccessible mountain slopes where they are perched and relocate them where they can be given adequate food, water, shelter, sanitation and medical care. And, of paramount importance, safety: the camps will...
...airstrips to land construction materials and relief supplies for the camps. The Operation Haven troops could also get caught in cross fire between Iraqi soldiers and Kurdish guerrillas using the camps as bases from which to stage raids. The allies say they will not allow guerrilla activity in the tent cities, but are not at all clear about how they intend to stop...
Conditions practically guarantee more deaths. "There are sometimes up to 40 people living under the same tent," reports Dr. Gerard Salerio of the voluntary organization Medecins du Monde (Doctors of the World), who returned to Paris from Uludere late last week. "These are not even tents; they are stretched blankets. People are too ashamed to relieve themselves during the day, so they do it at nighttime, between the tents. There is no hygiene anywhere." One doctor serves 100,000 people. As a result, says Salerio, "every day, 20 children are buried between the tents. Older people are dying...
Thompson, who in peacetime covers the science and technology beat in Washington, found his first night with the Army trying. "We were assigned an unheated tent that sleeps about 20," he wrote. "I found a cot, unrolled my sleeping bag, took off my shoes and shivered for about five hours. You can't believe how cold it gets here." But the desert nights also bring unexpected pleasures. "The stars here are amazing," he wrote. "They seem close enough to touch, and there are zillions of them...
Enlisted women have their own tent and their own latrine. That rare concession to gender does not guarantee much privacy, since most latrines are plywood outhouses with wire screens from the waist...