
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 13, 1991                   TAG: 9104130281
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: ANKARA, TURKEY                                LENGTH: Medium

RESCUE MISSION BEGUN/ U.S. FORCES TO FEED REFUGEES IN IRAQ

The United States on Friday began taking control of the struggling relief effort for the Iraqi Kurds by outlining plans for American military forces to feed 700,000 people a day and to set up temporary refugee settlements in northern Iraq, U.S. officials said.

"We will be doing this until the international community can get itself organized," one official involved in the planning said.

The Americans have concluded, with Turkey's agreement, that unless they move in quickly with manpower and machines, thousands of deaths will occur among the more than 500,000 Kurds camped on the harsh mountainous border between Turkey and Iraq. More than 1.2 million are believed to be around the region.

The feeling is that international rescue operations are moving too slowly - hampered by hostile terrain and bureaucratic delays - and that only the U.S. military has the ability to put together a rescue operation right away.

Officials said their program, called Operation Provide Comfort, would begin Sunday or Monday and last 30 to 40 days. It would end when U.N. agencies and other relief groups are in a position to provide a sustained flow of aid. The ultimate goal, officials said, was for the Kurds who either fled or were chased by Iraqi forces to return to their homes in northern Iraq when it is safe. But no one could predict when or if this would be possible.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry said the settlements envisioned inside Iraq and at the Turkish border would "help meet the most urgent needs of Iraqis who are living in extremely difficult conditions."

According to one official, Iraq's permission will not be sought to establish those camps.

Over the past week, the United States has warned Baghdad several times not to interfere with attempts to bring supplies to the Kurds and other Iraqi minority groups seeking refuge from the government of President Saddam Hussein.

The new American operations, which have White House approval, go well beyond the airlift of emergency supplies that has been under way since last weekend by United States, British and French cargo planes.

by CNB