Kurds receive death threats given month to leave Baghdad

[Anthea]

Rudaw

Unknown militia groups have threatened Kurdish families in Baghdad with death and given them one month to leave the capital, Kurdish lawmakers in the Iraqi parliament said.

Iraqi Interior Ministry announced that more than 40 families of Kurdish origin in the neighborhoods of Sadr, Habibiya, Baladiyat and Zafaraniya East of Baghdad have faced death threats from militia groups and have been given 30 days to leave Baghdad.

Ashwaq Jaf, an Iraqi MP and member of the parliamentary human rights committee urged the government to act quickly and save these families.

“We are calling on the Interior minister to quickly deal with the problem and save Baghdad’s Kurdish citizens,” Jaf said.

MP Daha Ravi told Rudaw that the Kurdish families in Baghdad are facing what many Sunnis did for years from militia groups.

“We haven’t heard of any such case so far but this is not something new. In the past militias have threatened Sunni families and were trying to force them to leave,” Ravi explained.

Ravi said the government is only condemning the militia groups as “outlaws” without doing anything to help the families.

He promised to raise the issue in parliament on Tuesday.

http://rudaw.net/NewsDetails.aspx?pageid=190923