1992 Photo Contest, People in the News, Honorable mention
Photographer

Frits Meijst

Hollandse Hoogte

01 January, 1991

Kurdish refugee camp. The allied victory in the Gulf War gave the Kurds in northern Iraq the courage to revolt. For three weeks in spring they were masters of their land, confident that the West would defend their new found freedom. But the uprising was grounded to a halt and US-led forces refused to intervene to support the rebels. A flood of refugees, many of them survivors of the Iraqi army's chemical attacks in the late 1980s, moved north into Turkey, where more hardship awaited. Aid eventually arrived, but the Turkish army ran the refugee camps like prison camps. Only the very sick were allowed to leave the camp for treatment.

About the photographer

Frits Meijst

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