THESE ARE PEOPLE
THE REFUGEE EXPERIENCE

There is much discussion of refugees these days. But we almost never hear their story. They are presented simply as a 'problem', rather than as individuals with their own experiences to tell, or people who can enrich the lives and culture of the communities in which they settle.

I have had two refugees in my classes in the last two years and I asked them what had led them to come to Scotland. This is what they told me. No doubt these accounts could be repeated, with only minor changes of detail, many times over.

A REFUGEE FROM KURDISTAN

I came here for political reasons. I come from Kurdish Turkey where there has been a war by the Turkish army against the Kurdish people. They spend 70% of the budget on the army, guns, biological weapons and chemical weapons.

Kurdish people have lived in a mountainous area of the Middle East for 2000 years. But after the First World War when new borders were drawn up, the Kurdish people were divided between Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran. By dividing up these people the idea was that they would not be able to unite and so they could be easily controlled.

In Turkey alone 3,000 villages have been destroyed. The government wants to stamp out our cultural identity and decided not to allow Kurds to receive education. This policy continued right up to the 1970s. In the East of Turkey where the Kurds live people are still living in caves. They are very poor and receive practically no education. In the West of Turkey they have roads, electricity, good education, better agriculture and industry. In the 1930s in Dersim two villages were bombed, and everyone killed, just for asking for human rights. This sort of treatment continues.

In the 1970s more people began asking why they were discriminated against in the East. Just for asking this question you were arrested. Even to say that you are a Kurd will lead you to be arrested. The Kurdish political parties were repressed and they turned into guerrilla armies.

I was not allowed to be educated because they are terrified that if people like me get educated and start thinking for ourselves we will campaign for Kurdish rights.

One example of how this affected my life is this. When I was 12 I was ill. In the middle of the night, at 2am I asked my mother for a cup of tea to drink because I was thirsty. 'Could you please turn on the light', I asked. My mother said 'no'. The village was being watched and the army would think that there was terrorism being planned if a light went on. We grew up with these psychological pressures.

When people travelled from the city out to villages to do some shopping they always stop the bus and demand identity cards. They had to show Turkish identity cards they would be arrested. And if they were arrested they would be tortured. I know people who have been tortured. My cousin was at University, she had joined the guerrillas and she was killed in 1999. In 1993, half an hour from my village 19 members of the PKK who were disarmed and hiding in the mountains were killed.

As a result of this my brothers, my mother - they all said to me 'you have no future'. We all went through the same process. At primary school we were told we must not speak Kurdish. Other kids were told to watch us and if we were caught speaking out language we were sent to the Principal and punished. So people left. My own family left and I came with them. The reason I chose Britain was because my family was here - two brothers and three sisters.

We don't want war, we don't want to be killed, and we don't want to be forced out of our villages. but this is what has happened. They say there is no reason to justify me staying in this country. Myself, my family and the 3,000 destroyed villages - we are the evidence! The repression is still going on. Students are being arrested, women and men are raped. People are ending up in mental hospitals.

A REFUGEE FROM BURUNDI

I came here for safety reasons. My ordeal goes back to 1997 when we were called up for military service to put down a rebellion. I was a student of law. The first students who did military service were killed by the rebels. My group we told we would not have to do front line service, but just keep the peace. But it was clear that with the dead soldiers would be replaced, and we would be the replacements.

We started a movement - Association pour la paix (Association for Peace). We believed in 'positive non-extremism'.

In Burundi a division had been created between Hutu and Tutsi people. When the country was a Belgian colony the Belgians gave the Tutsi minority the main positions of power over the Hutu majority. The ideas was to divide and rule - divide et impera. Our association argued against dividing the country on ethnic lines and for peace between the different groups. It was for that that we were punished. We opposed extremism. Because we did not want to fight for one group against another we were considered to be deserters. But we had to tell the truth.

So I was not allowed back to University. The police, the military, every judicial authority was looking for me. I was imprisoned, beaten and tortured. I left Burundi for Zaire. But then the Burundian soldiers came into Zaire. There was nowhere to hide, so I went back to Burundi although I could not go back to my home because it was too dangerous. I ended up in Tanzania.

My father received threats because of me. His last deed was to help me leave Africa. I had to be smuggled with a fake passport, through Belgium and now I am here in Scotland. My sister did the same. In December they killed my father.