Themes

Article highlights

• Operation Haven

• Arriving in Turkey

• Making ‘safe routes’

• Safe havens

• Food and medical supplies

• Re-establishing the Kurdish community - Zakho
  

• Re-establishing the Kurdish community -Quadish

• An end to the suffering

Food and medical supplies

The International Forces were able to empty the two original camps in the mountains within a week. Thousands of truck journeys succeeded in moving some 165 000 Kurdish refugees through Kani Masi. The Marines’ next task was to ensure that the Kurds had adequate food and medical treatment.

An 8 month pregnant woman is ‘casevaced’ (casualty evacuation) to hospital by medical staff and members of 3 Cdo Bde, RM. The baby was stillborn and the mother would have died had it not been for the medical assistance provided. (RMM)

Members of the Peshmerga, who had remained in the village when everyone else fled, escorted 40 Commando’s Assistant Quartermasters Department, mainly chefs, through a deserted village. They showed them to a three-roomed building where civilian aid workers from all over the world were working.

The chefs’ task was to create food that was high in nutrients and vitamins which would help refugees gain weight and strength. This food had to be suitable for the undernourished and made from ingredients that the Kurds could easily obtain such as wheat, flour, sugar and milk.

Working with the civilian aid workers they managed to convince mothers to boil their children’s drinking water and to use the food formula that they had prepared. Once these two principles were accepted they saw a tremendous difference and, as a result, the deserted village came to life once more.

French, American and Canadian personnel – a total of 370 people that included medical teams, civil engineers and water purification experts supplemented members of S Company, 40 Commando, at Kani Masi.

Platoons from the United States Marine Corps, the Dutch Marines and the Luxembourg Defence Force were also part of the team, helping to build a military camp, named ‘Rorkes Drift’. They also helped in the construction of a medical complex, two landing sites, a vehicle park and a stores compound for the thousands of tons of food that were needed.

A Royal Marine samples Kurdish food. (RMM)

Constant patrols by the Marines between this camp and the refugee camps built-up a strong understanding and trust. Soon they were learning local customs and manners and being given sweet tea and naan bread.

The Corps designated five senior non-commissioned officers as Liaison Officers with responsibility for a sector of the camp. Part of their responsibility was to fairly distribute bread, flour, rice, water and sugar to the 4-5000 refugees in each sector.