Speaker. House Concurrent Resolution 299 expresses the sense of the Congress that the international community should extend the mandate of Operation Provide Comfort in northern Iraq and southern Turkey. Provide Comfort. a U.N.-sponsored operation. has supplied security. food. and shelter for hundreds of thousands of Kurdish refugees now living in northern Iraq and Turkey. These refugees were forced to flee their homes in February and March of 1991 when Iraqi forces brutally suppressed a Kurdish uprising. Operation Provide Comforts mandate has been relatively successful in protecting the Kurds against Iraqi attacks. Turkey has permitted United States forces to be stationed on its soil to provide air cover for the Kurds and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has been administering the camps. However. Ankaras agreement with the United States military and the United Nations accord with Iraq to administer the refugee camps are both set to expire in June. The Government of Turkey is currently considering whether it should extend the agreement with the United States beyond June. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees will soon be transferring its responsibilities for administering the camps to UNICEF which must reach a new agreement with Baghdad on the continued presence of the United Nations in the security zone. This resolution calls on all parties to extend the mandate and also calls on Iraq to end its economic boycott of northern Iraq which is responsible for the massive sulfering of thousands of civilian Kurds. Mr.
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Refugees refugee refugees