Over 22,000 Iraq’s Faili Kurds deported by former regime, Maliki says

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iraq’s Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, has said on Saturday that over 22,000 Faili Kurds had been deported from Iraq by the former regime, calling for the restoration of their rights.   “The Faili Kurds have been targets for harming, similar to other Iraqi communities,” Maliki said in a speech on the occasion of the 2nd anniversary of the formation of the National Conference for Faili Kurds, attended by IraqiNews.com news agency on Saturday.   Maliki has called on this occasion “for the unity of Faili Kurds under a common tent, uniting them and organizing their activities, together with other Iraqi communities.”   “We shall support the rights of the depressed Faili Kurds, beginning with the restoration of their official documents and their presence in their homeland and ending with the paying back the funds that were confiscated from them (during the former regime),” Maliki said.   SKH (IT) 358