CIA's Kurds Beg For U.S. Help -- They Fear Saddam's Secret Police

ZAKHO, Iraq - About 200 terrified members of the CIA-backed Iraqi National Congress have made their way to a deserted casino on a hill overlooking Zakho near the Turkish border, hoping against hope for help from the American government in getting out of Iraq.

Sitting on the ground outside the casino around large platters of beans, rice and potatoes, several in the INC group told journalists that they are anxiously awaiting the Turkish government's agreement to let them enter the country. But with no plans by the U.S. government to accept them as refugees and no plans by Turkey to let in refugees, they, along with another 110 in Zakho hotels, appear to be stranded.

"We hope the Americans will give us a hand," one said. "There is no safe place anymore in Kurdistan."

The American government Monday wrapped up a carefully planned and executed evacuation of local employees of U.S. military and disaster-relief operations in northern Iraq. But it left behind hundreds of other Iraqis who had links to the INC, a U.S.-financed anti-government organization.

The INC members fled Irbil and surrounding towns Aug. 31 after President Saddam Hussein's army assisted one Kurdish faction, Massoud Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party, in overwhelming a rival Kurdish faction, Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. The frightened Iraqis have made their way here, only 10 miles from the border.

The two Kurdish separatist organizations were the mainstay of the INC while it operated unhindered under a protective air umbrella, Operation Provide Comfort, maintained by the United States and its allies. But with Iraqi security forces back in northern Iraq, the INC members gathered here fear they will be targets of Iraqi retribution.

There is reason for their fear: About 100 were reported executed right after Irbil fell to Barzani's Iraqi-allied guerrilla forces.

Several in the INC said they had seen a car filled with Iraqi secret police in Zakho. "We can recognize them," one said.

The INC group in Zakho, which includes several women and children, says it has only enough supplies to last two more days.

The INC members are by no means the only Iraqis in Zakho who are feeling abandoned by the Americans and desperate to get out.

Hundreds of local employees of humanitarian organizations here that worked on contract for U.S. relief operations in Zakho are begging to leave, also fearing their association with the United States has made them targets of the Iraqi secret police.

"We are all scared," said an Iraqi employee at Shelter Now International, a group that has worked on contract for the U.S. Overseas Foreign Disaster Assistance agency.

After hearing Iraqi radio reports that anyone who worked with U.S. and international humanitarian organizations would be considered enemies of the state, a crime punishable by death, the Shelter Now employee said he and his family needed to leave Zakho.

A group of landlords who rented buildings for the United States in Zakho sought out journalists to enlist their aid in contacting the U.S. Embassy for help. "We are afraid. We want to sell our buildings, but no one will buy them," the landlord said.

"Many of these people are genuinely in danger," said Ron Sobkoviak, an American working at Shelter Now. "And we have put them there," he said, referring to the U.S. government. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Watch on Iraq

-- Troop deployment: A chartered jet with 219 soldiers from the 1st Cavalry Division left Fort Hood, Texas, for Kuwait today. They were the first of 3,500 U.S. troops to be dispatched there. The U.S. also deployed eight Patriot anti-missile batteries yesterday.

-- Iraq looking up: The U.S. said Iraq has been tracking U.S. warplanes in the southern "no-fly zone" but has kept its promise not to fire on them.

-- Kurd-U.S. talks: As new clashes were reported by rival Kurdish groups today near the Iran-Iraq border, Kurdish strongman Massoud Barzani crossed into Turkey for talks with U.S. Secretary of State Robert Pelletreau.

-- Violations: The U.N. said recent U.S. missile attacks on Iraq and flights today by unidentified warplanes had violated an Iraq-Kuwait demilitarized zone set up after the Gulf War.