Injured Kurds may get spa treatment
Kurds were very interested in his offer, he added.
Thousands of the Kurdish fighters, the Peshmergas, were injured in the offensive against Islamists.
Zaorálek (senior government Social Democrats, CSSD), talked to Kurdish supreme representatives, Iraqi Kurdistan President Masoud Barzani and his nephew Nechirvan Barzani, prime minister of the Kurdish regional government, in Erbil, the administrative centre of Iraqi Kurdistan, during his one-day visit to Iraq.
“We talked about our spas being very well equipped for the rehabilitation of similar types of injuries that are suffered here. Unfortunately we have tested it on our soldiers wounded in Afghanistan,” Zaorálek said in an interview with the Czech News Agency.
“No wonder that it intrigued them since thousands of the injured in their ranks had been reported. All know here Karlovy Vary [spa town in west Bohemia], they feel trust in our spas and we all agreed that this was a very good idea and that we would keep working on it,” he added.
Zaorálek presented his proposal at a meeting with President Barzani and the chief of the Peshmergas. He, along with Barzani, arrived directly from the front where he commanded the fighting against Islamists.
Zaorálek also discussed other issues with Kurdish representatives, such as their stances on the central Iraqi government and the Czech military aid.
“They feel a bit uncertain about to what extent the government will fulfill all promises,” Zaorálek said.
The Kurds have a feeling that the central government does not take their situation into consideration sufficiently, he added.
“The Kurds carry a major part of the fighting with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) upon their shoulders. Their death toll has reached 700 and further thousands have been injured. Their losses and involvement are immense,” Zaorálek said.
The Kurds suppose that the Iraqi military has not fulfilled its share in the country's defense, Zaorálek indicated.
The Kurds basically agree with Baghdad's steps, but they want to know what the central government will really do to solve the situation that is crucial for the future of the whole Iraq, Zaorálek pointed out.
The Kurds appreciate the air strikes conducted by the United States and its allies in Iraq, but they realise that the air attacks alone will not defeat the Islamists and that the deployment of more massive means will be needed in the country, Zaorálek said.
After the current security and military problems in the country are resolved, Iraq must cope with its political problems, primarily the coexistence of all ethnic groups, said Zaorálek, referring to the Kurds as well as the Sunnis.
In view of the current turbulent security situation, the question of Kurdistan's possible independence is not on the agenda of the day, Zaorálek said.
Prague Post
