(AINA) -- In a report by Ms Attiya Gamri Tunc, a Dutch politician of Assyrian background, Kurdish political parties in northern Iraq are pointed out as responsible for implementing a hidden cleansing campaign against the indigenous population, the Assyrians.

The fact finding report describes, among other things, the Kurdish policy of marginalisation of independent Assyrian NGOs for the benefit of new NGOs which work under the Assyrian name but who are attached to the Kurdish political parties.

The report states "In the case of the Nineveh Center for Research and Development (NCRD), located in the town of Bakhdede in the Nineveh Plain, it was set-up after the fall of Saddam. Within months, the Kurdish Finance Ministry funded the establishment of the Syriac Centre for Research and Development in the same town to compete against the NCRD." Also, "This same pattern has taken place with respect to women's unions, student unions and many others -- all of which now have KRG/KDP funded counterparts that are starving them out of existence through official discrimination by the KDP. Once again, the main goal of this initiative is not to contribute to Assyrian civic development, but to undermine, suffocate and ultimately destroy those organizations independent of the KDP. This is being done with official KRG resources under the official direction of the KRG's Finance Minister, Sargis Aghajan".

Ms Gamri Tuncs report is a result of her participation in the Dutch fact finding mission which visited the Assyrian region of Northern Iraq earlier this year (AINA 4-15-2008).