Marketplace: = Displaced in Iraq

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Tuesday, May 30, 2006

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Displaced in Iraq

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The Iraqi government says nearly 15,000 families = =97 about=20 100,000 people =97 have been forced out of their homes by factional = fighting since=20 the US invasion. From Karbala, Borzou Daragahi reports.=20

Photo: Mohammed Sawaf =A9 AFP/Getty Images

TEXT OF STORY

KAI = RYSSDAL: At=20 least 89 people have been killed in Iraq over the past two days. That's=20 civilians. Not US military. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said today he = wants to=20 end factional fighting in that country. The violence and fear that's = splitting=20 the population =97 Sunnis into one neighborhood, Shiites into another. = The Iraqi=20 government says nearly 15,000 families, about 100,000 people, have been = forced=20 out of their homes since the US invasion. More now from Borzou Daragahi = in=20 Karbala.

BORZOU DARAGHI: If you wanted to track Iraq's = changing=20 times, the Hotel Karbala would be a good barometer. During its halcyon = days=20 years ago it housed tourists visiting the shrines of this southern Iraqi = city.=20 They used to wander the gardens, dine in the small cafeteria or linger = by the=20 sapphire pool.

Its decline started in the 1970s when it became a = garrison=20 for Saddam Hussein's Baath Party. After the 2003 American-led invasion, = it=20 hosted contingents of foreign troops. Without windows or doors, it's now = a=20 concrete shell amid a weed-strewn lot.

And in a sign of the = country's=20 current troubles, the dilapidated building now houses 73 displaced = Shiite Muslim=20 families fleeing sectarian violence and fear in other parts of the = country.

ALI JAFFAR HUSSEIN [voice of interpreter]: = I used=20 to have a shop. Most of the heads of families were government=20 officials.

Ali Jaffar Hussein is a Shiite. He used to be a = clothing=20 merchant earning a respectable $6,000 a year. Now, he wanders the = streets of=20 this city looking for work, getting by on food rations and charity. He = and his=20 family left the religiously mixed city of Tall Afar, about 300 miles = north of=20 Baghdad, to escape violence by Sunni insurgents.

HUSSEIN: We had our houses, our cars, our = shops.=20 Terrorists burnt our houses, stole our properties and they are using = our=20 houses. They stole our homes.

Schoolteacher Yusef Wathaq = used to=20 earn $200 a month as an educator. Now he and his family of five live in = one of=20 the rooms at the Hotel Karbala. He has no job and no home except for = this=20 crowded building.=20

YUSEF WATHAQ: Terrorists burned my house = and=20 kidnapped my brothers.

Relief workers have sounded the = alarm about=20 uprooted families as they struggle to gauge a long-brewing crisis that = appears=20 to have accelerated in recent weeks. A Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite = shrine in=20 Samarra has unleashed an unprecedented wave of violence and tension = between=20 Shiites and Sunnis.

Iraq's wars have often displaced its people. = Once the=20 fighting is over they go back home. But the new crisis puts pressure on = already=20 overburdened local governments. Karbala province, for instance, has been = flooded=20 with about 1,200 families, including 570 that arrived this year and = stayed. The=20 province must provide newcomers with housing, healthcare, as well as go = through=20 the time-consuming bureaucratic hassle of transferring their food-ration = cards.=20 There are other challenges.

[Sound: School]

DARAGHI: Are these kids going to school=20 here?

ANSWER: They said yes, they are going to = school=20 here in Karbala.

Most of the children from Tall Afar at = the=20 ramshackle Hotel Karbala speak Turkoman rather than Arabic, and need = tutoring to=20 catch up with their peers, says Karbala Governor Akeel Qazaly.

AKEEL QAZALY [voice of interpreter]: Of = course=20 this costs us a lot of money. We are in need of a team to follow up = their=20 social situation. And we had a shortage of financial resources and = public=20 services in the first place.

The Ministry of Displacement = and=20 Migration has proposed setting up command-and-control centers to track = and aid=20 the burgeoning domestic refugee population. But aid workers say they can = barely=20 keep up with the new camps and refugee outposts. They're rising faster = than they=20 can track.

In Karbala, I'm Borzou Daragahi for=20 Marketplace.

RYSSDAL: Borzou Daragahi is the = Baghdad=20 bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times.

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