Uprooted Iraqis Add to Woes of War-Torn Land

Authorities say the more than 100,000 = people who=20 fled sectarian strife are straining resources. U.S. officials = dispute the=20 extent of the problem.

By Borzou Daragahi, Times Staff = Writer
June 2,=20 2006

KARBALA, Iraq =97 The Hotel Karbala has = kept pace with=20 Iraq's changing times. In its halcyon days, it housed Shiite = Muslim=20 tourists visiting the shrines of this southern Iraqi city. It = later became=20 a base for Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, and played host to = foreign troops=20 after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

But in a sign of = the=20 current troubles, the ramshackle two-story concrete building and = its=20 weed-strewn lot have become housing for more than 70 Shiite Muslim = families who fled violence elsewhere in the country.

"We were driven from our = houses when we=20 were attacked by terrorists," said Ali Jaffar Hussein, 35, a = formerly=20 prosperous Shiite merchant who moved his family here from the = religiously=20 mixed city of Tall Afar, about 270 miles to the northwest, fearing = attacks=20 by Sunni Arab insurgents.

"Now, we don't know our = destiny," he=20 said. "The government is not capable of protecting us." =

Iraqi=20 officials say more than 100,000 people, both Shiites and Sunnis, = have been=20 displaced nationwide by sectarian violence, taxing government = resources=20 and heightening political, religious and ethnic tensions. U.S. = officials,=20 however, dispute those numbers.

Relief workers have sounded = the=20 alarm as they struggle to gauge a crisis that appears to have = accelerated=20 in recent weeks.

The Iraqi Red Crescent Society, in a = report=20 issued in May, said 11,391 families had fled their homes since the = Feb. 22=20 bombing of a major Shiite shrine in Samarra, which unleashed a = wave of=20 violence between the country's Shiites and Sunni Arabs.

The = Iraqi=20 arm of the International Organization for Migration, an = internationally=20 funded agency that coordinates relief efforts for displaced people = worldwide, estimates that at least 68,000 Iraqis have been = forcibly=20 uprooted since the shrine bombing.

"The sharp increase in=20 displacement over the past one and a half months is startling," = Dana=20 Graber, the Iraq displacement chief of the migration agency, said = in a=20 report released in May. "The displaced are moving in with families = and=20 friends, but when they are unable to do this they must occupy = abandoned=20 buildings or are forced to move into temporary tent = camps."

The=20 recently established Iraqi Ministry of Displacement and Migration = says=20 that at least 17,129 families fled their homes from Feb. 15 = through May 29=20 due to fear of violence. More than 3,700 families moved to Baghdad = from=20 such strife-torn cities as Fallouja, according to the ministry. = Other=20 families have fled Baghdad for areas to the northeast and south of = the=20 capital, including the provinces of Diyala and Najaf.

U.S.=20 officials say accounts of widespread displacement are=20 exaggerated.

"We see reports of tens of thousands of = families=20 displaced here in Iraq, and we chase down each and every one of = those=20 reports," Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, spokesman for U.S.-led forces = in=20 Iraq, told reporters at a recent briefing. "We have seen some=20 displacement, pockets of families moving, but not in large=20 numbers."

Regardless of who is correct in Iraq's political = climate=20 of blame and victimization, displacements have become an explosive = political issue, the subject of news conferences and street = protests as=20 well as fiery Friday sermons that condemn the government for = failing to=20 enforce law and order.

"When these families were forced to = leave=20 their homes, they did not find open doors," Sheik Abdul Karim = Ghizzi, a=20 Shiite preacher in Basra loyal to radical cleric Muqtada Sadr, = told=20 worshipers in April. "Only when they came to Sadr's office did = they find=20 hearts opened to them."

The need to accommodate newcomers = has=20 further taxed overburdened local governments. For example, the = Ministry of=20 Displacement says more than 2,100 families have moved to Karbala = province=20 from Fallouja and Samarra since Feb. 15.

The southern = province must=20 provide the displaced people with housing, healthcare and = education as=20 well as deal with the bureaucratic hurdles of transferring their=20 food-ration cards.

There are other challenges. Most of the = children from Tall Afar at the Hotel Karbala, for example, speak = Turkmen=20 rather than Arabic, and need to be tutored to catch up with their = peers in=20 school.

"Of course this costs us a lot of money," Gov. = Akeel=20 Mahmoud Qazali said. "We are in need of a team to follow up their = social=20 situation. And we had a shortage of financial resources and public = services in the first place."

Military operations have = temporarily=20 uprooted many Iraqis over the last three years. But the new = displacement=20 fueled by sectarian divisions has deeper ramifications. Now people = fleeing=20 violence are forced to give up their livelihoods and homes and = become=20 wards of the state or charities.

Noomi Hafidh moved his = Shiite=20 family of nine from a west Baghdad neighborhood to the = southeastern city=20 of Kut, where he found himself one recent day standing in front of = the=20 office of a religious foundation, begging for an extra = tent.

The=20 farmer, subsisting on handouts and the government's monthly ration = of=20 rice, wheat, cooking oil, tea and sugar, said he was still = traumatized by=20 how his Sunni neighbors had turned on him, and had no plans to = move back.=20

"Those people, with whom we have had good relations for = years,=20 changed completely toward us, as if they did not know us," he=20 said.

In such cases, handouts of emergency items do not = suffice.=20

The Ministry of Displacement and Migration has proposed a = series=20 of command-and-control centers to track and aid the displaced. But = aid=20 workers say new camps and clusters of people in old buildings are = cropping=20 up faster than they can keep track, occasionally in desolate = desert=20 outposts such as Saqlawiya, 45 miles west of Baghdad in Al Anbar = province.=20

The patriarchs of the Sunni Arab families who arrived at = the tent=20 city of several hundred over the last three months said they faced = a stark=20 choice: stay put in their Shiite-dominated Baghdad neighborhoods = and risk=20 dying at the hands of Shiite militias, or quickly gather a few of = their=20 belongings and abandon their homes for the barren wasteland. =

"We=20 left our homes and belongings behind for one reason," said = Abdullah Ani, a=20 55-year-old former civil servant who lived in the mostly Shiite = northern=20 Baghdad neighborhood of Shula, which has been beset by abductions = of Sunni=20 Arab men. "We were threatened with death by groups who come in the = middle=20 of the night without any fear."

Times staff writer Raheem Salman in Kut and special = correspondents in=20 Basra and Saqlawiya contributed to this = report.

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