More than 300,000 Iraqis have fled their homes since Saddam's fall

More than 300,000 Iraqis have fled their homes to other parts of Iraq to escape violence since the fall of former President Saddam Hussein in 2003, according to the Iraqi government.

In addition, the government says 890,000 Iraqis have moved to Jordan, Iran and Syria over the same period of time.

"We had hoped that the situation would help us after Saddam's fall. But unfortunately, the plans of the Saddamists and the terrorists have shaken the new Iraq," said Abdul-Samad Sultan, the Minister of Immigration and Displacement, on Tuesday.

"This is the goal of the terrorists, to create [separate] Shi'ite and Sunni pockets and change the demographics of Iraq," he added.

Hamid Jassim Jaber, a 55-year-old retired Shi'ite teacher, was forced along with his three daughters and wife to flee to the previous Ba’ath party headquarters in Najaf after two masked gunmen stopped him and told him to leave his western Baghdad neighbourhood of Ghazaliya "or have your head chopped off".

"We are victims of something we have nothing to do with," Jaber said. "We call upon the government to secure our return to our homes and not to forget us like that."

Statistics released by the ministry show that 51,037 families have fled their homes to move to another part of Iraq. Sultan said the ministry assumes an average of six people per family, putting the total number of displaced individuals at 306,222.

Sultan said at least half of them fled their homes after the February bombing of a Shi’ite shrine in the city of Samarra that sparked a wave of Shi'ite retaliations against Sunnis, then a mounting spiral of killings between both sides that has left thousands dead.

The largest number of displaced families is from Karbala, in the south, with around 6,700. Second on the list is the capital, Baghdad, with 6,600. In addition, 4,983 families have relocated to Wasit; 4,797 to Diyala; 4,074 to Mosul; 4,000 to Najaf; 3,955 to Missan; 3,365 to Babib and 3,100 to Nassiriya.

The soaring figures are solidifying the sectarian divide in this country of around 30 million people. Those who moved within Iraq went to areas where their own community dominates – Shi’ites leaving Sunni-majority or mixed areas for Shi’ite areas and vice-versa, Sultan said.

The ministry tries to accomodate displaced people in areas close to their home regions so as not to encourage the sectarian segregation of the country. It also provides tents and food supplies.

"The government has to take serious measures to stop this phenomenon [of sectarian segregation]," said Salim Mohammed Ali, a volunteer with the Iraqi Red Crescent (IRC) in Najaf.

“Dedicating money and supplying food, tents and medicine is not the solution. A real crisis will develop as winter approaches, although we have enough supplies.

"The government has to help displaced families return to their homes by tackling the reasons behind this phenomena [of displacement]. The number of these families is increasing daily and that means the government is unable to offer security for these families in their homes," Ali added.

sm/ar/ed