IRAQ:More than 1,000 Iraqis a day are being displaced by the sectarian violence that began on February 22nd with the bombing of the Shia Askariya shrine in Samarra, said a report from a UN-associated group, the Geneva-based International Organisation for Migration.
This increasing movement of Iraqi families, caused by the lack of security and growth of armed local militias and criminal gangs, is adding to the already chaotic governmental situation in Baghdad, say a series of UN, US and non-governmental reports released over the past weeks.
When families who fled from Baghdad to Qadssiya, a fairly safe district 200 miles south of the capital, were questioned by the organisation about why they left their homes, "almost all said it was due to direct threats to their lives . . . letters, anonymous calls, graffiti on their homes or in their neighbourhoods." All were Shias.
The internal refugees are creating a growing humanitarian crisis that, the migration report says, will primarily affect single women, children, and the sick and elderly as winter approaches.
Security fears appear well-founded. A report on Wednesday by the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq said the number of Iraqi civilians killed in October reached 3,709, a new monthly high.
Many residents, especially professionals, are fleeing the country in larger numbers. The UN's High Commissioner for Refugees said earlier this month that up to 2,000 Iraqis a day are going to Syria and an additional 1,000 a day to Jordan. Overall, the high commissioner estimates that since the war began in 2003, 1.6 million Iraqis had been displaced internally and up to 1.8 million are living outside the country. - (LA Times-Washington Post service)