IRAQ: More than 100 displaced Sunni families seek refuge in nearby Shi'ite area

More than 100 Sunni families fled their homes in Hur Rajab, south of Baghdad on Wednesday (September 12) after what they said was an attack by al-Qaeda fighters. Leaving their possessions behind, women, children and young people fled in pickup trucks and small cars to the neighbouring Shi'ite neighbourhood of Abu Dsheer were they were hosted by the Shi'ites. "They deported us saying that they will hit us. We fled with our children. My husband is a detainee and now I am afraid for my sons. I fled and we are considered now as displaced and we are afraid of being killed," said Amal Abdul Razzaq. "There is no difference between Sunnis and Shi'ites. All of us are Muslims. May God punish those who divide us. They made us homeless, moving from house to house. What have pregnant women done, or those who have nothing or those who have children?" said Sahar, a young women who fled with relatives women in a minibus. To help displaced families cope with the difficulties, the Iraqi Red Crescent Committee sent a truck loaded with relief supplies, including food stuff and blankets to Abu Dsheer area. The charity organisation said that they would continue to send supplies to the area over the coming days. "It is a relief campaign to help displaced families from Hur Rajab to Abu Dsheer area. This is the first batch to be followed by others," said Wafa Mohammed, an aid worker This is the first time that Sunni families flee to a Shi'ite area. Displaced families usually flee their neighbourhoods to areas where their respective sects are in the majority. Thousands of Sunni and Shi'ite families have fled their homes because of the mounting sectarian tension. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that around 1.7 million Iraqis are internally displaced while up to two million Iraqis have moved to neighbouring countries, before and since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of the country. Some 712,000 have been made homeless since the February 2006 bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra that has sparked a wave of sectarian violence. Up to 50,000 Iraqis flee their homes each month, according to UNHCR. International aid agencies have issued repeated appeals for increased funds to help the needy among those who fled abroad, mostly to Jordan and Syria, and those displaced internally. The numbers have no precedent in the Middle East and dwarf the great population dislocations prompted by the creation of Israel in 1948, when an estimated 750,000 Palestinians fled. But the response to appeals for help for displaced Iraqis has been lukewarm at best. In last August, the UNHCR doubled its appeal for Iraq funds this year to $123 million.

ITN Source | September 13, 2007

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