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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
IRAQ: Evicted IDPs in Arbil need housing
ARBIL, 16 March 2004 (IRIN) - For international aid workers based in the Kurdish-controlled regions of northern Iraq, Arbil's smart new airport is a godsend. Not only does it shorten journey times to some of Iraq's more remote corners, it also enables travellers to avoid the dangerous roads connecting Baghdad to the north.
But the airport has not brought benefits to everybody. For the inhabitants of Drkawa, once three kilometres south of Arbil near the end of the runway, it has meant eviction.
"The local authorities came to us on 27 November last year and told us to leave," Aso Mustafa, told IRIN in Arbil. "They gave every family US $200 and told us they would be back in a week with bulldozers."
Three days later, villagers say, they were back. "Most of us had barely had time to dismantle our houses," Said Taa, told IRIN. "But we were given no choice," he added.
Those who are able to are now slowly rebuilding their lives on a plot of land given to them by the Kurdish authorities on the other side of Arbil. They have renamed it Drkawa.
"Look at this place", Zirak Rostam, told IRIN. "At least the old village was right next to Ain Kawa, where all the NGOs are based. Finding work was easy. This is waste land," he lamented. Rostam, like most of the men finishing their day's work on this windswept plain, is a builder.
Villagers said the money given to them by local authorities was barely enough to pay for the transport of building materials from their old homes. Though they have been here for six months, very few of them have managed to complete new houses.
Taa pointed to the completed but still uninhabited shell of a four-room concrete house. "This building here must have cost around $2000," he said. "Where are we going to find that money?"
He has not been able to get beyond putting down a double layer of breeze blocks to mark the outline of his new house.
Thanks to a loan of $1500 from his family, Sadiq Osman has managed to finish his construction work. But he prefers to live with relatives. "There's no electricity here yet, and the water supply is periodic," he explained. "Why would I bring my wife and children here?"
"Even the imam of old Drkawa has abandoned the idea of coming here," Rostam said half jokingly. "He's living in a rented room in Arbil."
When news of the imminent evictions broke, Drkawa's inhabitants tried their best to change the authorities' mind. Twice they asked the governor of Arbil to reconsider. They even went to the Khanzad hotel, local headquarters of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), to intervene.
"We know that the CPA was arguing we should be given more money -up to $4000," Taa said. "But the local authorities persuaded them we could be fobbed off with less."
The public relations chief for Arbil's Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Sirwan Mohamed, denied there was any disagreement between his people and the CPA. "This was a decision taken purely by us," he told IRIN. "Drkawa had to be cleared for security reasons - it was close enough to the airport for attacks to be launched from there."
He adds that his ministry has been providing aid to the villagers since their forced move in November. "We have given them all kerosene heaters and blankets," he said.
But the men of Drkawa remain unimpressed. "Saddam evicted us from the village in 1978 when he decided to build a military base there," Sadiq Osman told IRIN. "But at least he gave us decent compensation."
The internally displaced people (IDPs) of Drkawa are part of Iraq's estimated 100,000 IDPs of which up to 800,000 are in the north, as the former regime evicted Kurds to make way for Arabs in oil rich areas as part of the Arabisation programme. According to a UN Habitat survey in 2001, some 40 percent of IDPs in the north lived in settlements with below-average standards of water and electricity supplies, sanitation, drainage and road access. Several thousand people still live in tents.
Following the recent US-led war in Iraq there were fears of further displacement. However, with very limited aid agency staff operating within the country, it is difficult to establish how many new IDPs the latest conflict has created.
Themes: (IRIN) Conflict, (IRIN) Human Rights, (IRIN) Refugees/IDPs
[ENDS]
This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2004
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