IRAQ: Government gives out cash to returning families
BAGHDAD, 12 April 2007 (IRIN) - The Iraqi government is giving out a cash inducement of one million Iraqi dinars (about US $800) to each displaced family in Baghdad willing to return to their original home, the country’s Displacement and Migration Ministry said on Thursday.
“The cabinet endorsed the decision this week upon a request from the Minister of Displacement and Migration and it is in effect right now,” Sattar Nawroz, the ministry’s spokesman, told IRIN.
“Only Baghdad families are covered by this in the frame of Baghdad’s new security plan [Operation Imposing Law]. Joint committees with interior and defence ministries have been formed to follow up,” Nawroz said.
He added that about 10,000 individuals had returned to their homes since the US-led security clampdown was launched in Baghdad on 14 February.
Iraq’s relentless sectarian violence between the country’s two major Muslim sects, Sunnis and Shias, can be traced to 22 February, 2006, when a revered Shia shrine in Samarra, 100km north of Baghdad, was bombed. Sunni extremists were blamed for the act.
Since then, revenge killings and attacks between Sunnis and Shias have escalated at an alarming rate. In the capital, which has seen the highest levels of violence in the country, families of the respective sects have been driven out, if they were in the minority, of neighbourhoods where they had long lived.
According to Nawroz, nearly 500,000 individuals have been displaced countrywide since February 2006. Of those, about 180,000 people have fled their homes in the capital, Baghdad.
“But their return is still linked to the government's guarantee to ensure security for these families and we hope this will work,” he added.
Streets still not secure
As part of its security crackdown in conjunction with US forces in Iraq, the government said those who had occupied the homes of displaced families would be given 15 days to return the properties to their original owners or prove they had permission to be there.
But creating a safe environment for thousands of people to move back to their Baghdad neighbourhoods is a monumental task, especially when the streets are still not secure, analysts say. There is little evidence so far of significant numbers of people returning to their rightful homes.
It is also not clear how many Iraqis trust the government’s assurances that they will be protected against militias and sectarian death squads if they do return to their homes.
“The government is unable to protect its key offices and almost 90 percent of Baghdad areas, how can it offer protection to thousands of families who have left their houses? It has to put an army or police check point in each street,”said Abbas Nasser al-Ejam, a Baghdad-based political analyst.
“This will not succeed. The government needs to get to the root of the problem which is not a military one, it’s about bringing this society together again and renouncing all their sectarian differences,” al-Ejam added.
Akeel Omran Ali, a 34-year-old businessman, left his house in Baghdad's restive western neighbourhood of al-Jamia five months ago and still doubts that the government can protect his family.
"They are like ghosts [militants]; they disappear when the government forces go through an area and return when they go," said Ali, a Shia father-of-two who now lives in a relative’s house.
"Government forces can't protect themselves, how can they ensure my safety?”
sm/ar/ed
[ENDS]
Copyright © IRIN 2007
This material comes to you via IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations or its Member States.
IRIN is a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
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