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Christians, Muslims flee Baghdad for Kurdistan
22.1.2007
By Shamal Aqrawi |
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January 22, 2007
Erbil, Kurdistan region (Iraq), -- A
Christian shopkeeper who walks with a limp, Adison
Brikha fled Baghdad after he was beaten in his shop.
He made it to Erbil, in relatively peaceful Iraqi
Kurdistan -- but now he's begging for work.
"The gunmen broke into my shop in New Baghdad
district and beat me brutally. It was obvious that
Christians are no longer wanted in Baghdad," said
Brikha, who can barely pay the rent for a tiny house
in Erbil for his family of five.
"I used to own a shop and now I'm begging people to
let me work even as a servant or a labourer, but no
one will take me because my foot is crippled," he
said, through tears.
Tens of thousands of people have fled Baghdad, the
epicentre of violence in Iraq. The United Nations,
launching an appeal for aid for Iraqis who have fled
their homes or left the country, said this month
about one in eight Iraqis is now displaced.
It said the exodus is the largest long-term movement
of people in the Middle East since the creation of
Israel in 1948.
Many, including non-Kurds, have taken refuge in
Kurdistan -- a largely autonomous region in the
northern mountains that has been a haven from
attacks plaguing other areas since the U.S. invasion
of 2003.
But as refugee numbers grow, authorities in Erbil,
the Kurdish capital with a population of about a
million, are beginning to feel the strain.
"Over the last two weeks, more than 9,000 people
came to Erbil escaping from Baghdad as refugees, and
they are mainly Sunnis and Christians," Imad Marouf,
head of the disaster relief program in Erbil, part
of the Iraqi Red Crescent, told Reuters.
HALF A MILLION IRAQIS FLEE
The U.N. says nearly 500,000 people fled to other
areas within Iraq last year, mostly since the
February bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra
prompted a surge in violence.
While much of the violence is between Shi'ite and
Sunni Muslims, others have been caught up in it.
In a human rights report on Jan. 16, the United
Nations said that of the 1.5 million Assyrian
Christians living in Iraq before 2003, half had fled
the country and many of the rest were moving to
"safe areas" in the north of Iraq.
The main Chaldean Christian college and seminary in
Baghdad -- closed for months due to threats and
violence -- relocated to Erbil this month, according
to Bishop Rabban al-Qas of Erbil. Both Christians
and Muslims were targets of violence.
"The continuous deterioration of security in Baghdad
and the kidnapping of six priests by gunmen forced
us to move the these Christian institutes to Erbil,"
he told Reuters.
"The students ... could not attend classes because
of the lack of security which made us move to Erbil,"
he said.
Marouf said his office had registered more than
5,000 families -- or around 30,000 people -- who
fled to Erbil over the last two years.
BRAIN DRAIN
He said hundreds more families -- particularly of
doctors, professors and businessmen -- had not
registered as refugees and declined handouts because
they had found jobs in Erbil.
Deputy provincial governor Tahir Abdullah said
resources were lacking to help so many refugees, but
that authorities were trying at least to provide
logistical help, such as transferring ration cards
so families can still get subsidised food.
"We have urged the U.N. bodies in the north to help
the refugees and build a camp for those who can't
afford to pay to rent a house. Some families are
staying out in the open," Abdullah told Reuters.
Marouf said he had heard of an extended family of 49
people living squeezed into a single residence of
100 square metres (1,000 sq.ft.): "They couldn't
find a better place to live."
Concerned by the flood of refugees, Kurdish
authorities have imposed new restrictions on who can
settle in the area, for instance requiring a Kurdish
sponsor for each family.
"The bombing of the Shi'ite shrine in Samarra caused
thousands of families to flee and head to the
Kurdish areas," said Yazgar Raouf, head of the
residency office in Erbil, adding that the influx
had raised security concerns.
"We started to impose new regulations relating to
immigrants since September 2004 to secure the
Kurdish region from any terrorist infiltration,
which could destabilise security."
Reuters
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