thedrifter
07-29-06, 06:39 AM
Posted on Sat, Jul. 29, 2006
A life-and-death move
Fearing attacks, Sunni and Shiite friends trade homes, neighborhoods.
By Antonio Castaneda
Associated Press
NASSER WA SALAAM, Iraq - Fearing sectarian death squads, Iraqis are trading homes with trusted friends from the other sect, surrounding themselves with those who share their faith but creating segregated neighborhoods increasingly wary of each other.
Iraqi officers say about 1,500 families have fled this religiously mixed city 25 miles west of Baghdad. Many others have moved to neighborhoods where their sect predominates - deserting their former homes or exchanging them with people from the other brand of Islam.
"Friends from different sects say, 'Let's trade houses; then we'll move back when things settle down,' " said Brig. Gen. Abdullah Abdul Kareem Abdul Sattar, commander of Iraqi forces in this city of 80,000.
So far the city has escaped rampant sectarian attacks. Many families have moved to avoid the military checkpoints that delay travel to jobs in Baghdad.
But the trucks packed with household goods that shuttle between neighborhoods underscore the sectarian fault line. Iraqi soldiers have tried to persuade residents to stay, but they acknowledge that influential tribal and religious leaders have encouraged many to leave.
"All day long you'll see trucks moving back and forth to where they think it's safer," Sattar said, "but they're taking those grudges with them. The best we can do is stop them at checkpoints, and assure them of their safety and security."
The problem is not isolated to Nasser Wa Salaam.
In the nearby Abu Ghraib district, U.S. Marines this spring poked through abandoned homes and heard stories about all the Shiites who had fled the mostly Sunni neighborhood on the western edge of Baghdad.
In Fallujah, a tent city was erected in a parking lot to shelter hundreds of mostly Sunni Arab families who fled Shiite death squads and militias in Baghdad.
Nationwide, 26,858 families - about 160,000 people - have been displaced by sectarian violence since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra, according to Migration Minister Abdul-Samad Rahman.
Some U.S. and Iraqi commanders blame rumor-mongering for exaggerating the risk facing Iraqis in areas where they are in the minority. Residents say they have seen or heard of flyers warning that they will be killed if they do not leave, but U.S. soldiers say they have never seen one.
"Nobody can produce one of these flyers," said Lt. Col. Doug Anderson, head of a team of U.S. advisers that trains Iraqi soldiers here. "... By the time a rumor gets to the other side of the city, it's rampant."
Although commanders say the exodus has slowed, they remain concerned about the uneasy state of Sunni-Shiite relations. After the February shrine bombing, U.S. trainers said militants fired rockets into city neighborhoods. Sattar's son was recently tortured and killed.
"For people my age, we never had this," he said. "We never knew what sect we were. We interacted with each other, intermarried. This is something new and it's a bit of a shocking situation."
About 800 families have moved into Nasser Wa Salaam - but they are thought to be primarily Sunni Arabs who feel safer in the Sunni-dominated western half of Iraq. Most families that left are thought to be Shiite.
The city was one of the first places west of Baghdad to be handed over from U.S. control to an Iraqi army unit. The brigade in control of the area is considered one of the best trained in the dangerous west, led by an articulate commander with an organized staff. It lives in a modern, well-maintained base at the edge of the city.
The Iraqi soldiers are trying to tame fears and gauge the extent of the migration. Soldiers now stop trucks loaded with furniture to record where people are moving to and from. They are also surveying changing neighborhoods and trying to locate abandoned homes.
But for all their progress, their soldiers remain predominantly Shiite - and the exodus in Nasser Wa Salaam has happened under their watch. Iraqi commanders have acknowledged their limitations.
"We need a political solution," said Brig. Gen. Tarek, a division commander who would give only his surname, for fear of reprisal. "I could put a squad in every house... but that's outside of my capabilities."
Ellie
A life-and-death move
Fearing attacks, Sunni and Shiite friends trade homes, neighborhoods.
By Antonio Castaneda
Associated Press
NASSER WA SALAAM, Iraq - Fearing sectarian death squads, Iraqis are trading homes with trusted friends from the other sect, surrounding themselves with those who share their faith but creating segregated neighborhoods increasingly wary of each other.
Iraqi officers say about 1,500 families have fled this religiously mixed city 25 miles west of Baghdad. Many others have moved to neighborhoods where their sect predominates - deserting their former homes or exchanging them with people from the other brand of Islam.
"Friends from different sects say, 'Let's trade houses; then we'll move back when things settle down,' " said Brig. Gen. Abdullah Abdul Kareem Abdul Sattar, commander of Iraqi forces in this city of 80,000.
So far the city has escaped rampant sectarian attacks. Many families have moved to avoid the military checkpoints that delay travel to jobs in Baghdad.
But the trucks packed with household goods that shuttle between neighborhoods underscore the sectarian fault line. Iraqi soldiers have tried to persuade residents to stay, but they acknowledge that influential tribal and religious leaders have encouraged many to leave.
"All day long you'll see trucks moving back and forth to where they think it's safer," Sattar said, "but they're taking those grudges with them. The best we can do is stop them at checkpoints, and assure them of their safety and security."
The problem is not isolated to Nasser Wa Salaam.
In the nearby Abu Ghraib district, U.S. Marines this spring poked through abandoned homes and heard stories about all the Shiites who had fled the mostly Sunni neighborhood on the western edge of Baghdad.
In Fallujah, a tent city was erected in a parking lot to shelter hundreds of mostly Sunni Arab families who fled Shiite death squads and militias in Baghdad.
Nationwide, 26,858 families - about 160,000 people - have been displaced by sectarian violence since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra, according to Migration Minister Abdul-Samad Rahman.
Some U.S. and Iraqi commanders blame rumor-mongering for exaggerating the risk facing Iraqis in areas where they are in the minority. Residents say they have seen or heard of flyers warning that they will be killed if they do not leave, but U.S. soldiers say they have never seen one.
"Nobody can produce one of these flyers," said Lt. Col. Doug Anderson, head of a team of U.S. advisers that trains Iraqi soldiers here. "... By the time a rumor gets to the other side of the city, it's rampant."
Although commanders say the exodus has slowed, they remain concerned about the uneasy state of Sunni-Shiite relations. After the February shrine bombing, U.S. trainers said militants fired rockets into city neighborhoods. Sattar's son was recently tortured and killed.
"For people my age, we never had this," he said. "We never knew what sect we were. We interacted with each other, intermarried. This is something new and it's a bit of a shocking situation."
About 800 families have moved into Nasser Wa Salaam - but they are thought to be primarily Sunni Arabs who feel safer in the Sunni-dominated western half of Iraq. Most families that left are thought to be Shiite.
The city was one of the first places west of Baghdad to be handed over from U.S. control to an Iraqi army unit. The brigade in control of the area is considered one of the best trained in the dangerous west, led by an articulate commander with an organized staff. It lives in a modern, well-maintained base at the edge of the city.
The Iraqi soldiers are trying to tame fears and gauge the extent of the migration. Soldiers now stop trucks loaded with furniture to record where people are moving to and from. They are also surveying changing neighborhoods and trying to locate abandoned homes.
But for all their progress, their soldiers remain predominantly Shiite - and the exodus in Nasser Wa Salaam has happened under their watch. Iraqi commanders have acknowledged their limitations.
"We need a political solution," said Brig. Gen. Tarek, a division commander who would give only his surname, for fear of reprisal. "I could put a squad in every house... but that's outside of my capabilities."
Ellie