Shiite exodus from mixed towns

For the past nine weeks, Nabil Abdul Hassan has had more business than he can handle. He's a home builder in Chikook, a western suburb of cinder-block houses that is filling up with Shiite Iraqis who are increasingly fleeing sectarian violence in religiously mixed villages.

"I've built 20 houses in the past two weeks, and it's been like that since what happened in Samarra," he says, referring to the attack on the Askariya shrine, one of Shiite Islam's holiest sites, on Feb. 22. "The other builders in this neighborhood say the same. And it is like that in other neighborhoods nearby."

The escalation of sectarian bloodshed that followed the bombing has driven 6,600 families from their homes, according to the Iraqi Red Crescent and the Iraqi government. The houses mushrooming around this neighborhood are an indication that the separation of Iraq's Arab Shiites and Sunnis is accelerating, threatening the country's long-term unity.

Around Baghdad, Shiites coming in from outlying villages are living in tents provided by the Iraqi Red Crescent Society. IRCS President Said Hakki says the agency is preparing to aid some 50,000 families, and has requested aid from the US military to build sanitation facilities for camps and provide rations. Other Shiites are going south to predominantly Shiite cities such as Basra, Najaf, and Karbala.

Most of the families in Chikook are from Haswa, a village southwest of Baghdad. The men here say there was a progression - first they became afraid to travel to Baghdad for work, which took them through largely Sunni suburbs on the west side of the city where people were frequently attacked on the road. Further west of Haswa is largely Sunni Abu Ghraib, a site of consistent guerrilla activity for more than two years.

Abu Ali is asked why Shiites, the majority of the population of Haswa, didn't fight back as they have in other areas. "Haswa is surrounded," he says, asking to be identified only by his nickname which means, in Arabic, father of Ali. He arrived in Chikook a little more than a week ago.

The people in Chikook say they have received no assistance from the Iraqi government, which remains in a state of limbo. Iraq's Shiite politicians, meeting Wednesday, failed to resolve the deadlock over their nominee for prime minister, an issue that has stalled the formation of a government following December's national elections. Instead, acting parliament speaker Adnan Pachachi said that he would convene the parliament next week, hoping to force the issue.

"It's my duty to the Iraqi people in order to preserve the credibility of the democratic process," he told a press conference.

But few in Chikook are expecting much help; Fed up with security forces they said were unable to make them feel secure in their homes. Umm Thair (meaning mother of Thair) arrived in Chikook a year ago from Mosul after her husband was assassinated for selling cars to the government, she says. Her house, larger than most, overflows with families waiting for their own dwellings to be built.

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