In quieter Baghdad, perils still lurk

Many Iraqis who fled Baghdad are beginning to return, unaware of what awaits them in a city altered in the sectarian warfare.

from the December 24, 2007 edition

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A recent survey of 3,553 Iraqi refugees in Syria conducted by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Ipsos market research group showed that 33 percent have only funds to last for three months or less, 46 percent say their children had to drop out of school, and 19 percent could not afford treatment for their illnesses.

The situation was so dire for Amoura's family in Syria that she kept coming back to Baghdad to collect her share of rations of sugar, rice, tea, flour, and other supplies that the government now intermittently provides to its citizens. A friend would save up her rations and meet her in a neutral zone for the handover.

The family members, like many among the estimated 1.5 million Iraqi refugees in Syria, decided to approach the UNHCR to seek asylum in any Western country. "They told us to write our story on the application, but we were rejected," says the eldest son.

Over the summer, Amoura started getting calls from one of her brothers that the security situation had improved. She was hesitant to come back, her sons said.

Then, last month, as the US and the Iraqi government began releasing statistics about the dramatic plunge in violence, the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki started urging refugees to come home as an affirmation of progress. Again, one of Amoura's brothers called and told her to come back.

She relented, but decided to leave two of her sons behind in Damascus and came back with the two others and the daughter.

She shunned the free trip home on government-chartered buses on Nov. 27 that was offered by Mr. Maliki to nearly 800 Iraqi refugees in Syria. Her eldest son, who returned with her, said his mother feared the publicity and the chance that the boys may be identified as the sons of an ex-regime Sunni officer by Maliki's Shiite-led government.

Upon return, they found their home in Baghdad Jadida was off-limits. It was being occupied by a Shiite family that had been displaced from Diyala Province because of sectarian violence. The family, connected to local militiamen, refused to vacate or pay rent.

Amoura had no choice but to rent a home in Zayouna, a still rather mixed middle-class neighborhood in northeastern Baghdad, for at least two months until she sorted out the dilemma of her house.

The eldest son was told the local police might be able to help. A policeman demanded a bribe of 300,000 dinars ($295), which the son says he paid. He was later told that there was little the police could do because the squatting family was connected to powerful local militiamen. The bribe was kept.

A friend of his said his best bet would be the local office of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

On Dec. 12, the friend came to pick him up and his mother to take them to Mr. Sadr's office in Baghdad Jadida.

As they entered the vehicle, a car bomb went off nearby. "No one came to rescue us; people started running away. My mother got up and started shouting for help and then she fell down and died," says the eldest son, wounded in the same attack.

Amoura's brother says it's his fault. He insisted that she come back from Syria, but then quickly adds: "It was her fate and destiny. At least she died in her homeland and not as a stranger in a strange land."

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