Irak, fazioni, profughi Nyt 06-04-30
100 000 famiglie fuggono dalla violenza, secondo un
funzionario iracheno
RICHARD A.
OPPEL Jr.
Difficoltà di verifica
del numero reale dei profughi in Irak.
Adel Abdul Mahdi, sciita,
uno dei due vice-presidenti iracheni: sarebbero 100mila le famiglie di profughi,
pari a circa ½ milione di persone che cercano di sfuggire alla violenza delle
fazioni, cresciuta fortemente dopo il bombardamento del 22 febbraio alla moschea
di Samara. La denuncia è stata fatta dopo il suo incontro con il Grande ayatollah
al-Sistani.
Il consigliere alla
sicurezza nazionale irachena, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, aveva parlato di 13 750
famiglie, pari a 70-80mila profughi.
Le stime dei militari americani
sono molto inferiori, non ci sarebbero “ampi spostamenti”.
Nyt 06-04-30
100,000
Families Are Fleeing Violence, Iraq
Official Says
By RICHARD A.
OPPEL Jr.
BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 29 — A new estimate
by one of Iraq’s vice presidents has put the number of families who have fled their homes at
100,000, a number far
greater than recent projections by other Iraqi officials and one that
further clouds the debate over how deeply sectarian conflicts are affecting the
nation.
–
The latest estimate was made by Adel Abdul
Mahdi, a Shiite leader selected as one of two vice presidents, but it
was not clear where he had
gotten his information.
–
In an interview last week, the Iraqi national security adviser,
Mowaffak al-Rubaie, said 13,750 families had been displaced, which could
mean about 70,000 to 80,000 people.
The conflicting numbers speak to the difficulty in estimating how many
people are fleeing the violence, when most are believed to be finding
shelter with relatives or friends.
And both estimates contrast with statements by American
military leaders, who have said there is no "widespread movement" of
Iraqis fleeing from sectarian fighting.
–
Mr. Mahdi gave his estimate Friday in Najaf, while speaking
to reporters after meeting with Iraq’s
most revered Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. If true, it would mean that as many as a half-million Iraqis
have been displaced.
Even if his estimate proves too high, it
suggests how concerned Iraqi
leaders have become about the entrenched and vicious sectarian violence
that has reshaped the lives of many Iraqi families, particularly since the Feb. 22 Askariya Shrine bombing
in Samarra.
–
Militias — some inside the official Iraqi security forces and
some outside — have
gained influence as attacks against civilians have surged, and many Iraqis say that they have more faith
in the militias than in the official Iraqi security forces. Some Iraqi political leaders have warned
that militias, including
those with heavy representation in the Interior Ministry, could drive
the country toward a civil war.
The country’s prime minister-designate,
Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, has said he intends to select someone independent of
political parties that have large militias to run the Interior Ministry.
Negotiations on forming the new cabinet continued Saturday.
Estimates of displaced people are notoriously
hard to pin down, because most families are leaving mixed neighborhoods and may
have only an hour’s drive or less to find a place to stay with friends or
cousins. Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, a senior American military spokesman in Baghdad, says reports of a huge number of displaced persons and
refugees appear to be overblown.
"We see reports of tens of
thousands of families displaced here in Iraq, and we chase down each and
every one of those reports," he said Thursday. "But we have seen some
displacement, pockets of families moving, but not in large numbers."
"Some of them truly are moving because they’re
concerned about their own personal
security or their family’s security, I’m sure of that," General
Lynch said. "Some of them are moving for economic reasons. Some of them are moving to be with their families.
But we’re not seeing internally displaced persons at the rate which causes us
alarm."
But Iraqi officials say that people who live in areas where
they are part of an ethnic or religious minority face continual threats,
including in places far from Baghdad.
Sheik Omar al-Jibouri, a human rights officer with the Iraqi
Islamic Party, a large Sunni Arab group, said that in Zubayr, a suburb of Basra, Sunnis
are being increasingly warned to leave. At least 60 Sunnis were killed
there in the past month, he said.
"Leaflets fill the streets saying,
‘Leave this district, Wahhabis!’ " Mr. Jibouri said Saturday.
"Neither students nor officials can work" if they are Sunnis, because
of the threats, he said.
In Baghdad, 10 bodies were discovered
Saturday in three neighborhoods, all shot in the head with signs of torture, an
Interior Ministry official said. The United
States military reported that an American soldier was killed about 4 p.m.
Saturday by a roadside bomb southwest of Baghdad.
And the Marines reported that a car bomb in Qaim, in western Iraq, had
killed three civilians.
Agence France-Presse reported that at least six Iraqi security force members were killed
Saturday.
–
By itself, the terrorist group Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia says it has
carried out 800 suicide attacks in Iraq in the past three years,
not including attacks by
"other mujahedeen," according to Ayman al-Zawahiri, the No. 2
Qaeda leader, who made the statement in a video posted on the Internet on
Saturday.
"This is what has broken the back
of America in Iraq," Mr.
Zawahiri said, according to a translation by the SITE Institute, which tracks
violent insurgent groups. "America,
Britain
and their allies have achieved nothing but losses, disasters and
misfortunes."
Sabrina Tavernise, Omar al-Neami and Ali
Adeeb contributed reporting for this article.
New York Times