http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/3153/Refugee_Problem_Rapidly_WorseningRefugee Problem Rapidly Worsening
Camps Becoming Overwhelmed By Magnitude of Problem
Posted 0 hr. 57 min. ago
Baghdad, IRAQ: Iraqi refugees from the violence-ridden Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, eat inside their tent, provided by the Iraqi Red Crescent Society in the al-Husseiniya district of the capital city, 15 May 2007.
Ali al-Saadi/AFP/Getty
BAGHDAD, 10 June 2007 (IRIN) - When sectarian violence forced Muhie Nasser Jawad's family to leave their home in Baghdad in March 2006, they thought it would only be for a few days. But more than a year later, their hopes of returning are fading as violence continues to plague the streets of the capital and the displacement camp they live in continues to grow.
"We only took a few clothes and some important documents and left everything in its place as we thought it was just a temporary situation and that we would go back after a few days," said Jawad, a 48-year-old Shia maths teacher who was threatened by Sunni extremists to leave his house in the mixed sect Gazaliyah district of Baghdad or have his head chopped off.
"Now, we see no light at the end of the tunnel," Jawad, a father of three boys, told IRIN in a phone interview from Shula government camp in northern Baghdad.
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"There is real fighting between Sunni and Shia politicians for power inside the government and that is reflected on the street. This has become part of the political game – the more pieces of land and the greater number of neighbourhoods you control, the more power you have on the political level," the official said on condition of anonymity.
"And this game is going beyond the control of anyone in the government and gets worse and worse," he added.
For displaced people such as Jawad and his family, who live day by day in uncertainty, Iraq’s politicians have failed them miserably. "It’s as if we are wood for their fire," Jawad said." What have we done to deserve that? I'm dying every day when I see my family struggling to get a container of drinking water or sleeping in this makeshift camp in hot summer temperatures."