Looking thrilled rather than fearful, around 800 Iraqi refugees boarded a fleet of buses on Tuesday for the first official convoy back to Baghdad since the daily carnage of sectarian violence and car bombs sent them here a year or more ago.
"I'm not nervous about going back. I feel comfortable because our neighbors told us on the phone the situation is really good now," said Kadhim Mohammed, who was returning with her husband and five children to the Baghdad district of Abu Ghraib.
A Shiite, she said her neighbors were Sunnis who had looked after the family's home during the 18 months they have spent in Syria. Her husband said the change had come about because many Sunni tribal leaders had turned against the al-Qaeda militants who began killing Shia civilians in 2005.
Iraqi officials watched with satisfaction as families piled bulging canvas bags and rolls of mattresses into the buses' luggage compartments. Notices on each bus announced that the free ride home had been organized by the Iraqi government. Some refugees carried Iraqi flags.
Once they reached the Iraqi border, US helicopters and Iraqi army Humvees were to escort them to Baghdad. Of about 30 refugees interviewed on Tuesday, all were Shiite.
Several came from Karbala, a mainly Shiite city in southern Iraq. Officials said there were many Sunnis on the passenger list and it was pure chance that none had been interviewed.
While officials have been touting the return of Iraqis as proof that security has improved, interviews with passengers yesterday showed the push factor was at least as strong as the pull factor.
"We had to go back to square one when we came here. Rents are high and I could only put my son into school. I couldn't pay for clothes or books for my daughters," Kadhim Mohammed said.
"It's impossible to live here. Once you leave your country, you have no dignity," said Halima Younis from Ameriya, a mixed Sunni-Shiite district in western Baghdad.
She survives economically through her teenage sons, who are casual laborers. Although schooling in Damascus is free, Iraqis say that headteachers tell them there is no room for Iraqi children, or demand bribes to let them in.
The surge in returns has also been sparked by Syria's decision to tighten visa rules from Oct. 1, making it harder for Iraqis to renew their permission to stay.
With an estimated 1.5 million Iraqi refugees on its hands, Syria has been struggling to help them. UN appeals have had a poor response from governments in Europe and elsewhere.
The UN refugee agency is watching the return movement closely, believing it is too early to encourage Iraqis to go home.
A survey it ran last week among people thinking of returning found only 14 percent felt security had improved.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person