Baghdad, July 29: For three long years, Mohammad Zoba impatiently awaited his return to his home in Fallujah city to pick up the shattered pieces of his life and start over.
“We have returned two weeks ago and have found our home totally destroyed, with only few walls standing,” he told IslamOnline.net.
“We were forced to camp inside our home, with open ceilings and no electricity,” he added.
“I found myself displaced inside my own home.”
Zoba could not get back his job to provide for his family.
“My old boss said he couldn’t give me my job back because someone else has already been hired.”
Millions of Iraqis have been displaced internally since the 2003 US-led invasion of the country because of the war, violence and sectarian strife.
According to the Switzerland-based International Organization for Migration (IOM), about 1.6 million Internally Displaced People (IDPs) remain in Iraq.
Some two million are believed to have fled the country to escape the violence.
Iraq in Focus (Special Page)
While many are still too scared to return, the government argues that with better security many of the displaced people can return to their lives.
Hundreds like Zoba were motivated to return, but only to find their homes ruined and jobs unavailable.
Salman Abdel-Raoof, a resident of a village north of Baqubah, is terrorized by a militant group.
“If fighters crossed into my land, I don’t know what to do,” he told IOL.
“If I prohibit them, they would kill me and if I tell the Iraqi army I might be considered an al-Qaeda member.”
Abandoned
Many of the displaced complain of being abandoned by the government that encouraged them to return.
“No food, no compensations for our destroyed home, no transport for our children to school, no hope for a better a life,” fumes Abdel-Raoof, 43.
Some displaced families who have recently returned to their homes in places like Diyalah and Baghdad have decided to form associations to look after their rights.
“We pay constant visits to government offices looking for compensations and always get the same excuses,” Omar Abdel-Lattif, president of one of the groups, told IOL.
“For this reason, we chose to organize in small groups and choose one person who, with support from a volunteer lawyer, runs after these compensations, a decision that have already brought success to some families.”
Abdel-Lattif, who lost his house during the invasion, said displaced people have no resort but to seek a law that can compensate them for their sufferings.
“If the government has enough money to pay for the huge politician salaries, then they also have to pay for our compensations.”
Government officials, however, say that progress is going on, even if in slow pace.
They argue that hospitals and schools that were closed or destroyed during the war have reopened.
“It is true that there are a lot to be done and some areas are still weak in health and education assistance,” admits Hassan Abdullah Jalil, a press officer at Diyalah governorate.
“But on the other hand, the security improvement is allowing us to address such issues and soon all families will have their rights back and basic services stabilized.”
Back to Camps
Some families have decided to wait for compensations before returning home. (IOL photo)
Aid workers, on the other hand, are struggling to ease the lives of abandoned returnees.
“It is a sad situation,” Wassim al-Dulaimi, an aid worker in Baghdad, told IOL.
“Hundreds of homes are still waiting for repair, others to be rebuilt.”
He noted that families, afraid that their homes might be taken over, are coming back knowing that they would hardly find a wall standing.
Dulaimi, who is working as volunteer for two NGOs, said this has left aid groups between a rock and a hard place.
“When they leave the camps, they become isolated groups. We can hardly keep giving them the same support we do in displacement camps.
“It is a delicate situation and that’s why we try to convince them to return after they have gone and studied their situation.”
The aid worker regrets that few of the displaced families would be accepted back at camps.
“Automatically their places are filled with other families.”
–Agencies