Officials estimate Iraq's displaced at 100,000

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

KARBALA, Iraq // Hotel Karbala has kept pace with Iraq's changes. During its halcyon days, it housed Shiite Muslim tourists visiting the shrines of this southern Iraqi city. It later became a base for Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, then for foreign troops after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. But in a sign of the current troubles, the ramshackle two-story concrete building has become housing for more than 70 Shiite Muslim families fleeing violence elsewhere in the country.

"We were driven from our houses when we were attacked by terrorists," said Ali Jaffar Hussein, 35, a formerly prosperous Shiite merchant who moved his family here from the religiously mixed city of Tall Afar, nearly 300 miles to the northwest, for fear of Sunni Arab insurgents.

"Now, we don't know our destiny," he said. "The government is not capable of protecting us."

Iraqi officials say more than 100,000 Iraqis, both Shiites and Sunnis, have been displaced nationwide by sectarian violence, taxing government resources and heightening political, religious and ethnic tensions. U.S. officials dispute those numbers.

more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/iraq/bal-te.displaced04jun04,0,2174514.story?coll=bal-iraq-headlines

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Make that 180,000

Nearly 180,000 Iraqis have now been displaced due to ongoing sectarian violence, an increase of about 80,000 from previous figures, said government officials.

According to Mowafaq Abdul-Raof, a spokesman for the Ministry of Displacement and Migration, more than 17,000 families are now registered as homeless by the ministry. An additional 5,000, Abdul-Raof added, had found refuge with relatives in less effected areas.
...
In the meantime, the IRCS has appealed to the government to provide essential materials, especially potable water. "There are a lot of children and elderly in this camp," said Abdul-Adhim Mohamed, an IRCS official in charge of the Zaobaa camp. "Their situation is deteriorating because of the shortage of potable water."

The government has promised to supply the roughly 500 litres of water that are needed daily by the end of the week.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/2f1813c7a8271c69222eb1aec5abfcbc.htm