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After expulsion from camps, Iraqis blocked from returning home by tribal leaders

After expulsion from camps Iraqis blocked from returning home by tribal leaders
After expulsion from camps, Iraqis blocked from returning home by tribal leaders

2019-09-14 00:00:00 - Source: kurdistan 24

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Hundreds of displaced families from the central Iraqi city of Samarra have been barred from returning to their homes by local tribal leaders because of allegations that they, or their family members, are affiliated to the Islamic State.

The families say they fled when the extremist group's fighters reached the outskirts of the city, located in Salahaddin province, in 2015. Following Samarra's takeover, large numbers of families moved into displacement camps to the north and west of Baghdad. 

With reported Iraqi governmental campaigns underway that forcibly expel residents from camps, displaced families not able to return home to places like Samarra are forced to find refuge elsewhere.

One of the family members told Kurdistan 24, "The tribal and community leaders are not letting us go back home because of accusations that we have family members in the Islamic State without any evidence. They fail to see that we escaped from our homes because of the Islamic State."

Sheikh Adnan al-Bazi, a tribal leader in the Ishaq area south of Samarra, refused to let them return to the area, saying, "We will not take back those whose hands are red with the blood of our sons and daughters."  

Most of the IDP families are from Ishaq and have resorted to living in makeshift or illegal settlements such as abandoned schools and unfinished or partially-destroyed structures close to al-Tharthar Lake. 

Samarra was the scene of the infamous 2006 bombing of the al-Askari Shrine, one of the holiest in Shia Islam. The explosion, which destroyed the shrine's famed golden dome, is seen as a turning point in post-2003 Iraq, escalating Iraq's sectarian conflict to new levels of mass bloodshed.

Former Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi declared a "final victory" over the Islamic State in December 2017 when Iraqi forces beat the group militarily, three years after it overran roughly a third of Iraq's territory. It's fighters, however, continue to wage an insurgency in multiple provinces.

Iraqi officials have closed some camps, forcing displaced residents to return to their liberated areas, in some areas to then face acts of revenge by security forces or others who perceived that the families had a connection to the group.

In mid-June, a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) highlighted the experiences of displaced Iraqi families struggling to find a safe home.

Read More: Iraq blocks displaced families from returning home, forces others to return: HRW

"This system has put these families in a purgatory that prevents them from returning home, imprisons them in camps, and forces them to endure dire conditions that portend bleak futures for their children," said Belkis Wille, HRW's senior Iraq researcher.

Since early 2018, authorities have aggressively pushed for returns of most displaced people, often by closing camps whether or not residents' areas of origin are safe or even inhabitable.

Some who can’t return home are being moved to other camps that remain, while others about whom there is suspicion of familial connections to Islamic State supporters, most of them women and children, are being denied return or being held against their will.

The report also tells of a camp that is run not by government or humanitarian administrators, but by fighters of Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) militias who deny access to aid groups and who residents charge are responsible for the forced disappearance of dozens of civilians being held in the camp's prison-like conditions.

"The remaining displaced are uniquely vulnerable to abuse. Some are being forced to return home to unsafe conditions, where they risk landmines, revenge attacks from neighbors, or forced recruitment into local armed groups."

In some cases, local officials, tribal leaders, or security forces charge the families large amounts of money to return home. 

On September 6, Dindar Zebari, the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) Coordinator for International Advocacy, denied another HRW report that accused camp officials and security forces in the Kurdistan Region of blocking displaced Sunni Arabs from returning home. 

Read More: KRG denies claims it is preventing displaced Sunni Arabs from returning to areas outside Mosul

The report, entitled “Kurdistan Region of Iraq: Arabs Not Allowed Home,” presents evidence that it says shows that the KRG prevented 4,200 Sunni Arabs displaced by the conflict with the Islamic State from returning home to twelve villages east of Mosul. 

In the report, HRW said it verified the return of Kurdish villagers to one village during a July visit, but that an official from a displacement camp had told a Sunni Arab resident of the same town that he was not allowed to return home “without providing him with a clear reason why.”   

Editing by John J. Catherine





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