Christians, Muslims flee Baghdad for Kurdistan

By Reuters
January 22, 07

By Shamal Aqrawi

ARBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - A Christian shopkeeper who walks with a limp, Adison Brikha fled Baghdad after he was beaten in his shop. He made it to Arbil, in relatively peaceful Iraqi Kurdistan -- but now he's begging for work.

"The gunmen broke into my shop in New Baghdad district and beat me brutally. It was obvious that Christians are no longer wanted in Baghdad," said Brikha, who can barely pay the rent for a tiny house in Arbil for his family of five.

"I used to own a shop and now I'm begging people to let me work even as a servant or a labourer, but no one will take me because my foot is crippled," he said, through tears.

Tens of thousands of people have fled Baghdad, the epicentre of violence in Iraq. The United Nations, launching an appeal for aid for Iraqis who have fled their homes or left the country, said this month about one in eight Iraqis is now displaced.

It said the exodus is the largest long-term movement of people in the Middle East since the creation of Israel in 1948.

Many, including non-Kurds, have taken refuge in Kurdistan -- a largely autonomous region in the northern mountains that has been a haven from attacks plaguing other areas since the U.S. invasion of 2003.

But as refugee numbers grow, authorities in Arbil, the Kurdish capital with a population of about a million, are beginning to feel the strain.

"Over the last two weeks, more than 9,000 people came to Arbil escaping from Baghdad as refugees, and they are mainly Sunnis and Christians," Imad Marouf, head of the disaster relief program in Arbil, part of the Iraqi Red Crescent, told Reuters.

HALF A MILLION IRAQIS FLEE

The U.N. says nearly 500,000 people fled to other areas within Iraq last year, mostly since the February bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra prompted a surge in violence.

While much of the violence is between Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims, others have been caught up in it.

In a human rights report on Jan. 16, the United Nations said that of the 1.5 million Assyrian Christians living in Iraq before 2003, half had fled the country and many of the rest were moving to "safe areas" in the north of Iraq.

The main Chaldean Christian college and seminary in Baghdad -- closed for months due to threats and violence -- relocated to Arbil this month, according to Bishop Rabban al-Qas of Arbil. Both Christians and Muslims were targets of violence.

"The continuous deterioration of security in Baghdad and the kidnapping of six priests by gunmen forced us to move the these Christian institutes to Arbil," he told Reuters.

"The students ... could not attend classes because of the lack of security which made us move to Arbil," he said.

Marouf said his office had registered more than 5,000 families -- or around 30,000 people -- who fled to Arbil over the last two years.

BRAIN DRAIN

He said hundreds more families -- particularly of doctors, professors and businessmen -- had not registered as refugees and declined handouts because they had found jobs in Arbil.

Deputy provincial governor Tahir Abdullah said resources were lacking to help so many refugees, but that authorities were trying at least to provide logistical help, such as transferring ration cards so families can still get subsidised food.

"We have urged the U.N. bodies in the north to help the refugees and build a camp for those who can't afford to pay to rent a house. Some families are staying out in the open," Abdullah told Reuters.

Marouf said he had heard of an extended family of 49 people living squeezed into a single residence of 100 square metres (1,000 sq.ft.): "They couldn't find a better place to live."

Concerned by the flood of refugees, Kurdish authorities have imposed new restrictions on who can settle in the area, for instance requiring a Kurdish sponsor for each family.

"The bombing of the Shi'ite shrine in Samarra caused thousands of families to flee and head to the Kurdish areas," said Yazgar Raouf, head of the residency office in Arbil, adding that the influx had raised security concerns.

"We started to impose new regulations relating to immigrants since September 2004 to secure the Kurdish region from any terrorist infiltration, which could destabilise security."