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Protecting Iraq's Dispossessed; [FINAL Edition]
Bill Frelick. The Washington Post. Washington, D.C.: May 26, 2003. pg. A.29

Abstract (Summary)
Another vast problem lies under the surface. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and tens of
thousands of foreigners are, or soon will be, on the move, either seeking to recover lost
homes or newly displaced and homeless. A brief summary of the major displacements
includes at least a quarter-million Shiites who were expelled to Iran at the beginning of the
Iran-Iraq war in the early 1980s. Then, in the mid-1980s, the Anfal campaign wiped out
predominantly Kurdish villages in the areas bordering Iran and Turkey, displacing large
numbers of people. The next major wave of displacement occurred when Saddam Hussein
crushed the Kurdish and Shiite uprisings at the end of the 1991 Gulf War, forcing about a
million people from their homes. Many were not able to return. Since 1991 the government of
Iraq has drained the marshlands in the country's southeast, displacing hundreds of thousands
more. It also conducted an "Arabization" campaign to purge oil-rich Kirkuk of its Kurdish and
other non-Arab ethnic populations, pushing some 100,000 people into the Kurdish
autonomous zone in the north and relocating Arabs from other parts of the country to the
Kirkuk area.

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Full Text
(792 words)
Copyright The Washington Post Company May 26, 2003

Most of Iraq's problems are obvious, as immediately became apparent to me on an Amnesty

International mission to southern Iraq in late April and early May.

War and looting have taken a visible toll. Shortages are evident in the long lines for gasoline.
Frequent electrical outages and lack of clean water are constant reminders of the damaged
infrastructure. The power vacuum and lack of basic security are also painfully clear.
Scavenging of buildings with nothing left to loot continues openly. Land mines strewn in the
streets have been pushed into piles on the sides of roads. The occupying powers' armored
vehicles speeding through the streets on patrol make passersby aware of the fleeting show of
strength and more acutely conscious of the absence of genuine law enforcement.

Another vast problem lies under the surface. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and tens of

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thousands of foreigners are, or soon will be, on the move, either seeking to recover lost
homes or newly displaced and homeless. A brief summary of the major displacements includes
at least a quarter-million Shiites who were expelled to Iran at the beginning of the Iran-Iraq
war in the early 1980s. Then, in the mid-1980s, the Anfal campaign wiped out predominantly
Kurdish villages in the areas bordering Iran and Turkey, displacing large numbers of people.
The next major wave of displacement occurred when Saddam Hussein crushed the Kurdish
and Shiite uprisings at the end of the 1991 Gulf War, forcing about a million people from their
homes. Many were not able to return. Since 1991 the government of Iraq has drained the
marshlands in the country's southeast, displacing hundreds of thousands more. It also
conducted an "Arabization" campaign to purge oil-rich Kirkuk of its Kurdish and other non-Arab
ethnic populations, pushing some 100,000 people into the Kurdish autonomous zone in the
north and relocating Arabs from other parts of the country to the Kirkuk area.

In the absence of any assurances to Iraqi displaced people that their right to return to their
homes will be respected, they are now beginning to move spontaneously and in some cases
are taking the law into their own hands.

Amnesty International delegates learned of cases in which displaced people had sent warnings
to the current occupants to leave their homes; some left under the threat of violence. Among
the most vulnerable today are foreign residents, including Iranian refugees, Syrians and tens
of thousands of Palestinians, whom the Baathists had placed in the homes of forced-out
dissidents. Many of them are now homeless, frightened and destitute.

We also saw squatters taking over virtually every former public building and property in Basra,
including bombed, burned and looted buildings. The walls of such properties are festooned
with graffiti making claims, such as "private family lives here." Vacant lots are blocked out with
squares of stones, chalk and string, signaling claims for small plots.

Intermixed with the formerly and newly displaced are people who are simply poor, seizing the
chance to grab a piece of property and seeing their first opportunity to make a marginal
improvement in their lives. The only competition for private families comes from the rapidly
proliferating political parties that lay claim to the choicest properties, hanging their banners
and pictures of their leaders.

The international law obligations of the United States and Britain as occupying powers include
protecting housing. But their authority under international law is transitional and limited to
providing protection and assistance to the occupied population in the emergency created by
war. Relevant international agencies must therefore, together with Iraqi civil society, play a
central role in the next step: establishment of a legal, orderly system for adjudicating property
claims, evicting illegal occupants, providing alternative housing for secondary occupants, and
making restitution to the displaced and dispossessed. This will be an enormous task,
complicated by the large and varied populations of persons displaced over more than two

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decades and by the wholesale destruction of property titles and other records in the looting
and burning that swept the country as the Baathist regime fell.

Despite its enormousness, meeting this challenge is essential. Safe, voluntary and dignified
return can occur only where human rights are respected. One of the tests of a society ruled by
law is the protection of home and property. Iraqis today are experiencing a frightening free-
for-all, compounded by threats to their personal safety and uncertainty about the future.
Stopping the land grab now, as well as wholesale looting and theft, must be an immediate
imperative for the occupying powers. But the international community must also move quickly
to restore rights, particularly by creating conditions that are conducive to the voluntary, safe
and dignified return of the displaced to their homes.

The writer is refugee program director for Amnesty International USA.

Indexing (document details)

Author(s): Bill Frelick

Section: EDITORIAL
Publication title: The Washington Post. Washington, D.C.: May 26, 2003. pg. A.29
Source type: Newspaper
ISSN: 01908286
ProQuest document ID: 340148641
Text Word Count 792
Document URL: http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=340148641&sid=2&Fmt=3
&clientId=944&RQT=309&VName=PQD

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