Perspective: The displaced begin trickling back
Children play on round-about swings at a park in al-Sadiya, Baghdad in this photo from Summer, 2006
BAGHDAD, IRAQ - At a time of epic displacement, Fuad Khamis has done something extraordinary: He has moved back home.
"When I arrived, I was overwhelmed and frightened at the same time," says Khamis, a Sunni Arab taxi driver from Baghdad's religiously mixed Sadiya neighborhood.
His house was damaged and there wasn't a piece of furniture left. But Khamis, a father of five, said his Shiite neighbors have welcomed him back with hugs and kisses.
Encouraged by the start of a major security clampdown that began Feb. 13 and reassurances from his neighbors, Khamis is one of the first to test Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's recent pledge to reverse the tide of sectarian "cleansing" sweeping Baghdad and move tens of thousands of people back home.
BAGHDAD, IRAQ - At a time of epic displacement, Fuad Khamis has done something extraordinary: He has moved back home.
"When I arrived, I was overwhelmed and frightened at the same time," says Khamis, a Sunni Arab taxi driver from Baghdad's religiously mixed Sadiya neighborhood.
His house was damaged and there wasn't a piece of furniture left. But Khamis, a father of five, said his Shiite neighbors have welcomed him back with hugs and kisses.
Encouraged by the start of a major security clampdown that began Feb. 13 and reassurances from his neighbors, Khamis is one of the first to test Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's recent pledge to reverse the tide of sectarian "cleansing" sweeping Baghdad and move tens of thousands of people back home.
Read the rest at the News Observer
posted by iraqnam at 3:14 PM
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