Political impasse deters Iraqis from going home – U.N.

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The flow of displaced Iraqis returning to their homes after years of war has slowed considerably since a March election as politicians wrangle over a new government, U.N. officials said Wednesday. A stream of Iraqis returning home from outside and inside Iraq slowed to about 10,000 a month since March having measured 15,000 to 20,000 a month before the election, officials said. An estimated 1.5 million people displaced inside Iraq since sectarian violence surged in 2006 remain away from their homes and possibly hundreds of thousands more are living outside the country. Iraq‘s population is estimated at 30 million. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s special envoy on the human rights of internally displaced persons, Walter Kaelin, said many displaced Iraqis are living without proper shelter, water or sanitation and with no regular access to health care and education. “During these six months the number of returns really has gone down quite considerably. People are waiting to see what is going to happen,” Kaelin said at a news conference during an eight-day visit to Iraq. The March 7 parliamentary election produced no clear winner, leaving Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish political factions to negotiate for a governing majority. Nearly seven months later, Iraqis are still waiting for a new government. U.N. officials said about 500,000 Iraqis, the majority believed to be people who fled their homes, are squatting in informal settlements in Baghdad and other cities and towns, in buildings or on land they do not own, and face eviction. Kaelin called on the Iraqi government to provide humanitarian aid to displaced people and for a moratorium on evictions. “Evicting these people will not solve any problem. It rather will create new problems,” he said. Iraqi security forces are still fighting a stubborn Islamist insurgency 7-1/2 years after the U.S. invasion, as Washington draws down U.S. troop strength ahead of a planned withdrawal at the end of next year. “To keep such large numbers of people in total marginalization,” Kaelin said of the displaced people, “in itself might become a factor of instability.” The U.S. military says the average number of attacks per day across Iraq has been steady at around 15 per day in recent months, although politicians and military leader say insurgents are trying to exploit the political vacuum. SH (I) 1