IRAQ: Coming home is not always so easy
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The talk of Iraq lately has been the return of people to homes they fled during the war. One of the worst areas for sectarian violence has been Ghazaliya, my neighborhood in Baghdad. I know of only two Shiite families who have returned there in recent weeks.
One of them is headed by a man I’ll call Abu Ayad. I always had a special fondness for the family, because many years ago the eldest son drove my sister and me to a hospital after she injured her hand while doing the dishes. He didn’t know us at all, but I always remembered how he helped us out.
About two or three months ago, one of Abu Ayad’s closest neighbors told me that he and others in the area were very happy, because the family had decided to come back. They were among the very few Shiites living in the area, surrounded by Sunnis. I was full of joy. Maybe this meant other Shiites would come back to the area and it could go back to the way it used to be. I was also worried, though. Perhaps some small-minded, bitter Sunnis would not welcome Shiites back after all the blood that had been spilled on their streets.
To my sadness, a couple of weeks ago I found that my worries were correct.
A neighbor, Wisam, told me that two bombs were put on the family’s doorstep and some gasoline was thrown at the house. Someone else told me they were attacked twice. The first time, Abu Ayad went to the nearby U.S.-Iraqi military base to report the incident. After the second attack, though, the family decided to leave. Abu Ayad’s wife, Umm Ayad, was weeping because she had to leave her home a second time.
Some people tell me that these kinds of attacks, on people like Abu Ayad’s family, are being carried out by displaced Sunnis who are living in displaced Shiites’ homes. One of my neighbors, Ahmed, said he and his brother wanted to move into a Shiite family’s house and pay rent to the family. But a Sunni who was displaced and hoping to live in the house for free tried to prevent it. Ahmed said he and his brother rented the place anyway.
— A Times staff writer in Baghdad