By
Samir Haddad, IOL Correspondent
BAGHDAD,
March 23, 2006 (IslamOnline.net) – Faced with simmering sectarian
tensions and the looming prospect of a civil war, thousands of Sunni and
Shiite families are fleeing their homes and moving to areas where their
respective sects are in majority.
Some
2425 Sunni families have migrated from Shiite-dominated provinces such
as Karbala, An-Najaf, Al-Qadisiyah and Babil, according to statement by
the Ministry of Migration and Emigrants, a copy of which was obtained by
IslamOnline.net.
They
have moved to cities such as Fallujah, Samarra, Al-Latyfiah and Al-Mahmoudyah,
where Sunnis are in majority, added the statement.
Similarly,
around 1,280 Shiite families have relocated to the Shiite–majority
provinces of Al-Samawah, Dhi Qar, Maysan and Wasit.
The
government has allocated 500 million dinars (around $338,000) in relief
for these families.
Iraq
has been ravaged by sectarian violence since the bombing of a revered
Shiite mosque in Samarra, north of Baghdad, on February 22.
In
the following days, more than 450 civilians, mostly Sunnis, were killed
and 81 Sunni mosques targeted, including eight completely destroyed, in
reprisal attacks.
At
least 46 people, mostly Shiites, were killed and hundreds wounded in car
bombings in the Shiite Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City on Sunday,
March 12.
Christians
Too
The
internal migration is not limited to Sunni and Shiite families.
Many
Christians have migrated from areas, particularly Baghdad, to Christian
villages in northern Iraq over security deterioration.
"Even
after selling my Baghdad house I would still needs millions of dinars to
buy a similar one in a remote Christian village," one Christian
told IOL, declining to put his name.
"I
would have to settle for a more humble home in an area where jobs are a
bit of a rarity," he added.
Several
churches had been targeted in militant attacks over the past months,
drawing immediate condemnation from leading Iraqi Sunni and Shiite
scholars.
On
the third anniversary of the US-led invasion, former Iraqi premier Iyad
Allawi told the BBC that the war-ravaged country was in the middle of
civil war.
Iraqi,
American and British officials maintain the situation if difficult but
disagree with the civil war argument.
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