DISPLACEMENTS IN THE RASHEED DISTRICT OF BAGHDAD

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 000351 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/01/2017 TAGS: IZ PGOV PHUM PINR PREF PTER SUBJECT: DISPLACEMENTS IN THE RASHEED DISTRICT OF BAGHDAD REF: BAGHDAD 286 Classified By: Baghdad PRT Leader Joseph Gregoire for reasons 1.4 (b) a nd (d). ¶1. (U) This is a Baghdad PRT reporting cable. ¶2. (C) SUMMARY: Neighborhood leaders from two areas of the Rasheed district of Baghdad report that internally displaced persons (IDPs) are both departing and settling in their neighborhoods due to sectarian violence or threats of violence and that they are often swapping residences in the process. Three Sunni members of neighborhood advisory councils (NACs) in Doura met with PRToff and Poloff on 24 January and revealed that displaced residents are often moving between neighborhoods within Doura that seem safer to their respective sect rather than leaving Doura altogether. In many cases, fleeing Sunni and Shi'a residents are either making arrangements through third parties to swap houses or empowering their neighbors to offer their homes to families with whom they have a relationship and to collect rent when possible. Doura is a large and volatile sub-district of Rasheed and though predominantly Sunni, is also comprised of Shi'a and Christian residents. The Jihad neighborhood, on the other side of Rasheed, is mostly Sunni and is experiencing similar levels of violence. While the Jihad NAC chairman reported on 28 January that both Sunni and Shi'a residents are being displaced, the Rasheed District Advisory Council (DAC) chairman claims that most of its Shi'a families have been displaced. Both areas are having difficulty distributing goods and services to IDPs because they receive little or no assistance from the national or provincial governments. END SUMMARY. -------------- IDPs Swap Homes in Doura -------------- ¶3. (C) Located in the South of Baghdad in Rasheed district, Doura comprises 6 distinct neighborhoods: Al Musafi, Al Jazeera, Al Jaza'ar, Al Hadar, Ruja, and Abu Shur. Sattar Salman Hassan, a member of the Al Musafi NAC; Hashim Mahmoud of the Al Musafi NAC and Deputy Chairman of the Rasheed DAC; and Hamid Elwan Al Rashidee, who belongs to both the Al Hadar NAC and the Rasheed DAC, met with PRToff and Poloff on 24 January. They revealed that IDPs in Doura are moving from neighborhood to neighborhood rather than leaving the area altogether. Sunni residents of Al Hadar, for example, are resettling in Al Musafi. Meanwhile, Sunnis are leaving other areas of Baghdad, including Shula, Al Amal, Shaab and New Baghdad and relocating to parts of Doura. Our contacts report that many IDPs are squatting in homes abandoned by displaced residents. They believe that Coalition Forces are questioning people who are suddenly residing in houses they knew to be empty. The NAC members further said that squatting should be declared a criminal offense by the Iraqi government. Other departing Sunni and Shi'a have made arrangements with displaced counterparts to swap homes. Some of the former are leaving their house keys with neighbors who are not being displaced, allowing them to arrange for incoming IDP families they know to live in the departing IDP residences as a safeguard against squatters, and in the hope that the neighbors will collect rent for the residences on their behalf. Our contacts also reported on alleged human rights abuses, the subject of reftel. -------------- The other side of Rasheed -------------- ¶4. (C) Jihad NAC chairman Fadhel Shaheed Al Sultan (Shi'a), who also serves as the Rasheed DAC power and services chairman, reported on 28 January that about 3,000 families have left Jihad and about 1,000 displaced families have settled there since February 2006. Like the Jihad neighborhood itself, which borders the Mansour district, outgoing and incoming IDPs are Sunni and Shi'a. Sabeeh Al Kaaby, the Rasheed DAC chairman, in a separate phone conversation with Pol FSN, argued that the majority of Jihad residents are Sunni and that most Shi'a residents have been displaced amid continuing violence. Fadhel Shaheed asserts that the NAC has not received any assistance from either the Government of Iraq (GOI) or the Baghdad Provincial Council (PC) to provide services to the displaced. He claimed that the NAC appealed to NGOs but found their "doors closed." Most of the IDPs in Jihad are squatting in abandoned homes, though there are some who have made agreements to swap homes with their sectarian counterparts. BAGHDAD 00000351 002 OF 002 -------------- The General Picture in Rasheed -------------- ¶5. (C) Rasheed DAC chairman Al Kaaby, a Shi'a, says that in Doura's four majority Sunni sectors (mahalas 828, 820, 824 and 826) most Shi'a residents have been displaced, killed or threatened since February 2006, while in Doura's four Shi'a majority sectors (mahalas 850, 852, 854 ad 858) some but not all Sunni residents have been displaced. Sunni and Shi'a residents continue to live side by side in mahala 848. Al Kaaby opined that the displacement rate has declined due to improved security in Doura and because most minority residents have already been displaced from their neighborhoods and settled in new locations. He believes that the rate has likewise slowed down in Jihad, Al Furat and Radwaniya, which are all majority Sunni neighborhoods from which he says most Shi'a residents have already fled. Al Kaaby reported that the Amil, Bayaa, Saydiah and Shurta neighborhoods are more stable and have not experienced much displacement. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶6. (C) PRT and EmbOffs continue to receive numerous reports that the displacement of residents of Rasheed for sectarian reasons has been duplicated in other Baghdad districts of mixed population. We continue to monitor these IDP movements in Baghdad with USAID, MND-B, and NGOs. Most NGO assistance is directed toward the most-vulnerable IDPs in camps or in makeshift housing, which account for a small percentage of the total number of IDPs. Most of the IDPs depend on their own savings and resources and on the support of host families and relatives. Some NACs or DACs keep track of people who move in or out of an area. Others do not do so systematically, but rely on perceptions of what is occurring -- perceptions heavily influenced by the sectarian background of viewers. The Embassy is working with the Ministry of Displacement and Migration to enhance its capacity to assist the IDPs. KHALILZAD