Girls playing at a refugee camp outside of Najaf, Iraq, under posters of Shiite clerics. Camps like this have swelled as many Iraqis have fled sectarian violence
NAJAF, Iraq — The men gather somberly at midday on soiled straw mats under a makeshift canvas canopy in a valiant effort to simulate the traditional Arab formal reception room, but here they have no fans to keep the flies from landing, no sweets or tea to offer strangers.
The Reach of War
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A woman and daughter fashioned an oven to bake bread.
They hoped that this city, holy to their Shiite sect, would welcome them and begin to heal their grief. But instead they have found themselves in a refugee camp outside the city, far from jobs and shops, squeezed five to a tent, sleeping on squalid blankets smelling of sweat, and drinking cloudy brown water hauled from a nearby ditch.
Most galling for these Shiite refugees is that they feel abandoned by the government, which is run by fellow Shiites. "When Maliki came to Najaf he didn't even come to see the camp; he didn't even visit his own people," said Issa Mohammed, 47, a dignified man wearing the black checked scarf favored by tribal sheiks, referring to Iraq's prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki .
The scope of sectarian killings in Iraq and the relocation they have caused have yet to be publicly acknowledged by the Iraqi government. But a visit to Najaf, whose refugee population is typical of the southern provinces, lays bare the vast needs of displaced Iraqis and the rough road ahead for the project of national reconciliation.
In Najaf, estimates of the number of the displaced range from 60,000 to more than 400,000. The official number of displaced is 10,000 families, or 60,000 people, since there are six people on average in an Iraqi family, according to the International Organization for Migration, which works with governments worldwide on refugee issues. continued
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