Ghettoisation creeping into Iraq/ Aljazeera

[TexasLawyer]

Ghettoisation creeping into Iraq

Saturday 29 July 2006, 8:05 Makka Time, 5:05 GMT


Sectarian violence has displaced nearly 27,000 families in Iraq

Shia and Sunnis in Iraq are swapping homes, creating segregated communities to avoid the sectarian violence that is engulfing the country.

Iraqi military officers said many families in the religiously mixed city of Nasser Wa Salaam have moved to neighbourhoods where their sect is in the majority - their homes are either deserted or exchanged with trusted friends of the other sect.

"Friends from different sects say, 'Let's trade houses, then we'll move back when things settle down'," said Brigadier-General Abdullah Abdul Kareem Abdul Sattar, commander of Iraqi forces in Nasser Wa Salaam, a city of about 80,000 people.

About 1,500 more families have fled the city, officers added. The trucks that move between different neighbourhoods loaded with household goods illustrate the sectarian divide. "All day long you'll see trucks moving back and forth to where they think it's safer, but they're taking those grudges with them," Abdullah said.

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http://english..net/NR/exeres/D55F3D49-AFBF-484D-B99A-587B6D386B28.htm