Thousands of Iraqis Flee to Avoid Spread Of Violence

[kpete]

Thousands of Iraqis Flee to Avoid Spread Of Violence
Fear, Threats Push Muslim Sects Apart

By Ellen Knickmeyer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, March 29, 2006; Page A01

BAGHDAD, March 28 -- Sectarian violence has displaced more than 25,000 Iraqis since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite Muslim shrine, a U.N.-affiliated agency said Tuesday, and shelters and tent cities are springing up across central and southern Iraq to house homeless Sunni and Shiite families.

The flight is continuing, according to the International Organization for Migration, which works closely with the United Nations and other groups. The result has been a population exchange as Sunni and Shiite families flee mixed communities for the safety of areas where their own sects predominate.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/28/AR2006032801963.html

[Inland]

1. Critically important to note. It might be the ethnic cleansing we feared.

It seems as if it's ethnic cleansing on a neighborhood level, away from where our press and military care to go.

[stop the bleeding]

2. I'll be adding this to the DU Research Forum

thank you

done

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=358&topic_id=567&mesg_id=3479